AT&T updates its 5G and FTT rollout plans

AT&T confirmed plans to roll out mobile 5G service in a dozen U.S. markets by late 2018, making it the first U.S. carrier to do so. The initial launch is aimed at consumers. Trials of 5G business applications are also planned this year. The company also updated its plans in the following areas: LTE-LAA - AT&T, which deployed its first commercial LTE-Licensed Assisted Access (LTE-LAA) site in downtown Indianapolis in November 2017, now...

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Verizon picks Samsung as a supplier for Fixed 5G

Verizon has selected Samsung Electronics America as a supplier of commercial 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network solutions. Verizon will begin by launching commercial 5G services in Sacramento, California in the second half of 2018. Financial terms were not disclosed. Specifically, Samsung will provide Verizon with commercial 5G home routers (CPEs), 5G Radio Access Units (RAN) comprised of a compact radio base station and virtualized RAN elements,...

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Verizon tests FDD Massive MIMO with Ericsson, Qualcomm

Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies conducted the first FDD Massive MIMO trial with a fully compatible customer device in December. The test used the latest Ericsson Massive MIMO software and hardware on Verizon's network, along with a mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with X20 LTE using TM9 (Transmission Mode 9). TM9 is an enhancement for consumer devices that will make them fully compatible with...

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AWS Direct Connect adds ten more locations worldwide

AWS announced ten more locations where its Direct Connect service is available. AWS Direct Connect provides secure 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps connections from inside a colocation data center or from a service provider. Here are the latest AWS Direct Connect locations: Bangalore, India – NetMagic DC2 – Asia Pacific (Mumbai). Cape Town, South Africa – Teraco Ct1 – EU (Ireland). Johannesburg, South Africa – Teraco JB1 – EU (Ireland). London, UK – Telehouse...

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Brazil's Oi advances its bankruptcy restructuring plan

Oi, the largest telecommunications company in Brazil and South America, announced a major advancement in its bankruptcy restructuring, as creditors voted to approve a plan that reduces debt by approximately 65 billion reais (US$20 billion). The restructuring is believed to be the largest in Latin America to date. The restructuring paves the way for a possible investment of acquisition by China Mobile, although no official confirmation has been forthcoming...

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Barracuda acquires Phishline for security awareness

Barracuda Networks has acquired PhishLine, a start-up offering a SaaS platform for social engineering simulation and training that delivers security awareness for better phishing protection. Financial terms were not disclosed. PhishLine, which is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, offers data analytics and reporting to allow customers to measure and report on risks at macro and micro levels across the human and process layers. The company has...

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Terahertz multiplexer achieves 50 Gbps wireless transmission

An international research team from Brown University and the Institut d'Electronique de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie (IEMN), CNRS/University of Lille, in France, has reported the first transmission of two real-time video signals through a terahertz multiplexer at an aggregate data rate of 50 Gbps. The breakthrough, which was reported in the journal Nature Communications, combined radio transmission techniques with photonic-based THz circuits...

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Sercomm debuts LTE-M IoT button with 3-year battery life

Sercomm, which is a global manufacturer and supplier of telecom equipment and devices, introduced an LTE IoT button device, The button connects to the cloud via LTE Cat M1 (any carrier frequency worldwide), and is designed to sustain up to two thousand clicks. It measures 65 x 65 x 25 mm. As a "one-click button" the device could be programmed for a range of IoT applications, such as mobile ordering of products or supplies, triggering of automatic...

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Xilinx names Victor Peng as its new CEO

Xilinx named Victor Peng as its next president and chief executive officer, replacing Moshe Gavrielov, who will step down as CEO and from the board of directors on January 28th. Since joining the company in 2008, Peng has spearheaded industry-leading strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services, resulting in three consecutive generations of core product leadership and significant technology breakthroughs...

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Swarm64 raises $12.5M for FPGA acceleration for databases

Swarm64, a Norwegian company with operations in Berlin, Germany secured a Series B funding round of US$12.5 million for its scalable data accelerator (SDA) for relational databases. Swarm64 leverages an FPGA-based accelerator and real-time database software to perform analytics for high velocity and big data applications in PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and MySQL . The funding round was led by Intel Capital and Investinor. Also participating in the round...

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Mavenir acquires Aquto for mobile sponsored-data platform

Mavenir has acquired Aquto, a start-up based in Boston that offers a cloud-based sponsored data platform that helps mobile operators to increase marketing and advertising revenue. Financial terms were not disclosed. Sponsored data enables users to gain cellular data connectivity through 3rd party sponsorships. Aquto said operators can use data sponsorships as a form of currency to improve mobile engagement across any type of mobile campaign...

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Nokia and Huawei sign patent license agreement

Nokia signed a multi-year patent license agreement with Huawei. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Nokia said it would begin seeing revenue in Q4 2017, including an element of non-recurring catch-up revenue. "Huawei is one of China's largest companies and is among the world's leading smartphone manufacturers and we are delighted to welcome them to our family of patent licensees," said Maria Varsellona, chief legal officer at Nokia...

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Sprint names Michel Combes as president and CFO

Michel Combes has been appointed President & Chief Financial Officer of Sprint, reporting to company CEO Marcelo Claure. Combes will also be appointed to Sprint's Board of Directors at a later date. Combes previously served as CEO of Altice N.V., a convergent global leader in telecom, content, media, entertainment, and advertising, and as chairman and CEO of SFR Group, a leading French telecommunications and media company.  Earlier in this...

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