Airtel picks Ribbon's Neptune for Packet Transport

Bharti Airtel will deploy Ribbon Communications' 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ribbon's 5G-native Neptune solution will be deployed throughout Bharti Airtel's India network, providing high capacity, low latency and real time programmability. The Neptune platform enables a powerful, efficient multi-layer next-generation network solution for a seamless evolution to future 5G services. The platform will be controlled, managed and automated by Ribbon's cloud-native Muse system, which provides Airtel with an integrated machine-to-machine ecosystem for end-to-end automated service fulfillment and assurance as well as automated migration from the existing network to the modernized one. 

"Ribbon has been a trusted partner since 2004, and their proven track record gives us confidence that they will successfully manage this upgrade. This compact, robust IP/MPLS-Access solution from Ribbon will both serve our current needs and make the Airtel network 5G ready," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

"5G will unleash a significant array of new applications and services that users around the world will benefit from," said Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon Communications. "We are honored to have been selected by Bharti Airtel for this critical upgrade and look forward to further expanding our relationship while supporting their pioneering vision for the future."  

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Analog Devices and Intel collaborate on 5G O-RAN platform

Analog Devices (ADI) is working with Intel to create a 5G O-RAN compliant radio platform.  

The new radio platform combines ADI’s radio frequency (RF) transceivers with the high performance and low power of Intel Arria 10 Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). ADI’s software defined transceiver includes an innovative DFE capability.

“This new radio platform reduces the overall cost of design and quickens our customers’ time to market without sacrificing system-level performance,” said Joe Barry, Vice President of the Wireless Communications Business Unit at ADI. “By coupling ADI’s transceivers featuring advanced digital frontend (DFE) functionality with Intel’s leading FPGA technology, our customers’ solutions can achieve the high level of performance they require while increasing their flexibility to more efficiently resolve emerging network issues.”

“This collaboration between ADI and Intel enables the development of new radio solutions for 5G networks,” said CC Chong, Senior Director, Head of Wireless & Access, Programmable Solution Group at Intel. “We look forward to working with ADI to expedite hardware development by offering FPGA platforms that are flexible to meet changing requirements, are easy to use, and remove many of the complex barriers of RF and digital product development.”

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Subsea cable planned for Chile-NZ-Australia route

Chile's Ministry of Transport & Telecommunications selected a subsea cable route across the South Pacific directly linking to New Zealand and Australia.

The proposed 13,180-km route, which was supported by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Japan ICT Fund, would offer onward connections to Japan via existing subsea cables. It would also support the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) initiative.

A rival trans-Pacific cable proposal backed by Huawei and the government of China did not gain the support of the Chilean government.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Telecommunication/Chile-picks-Japan-s-trans-Pacific-cable-route-in-snub-to-China

http://www.mtt.gob.cl/archivos/25891

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UK spectrum auction set for January 2021

Ofcom confirmed plans to auction 5G spectrum in January 2021. The auction will increase the total amount of spectrum available for mobile in the UK by nearly a fifth (18%).

Some mobile operators had argued for the spectrum to be allocated through an administrative process, instead of an open auction, in light of the coronavirus. However, Ofcom concludes that an open auction will be a more efficient means to make the spectrum available to mobile users without unnecessary delay.

Philip Marnick, Ofcom’s Spectrum Group Director, said: “Demand for getting online on the move is soaring, and the pandemic has only increased the importance of mobile services to people and businesses. Releasing these airwaves promptly will bring a much-needed capacity boost, helping mobile customers get a better service.”

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Dell'Oro: Network equipment services market returning to growth

Following five consecutive years of market contraction, the network equipment services market is returning to growth, growing slightly in 2019 due to positive developments with Network Rollout Services and Consulting Service, according to the latest Dell'Oro Network Equipment Service Market advanced research report. This growth is offset by declines in Managed Services this year.

Some highlights:

• Managed Services is expected to weigh on the market in the near term as vendors continue to exit contracts that are unprofitable and non-strategic.
• Network Equipment Services are becoming more complex.
• Following five years of dynamic share shifts, the top three vendors—Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia—have held their market share for the past three years. Together these three vendors accounted for about 75 percent of the NE Services market in 2019.

http://www.delloro.com

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Pekka Lundmark takes the helm at Nokia

Pekka Lundmark took over as Nokia’s President and CEO, replacing Rajeev Suri who served as CEO since 2014 and as CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks since 2009. Suri joined the company in 1995.

Lundmark previously was President and CEO of Fortum, a leading energy company based in Espoo, Finland,. Previously, he served as President and CEO of Konecranes, a global material-handling technology company, and from 1990-2000 held multiple executive positions at Nokia, including Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Nokia Networks. Lundmark holds a Master of Science degree from Helsinki University of Technology. He will be based in Espoo, Finland.

Lundmark shared the following blog post: https://www.nokia.com/blog/the-nokia-i-want-to-lead/

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MaxLinear completes acquisition of Intel's home gateway division

MaxLinear completed its previously announced acquisition of Intel’s Home Gateway Platform Division for $150 million in cash. MaxLinear funded the acquisition with proceeds from a $175 million term loan A facility, which was upsized from $140 million initially announced.

The Home Gateway Platform Division comprises Wi-Fi Access Points, Ethernet and Home Gateway SoC products deployed across operator and retail markets.

As an update to the original expectation, based on the improving strength in the business, MaxLinear now expects to initially add approximately $80 million to $90 million in quarterly revenue from the acquisition, in the first full quarter post close. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to MaxLinear’s non-GAAP earnings.

“First and foremost, we are excited to welcome a world-class engineering team which complements MaxLinear’s significant analog/RF mixed-signal capabilities with large scale SoC product, software, and comprehensive networking and signal-processing competencies spanning all our target markets. With the acquisition now complete, and the addition of WiFi, Ethernet, and Broadband Gateway Processor SoC technology assets to our portfolio, we will execute rapidly to expand our value proposition to our existing customers. These assets will not only drive scale, but also create tremendous new growth opportunities in broadband access, connectivity, power, and infrastructure markets,” said Kishore Seendripu, CEO of MaxLinear. “We are also encouraged by the strength in the broadband access business driven by the transformative work-from-home market dynamics, as well as the early adoption of the WiFi product.”

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Indonesia's XL Axiata to deploy Ericsson Cloud Packet Core and NFVI

XL Axiata will deploy Ericsson's 5G-ready cloud core technology solutions in East Indonesia.

The deployment includes Ericsson Cloud Packet Core and Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) solution.

Ericsson Cloud Packet Core, which includes applications such as Evolved Packet Gateway, allows for a distributed core network architecture to boost network performance in preparation for 5G.

Yessie D. Yosetya, Chief Technology Officer, XL Axiata, says: “Data consumption in Indonesia is growing rapidly and users are constantly looking out for cutting-edge technologies every day. By investing in advanced Cloud Packet Core solutions, we will be able to remain at the technology forefront and address the increasingly high demands of our tech-savvy customers. Ericsson is one of our key network partners and we are confident that this deployment will further enhance the quality of our network performance.”

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