Verizon simplifies with multiservice edge

Verizon is using SDN to combine all of its existing service edge routers for Ethernet and IP-based services onto a single platform. Verizon is working with Cisco and Juniper on this new multi-service edge. The solution features a disaggregated control plane and leverages external compute to enhance the capabilities of that control plane beyond that of a traditional router. “Software defined networking continues to deliver on its promise to improve...

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Company profile: Adolite, an optical components start-up in Silicon Valley and Taiwan

Unlocking manufacturing bottlenecks for optical transceivers may be key in the race to 400G Nearly two dozen companies announced 400G capabilities of some sort at the recent OFC 2018 conference, including transceivers in various formats, active optical cables, backplane interconnects, interface cards, optical module drivers, test equipment, and even full-blown switches.  A few months ago, Broadcom announced commercial shipments of its StrataXGS...

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Intel intros two AI software applications

Intel introduced two artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software applications that associative memory learning and reasoning to facilitate faster issue resolution. Target applications include issue resolution for manufacturing, software and aerospace. The Intel Saffron AI Quality and Maintenance Decision Support Suite is comprised of: Similarity Advisor finds the closest match to the issue under review, across both resolved and open cases,...

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Keysight announces 5G NR Emulation

Keysight Technologies announced its PROPSIM F64 5G Channel Emulation Solution – the industry’s first 5G New Radio (NR)-ready channel emulation solution. Keysight’s PROPSIM F64 5G Channel Emulation Solution enables chipset, device, and network equipment manufacturers to characterize end-to-end system performance of the latest 4G and 5G base stations and mobile devices by emulating real-world radio conditions in the lab. Keysight said its PROPSIM...

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Dell Technologies Capital: One third of new bets focused on AI/ML

Since emerging from stealth a year ago, Dell Technologies Capital, the venture investment practice for Dell Technologies, has completed 24 new and follow-on investments as part of its $100 million average annual investment run rate. The company reports that a third of its new investments are focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and the remaining investments focused on security, next-gen infrastructure and other technology...

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Akamai continued to grow at 11% annual clip in Q1

Akamai Technologies reported revenue was $669 million, an 11% increase over first quarter 2017 revenue of $600 million and a 9% increase when adjusted for foreign exchange. GAAP net income was $54 million, a 28% decrease from first quarter 2017. Non-GAAP net income* was $136 million, a 19% increase from first quarter 2017. Web Division revenue was $353 million, up 16% year-over-year and up 13% when adjusted for foreign exchange. Media and Carrier...

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ZTE posted a Q1 growth rate of 12% prior to export ban on its suppliers

ZTE reported revenue of RMB 28.879 billion (US$5.548 billion) for the first quarter of 2018, up 12% over the same period in 2017. Net profit after extraordinary items attributable to holders of ordinary shares of the listed company amounted to RMB 1.368 billion (US$216 million). The company said it is still assessing the impact of the export ban imposed on its U.S. suppliers by the U.S. Department of Commerce, stating that this action will have...

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Semiconductor sales top $111 billion in Q1, up 20%

Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $111.1 billion during the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 20 percent compared to the first quarter of 2017, but 2.5 percent less than the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Sales for the month of March 2018 came in at $37.0 billion, an increase of 20 percent compared to the March 2017 total of $30.8 billion and 0.7 percent more than the February 2018 total...

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Chris McGugan returns to Avaya as Chief Technologist

Chris McGugan has re-joined Avaya in a new role as Chief Technology Strategist. In his previous tenure with Avaya, McGugan was Vice President of Emerging Products and Technology, and of Contact Center Solutions and Marketing. He has also held executive and management positions at Belkin, Cisco and Motorola/Symbol Technologies, in addition to several board advisory positions at technology companies around the glo...

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Key points of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger agreement

T-Mobile US and Sprint reached a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction.  Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank Group will roll their entire economic ownership stakes into the new company, which retain the name T-Mobile. DT currently holds a 62% stake in T-Mobile US. Softbank currently holds an 83% stake in Sprint. The deal will require regulatory approvals. Key points of the deal: the transaction has a fixed exchange ratio...

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Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers to merge

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have agreed to combine their operations and properties into a pan-India company with over 163,000 towers across all 22 of the nation's telecom service areas. Indus Towers currently operates in 15 telecom service areas (“Circles”) and Bharti Infratel’s operations are focused on the remaining 7 Circles. The combined company, which will use the name Indus Towers Limited and be listed on the Indian stock exchanges, will...

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Wind Tre picks Ericsson to virtualize its core network

Wind Tre, which serves over 32 million mobile and fixed broadband customer lines in Italy, has selected Ericsson to virtualize its core network as part of the evolution of its network to 5G Core. Ericsson will supply its core network and Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVi) solution, enabling the fast introduction of new services and providing full-service continuity. The five-year contract, which gets underway during the Q2 2018,...

