Verizon and AWS expand their mobile edge to 13 metros

Verizon and AWS are now covering 13 of top 20 U.S. metro areas with mobile edge computing.

Verizon 5G Edge, a real-time cloud computing platform, with AWS Wavelength brings AWS compute and storage services to the edge of Verizon’s wireless network. In addition, Verizon is now offering a 5G Edge Discovery Service that seamlessly discovers the optimal MEC location for any Verizon mobile client. 

“Companies in every industry are finding exciting ways to bring 5G and 5G Edge to life - leveraging the full capabilities of 5G from throughput and low latency to strong reliability,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Revenue Officer of Verizon Business. “By unlocking the full power of 5G with edge cloud computing, developers can rapidly innovate and build apps and services that take advantage of 5G to improve performance, and create new revenue streams.”

“AWS Wavelength brings AWS services to the edge of 5G networks in any region so that customers like Morehouse and Aetho can build ultra-low-latency applications and transform consumers’ experiences,” said George Elissaios, general manager of AWS Wavelength and Director of Product Management, AWS. “AWS is excited to continue our collaboration with Verizon so that even more developers across the U.S. can bring powerful cloud-based applications to the edge with extreme low latency and high performance.”

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Frontier accelerates fiber buildout

 Frontier Communications has set a new objective to reach 10 million total fiber locations by the end of 2025. Frontier made significant progress toward this objective in the second quarter of 2021, building fiber to approximately 157,000 new locations. Frontier now expects to reach 600,000 new locations in 2021, resulting in approximately 4 million fiber locations passed by the end of the year.

Nick Jeffery, President and Chief Executive Officer of Frontier, said “Demand for high-speed broadband is growing rapidly, and fiber is the best product to meet the needs of consumers and businesses. Frontier is already doing what customers want and cable can’t – delivering symmetrical download and upload speeds with far lower latency than our competition. Early next year, we will start delivering 2 gigabit per second services, further stretching our performance lead to where only fiber can compete. We have hard work ahead of us, but momentum is increasing as we rally the Frontier team around our mission to Build Gigabit America.”

The company provided the following updates:

• Frontier’s currently is able to deliver symmetrical 1 Gbps download and upload speeds;
• The company plans to launch a symmetrical 2 Gbps offering in the first quarter of 2022 that will unlock next-generation digital experiences for customers;
• Frontier plans to deploy fiber to reach 10 million locations by 2025; and
• Frontier has set a new target of $250 million run rate savings by 2023 from simplifying its operations and improve the customer experience.

In addition, Frontier reported consolidated Q2 revenue of $1.62 billion, a 7.9% decline from consolidated revenue reported in the second quarter of 2020, due to declining consumer copper subscribers and wholesale revenue, and the impact of fresh start accounting. 

Frontier’s overall data and internet services revenue of $839 million decreased slightly in the second quarter of 2021 primarily due to declining copper subscribers. fiber broadband revenue was $268 million, a 13.6% increase over the second quarter of 2020, due to subscriber gains and higher ARPU. Consumer fiber net adds were approximately 12,000 in the quarter, the eighth consecutive quarter of positive consumer fiber net adds, resulting in broadband customer growth of 3.3% relative to the second quarter of 2020.

Second quarter 2021 operating income was $298 million. Net income was $4.58 billion due to approximately $4.2 billion of reorganization gains in the quarter, primarily related to the extinguishment of debt.

Capital expenditures increased to $385 million in the quarter from $225 million in the second quarter of 2020, as fiber expansion initiatives accelerated.

https://investor.frontier.com/

https://s1.q4cdn.com/144417568/files/doc_financials/2021/q2/FYBR-2021-Investor-Day-Presentation.pdf

Frontier emerges from Chapter 11 and sets sights on fiber expansion

Sunday, May 02, 2021  Frontier  

Frontier Communications completed its financial restructuring process and emerged from Chapter 11. Through the bankruptcy proceedings, Frontier has reduced its debt by approximately $11 billion and annual interest expense by approximately $1 billion. The company says it is now well-positioned to accelerate its transformation to become a leading telecommunications technology company in the United States through investment in innovation, fiber...

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Verizon builds its fixed 5G Business Internet service

Verizon Business is continuing to expand its rollout of fixed 5G for delivering business Internet service.

Five more U.S. cities have been added to the footprint,  bringing the total number of cities with 5G Business Internet service to 47. The company will continue to expand 5G Business Internet into new cities on an ongoing basis as it readies deployment of its recently acquired C-Band assets.

Verizon Business is also incorporating video collaboration and voice offerings into a special offer, announcing one BlueJeans Meetings by Verizon standard license and one Verizon OneTalk line of service at no additional cost for eligible customers who sign up for and maintain 5G Business Internet service.

"The expansion of 5G Business Internet is ahead of schedule, and we will continue to add availability in new cities throughout the year, but this is just the start. The upcoming deployment of our new spectrum assets will be a major catalyst for 5G fixed-wireless growth," said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Revenue Officer of Verizon Business.

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Qualcomm launches $4.6 billion bid for Veoneer

Qualcomm launched a bid to acquire Veoneer for $37 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4.6 billion

Qualcomm said the proposal reflects its commitment to bring advanced technologies to the automotive industry and represents a natural extension of Qualcomm's digital chassis solutions. The company continues to see traction in automotive, with a revenue-design win pipeline of approximately $10 billion.

