Column: How Satellites will Reshape Data Connectivity in 2019

by Eric Watko, EVP, Product Marketing & Strategy, SES Networks Next-generation satellite services are set to transform data connectivity as we know it, opening up new markets and bringing the opportunities of the digital era to unconnected – and under-connected – industries and end-user populations around the world, to what would be roughly 3.7 billion people that were still offline by the end of 2018 according to the International Telecommunications...

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Zain tests massive MIMO on TD-LTE using 2.6 GHz with Nokia

Zain KSA is testing a massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) pilot in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on its TD-LTE network using 2.6 GHz spectrum. The pilot uses Nokia's 5G-ready AirScale massive MIMO antenna for 4.9G calls to improve network capacity to provide speeds of above 700 Mbps per user. Massive MIMO uses 64-Transmit-64-Receive (64T64R), which allows gigabit-level throughput. Nokia said its 5G-ready AirScale massive MIMO antenna...

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Furukawa brings a new line of fiber splicers

Furukawa Electric Co. introduced its FITEL S185 series of Fusion Splicers specifically designed for splicing specialty optical fibers used in optical components, fiber lasers, and optical sensors. Furukawa's S185 Fusion Splicer series is a line of more compact, cost-effective, and efficient splicers for use in production and with specialized fibers including Polarization-Maintaining Fiber (PM Fiber) and Large-Diameter Fiber (LDF). Three versions...

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Turkcell CEO issues statement defending Huawei

Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO of Turkcell, issued the following statement defending Huawei as a reliable business partner in light of claims about national security. "It wouldn’t be right to evaluate Huawei’s current situation by ignoring the competition in the smart phone market and the conflict of which company will lead 5G. You may recall that last year another smartphone company faced unfavorable news. As you can see, whenever an ‘unexpected’ company...

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CommScope announces 3.5 GHz antennas for macro and small cells

CommScope announced new 3.5 GHz-capable antennas for macro and small cell densification to help increase network capacity and migration to 5G. Key features of CommScope 3.5 GHz-capable antennas: Support 3.5 GHz for macro cell and outdoor small cell deployments with a variety of single band and multiband options available, including beamforming. Enable spectral efficiencies with carrier aggregation, higher-order MIMO, interference management and...

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Shaw optimizes fiber backbone with Fujitsu

Shaw Communications has optimized its fiber-optic network with the Fujitsu Network Communications' 1FINITY platform and Virtuora software. The Fujitsu 1FINITY T310 Transport and 1FINITY L100 Lambda series blades combined with the Virtuora Network Control Solution provided Shaw with a modular, programmable, optical networking solution to enhance network utilization, capacity and performance, and were well suited to help Shaw achieve its connectivity...

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Arianespace launches two telecom satellites

Arianespace successfully launched two telecommunications satellites: the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 condosat for operators KACST and Hellas Sat; and GSAT-31 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The launch marked the 103rd Ariane 5 mission. The Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1 will provide advanced communications services for Saudi Arabia’s KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology), as well as secure communications...

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Databricks raises $250 million for Big Data Analytics

Databricks, a start-up based in San Francisco that was founded by the original creators of Apache Spark, raised $250 million in a Series E funding for its unified analytics solutions. The company's Unified Analytics allows organizations to do data science on massive data sets. The approach addresses data silos and the gap between data processing and machine learning platforms. Databricks said it generated in excess of $100 million in annual recurring...

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Rancher Labs adds support for multi-cluster Kubernetes applications

Rancher Labs has added support for multi-cluster applications within Rancher, its open source Kubernetes management platform. Multi-cluster Kubernetes application support extends the feature set of Helm, the Kubernetes package manager. Users simply select the application from the Rancher Application Catalog, add target clusters, provide information about each cluster, and deploy. Multi-cluster applications use Kubernetes controllers running in the...

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CBRE acquires Romonet for data center analytics

CBRE Group, the global data center real estate firm, has acquired the assets of Romonet, which develops analytics software for data center operators.  Financial terms were not disclosed. Romonet's software helps increase capacity at data centers. The company was founded in 2008 by data center technology pioneers Zahl Limbuwala and Liam Newcombe. Romonet is based in the UK and serves clients across the globe. Romonet and its team of professionals...

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Investment bank reduces latency with FPGA-based accelerator

Velocimetrics, which supplies flow tracking and real-time, in-stream performance analytics, is using acceleration technology from Napatech to reduce the tick-to-trade latency of a global Tier 1 investment bank in Europe. After detailed analysis of the bank's complex trading platform, Velocimetrics' analytics identified bottlenecks and latencies which, once corrected, resulted in a reduction in tick-to-trade latency from 100μs (microseconds) to 10μs. The...

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MACOM posts revenue of $151M, up 15% yoy

MACOM reported quarterly evenue of $150.7 million for the period ending December 28, 2018, an increase of 15.1% compared to $130.9 million in the same period a year earlier. Gross margin was 50.8%, compared to 46.6% in the previous year. Net loss from continuing operations was $23.4 million, or $0.44 loss per diluted share, compared to net loss of $17.0 million, or $0.49 loss per diluted share, in the previous year. “Revenue for the fiscal first...

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