América Móvil and Telxius to build 108 Tbps Pacific cable

América Móvil and Telxius are planning a new undersea cable along the Pacific coast of Latin America.

The 7,300 km cable will have an initial estimated capacity of 108 Tbps. It will connect Puerto San José (Guatemala) with Valparaíso (Chile), with additional landing points in Salinas (Ecuador), Lurín (Peru) and Arica (Chile).

five landing stations are already in place and undersea prospection works are currently under way.

“América Móvil investment in this new ultra high capacity submarine cable confirms our commitment to provide the best service to customers, with the latest technology. The alliance with Telxius is a valuable partnership with one of the most important stakeholders in this arena”: Oscar Von Hauske, América Móvil COO.

“At Telxius we are convinced of the merits of sharing infrastructure and we are pleased to join forces with America Móvil on this new project. Not only will it allow us to deliver the latest technology and best latency to serve our partners and customers in key markets in Latin America but we will also benefit from significant efficiencies working together with América Móvil in the deployment of this new cable,” said Guillermo Ansaldo, Telefonica Chief Global Resources Officer.

Google's Curie subsea cable lands in Valparaiso, Chile

Tuesday, April 23, 2019  Chile, Google, Subsea  

Google's subsea cable along the west coast of the Americas made landfall in Valparaiso, Chile.

The Curie Submarine Cable will be a four fiber-pair subsea system spanning over 10,000 km from Los Angeles to Valparaiso. It will include a branching unit for future connectivity to Panama. Subcom is the lead contractor.

The project is believed to be the first subsea cable to land in Chile in 20 years.
Chris Carobene, vice president of marine services and network construction at SubCom said, “Google and SubCom’s consistent teamwork allowed for mitigation of potential risks to the Curie cable system project schedule, enabling early completion of the Valparaiso landing. We look forward to continued collaboration on future projects.”


Curie is the 13th subsea cable project that Google has funded or contributed to.

https://www.24horas.cl/tendencias/ciencia-tecnologia/el-cable-submarino-curie-de-google-llega-a-chile-conectando-valparaiso-y-california-3257424

Google picks Equinix for Curie Subsea Cable Landing Station

Thursday, February 07, 2019  Chile, Equinix, Google, Submarine Cable, Subsea, Undersea  

Google has selected an Equinix data center in El Segundo, California as the cable landing station (CLS) for the new Curie subsea cable system.  In the U.S., the cable will land directly at the Equinix LA4 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center.

The Curie cable is expected to go live in 2019.

Equinix said the CLS configuration is ideal for extending the backhaul capacity of a subsea cable system directly to the ecosystems of companies in its high-density IBX data centers. The architecture provides easy access to a dense, rich ecosystem of networks, clouds and IT service providers.

Equinix has been selected as an interconnection partner in more than 25 of the current subsea cable projects.

Read More

Luxembourg Internet Exchange scales to 400G with ADVA

The Luxembourg Commercial Internet Exchange (LU-CIX) has deployed ADVA's FSP 3000 with QuadFlex technology to meet soaring data demand from its regional and international partners.

Specifically, LU-CIX will use the platform to enable connections up to 400G to its national internet exchange backbone interconnecting its points of presence in four major data centers.

“This upgrade is great news for the internet community in Luxembourg and beyond. Recently, we’ve seen astronomical growth in data demand and deploying 400Gbit/s technology in our network is a major part of our response,” said Claude Demuth, CEO, LU-CIX Management GIE. “

“LU-CIX is a key gateway to multimedia, ICT and communication markets in Luxembourg, in the heart of Europe. With the speed, scalability and superb efficiency of our technology in its backbone network, it will continue to be a pivotal connectivity resource for internet service providers, content delivery networks and businesses for many years to come,” commented Yann Evain, senior director, sales, Benelux, ADVA. "Another key advantage of our modular solution is that it provides inbuilt flexibility to grow to 800Gbit/s and beyond. Together with our partner Telindus Luxembourg, we’ve built a network that increases the value of Luxembourg as a key ICT hub and empowers LU-CIX to continue supporting the internet community from the heart of Europe.”

