Orange boosts capacity on MainOne Submarine Cable with Infinera

Orange deployed spectrum capacity with Infinera’s submarine solution on its MainOne submarine cable, a next-generation, 7,000-kilometer submarine cable that connects Portugal, Senegal, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria and serves as the West African backbone network for Orange’s international connectivity in Africa.

Orange is using Infinera's XTS-3600 platform, based on Infinera’s fourth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE4), to significantly increase its regional capacity as well as improve the resilience of its submarine cables.

Infinera’s ICE4 technology leverages the unique features of the company's optical engine, which include Nyquist subcarriers, forward error correction gain sharing, and photonic integrated circuit-based technology. Infinera’s Instant Bandwidth enables ease of scalability and incremental capacity addition as needed within minutes, without requiring additional work on submarine infrastructure, providing a distinct advantage that operators can pass along to end-user customers.

“This deployment with Orange reinforces our ability to consistently deliver the highest performance in terms of submarine capacity and reach with our industry-leading Infinite Capacity Engine technology,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Infinera. “We remain committed to helping our customers cost-effectively keep pace with demand while lowering total cost of ownership.”

Orange to assemble West African backbone

Thursday, November 14, 2019  Orange, Subsea  

Orange will assemble a new international backbone serving West Africa by building a terrestrial fiber optic network coupled with submarine cables.

Orange said its new network will provide large-scale international capacity to the rest of the world via connections with other submarine cables. The new network will link up all the main capital cities in the region: Dakar, Bamako, Abidjan, Accra, and Lagos. Commercial launch of the West African backbone is planned for the second quarter of 2020.

Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said: “For Orange, this West African backbone network represents a major investment that will secure availability of international connectivity and will enable us to meet the demand for increased bandwidth necessary for the continued digital development of regions within the zone.”

Jérôme Barré, CEO of Orange Wholesale and International Networks, said: “Through this project, Orange is clearly demonstrating its leadership and expertise in the design, deployment and operation of international network infrastructure. We are delighted to be able to offer our West African customers’ reliable, secure and high-quality international connectivity that connects them to the rest of the world.”

Orange is an investor in the MainOne submarine cable connecting Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire to Europe.

Read More

Intel names a new tech team in wake of 7nm delays

Intel announced major leadership changes to its technology team, including the departure of Murthy Renduchintala, the company's Chief Engineering Officer. The news follows last week's disclosure that Intel's introduction of 7nm technology will be delayed by six months to a year.

Intel CEO Bob Swan said the changes are intended to accelerate product leadership and improve focus and accountability in process technology execution.

Intel's Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) will be separated into the following teams:

• Technology Development, led by Dr. Ann Kelleher. An accomplished Intel leader, Kelleher has been head of Intel manufacturing, where she ensured continuous operations through the COVID-19 pandemic while increasing supply capacity to meet customer needs and accelerating the ramp of Intel’s 10nm process. She will now lead Intel technology development focusing on 7nm and 5nm processes. Dr. Mike Mayberry, who has been leading Technology Development, will consult and assist in the transition until his planned retirement at the end of the year. Mayberry has a 36-year track record of innovation at Intel, during which he has made key contributions in technology development and as the leader of Intel Labs.
• Manufacturing and Operations, led by Keyvan Esfarjani. Esfarjani most recently led manufacturing for Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), in which role he set the vision and strategy for Intel’s memory manufacturing and led a rapid expansion of capacity. He will now lead global manufacturing operations and continue Kelleher’s work driving product ramp and the build-out of new fab capacity.
• Design Engineering, led in the interim by Josh Walden while Intel conducts an accelerated global search to identify a permanent world-class leader. Walden is a proven leader in technology manufacturing and platform engineering. Most recently, he has been leading the Intel Product Assurance and Security Group (IPAS), which will continue to report to him.
• Architecture, Software and Graphics will continue to be led by Raja Koduri. Koduri has responsibility for driving the development of Intel’s architecture and software strategy, and dedicated graphics product portfolio. Under his leadership, we will continue to invest in our software capability as a strategic asset and further build-out software engineering with cloud, platform, solutions and services expertise.
• Supply Chain will continue to be led by Dr. Randhir Thakur.  Thakur will report directly to the CEO as chief supply chain officer, recognizing the ever-growing importance of this role and our relationships with key players in the ecosystem. Thakur and his team are charged with ensuring supply chain is a competitive advantage for Intel.

