Broadcom's 25.6 Tbps Router Super Chip

Broadcom released the next generation of its StrataDNX family of single chip routers for carriers and cloud operators. 

Qumran3D boasts 25.6 Terabits per second of routing in a fixed form factor, with Ethernet port rates from 100 Gbps to 800 Gbps. The design packs three dedicated engines that perform on-chip processing and buffering, large-scale forwarding, and strong security function and native line-rate MACsec encryption on all ports.

Qumran3D’s 256 links of 100G PAM-4 SerDes enable 25% to 50% reduction in optical transceivers power consumption. It also supports emerging 800ZR+ optics for DCI and IPoDWDM.

The company estimates that a routing solution based on a single Qumran3D will save up to 66% more energy and up to 80% more rack space compared to previous generations.

“Qumran3D will accelerate the transition to merchant silicon routers,” said Ram Velaga, senior vice president and general manager, Core Switching Group, Broadcom. “With its unique combination of unyielding performance, power efficiency and security, Qumran3D is the ideal solution for the next generation of fixed, standalone routers. It will revolutionize the way that operators build and manage their networks.”

Key Features

• Up to 25.6 Tbps switching capacity per device
• High-speed, high-density port interfaces up to 800GE leveraging best-in-class 100Gb/s PAM-4 SerDes
• Feature rich processing pipe, addressing any Carrier and Cloud requirement and future-proofing via Elastic Pipe
• Carrier grade Hierarchical Traffic Manager
• High bandwidth, low power, and in-package HBM packet memory
• Massive on chip forwarding databases, eliminating the need for companion devices
• On-chip policy engines, protecting millions of flows
• Integrated IPsec engines and MACsec engines at line rate

https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/product-releases/61461

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FCC opens 6 GHz Band for Very Low Power Devices

The FCC opened the 6 GHz band to a new class of very low power (VLP) devices that will operate alongside other Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Specifically, the new rules authorize VLP operations in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 portions of the 6 GHz band totaling 850 megahertz of spectrum.  Operations at power levels significantly lower than other unlicensed 6 GHz devices could occur anywhere, indoors or outdoors, without any need for a frequency coordination system. 

The Commission also proposed expanding operation of these very low power unlicensed devices to the remainder of the 6 GHz band and permitting VLP devices more operational flexibility through higher power levels subject to a geofencing system that provides interference protection to licensed incumbent operations in the band.

https://www.fcc.gov

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AT&T raises full-year free cash flow guidance

Citing higher Mobility, Mexico and Consumer Wireline revenues, partly offset by lower Business Wireline revenues, AT&T reported Q3 evenues of $30.4 billion, up 1% year over year. Operating income was $5.8 billion versus $6.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. When adjusting for certain items, adjusted operating income* was $6.5 billion versus $6.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Capital expenditures were $4.6 billion in the quarter versus $5.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Capital investment, which includes $1.0 billion of cash payments for vendor financing, totaled $5.6 billion.

“Our investments in best-in-class 5G and fiber connectivity are fueling our growth engine. We’re gaining profitable customer relationships and becoming more efficient. This is powering our strong business performance and gives us the confidence to raise our full-year free cash flow guidance,” said John Stankey, AT&T CEO. “We are pleased that customers are choosing AT&T and staying with us over the long run as we connect and simplify their digital world.”

Highlights

Mobility

Revenues were up 2.0% year over year to $20.7 billion due to higher service revenues. Service revenues were $15.9 billion, up 3.7% year over year, primarily driven by subscriber and postpaid phone ARPU growth. Equipment revenues were $4.8 billion, down 3.2% year over year due to lower device volumes.

Total wireless net adds were 6.6 million, including:

• 550,000 postpaid net adds with:
• 468,000 postpaid phone net adds
• (48,000) postpaid tablet and other branded computing device net losses
• 130,000 other net adds
• 26,000 prepaid phone net adds
• Postpaid churn improved to 0.95% versus 1.01% in the year-ago quarter.
• Postpaid phone churn improved to 0.79% versus 0.84% in the year-ago quarter.
• Prepaid churn was 2.78%, with Cricket substantially lower, versus 2.83% in the year-ago quarter.
• Postpaid phone ARPU was $55.99, up 0.6% versus the year-ago quarter, due to pricing actions, higher international roaming and a mix shift to higher-priced unlimited plans.
• FirstNet connections reached about 5.3 million across nearly 27,000 agencies. FirstNet is the nationwide communications platform dedicated to public safety. The AT&T and FirstNet networks cover more than 99% of the U.S. population, and FirstNet covers more first responders than any other network in America.

Business Wireline

• Revenues were $5.2 billion, down 7.9% year over year due to lower demand for legacy voice and data services and product simplification, partly offset by growth in connectivity services. This quarter also included approximately $100 million in revenues from intellectual property sales, which were relatively consistent with the prior year.
• AT&T Business serves the largest global companies, government agencies and small businesses. More than 800,000 U.S. business buildings are lit with fiber from AT&T, enabling high-speed fiber connections to approximately 3.3 million U.S. business customer locations. Nationwide, more than 10 million business customer locations are on or within 1,000 feet of our fiber.3

Consumer Wireline

• Revenues were $3.3 billion, up 4.6% year over year due to gains in broadband more than offsetting declines in legacy voice and data and other services. Broadband revenues increased 9.8% due to fiber growth of 26.9%, partly offset by a 9.0% decline in non-fiber revenues. The company now expects full-year broadband revenue growth of 7%+, versus prior guidance of 5%+.
• Total broadband net gains, excluding DSL and including AT&T Internet Air, were 15,000, reflecting AT&T Fiber net adds of 296,000, more than offsetting losses in non-fiber services. AT&T Fiber is now capable of serving 20.7 million customer locations and offers symmetrical, multi-gig speeds across parts of its entire footprint of more than 100 metro areas.