Read More

5G Americas: Deployment Trends

There are currently 15 commercial mobile network operators worldwide, according to 5G Americas and TeleGeography (GlobalComms Database), and an additional 47 launches are expected before the end of 2019 for a total of more than 62 live 5G networks.

Live 5G networks include: AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Telstra, KT, LG Plus, SK Telecom, Antel (Uruguay), Batelco, du, Etisalat, Vodafone Italy, Sunrise, Swisscom, BT (including EE).

Some additional stats:

• 5 5G networks are set to launch by end of 2Q (June) 2019
• 11 5G networks are expected to launch by end of 3Q 2019
• 13 5G networks are expected to launch by end of 2019
• An additional 17 operators have announced plans for the deployment of 5G in 2019
• More than 100 operators have announced their 5G deployment plans in 2020 and beyond and are testing, trialing and building their networks in stages of planned deployments
• More than half of all the mobile wireless technology connections worldwide are LTE technology, with a reported 51 percent market share at the first quarter of 2019/
• LTE is currently deployed on 646 networks worldwide 
• There were 299 LTE-Advanced networks worldwide at 1Q 2019, including 60 that may be considered LTE-Advanced Pro; 58 of which have deployed Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and/or LTE for Machine-Type Communications (LTE-M) 3GPP Release 13 technology features for the Internet of Things.
• Comparatively, North America’s market share for LTE at 87 percent far exceeds all other world regions; the next highest world regions are the Oceania, Eastern and South Eastern Asia region with LTE share of 70 percent followed by Western Europe at 54 percent (data by Ovum).
• LTE is forecast to reach 473 million connections at the end of 2020 (including M2M)
• 5G connections are forecast to reach 4 million by the end of 2020 and increase to 186 million by the end of 2023

“LTE continues its momentum worldwide, at the same time that 5G becomes a commercial reality in many parts of the world,” said Chris Pearson, President, 5G Americas. “The mobile wireless industry has worked hard to provide technical innovation for both LTE and 5G for the benefit of customers globally.”

http://www.5gamericas.org/en/newsroom/press-releases/5g-live-15-commercial-standardized-5g-networks-worldwide/

Read More

Cybereason uncovers a worldwide hack against telecom operators

Cybereason, a network security firm based in Boston with operations in Tel Aviv, disclosed Operation Soft Cell, an advanced, persistent attack targeting global telecommunications providers. The story was reported by The Wall Street Journal and other publications on Tuesday.

Cybereason says the hacking campaign was carried out by a threat actor using tools and techniques commonly associated with the Chinese-affiliated threat actor APT10. This multi-wave attacks focused on obtaining data of specific, high-value targets and resulted in a complete takeover of the network. The compromised material is believed to include call detail records (CDR) of specific individuals.

The researchers estimate the hack has been going since 2017.

Cybereason asserts that there is "a very high probability that the threat actor behind these malicious operations is backed by a nation state, and is affiliated with China."



https://www.cybereason.com/blog/operation-soft-cell-a-worldwide-campaign-against-telecommunications-providers

Read More

GSMA: Asian operators to invest $370B on 5G by 2025

GSMA is predicting that Asia’s mobile operators will invest $370 billion building-out new 5G networks between 2018 and 2025.

The latest Asia Pacific edition of the GSMA’s Mobile Economy series predicts that 24 Asia Pacific markets will have launched 5G by 2025. It is forecast that 5G will contribute almost $900 billion to the region’s economy over the next 15 years.

“Although 4G still has plenty of headroom for growth across Asia, operators in the region are now investing billions in building-out advanced 5G networks that are facilitating an array of new services for consumers, transforming industry and manufacturing, and driving economic growth,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA.