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NTT demos its photonic crystal fiber with high-powered lasers

NTT and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have demonstrated a kW class, high-power single-mode laser transmission over tens to hundreds of meters -- representing a breakthrough for laser processing technology. The innovation leverages NTT's photonic crystal fibers (PCF) and MHI's high power laser processing technology. NTT's photonic crystal fiber transmits light by using the confinement effect of air holes. PCF consists of silica glass and multiple...

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Mediatek halts shipments to ZTE

Following an order from Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade, Mediatek has suspended shipment of its chips and components to ZTE, according to Nikkei Asian Review. Mediatek is the second largest global supplier of systems-on-chip (SoC) solutions for mobile devices. It also supplies a range of connectivity chips for home networking and broadband CPE, along with a new line of optical components. https://s.nikkei.com/2HFl...

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Vertical Systems Group: 2017 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group published the following 2017 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD (in rank order by number of fiber lit buildings): AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Zayo, Frontier and Altice USA. These ten retail and wholesale fiber providers each qualified for this benchmark with 10,000 or more on-net U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings as of year-end 2017. Twelve companies qualified...

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Private investors to acquire Mitel

An investor group led by affiliates of Searchlight Capital Partners has agreed to acquire Mitel for approximately $2.0 billion in cash, including Mitel’s net debt. Mitel shareholders will receive $11.15 per common share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 24% to the 90-calendar-day volume-weighted average price of Mitel common shares through April 23, 2018.  Upon completion of the transaction, Mitel will become a privately held...

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Amazon Web Services rockets ahead at 49% yoy pace

Amazon.com reported stellar net sales of $51.0 billion for Q1 2018, up 43% over last year, including $1.6 billion from favorable foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter. Net income was $1.6 billion in the first quarter, or $3.27 per diluted share, compared with net income of $724 million, or $1.48 per diluted share, in first quarter 2017. As usual, Amazon Web Services (AWS) was a major contributor to this growth. AWS sales for the quarter...

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Nokia reports flat sales in Q1 but cites building 5G momentum

Nokia reported net sales in Q1 2018 were EUR 4.9 billion, down from EUR 5.4 bn in Q1 2017. On a constant currency basis, net sales would have been flat year-on-year. Non-IFRS diluted EPS in Q1 2018 was EUR 0.02. Nokia’s Networks business net sales were EUR 4.3bn, with operating profit of EUR 43mn Q1 net sales and profitability were impacted primarily by lower net sales in North America. However, order intake and backlog were excellent in Q1. Therefore,...

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Facebook's reach continues to grow

Despite the well-publicized uproar about data privacy, Facebook continues to add users worldwide at a rapid pace. Daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.45 billion on average for March 2018, an increase of 13% year-over-year. Monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.20 billion as of March 31, 2018, an increase of 13% year-over-year. Mobile advertising revenue – Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 91% of advertising revenue for...

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Microsoft Azure grows 89% yoy in Q1

Microsoft reported Q1 revenue of $26.8 billion, up 16% yoy, operating income of $8.3 billion, up 23%; net income of $7.4 billion, up 35% yoy; and diluted earnings per share of $0.95, up 36%. Cloud revenue was a major factor in the performance, with Azure growing 89% yoy in constant currency. Some highlights Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $9.0 billion and increased 17% (up 14% in constant currency) Office commercial products...

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Baidu's Q1 revenues rise 31%

Baidu reported Q1 2018 total revenues were RMB 20.9 billion ($3.33 billion), increasing 31% year over year. Mobile revenue represented 78% of total net revenues, compared to 70% for the first quarter of 2017. Total revenues of Baidu Core were RMB 16.1 billion ($2.57 billion), increasing 26% year over year. Operating income was RMB 4.6 billion ($728 million), increasing 128% year over year. Operating margin reached 22%, compared to 13% for the first...

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Digital Realty's Q1 revenue of $744 million, up 35% yoy

Digital Realty, a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, reported revenues for the first quarter of 2018 of $744 million, a 2% increase from the previous quarter and a 35% increase from the same quarter last year. Net income amounted to $110 million, and net income available to common stockholders of $86 million, or $0.42 per diluted share, compared to $0.26 per diluted share in the previous quarter and...

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Interoute connects the Vatican to its fibre backbonev

Interoute's fibre network is supporting the launch of The Vatican Communications Secretariat’s new online portal www.vaticannews.va, which combines radio, TV and publishing into a single interface. Interoute owns and operates a global private network encompassing 72,000 route kilometres of fibre across Europe. Francesco Masci, Head of the Technology Department of the Secretariat for Communication of the Holy See, said, "The rethinking of the...

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Intel hires ex-Tesla exec to lead silicon engineering

Intel announced the appointment of Jim Keller to lead the company’s silicon engineering, which encompasses system-on-chip (SoC) development and integration. Keller, 59, joins Intel from Tesla, where he most recently served as vice president of Autopilot and Low Voltage Hardware. Prior to Tesla, he served as corporate vice president and chief cores architect at AMD, where he led the development of the Zen* architecture. Previously, Keller was vice...

