Deutsche Telekom vowed to accelerate its rollout of residential fiber broadband, saying it now aims to ensure that all households in Germany have direct access to the fiber-optic network by 2030.
In 2020, Deutsche Telekom doubled the number of households that can receive FTTH to 600,000, more than twice as many as in the previous year (270,000). In total, Telekom now offers two million households an FTTH connection. Around two million more are to be added annually on average from 2021.
By 2023, 3,000 business parks are also to be connected to the fiber-optic network. Deutsche Telekom can already provide 17,000 schools with connections of up to 250 Mbps. In the next three years, at least one in four schools is to receive a fiber-optic connection from Deutsche Telekom alone.
Inside the home, Telekom has rolled out a new Speedport Smart 4 Plus router that can be connected directly to a fiber optic cable and has an integrated fiber optic modem. The device is also the first router with an OLED display that conveniently displays information on functions. It also features Wi-Fi 6 and mesh WLAN technology.
Deutsche Telekom also promised to accelerate its efforts in 5G. Two-thirds of people in Germany can now use 5G on the Telekom network. 45,000 antennas are already transmitting on 5G.
Deutsche Telekom is combining two 5G frequency bands. The company said that on the high-reach 2.1 GHz frequency, high mobile bandwidths will be brought to rural areas in particular. For example, the offshore island of Helgoland is now also being supplied with 5G. The 3.6 GHz frequency provides high-speed 5G where many people move around in a small area, such as in large cities. It is now also used at Frankfurt Airport. The technology will also be installed at Berlin's BER airport. New are also the 5G Highspeed antennas in Bremen, Hanover and Nuremberg. This means that 13 major cities are already benefiting from 5G in gigabit speed.
Telekom is planning the initial implementation of an O-RAN-Town in Neubrandenburg in 2021. In further steps, up to 25 O-RAN-compatible sites in active network operation with 4G/5G technology come together Cooperations with leading manufacturers such as Dell, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia, Mavenir and others are under discussion.
Telekom also announced the deployment of a new 5G campus network at the University Hospital in Bonn. It is the first campus network to operate on the 3.6 GHz frequency. Indoor antennas supply several hospital buildings. 5G will initially be used in radiology. X-rays and MRT images are transmitted via secure mobile radio to several locations of the University Hospital Bonn.
"Telekom keeps its promises. This applies in particular to network expansion. Right now, the Telekom network is proving its worth. It was the right decision to put fiber optic in every street and thus to enable fast networks from Telekom for over 80 percent of all households. Home offices are possible throughout the country. Now comes the next step: Fiber optic to the home and 5G. Here too, we have a plan that we are working through step by step. Despite Corona, our expansion is running at full speed," says Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges. "And to make sure that everyone in Germany is part of it in the future, we are now really getting going. To achieve this, we have been investing around five and a half billion euros a year in Germany for years. Most of it will go into our network”.
http://www.telekom.de/jetzt-glasfaser
Xsight Labs, a fabless semiconductor start-up based in Israel, emerged from stealth to announce sampling of a 25.6T 32 x 800G data center switch and a 12.8T 32 x 400G data center switch based on 100G PAM4 SerDes.
The company's X1 switch chip, which is now sampling to alpha customers, is fabricated in 7nm silicon.
Some highlights:
Supports a broad range of switch configurations:
“Xsight Labs is the first in the world to sample a monolithic 7nm switch silicon that is on the frontier of the 100G SerDes ecosystem,” said Erez Shaizaf, Xsight Labs’ Co-Founder and Switch General Manager. “It is a true testament to the caliber of engineering talent that we have been able to assemble and we, as a team, are extremely proud of our execution.”
“The X1 family architecture has been built from the ground up to incorporate a unique set of value-added features like Application Optimized Switching, X-PND™, and X-IQ™, enabling customers’ switch deployments to achieve optimized latency and power,” said Gal Malach, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Xsight Labs.
NTT DOCOMO, in partnership with Qualcomm, activated the first commercial 5G sub-6 GHz carrier aggregation (sub6-CA) service in Japan. The service combines a 100 MHz carrier in band n78 and a 100 MHz carrier in band n79 to boost 5G performance and network capacity using DOCOMO's diverse spectrum assets.