The report reveals that:

• Mobile operators are forecast to invest $574 billion (capex) on new networks between 2018 and 2025, almost two-thirds of which ($370 billion) will be spent on new 5G networks. China alone is forecast to invest $184 billion on 5G by 2025.
• 4G became the most dominant mobile technology in Asia in 2018 (52 per cent of connections1), and will grow to account for more than two-thirds of regional connections by 2025. Around 18 per cent of connections will be running on 5G networks by this point.
• More than four in five mobile connections in Asia will be smartphones by 2025, up from 61 per cent in 2018.
• There were 2.8 billion unique mobile subscribers2 in Asia at the end of 2018, equivalent to 67 per cent of the region’s population. The number of subscribers is forecast to increase to 3.1 billion by 2025 (72 per cent of the population), though the growth rate is slowing as many key markets approach saturation.
• Almost all new subscribers to be added in the region between 2018 to 2025 will come from six countries: India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
• Last year, mobile technologies and services in Asia Pacific generated $1.6 trillion of economic value, equivalent to 5.3% of regional GDP3. This contribution is forecast to surpass $1.9 trillion by 2023.
• Asia Pacific’s mobile ecosystem directly and indirectly employs more than 18 million people, and last year contributed $165 billion in public sector funding via general taxation (excluding regulatory and spectrum fees).

Read More

KDDI and Ericsson test AI to optimize its LTE radio access

Japan's KDDI has partnered with Ericsson to implement an AI-based solution to optimize its LTE radio access network and improve end-user experience.

Ericsson said its solution automatically finds optimal radio network parameters in the network resulting in increased spectrum efficiency between bands and improved throughput. In a series of trials conducted in dense urban areas, the Ericsson AI-based solution improved network throughput by nearly 10 percent. Normally, KDDI would have needed thousands of hours to complete a network-wide analysis to come up with optimized parameters but with Ericsson’s solution, the process now takes less than 30 minutes to complete.

The collaboration is part of KDDI’s AI & automation program that seeks to find innovative ways to modernize optimization and provide better performance to the operator’s customers.

Chris Houghton, Head of Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, says: “KDDI has very clear vision that puts the customer satisfaction as the top priority, and they see network performance as a crucial factor. Ericsson’s AI-based network optimization is a technology designed to improve network performance with completely new levels of speed, scalability and effective results. We look forward to continuing our strong cooperation with KDDI as we support them to achieve their goals."

Read More

Cambium prices IPO at $12 per share

Cambium Networks announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 5,800,000 ordinary shares at the initial public offering price of $12.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “CMBM” on June 26, 2019, and the offering is expected to close on June 28, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, Cambium has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 870,000 additional ordinary shares at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Cambium, which is headquartered outside Chicago, provides wireless broadband networking infrastructure solutions for network operators, including medium-sized wireless Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies.

Read More

Nokia links its revolving credit to its sustainability goals

Nokia has signed a EUR 1,500 million five-year multicurrency revolving credit facility with two one-year extension options and introduced a sustainability pricing mechanism linking the margin of the RCF to two of Nokia's key sustainability targets:

1) Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to Nokia's operations and;
2) Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to Nokia's customers' use of Nokia's products

The RCF will replace the EUR 1,579 million revolving credit facility agreement dated 26 June 2015.

Nokia's sustainability targets include a 41% greenhouse gas emission reduction of its own operations and a 75% greenhouse gas emission reduction arising from the use of sold products by 2030 compared to the 2014 baseline. The margin of the RCF will increase or decrease depending on Nokia's progress towards reaching these targets.

Read More

Windstream adds Fortinet to SD-WAN portfolio

Windstream Enterprise (WE) is expanding its SD-WAN portfolio solution with solutions from Fortinet.

Windstream Enterprise has offered SD-WAN underpinned by VMware since 2017.

“Business customers are increasingly looking for security that is native to their WAN,” said Mike Frane, vice president of product management at Windstream Enterprise. “The Fortinet SD-WAN technology is particularly attractive due to its security pedigree. It complements our offer, broadening its appeal to customers at all levels of the enterprise spectrum.”

Fortinet’s SD-WAN capabilities, made available on the same device as their leading Next-Gen Firewall (NGFW) edge device with UTM (Unified Threat Management), deliver a powerful alternative for businesses looking to simplify their networking and security. Consolidating these network functions adds efficiency and lowers overhead, increasing the solution’s appeal.

Read More