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Nokia launches AirFrame Open Edge Server for Cloud RAN and based on OCP principles

Nokia introduced an Edge Cloud data center server for low-latency data processing demands of Cloud RANs, content caching and next-gen mobile application. The Nokia AirFrame open edge cloud server is designed for deployment alongside base stations in 5G networks. It supports acceleration modules powered by the Nokia ReefShark chipset for 4G and 5G functions and applications, including Cloud RAN and content delivery, crypto and other applications....

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Chairman of ZTE says U.S. export ban is "unfair and unreasonable"

The Chairman of ZTE, Mr. Yin Yimin, issued a public statement acknowledging that the company is "in a very difficult situation," stating that his team is doing its utmost to solve this situation through active communication, and imploring the company's 80,000 employees to "be stable-minded and perform their respective duties." The public statement comes nine days after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed...

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WSJ: Huawei under criminal investigation by U.S. authorities

The FBI is investigating Huawei over possible exports of prohibited technologies to Iran in violation of international sanctions. The case could lead to a ban on the export of products from the U.S. to Huawei, as happened earlier this month with ZTE.  There has been no official confirmation of an investigation. Huawei has not commented on the reports. The news sent share prices down for many suppliers of silicon and optical component...

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AT&T's Q1 revenue dips 1% yoy, but net income rises - FirstNet rollout underway

AT&T reported a slight dip in overall sales in Q1 but higher net income even as CAPEX rises for network upgrades, fiber upgrades, and FirstNet rollouts. The company said it is on track to launch 5G mobile services in a dozen U.S. cities this year. “We’re off to a good start in 2018, both in growing our customer base and in building the world’s premier gigabit network,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “Our investment in customer...

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Belgium’s Proximus picks Skylane Optics for FTTH rollout

Skylane Optics, a privately-held company based in Belgium that supplies a wide range of optical transceivers and other photonic devices, announced a collaborative agreement with Proximus, a telecommunication & ICT company operating in Belgium and other international markets. Financial terms were not disclosed. “We work with two-thirds of the major European telecommunications operators.  Being able to supply fiber optics to all Belgian...

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Innovium raises $77M in Series D for its Switching Silicon

Innovium, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced $77 Million in Series D funding for its high-performance switching silicon for data centers. The new funding round included investment from Greylock Partners, Walden Everbright, Walden Riverwood Ventures, Paxion Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, Redline Capital, S-Cubed Capital and Qualcomm Ventures. This brings total funding in the company to over $160 million. “Data center networks...

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F5's revenue rises 2.9% yoy to $533.3M

F5 Networks posted revenue of $533.3 million for the second quarter of its fiscal 2018, up 2.9% from $518.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. GAAP net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was $109.6 million, or $1.77 per diluted share, compared to $93.1 million, or $1.43 per diluted share in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. “We had solid execution across the organization during the second quarter,” said François Locoh-Donou,...

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Megaport's SDN now extends to Google Cloud's global network

Megaport has added support for Google Cloud's Partner Interconnect, a service from Google Cloud that allows customers to privately connect to Google Cloud Platform. Google Cloud's Partner Interconnect is a new product in the Google Cloud Interconnect family. Last September, Google announced Dedicated Interconnect, which provides higher-speed and lower-cost connectivity than VPN, and has become the go-to solution to connect on-premises data centres...

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Verizon cites positive momentum and higher earnings

Verizon added 260,000 net retail postpaid connections in Q1 2018, including 220,000 postpaid smartphone nets, along with 66,000 new Fios Internet connections, giving the company positive momentum as it entered the year. Verizon said it is on track to launch a 5G residential broadband service this year. For first-quarter 2018, Verizon reported EPS of $1.11, compared with 84 cents in first-quarter 2017. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), first-quarter...

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Nokia and NTT DOCOMO test 5G using 90 GHz

Nokia and NTT DOCOMO will undertake a joint study and trials on 5G using 90 GHz frequencies. Nokia Bell Labs has already tested a first phased-array RF chip solution for the 90 GHz band to increase radio coverage in higher frequency bands and deliver multi-gigabit speeds at scale. At this week's Brooklyn 5G Summit, Nokia, supported by NTT DOCOMO, will show two technology innovations being developed to address these demands: The companies will...

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Orange deploys Cisco NCS 5500 for its Open Transit Internet backbone

Orange is using the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS 5500) to modernize and expand the Orange Open Transit Internet (OTI) service, which is a Tier 1 international Internet connectivity service offering direct access to the Internet networks in more than 100 countries through more than 50 points of presence (POPs). Orange's OTI targets both Internet service providers and content providers. Financial terms were not disclosed. The companies said...

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