Google Fiber advances to 20G symmetrical residential service

Google Fiber is deploying Nokia’s 25G PON solution to enhance its existing fiber network and deliver a new 20 Gig broadband service to customers through GFiber Labs.

Gfiber expects to be offering residential 20 Gig + Wi-Fi 7 an early access offering to a small group of GFiber customers in select areas by the end of the year.

Nokia’s 25G PON solution enables GFiber to reuse its existing optical fiber cables and active equipment deployed in their network to quickly deliver a 20 Gig symmetrical broadband service to customers.   

Liz Hsu, Senior Director, Product & Billing at Google Fiber, said: “The age of multi-gig broadband services is here and we’re committed to ensuring all of our customers can benefit from the incredible potential it brings. We believe investments in advanced network technologies like Nokia’s 25G PON solution will help catalyze change, drive innovation and revolutionize the user experience. We’re thrilled to be working with Nokia to move our industry and customers forward.”  

Geert Heyninck, General Manager of Broadband Networks at Nokia, said: “It’s an exciting time to be a Google Fiber customer as we work to help them usher in a new era of connectivity that’s capable of delivering lightning fast 20 gigabit services. With our 25G PON solution Google Fiber can reuse its existing fiber network to quickly and cost effectively deliver the next generation of gigabit services to their customers. We’re proud to continue supporting Google Fiber on its quest to build the foundation of tomorrow’s internet.”   

https://fiber.google.com/blog/2023/10/gfiber-labs-announces-first-project-20.html

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Nokia: Global network traffic to grow at 22-25% CAGR thru 2030

Thanks to AI, ML, extended reality (XR), digital twins, automation, and billions of new devices, traffic on global telecom networks will grow at a CAGR of 22% - 25% for the rest of this decaded, according to the newly-published Nokia Global Network Traffic 2030 report.

In the Global Network Traffic 2030 report, Nokia projects that global network traffic demand will reach between 2,443 to 3,109 exabytes (EB) per month in 2030. If there is a higher adoption rate of cloud gaming and XR in the second half of this decade, Nokia projects a CAGR that reaches as high as 32%. For networks to support the increasing demands of the future, they will need to be more cognitive and automated utilizing AI and ML, as well as address the transformative needs and operating models of organizations and consumers. Technology breakthroughs like XR and digital twins, combined with Web3 and other much-lauded emerging innovations, will transform businesses, society and the world.

Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Nokia, said: “Nokia’s Technology Strategy 2030 is a direct response to the proliferation of cutting-edge technologies over the last decade. One thing is for certain: radical changes are needed now to evolve networks to meet the challenges of tomorrow and beyond. Enterprises across industry face three trends bearing down on them: AI, cloud and the constant evolution of connectivity. Our Technology Strategy 2030 lays out a future network architecture for our customers and the industry. It brings to life opportunities for innovation, sustainability, productivity and collaboration, which can only be enabled by the exponential power of networks.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/10/31/nokia-technology-strategy-2030-emerging-technology-trends-and-their-impact-on-networks/

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DC Blox plans data center campus in Douglasville, Georgia

DC BLOX unveiled plans for a new 180MW data center campus in Douglasville, Georgia, in close proximity to Atlanta. The 55-acre campus will directly connect to DC BLOX’s dark fiber network and its new cable landing station in Myrtle Beach, SC.

With an expected capital investment of over $1.2 billion, the site is supported by robust tax incentives coordinated by Elevate Douglas Economic Partnership. Construction of the new data center campus is now underway. The dark fiber route is expected to be completed in Q4 2023.

“We are thrilled to bring our vision to life to serve hyperscale needs for powerful, reliable digital infrastructure in Douglasville, Georgia,” says Mark Masi, EVP of Data Center Development at DC BLOX. “We are partnering with the best in the industry to ensure our state-of-the-art data centers meet the most stringent hyperscale needs by leveraging the most advanced construction, sustainability and power capabilities available in the industry. Moreover, we pride ourselves on providing tailored and flexible design configurations, ensuring that our tenants can customize their space to meet the most advanced AI/ML applications as well as any specific requirements they may have.”

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AWS adds EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML Workloads

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Capacity Blocks for ML, a new consumption model providing access highly sought-after GPU compute capacity for short duration machine learning (ML) workloads. 

The service enables customers to reserve hundreds of NVIDIA GPUs colocated in Amazon EC2 UltraClusters designed for high-performance ML workloads. Customers can use EC2 Capacity Blocks with P5 instances, powered by the latest NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, by specifying their cluster size, future start date, and duration. 

AWS EC2 Capacity Blocks help ensure customers have reliable, predictable, and uninterrupted access to the GPU compute capacity required for their critical ML projects. 

