Senko acquires CudoForm for high-precision metal stamping

Senko Advanced Components has acquired CudoForm, a privately-held company based in Camarillo, California that specialized in the design and manufacturing of high-precision metal micro-optic components with applications in data communications, consumer photonics, and biosafety.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cudoform has demonstrated high-precision metal stamping capabilities applicable to advanced and innovative optical interconnect solutions.

Senko Advanced Components said the acquisition strengthens its position at the heart of the emerging and fast-growing optical communications market especially in the field of Photonic Integrated Circuit or PIC Interconnect. Furthermore, expertise in accurate beam shaping and directionality, will generate new opportunities in high growth areas beyond the primary focus of data center switch interconnect, such as 3D / VR Imaging, LIDAR, Digital Health and Sensing, and Solid-state Lighting and UVC LED pathogen reduction.

“We are very happy about this acquisition, especially because CudoForm is a world leader when it comes to optical interconnectivity. By merging their research and innovative solutions with our expertise we will be able to improve our product development and further strengthen our position in the market. Both organizations share a common mission to deliver the highest performance and innovations to our customers. We look forward to delivering the combined synergies of two industry leading companies to our customers,” commented Kazu Takano – President at Senko Advanced Components, Inc.

“The employees and management of CudoForm are excited to join SENKO,” said Dr. Ryan Vallance, chief executive officer of CudoForm “We recognize the importance of high precision and reliable connectivity for CPO and with the combination of CudoForm and SENKO, we bring together complimentary technology platforms to provide novel solutions that meet the demanding requirements of this tight spaced packaging and difficult to integrate photonics ecosystem.”

https://www.senko.com/senko-acquires-cudoform-bolstering-optical-communications-industry-leadership/ 

See video: Many companies are looking for new solution for integrating optics with electronics in a single package to shorten electrical link lengths and reduce power, says R. Ryan Vallance, CEO and CTO, Cudoform, which specializes in high-accuracy stamping of metallic components, proving an innovative way to bring light into co-packaged optics.

See COBO webinar on this topic:

This 60-minute webinar discusses innovative manufacturing techniques for future optical components. When we think about scaling the output of co-packaged optics, there are several technical challenges that must be overcome, including how to deal with channel spacing, fiber count, polarization, optical coupling and mux integration.

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Dell’Oro: Private wireless market tracking below expectations

Private wireless radio access network (RAN) shipments and revenues are again coming in below expectations, resulting in another markdown, according to a newly published forecast report from Dell'Oro Group.

“We have not made any changes to the potential market calculations and still estimate private wireless is a massive opportunity,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group.  “At the same time, the message we have communicated for some time still holds – we still envision the enterprise and industrial play is a long game. This taken together with the fact that the standalone LTE/5G market is developing at a slower pace than previously expected forms the basis for the near-term downgrade,” continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the Private Wireless Advanced Research Report:

• Private wireless projections have been revised downward to reflect weaker than expected progress with private wireless LTE and 5G small cells.
• Total private wireless RAN revenues, including macro and small cells, are projected to roughly double between 2022 and 2026.
• Standalone private LTE/5G is now expected to account for a low single-digit share of the total RAN market by 2026.

https://www.delloro.com/news/private-wireless-forecast-adjusted-downward/

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Adtran completes acquisition of ADVA

ADTRAN closed its previously-announced business combination with ADVA Optical Networking SE.

The companies received all necessary regulatory approvals and shareholder consent, making closure possible. 

Tom Stanton, Chairman and CEO of ADTRAN Holdings said, “This is an exciting day for both companies. With closing now behind us, we can focus on the final steps that will allow us to fully integrate these companies, creating a driving force within the industry. We believe that the combination of our exceptional talent, industry-leading solution portfolios, and vision for innovation, positions us as a global trusted leader for service provider, government, and enterprise customers and will provide a firm foundation for our success moving forward.”

As already announced, the company intends to enter into either a domination agreement or a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement to further drive integration, which will be a further step in making the Company a global leader in end-to-end fiber networking. With an addressable market of $13.7 billion the combined company will offer an unparalleled product portfolio ranging from in-home connectivity and business access solutions to optical core transport.

https://investors.adtran.com/news-and-events/press-release-details/2022/ADTRAN-Holdings-Announces-Closing-of-Business-Combination-with-ADVA/default.aspx

ADTRAN + ADVA merger targets fiber broadband opportunities

Monday, August 30, 2021  ADTRAN, ADVA  

ADTRAN and ADVA announced a merger focused on end-to-end fiber networking solutions for communications service provider, enterprise and government customers. The deal combines ADTRAN’s market presence in fiber access, fiber extension and subscriber connectivity solutions with ADVA’s position in metro wavelength division multiplexing, data center interconnect, business ethernet and network synchronization solutions. The new company, which will...

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ADVA announces changes to its management board

Wednesday, July 06, 2022  ADVA, People  

ADVA Optical Networking announced that Brian Protiva is to step down as CEO. After a transition period of several weeks, Protiva will assume the role of vice chairman of Acorn HoldCo, Inc. (the holding company of Adtran and ADVA). During Protiva’s 25-year tenure as chief executive officer, he successfully steered the company from a small start-up to an industry leader in metro WDM and Ethernet access devices. Christoph Glingener will be appointed...

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BT braces for nationwide strike on July 29 and August 1

In the wake of a vote by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), BT confirmed that it will not raise the pay increase it implemented in April and will instead brace itself for industrial action.