“I look forward to working directly with these talented and experienced technology leaders, each of whom is committed to driving Intel forward during this period of critical execution,” said Swan. “I also want to thank Murthy for his leadership in helping Intel transform our technology platform. We have the most diverse portfolio of leadership products in our history and, as a result of our six pillars of innovation and disaggregation strategy, much more flexibility in how we build, package and deliver those products for our customers.”

Read More

U.S. Cellular picks Nokia and Ericsson for 5G mmWave

U.S. Cellular is pushing ahead with its 5G rollout by signing contracts with both Ericsson and Nokia.

U.S. Cellular has chosen Ericsson to provide 24, 28 and 39 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) equipment and services to support consumer and enterprise 5G use cases. In addition, Ericsson will provide 4G Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) equipment and services as U.S. Cellular continues its 5G modernization program.

U.S. Cellular will deploy Nokia’s AirScale portfolio, with Cloud RAN capabilities, to provide enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) 5G mmWave in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum bands.  The Nokia AirFrame open edge solution for Cloud RAN will also be included in the deployments, enabling a virtualized RAN that provides scalable benefits such as, significant Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) reduction through simplification automation and operation efficiency gains, as well as through the support of open ecosystems.

U.S. Cellular will also use Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) solution as a deployment component, which allows the scaling of 5G IoT services faster and more cost-effectively.

U.S. Cellular is beginning its multi-year deployment of 5G mmWave now, with commercial availability planned for 2021.

Mike Irizarry, CTO, U.S. Cellular, said: “U.S. Cellular and Nokia are taking bold steps forward together in the realm of 5G modernization and connectivity. With 5G mmWave technology from Nokia, we can provide our customers with the leading-edge capabilities of high performance, ultra-low latency 5G. By readying our network with these key foundational network elements, we can offer an even wider range of communications services that enhance our customers’ wireless experience.”

Ricky Corker, President of Customer Operations for Americas, Nokia, said: “We are pleased to extend our relationship with U.S. Cellular with 5G mmWave technology and enable the company to deliver to its consumer and enterprise customers exciting new 5G services that require lightning performance with no discernable latency. This is a big leap forward in the provision of fast, secure and reliable networks in the Western, Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic regions.”

Rob Johnson, Head of Customer Unit Regional Carriers for Ericsson, said: “Ericsson has a long history of working with U.S. Cellular, and I am excited to see the relationship grow even stronger as we support them on their 5G journey. By supplying 24, 28 and 39 GHz mmWave high-band and CBRS mid-band radios along with industry leading 4G and 5G products and services, Ericsson will enable U.S. Cellular’s customers to take advantage of all of the speed and versatility that 5G networks have to offer.

Read More

Vantage completes acquisition of NGD data center in Cardiff

Vantage Data Centers completed its acquisition of Next Generation Data (NGD) from InfraVia along with the two founders of NGD. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NGD, which operates a data center campus located on 50-acres in the Cardiff Capital Region in South Wales, UK. The existing NGD data center campus is a Tier III 180MW facility, including an existing 72MW capacity and 108MW of expansion capacity. It uses 100% renewable energy and is rich in fiber delivered by many Tier 1 service providers. Latency between Wales and London is less than 1.5 milliseconds. In addition, NGD Cloud Gateway provides multiple access services, including Express Route and Connect, and NGD recently became a new hosting facility for LINX Wales. The highly secure site meets the U.K. government’s highest standards, and is one of many reasons that multiple blue-chip, high growth companies currently house their IT infrastructure within NGD’s 750,000 square foot facility.