“AWS and NVIDIA have collaborated for more than 12 years to deliver scalable, high-performance GPU solutions, and we are seeing our customers build incredible generative AI applications that are transforming industries,” said David Brown, vice president of Compute and Networking at AWS. “AWS has unmatched experience delivering NVIDIA GPU-based compute in the cloud, in addition to offering our own Trainium and Inferentia chips. With Amazon EC2 Capacity Blocks, we are adding a new way for enterprises and startups to predictably acquire NVIDIA GPU capacity to build, train, and deploy their generative AI applications—without making long-term capital commitments. It’s one of the latest ways AWS is innovating to broaden access to generative AI capabilities.”

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/capacityblocks

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Intel schedules "AI Everywhere" event for Dec 14th

Intel announced plans for an “AI Everywhere” event in December 14th. 

Intel will accelerate its execution engine and power AI workloads across the data center, the cloud and the edge with the launch of 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors and Intel Core Ultra processors.

The event will be hosted on the Intel website.

https://newsroom.intel.com

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Lumen integrates Network-as-a-Service with Equinix Fabric

 Lumen is integrating its Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform with Equinix Fabric, enabling  Equinix's 10,000 customers to instantly buy, use, and manage Lumen Internet On-Demand and future Lumen NaaS services.

How it Works

• An Equinix customer orders Lumen Internet On-Demand using Lumen's digital portal or API.
• The customer provisions a virtual connection in Equinix Fabric and connects it to the Lumen port.
• After the customer is connected to Lumen's NaaS platform, Lumen Internet On-Demand service activates in minutes, instead of months.
• Customers are in control of their service and can increase or decrease bandwidth as needed.

"Our customers rely on us to offer a premier interconnection experience that's made possible with the combined capabilities of Equinix Fabric and the service providers that make up our digital ecosystem," said Arun Dev, Vice President of Digital Interconnection at Equinix. "I'm thrilled with the work our teams are doing to integrate Lumen NaaS with Equinix Fabric so that our customers can have even more choice for on-demand Internet connectivity to support their hybrid infrastructure."

"Offering businesses a quick and easy network buying experience is what makes our collaboration with Equinix so valuable," said Andrew Dugan, CTO for Lumen. "Lumen is bringing its NaaS platform to Equinix, giving their customers access to quick bandwidth boosts and personalized on-demand services. Together, we are solving business challenges so our customers can focus on innovation."

https://news.lumen.com/2023-10-31-Lumen-takes-Network-as-a-Service-to-the-next-level-with-Equinix

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Lumen reaches agreement with creditors to extend financing

Lumen Technologies reached an agreement with a group of creditors holding over $7 billion of the outstanding indebtedness of the company and its subsidiaries to, among other things, extend maturities of the debt instruments of the Company and Level 3 Financing, Inc. 

In addition, the creditors have committed to provide $1.2 billion of financing to the company through new long-term debt. 

"After several months of constructive discussions, we are pleased to have reached this agreement. This transaction will position the Company to better align our balance sheet with our current business needs," said Kate Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "As we move forward, we remain focused on executing our strategic transformation and delivering excellent value to our customers."

https://news.lumen.com/2023-10-31-Lumen-Announces-Broad-Agreement-With-Creditors-That-Will-Provide-The-Company-with-Significant-Flexibility-to-Execute-Its-Transformation-Strategy

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O2 Telefónica Germany tests Open RAN with Samsung

Samsung Electronics and O2 Telefónica today announced that the companies will test advanced cloud-native vRAN and Open RAN technologies in Germany.  This will include several tests in both lab and field. 

O2 Telefónica and Samsung will begin conducting initial tests of 4G and 5G vRAN and Open RAN technologies in a lab located at Munich, Germany. The companies will then carry out field tests in a commercial 5G network in Landsberg am Lech, with the goal to achieve technical and operational readiness. O2 Telefónica, one of the leading mobile telecommunications providers in Germany, is transforming its network architecture towards one of the most efficient and future-proof networks built on modern RAN technologies, open interfaces and automation features.

“We believe cloud-native and autonomous architecture is a central pillar of network transformation to accelerate the adoption of innovative services, and O2 Telefónica is working with the best players in the field,” said Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer at O2 Telefónica in Germany. “We are delighted to team up with Samsung as one of the first telecommunications providers in the European Union to test new networking solutions. We look forward to delivering the best-in-class connectivity to bring a host of new benefits to customers in the future.”

“Samsung is leading the charge in advancing vRAN and Open RAN with its proven expertise in large-scale commercial networks across multiple continents,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This collaboration with O2 Telefónica in Germany represents Samsung’s ongoing commitment to forging new pathways in vRAN and Open RAN, bringing the next-generation networks one step closer.”

 

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