Using DOCOMO's new 5G network and select devices powered by the Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM 865 Mobile Platform with the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System, customers can now enjoy mobile download speeds of up to 4.2 Gbps - the fastest speeds available in Japan.
"It is a pleasure to continue our work with DOCOMO to advance and accelerate 5G technology throughout Japan," said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "By providing access to breakthrough technologies like 5G carrier aggregation, we are enabling consumers and companies throughout Japan to access faster connectivity, enhanced capacity and better reliability."
"In collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, we are pleased to begin delivering this advanced and groundbreaking mobile technology to our customers nationwide," said Naoki Tani, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NTT DOCOMO. "DOCOMO subscribers can now enjoy superior 5G service together with exciting mobile experiences. Moreover, by establishing a new standard of possibility for the industry, we are proud to help initiate a new era of connectivity in Japan."
Ericsson filed a lawsuit in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, against Samsung..
Ericsson says Samsung has failed to negotiate in good faith and to license patents on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms and conditions.
Ericsson warned that several license renewal negotiations may delay the payment of IP royalties if they extend beyond the expiry of existing licenses into an unlicensed period. The company also warned that current geopolitical conditions are impacting handset sales volumes as is the shift from 4G to 5G handsets.
FireEye closed on a $400 million strategic investment led by funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and joined by ClearSky, a cyber security-focused investment firm, as a co-investor in the transaction.
FireEye also announced that Viral Patel, a Senior Managing Director of Blackstone, and Art Coviello, former chief executive officer of RSA Security, have been appointed to the FireEye Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Art Coviello, former chief executive officer of RSA Security said, “FireEye and Mandiant are widely recognized for their threat intelligence and security expertise, and I am delighted to join the board. I look forward to working with Kevin and the FireEye leadership team to help them realize their vision of intelligence-driven security solutions for organizations of all sizes.”
Under the revised terms of their investment, Blackstone and ClearSky purchased 400,000 shares of FireEye’s newly designated 4.5% Series A Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred”), with a purchase price of $1,000 per share, for $400 million in the aggregate. The Series A Preferred will be convertible into shares of FireEye's common stock at a conversion price of $17.25 per share, subject to certain customary adjustments. Additional information regarding the investment and the Series A Preferred were included in the Form 8-K previously filed by FireEye with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 18th, 2020.
FireEye claims over 9,600 customers across 103 countries, including more than 50 percent of the Forbes Global 2000.
NBN Co is rolling out a Disaster Satellite Service to communities and emergency services personnel during and in the aftermath of emergency events, such as bushfires and floods.
The service is provided with funding from the Australian Government’s Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters (STAND) package. Specifically, NBN Co has been awarded a grant of $7 million to install nbn™ Disaster Satellite Service units at designated emergency management sites and evacuation centres across the country. Around 95 nbn Disaster Satellite Services will be installed by the end of the year, with the remaining locations to be completed in 2021 as agreed with Federal and state and territory governments.
https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-statements
WeaveWorks, a start-up developing a GitOps-powered Kubernetes platform built on open source software, raised a total of $36.65m from a pool of telecom and enterprise investors including Orange Ventures, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Amazon Web Services and Sonae IM. Existing investors including Accel, Google Ventures and Redline Capital also participated in the round.
The company says its Weave Kubernetes Platform enables telecommunications companies tp securely deliver containerised 5G across data centres, cloud, hybrid, and edge environments while significantly reducing operating costs.
Alexis Richardson, co-founder and CEO of Weaveworks, said: “Cloud Native and Kubernetes are revolutionising the way we build and operate applications. The challenge is how to manage these environments with the scalability, reliability and control enterprises need when managing thousands of developers and applications at the same time. This is what sets Weaveworks apart.
“Our new funding, backed by two of the world’s leading public cloud providers and industry-leading telecoms companies, is a powerful validation that Weaveworks provides the speed, flexibility, and control telecoms and large enterprises need to rapidly innovate and scale cloud native applications.”
“As global telcos ramp up to deliver high-speed 5G applications and services, and enterprises build and operate cloud-native applications, the need for a reliable, secure and standards-based operating model is more important than ever. GitOps is that operating model for large scale cloud native implementations across environments and serves as the backbone of the Weave Kubernetes Platform (WKP),” said Remi Prunier, Investment Principal, Orange Ventures.
https://www.weave.works/blog/announcing-weaveworks-36m-series-c/