Latin America – Mexico Operational Highlights

• Revenues were $992 million, up 26.4% year over year due to growth in both service and equipment revenues. Service revenues were $672 million, up 20.2% year over year, driven by favorable foreign exchange and essentially stable subscriber and wholesale revenues. Equipment revenues were $320 million, up 41.6% year over year due to higher sales and favorable foreign exchange.
• Operating loss was ($29) million compared to ($63) million in the year-ago quarter. EBITDA* was $155 million compared to $101 million in the year-ago quarter.
• Total wireless net adds were 65,000, including 17,000 prepaid net adds, 55,000 postpaid net adds and 7,000 reseller net losses.

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Nokia reports disappointing Q3 and big job cuts

Citing macroeconomic pressures, inventory digestion, and a big drop in sales in North America, Nokia reported Q3 revenue of EUR 4.982 billion, down 20% from the same period a year ago.

Nokia continues to expect full year 2023 net sales in the range of EUR 23.2 to 24.6 billion with a comparable operating margin in the range of 11.5% to 13.0% assuming closure of outstanding deals in Nokia Technologies.

• IP Networks and Fixed Networks particularly impacted
• Optical Networks grew by 4%
• Mobile Network sales were impacted by North America continued inventory digestion; however there was strong growth in India
• Added 85 Enterprise customers in Q3
• Private wireless grew double-digit; now 675 customers

In light of results, the company announced an acceleration of its restructuring program, aiming for signicant cost savings by eliminating up to 14,000 jobs through 2026.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, states:

"Our third quarter performance demonstrated resilience in our operating margin despite the impact of the weaker environment on our net sales. In the last three years we have invested heavily to strengthen our technology leadership across the business giving us a firm foundation to weather this period of market weakness.

"We continue to believe in the mid to long term attractiveness of our markets. Cloud Computing and AI revolutions will not materialize without significant investments in networks that have vastly improved capabilities. However, given the uncertain timing of the market recovery, we are now taking decisive action on three levels: strategic, operational and cost. I believe these actions will make us stronger and deliver significant value for our shareholders."

"First, we are accelerating our strategy execution by giving business groups more operational autonomy. Second, we are streamlining our operating model by embedding sales teams into the business groups and third, we are resetting our cost-base to protect profitability. We target between EUR 800 million and EUR 1 200 million in cost savings by 2026. These actions keep us on track to deliver our long-term target comparable operating margin of at least 14% by 2026."

"In the third quarter we saw an increased impact on our business from the macroeconomic challenges that are pressuring operator spending, resulting in a 15% net sales decline in constant currency compared to the prior year. Network Infrastructure declined 14% due to weaker spending impacting IP Networks while Fixed Networks was impacted by the same challenge combined with customer inventory digestion. In Mobile Networks net sales declined 19% as we saw some moderation in the pace of 5G deployment in India which meant the growth there was no longer enough to offset the slowdown in North America. Cloud and Network Services proved more robust in the quarter with a 2% decline and continued to benefit from strong growth in the Enterprise Solutions business."

https://www.nokia.com/system/files/2023-10/nokia_slides_2023_q3.pdf

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Ericsson reports 60% drop in North American sales

 Citing a challenging environment and macroeconomic uncertainties, Ericssion reported that its Q3 2023 group organic sales declined by -10% YoY. Segment Networks organic sales declined by -16% while Enterprise and Cloud Software and Services sales grew organically. Reported sales decreased by -5% to SEK 64.5 (68.0) b.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson

"In a challenging operating environment, Ericsson delivered third quarter results in line with our guidance. Consistent with the rest of our industry, we expect the macroeconomic uncertainty to persist into 2024, which impacts our customers’ investment ability. We are addressing these challenges with a focus on elements within our control, namely cost management and operational efficiency. We are on a journey to fundamentally reposition our business and we continue to execute on our strategy to extend our leadership in mobile networks, grow our enterprise business, and drive lasting cultural transformation."

Some key points

• Q3 performance was in line with guidance, with an EBITA margin of 7.3% and an EBITA of SEK 4.7 b. 
• Group organic sales declined by -10%, with a -16% organic decline in Networks partly offset by 5% organic growth in Cloud Software and Services and 11% in Enterprise.
• Networks organic sales in North America were down by -60% YoY from a record quarter in Q3 2022, due to customers‘ inventory adjustments and a slower deployment pace. Sequentially, Networks sales declined by -2% in line with previous trends. The decline in North America was partly offset by growth in India as well as some early 5G markets resuming investments.
• More than one million Ericsson radios in the field are hardware prepared for open fronthaul which underpins our support for openness across our Cloud RAN and radio portfolios.
• Cloud Software and Services continued executing on the turnaround. 
• Ericsson saw continued strong growth in Enterprise Wireless Solutions, and  had a second consecutive quarter of positive EBITA in Global Communications Platform.

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