Sunday, September 8, 2019

IDC: Ethernet Switch Market up 4.8% in 2Q19

The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded revenues of $7.07 billion in the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19), an increase of 4.8% year over year, according to IDC's newly updated Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker. Worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market revenues grew 3.4% year over year in 2Q19 to $3.96 billion.

Ethernet Switch Market Highlights

  • Port shipments for 100Gb switches rose 58.3% year over year to 4.4 million. 
  • 100Gb revenues grew 42.9% year over year in 2Q19 to $1.28 billion, making up 18.1% of the market's revenue, compared to 13.2% of the market's revenue a year earlier. 
  • 25Gb switches also saw impressive growth, increasing 84.8% to $364.1 million, with port shipments growing 74.5% year over year. 
  • 10Gb port shipments rose 2.6% year over year, to make up 27.9% of the market's revenue. 
  • 1Gb switches grew 6.6% year over year in port shipments, making up 40.0% of the market's total revenues.
  • The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region grew 10.8% year over year, with Russia – the region's largest market – growing 9.2% and Poland growing 29.6%. The Middle East and Africa (MEA) region also had strong growth at 10.2%; Qatar led the region's increase with 70.3% growth. Western Europe rose 1.1%, with the Netherlands growing 18.6% within the region.
  • The USA market grew 10.7% while Canada's market grew 3.8%. The Latin America region was off 1.2% after Brazil fell 8.3%.
  • The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) region fell 4.2% year over year. 
  • China's market declined 4.7% year over year while Australia's market dropped 16.0%.

Router Market Highlights

  • The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market grew 3.4% on a year-over-year basis in 2Q19, with the major service provider segment, which accounts for 75.9% of revenues, increasing 2.0% and the enterprise segment of the market growing a healthy 8.0%. 
  • The combined service provider and enterprise router market increased 2.7% in APeJ, with the service provider segment increasing 3.8%. 
  • Japan's total market grew 7.0% year over year. 
  • Revenues in Western Europe rose 5.2% year over year, while the CEE combined enterprise and service provider market grew 15.2% year over year. 
  • The MEA region was up 7.4%. 
  • In the USA, the enterprise segment was up 18.8%, but service provider revenues fell 6.4%, causing the total market to decline 0.8% year over year. Canada's market rose 9.2% year over year and the Latin American market grew 8.1%.

Vendor Highlights

  • Cisco finished 2Q19 with an 6.8% year-over-year increase in overall Ethernet switch revenues and market share of 51.1%.  In the hotly contested 25Gb/100Gb segment, Cisco is the market leader with 38.8% of the market's revenue. Cisco's campus/branch Ethernet switch revenue increased 14.3% year over year. Meanwhile, Cisco's datacenter switching revenue declined 3.2% year over year in 2Q19. Cisco's combined service provider and enterprise router revenue rose 6.6% year over year, with enterprise router revenue increasing 16.2% and SP revenues growing 1.1%. Cisco's combined SP and enterprise router market share increased to 36.8%, up from 35.7% in 2Q18.
  • Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue rose 18.9% on an annualized basis, giving the company market share of 9.7%. The company's combined SP and enterprise router revenue rose 1.5% year over year with a market share of 31.1%.
  • Arista Networks saw Ethernet switch revenues increase 15.4% in 2Q19, bringing its share to 7.3% of the total market, up from 6.6% a year earlier. 100Gb revenues accounted for 65.4% of the company's total revenue, indicating the company's focus on hyperscale and cloud providers and select large enterprise segments.
  • HPE's Ethernet switch revenue declined 6.3% year over year, giving the company a market share of 5.8%.
  • Juniper's Ethernet switch revenue declined 19.6% in 2Q19, bringing its market share to 2.9%. Juniper saw a 15.0% decline in combined enterprise and SP router sales, bringing its market share in the router market to 10.5%.


https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS45487019

Qualcomm intros mmWave module for 5G Fixed Wireless Access

Qualcomm introduced a mmWave antenna module for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) CPE. The company says its QTM527 mmWave antenna module for the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System will open up the market for mobile operators to offer fixed internet broadband services to homes and businesses using their 5G network infrastructure.

The goal is to enable 5G fixed wireless access CPEs that can be deployed on a roof or in a window to receive a 5G signal.

The Qualcomm QTM527 mmWave antenna module builds on prior mmWave technology breakthroughs to extend 5G beyond the smartphone.

Qualcomm's QTM527 mmWave antenna module supports up to 64 dual polarization antenna elements for optimal and extended mmWave range. It suppors beam forming, beam steering and beam tracking for bi-directional communication, along with global band support for compatibility in every major region around the world.

“Our comprehensive Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System architecture and mmWave innovation drives best in class 5G performance and scale. With this new extended-range solution, we deliver yet another major mmWave breakthrough and allow operators to provide enhanced fixed broadband services with broad coverage in urban, suburban and rural environments,” said Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm Incorporated.

Sampling is underway.