Cardiff marks Vantage’s sixth European market following its acquisition of Etix Everywhere and entrance into Berlin, Frankfurt, Milan, Warsaw and Zurich in February 2020.

“The acceleration of digital transformation that continues to be at the forefront of our global economy emphasizes the need for reliable data center capacity that can scale quickly to meet skyrocketing demand,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO, Vantage Data Centers. “Vantage is excited to enter the U.K. market and is committed to growing around the world in locations that are most critical to our hyperscale and cloud customers.”

Vantage Data Centers launch $2 billion European expansion strategy

Monday, February 10, 2020  Data Centers, Vantage  

Vantage Data Centers has launched a $2 billion expansion into Europe with the aim of establishing itself in the hyperscale market.

As part of its expansion strategy, Vantage has acquired Etix Everywhere, which has 50MW of built data center capacity across its footprint and is building a 55MW hyperscale data center campus in Frankfurt, Germany. Financial terms were not disclosed. In conjunction with the Etix acquisition, Antoine Boniface, former CEO of Etix, has joined the Vantage executive team to serve as president, Europe.

In addition, Vantage Europe has secured land and is planning to develop hyperscale data center campuses in Berlin, Milan, Warsaw and Zurich. The facilities, which are currently underway, are in the following European markets:

• Berlin: 64MW campus on 13 acres (5 hectares)
• Milan: 32MW campus on 17 acres (7 hectares)
• Warsaw: 64MW campus 12 acres (5 hectares)
• Zurich: 40MW campus on 7 acres (3 hectares)

Vantage said intends to invest USD $2 billion in its planned European expansion, including more than USD $800 million in new equity capital provided by Vantage’s current investors and a new commitment from Digital Colony Partners.

“As data center demand from our customer base continues to rapidly increase worldwide, Vantage is embarking upon its largest expansion ever into Europe through the development of five strategic markets,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage. “The acquisition of Etix accelerates our expansion to Frankfurt, Europe’s highest growth hyperscale market. We are very excited to welcome Antoine and his team to lead our European business.”

Read More

F5 reports sales of $583M, up 4% YoY

F5 reported GAAP revenue of $583 million for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2020, reflecting 4% growth from $563 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019.  GAAP net income for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 was $70 million, or $1.14 per diluted share compared to third quarter fiscal year 2019 GAAP net income of $86 million, or $1.43 per diluted share.

“Large enterprise customers are accelerating their digital transformations, increasing their digital engagement, and boosting capacity and security on customer facing applications and on platforms that enable employee collaboration,” said François Locoh-Donou, CEO and President of F5.

Some highlights:

• Product bookings: Government 18%, Enterprises 67%, Service Providers 15%
• F5 is nearly 100% work-from-home and expect the majority of F5ers will work remotely for the remainder of CY20
• Subscriptions accounted for 73% of Q3FY20 software revenue
• In Q3FY20, F5 closed the largest number of subscription deals ever in a quarter

https://investors.f5.com/financials/quarterly-results/default.aspx

Read More

DT: 30,000 antennas for 5G in live operation

Deutsche Telekom confirmed that its 5G network now covers 3,000 towns and municipalities in Germany, representing half of the country's population.

"Today, we are celebrating a special day for 5G. Half the population in Germany is now covered. 5G has arrived in all German states. This is a big step for our customers, our network and for digitization in Germany," says Walter Goldenits, Head of Technology at Telekom Deutschland. "But the 50 percent is no reason for us to rest on our laurels. The 5G roll-out continues with the same intensity. Two thirds of the population are our next target. And we want to achieve this too this year.”

Deutsche Telekom uses spectrum on the 2.1 and 3.6 GHz frequency bands.

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/5g-for-40-million-people-in-germany-604514

Read More