"As the automotive industry continues to transform, it is becoming increasingly important for automakers to have a partner who develops horizontal platforms that drive innovation and enable competition. The proposed acquisition will bring together our industry-leading automotive solutions with Veoneer's assisted driving assets to deliver a competitive and open ADAS platform to automakers and Tier 1 suppliers at scale," said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm's offer exceeds the acquisition proposal announced by Magna on July 29th for $ 31.25  per share in cash, representing a total value of  $ 3.8 billion, and an enterprise value of $ 3.3 billion, inclusive of Veoneer’s cash, net of debt and other debt-like items as of March 31, 2021.

Veoneer said its board of directors will evaluate the proposal from Qualcomm consistent with its legal duties and the terms of the Magna merger agreement. On July 22, 2021, Veoneer announced that it entered into a definitive merger agreement, approved by Veoneer's board of directors, with Magna International Inc. The merger agreement remains in place.

https://www.veoneer.com/en/home

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Taiwan Mobile aggregates 700MHz (n28) and 3500MHz (n78)

Taiwan Mobile (TWM) announced that it has achieved the world’s first New Radio Carrier Aggregation (NR CA) by combining spectrum in the 700MHz (n28) and 3500MHz (n78) bands. 

The trial, which took place in a 5G standalone (SA) network environment, was performed with Nokia’s AirScale 5G SA architecture in TWM’s commercial 5G network and combined two spectrum bands, frequency division duplex (FDD) in 700MHz (n28) and time division duplex (TDD) in 3500MHz (n78), which are widely adopted in 5G networks worldwide. FDD is a lower frequency band that provides wide coverage area improving cell edge performance; TDD has a higher bandwidth and capacity. The combination of these spectrum bands offers enhanced capacity and coverage supporting a range of 5G deployment scenarios, including indoor and enhanced outdoor coverage. MediaTek Inc. supported the trial by providing equipment to verify network performance.

Nokia is TWM’s sole 5G equipment supplier covering 5G RAN, 5G Core and 5G IMS including its latest AirScale Radio Access products. Nokia is a long-standing partner of TWM and is supporting the company in its efforts to execute its ‘Super 5G strategy’ which is focused on sustainability and digital transformation.

Tom Koh, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Technology Group, Taiwan Mobile, commented: “This trial is an important milestone as we execute our 5G strategy and deliver best-in-class 5G services to our subscribers. Combining SA with NR CA, our 5G user experience is raised to the next level while the utilization of our spectrum assets and 5G networks are maximized. We are pleased with our partnership with Nokia as we continue to advance deployment and build a thriving 5G ecosystem.”

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Cloudflare hits Q2 revenue of $152 million, up 53% yoy

Cloudflare reported Q2 revenue of $152.4 million, representing an increase of 53% year-over-year. Non-GAAP net loss was $7.3 million, compared to $9.6 million in the second quarter of 2020. GAAP net loss per share was $0.12, compared to $0.09 in the second quarter of 2020. Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.02, compared to $0.03 in the second quarter of 2020.

“We had our strongest quarter ever as a public company, and our revenue growth continued to accelerate, growing 53% year-over-year. We also added a record number of large customers, signing the equivalent of more than two six-figure customers every single business day in Q2.” said Matthew Prince, co-founder & CEO of Cloudflare. “Whether we’re offering Zero Trust security solutions to the world’s most sophisticated organizations, or enabling the next billion dollar business with Cloudflare Workers, we remain focused on delivering secure, programmable network solutions that our customers rely on.”

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Australia's TPG deploys Nokia’s Integrated Passive Active Antenna

TPG Telecom has deployed Nokia’s integrated 5G Interleaved Passive Active Antenna (IPAA) at a site in Brisbane, Australia.

Nokia's Twin Beam IPAA provides operators the ability to add 5G to an existing site without increasing the number or the size of the existing antennas on the site, but also doubles the range and greatly increases the capacity of all technologies deployed on existing mid band (e.g. 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz) frequencies by up to 80%. The IPAA solution has been developed in collaboration with CommScope.

Barry Kezik, Executive General Manager of Mobile and Fixed Networks at TPG Telecom, said: “We’re excited to be the first operator in the world to benefit from another example of market leading technology from Nokia. The Twin Beam IPAA will not only help expand our 5G coverage, helping us achieve our goal of reaching 85% of the population in Australia’s top six cities by the end of the year, it will also boost the coverage and capacity of our existing networks, meaning all of our customers will benefit from its deployment.”

Dr Robert Joyce, Chief Technology Officer at Nokia Oceania, said: “Nokia is delighted to be bringing our market leading 5G technology to Australia to deliver yet another 5G world first with TPG Telecom. This new variant of the IPAA allows operators to increase coverage, capacity and capability to all of their customers – 3G, 4G or 5G - through a quick and simple upgrade of an existing site.”

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Ekinops selected by Michigan school district for WDM network

Michigan's Grosse Pointe School System (GPSS) has selected the Ekinops360 optical transport system to build a new wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network in its district.

The network serves a community of 14 public schools consisting of approximately 1,000 teachers and administrators and over 7,000 students.  Its existing managed lit services from its local service provider were costly to operate, required a long lead-time to upgrade and did not deliver the quality of service GPSS needed.  The new WDM network, based the Ekinops360, delivers up to ten times the connection bandwidth to each school compared to the fastest commercially available service.

GPSS selected the Ekinops360 after a competitive, open bid process that attracted multiple proposals from the global WDM system vendor community. Plante & Moran served as technology consulatant. 

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