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2019/09/06/qualcomm-announces-worlds-first-fully-integrated-extended-range-mmwave

AT&T awards IT outsourcing contract to Tech Mahindra

AT&T has awarded a multiyear contract to Tech Mahindra Tech Mahindra Ltd. to accelerate AT&T’s IT network application, shared systems modernization and movement to the cloud. Tech Mahindra will assume management of many of the applications which support AT&T’s network and shared systems. The transformation roadmap also aims to optimize AT&T’s IT application footprint by aggregating functionalities, while optimizing business processes, costs, efficiencies and overall quality.

Jon Summers, CIO, AT&T Communications, said, “Our agreement with Tech Mahindra is another step forward in delivering greater flexibility across our IT operations. This includes optimizing our core operations and modernizing our internal network applications to accelerate innovation as we march forward to our goal of a nationwide 5G network by the first half of 2020. Our collaboration with Tech Mahindra will ultimately help accelerate our network operations and overall technology leadership.”

CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “This is a step towards elevating Tech Mahindra’s long standing strategic relationship with AT&T to help make the vision of a 5G-enabled future, a reality. As part of our TechMNxt charter, Tech Mahindra is betting big on 5G – network of the future, and is focused on technology-led innovation to enable digital transformation for our customers globally.”

Manish Vyas, President, Communications, Media and Entertainment Business and the CEO, Network, Tech Mahindra, said, “Our aim is to significantly boost AT&T’s 5G time-to-market and simultaneously reduce their cost of ownership by automating aspects of their network lifecycle. We look forward to a continued strategic relationship with AT&T to drive innovation in technology and network ecosystem while delivering value and quality to our customers.

https://www.techmahindra.com/media/press_releases/TechMahindra-Announces-Multi-Year-Agreement-to-Accelerate-ATTs-Technology-Transformation.aspx

AT&T to move most non-network workloads to public cloud by 2024

Microsoft and AT&T announced an extensive, multiyear alliance under which Microsoft will be the preferred cloud provider for non-network applications. Specifically, AT&T will provide much of its workforce with Microsoft 365, and plans to migrate non-network infrastructure applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

AT&T said the alliance is part of its broader public cloud first strategy to consolidate data center infrastructure and operations. AT&T is becoming a “public cloud first” company by migrating most non-network workloads to the public cloud by 2024.

“AT&T and Microsoft are among the most committed companies to fostering technology that serves people,” said John Donovan, CEO, AT&T Communications. “By working together on common efforts around 5G, the cloud, and AI, we will accelerate the speed of innovation and impact for our customers and our communities.”

“AT&T is at the forefront of defining how advances in technology, including 5G and edge computing, will transform every aspect of work and life,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “The world’s leading companies run on our cloud, and we are delighted that AT&T chose Microsoft to accelerate its innovation. Together, we will apply the power of Azure and Microsoft 365 to transform the way AT&T’s workforce collaborates and to shape the future of media and communications for people everywhere.”

In addition, Microsoft will tap into the innovation AT&T is offering on its 5G network, including to design, test, and build edge-computing capabilities. With edge computing and a lower-latency 5G connection enabled through AT&T’s geographically dispersed network infrastructure, devices can process data closer to where decisions are made. Recently, Microsoft and AT&T worked together to test an edge computing-based tracking and detection system for drones. With more connected devices and the growing demand for streaming content from movies to games, businesses and consumers require ever-increasing network capabilities.

Verizon debuts 5G in 13 NFL stadiums

Verizon activated its 5G service in 13 NFL stadiums this past Kickoff Weekend, including:

Bank of America Stadium (Carolina Panthers)
Empower Field at Mile High (Denver Broncos)
CenturyLink Field (Seattle Seahawks)
Ford Field (Detroit Lions)
Gillette Stadium (New England Patriots)
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Dolphins)
Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis Colts)
MetLife Stadium (New York Giants and New York Jets)
M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens)
NRG Stadium (Houston Texans)
Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
U.S. Bank Stadium (Minnesota Vikings)

DT to bring 5G to Allianz Arena in Munich

Deutsche Telekom and FC Bayern Munich announced a partnership to bring 5G coverage to the Allianz Arena in Munich by spring 2020.

“Deutsche Telekom is working with FC Bayern Munich to open up the world of 5G technology to soccer spectators. Fans visiting the Allianz Arena will be able to explore a whole new dimension in soccer through VR and AR. We’re helping bring the club and its fans even closer together, which is of course in keeping with our motto – ‘Life is for sharing,’” comments Michael Hagspihl, Head of Consumers at Telekom Deutschland.

https://www.telekom.com

Chile studies subsea cable to Asia

Chile's telecommunications regulator his continuing to study the feasibility of direct subsea cable system from South America to Asia. Current connections are routed either via the United States or Europe. Chile's President, Sebastián Piñera, has expressed his support for the study.

The government has now awarded a contract valued at US$2.9 million to Telecommunications Management Group Inc. and WFN Strategies LLC to provide an assessment of the economic, technical and legal issues concerning the project.

https://www.subtel.gob.cl/mtt-adjudica-elaboracion-del-estudio-de-factibilidad-del-cable-submarino-asia-sudamerica/