At a press conference today (30th June), the CWU – the union for all BT Group employees – announced that on a 74.8% turnout, the union’s 30,000 Openreach engineers have voted by 95.8% to take strike action. This number was followed by workers in BT, approximately 9,000 of whom are call centre workers, who have voted by 91.5% on a 58.2% turnout for strike action.

The vote by EE members fell short.

BT issued the following statement: “We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could. We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.  While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected. We have tried and tested processes for large scale colleague absences to minimise any disruption for our customers and these were proved during the pandemic.”

BT Group awarded a fully consolidated pay increase to its Team Member and frontline colleagues of £1,500. This represents a pay rise of around 5% on average and 8% for the lowest paid and it was effective from 1 April 2022. 

CWU argues that that in the context of RPI inflation levels hitting 11.7% last month, this is a dramatic real-terms pay cut. It is also in the context of the company making £1.3 billion in annual profit, with the company’s CEO, Philip Jansen, gaining a £3.5 million pay package – a 32% increase.

CWU has notified BT management that they will be holding two days of industrial action for its BT and Openreach members on the 29th July and 1st August, 2022.

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-response-to-notification-by-the-cwu-of-industrial-action/

https://www.cwu.org/press_release/call-centre-workers-and-30k-openreach-engineers-vote-for-historic-national-strike-against-insulting-real-terms-pay-cut/

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Alphawave IP expands in Ottawa

Alphawave IP is opening a new office in Ottawa, Ontario - expanding its North American presence in the country's key technology hub.

The new office, which is located in the Kanata North technology park, is expected to hold over 100 employees across all departments and roles by the end of the year, more than double the existing 50+ employees in the Ottawa area. 

"With our expansion into Ottawa, a major technology capital, Alphawave is well-positioned to accelerate growth and hiring in the North America region," said Tony Pialis, CEO, president, and co-founder of Alphawave. "The new site in Ottawa is a major addition to our company that will allow our engineering teams to better test, analyze, and create the next generation of connectivity technologies."

Alphawave currently has over 250 employees worldwide with aggressive plans to grow its global team significantly. By the end of the year, the company aims to have over 250 employees in Canada alone, with the planned acquisition of OpenFive set to further expand its workforce and propel Alphawave's connectivity leadership, product offerings, and customer base. The company plans to open an additional office in Milpitas pending the OpenFive acquisition, bringing the global office count to nine.

http://www.awaveip.com

Alphawave IP to acquire OpenFive Business Unit from SiFive for $210m

Monday, March 14, 2022  Mergers And Acquisitions, SiFive  

Alphawave IP Group plc agreed to acquire the entire OpenFive business unit from SiFive for US$210 million in cash.SiFive is the founder and leader of RISC-V computing based in San Mateo, California. OpenFive, a SiFive business unit, has a high-speed connectivity system-on-chip (SoC) IP portfolio and a proven team based in India and Silicon Valley that has been delivering custom silicon solutions for over 15 years.  The acquisition significantly...

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China Unicom Beijing deploys Huawei's extremely-large antenna arrays

China Unicom Beijing is deploying Huawei's new extremely-large antenna array (ELAA) architecture at over 1,000 sites around the outskirts of Beijing.

The giant antenna arrays, which are called "metaverse-ready active antenna units - MetaAAUs", double the scale of arrays compared with the previous-generation AAU. Huawei says the increased size results in extended coverage because channel beams are narrower and energy is more focused. New algorithms improve network performance while slashing energy consumption. 

The companies claim the new MetaAAUs have delivered a 40% increase in coverage area, increased uplink and downlink user-perceived rates by 10%, and lowered network energy consumption by 5% over previous-generation AAUs. Since their deployment, user traffic has increased by 38% in their coverage areas and the carrier's user base has increased by 37%.

Ritchie Peng, President of Huawei 5G Product Line, said, "MetaAAU is one of our major innovations. With MetaAAU, we achieve great breakthroughs in network performance and energy efficiency, and this is attributed to our strong investment and continuous innovation in Massive MIMO. We are glad to cooperate with China Unicom Beijing on the thousand-site MetaAAU project, and proud to see that MetaAAU achieves the desired performance across the entire network. We believe this can provide a useful reference for global operators in selecting Massive MIMO technologies for different scenarios."

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2022/7/beijing-metaaau-1000

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Broadband Forum releases specs for improved ONU management

The Broadband Forum released two documents to help reduce the time and cost associated with onboarding new Optical Network Unit (ONU) vendors:

Broadband Forum’s TR-451 ‘vOMCI Specification’ and MR-451 ‘ONU Management using Virtualized OMCI’ have armed operators with more choice in how they create, activate, and maintain services associated with ONUs. Previously, the management cycle of the ONU was tied to a specific vendor’s Optical Line Terminal (OLT). The latest specification enables operators to de-couple the ONU and OLT from control and management purposes, with the Virtualized ONU Management (vOMCI) being introduced as a solution to centralize operations without relying on each OLT to act as a management entity.

“The latest specification can be used in the evolution of the management of ONUs, not as a replacement for the management processes and data models already in use by operators but to future-proof their infrastructure while maintaining their investment in existing ONU devices,” said Bruno Cornaglia, Co-Director of the SDN/NFV Work Area at Broadband Forum. “Ultimately, ONU management will be more adaptive to changes in operators’ processes and services, as well as less costly to maintain.”

https://www.broadband-forum.org/2022-07-12-greater-flexibility-and-interoperability-for-operators-virtualizing-their-software-defined-fiber-access-networks

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