FWD: Big trends from the Chinese telecoms market

China Telecom is the last of the Big 3 Chinese carriers to issue its mid-year report (see below), revealing stronger than expected financials and operational metrics. Later this week, Alibaba's mid-year report is due, hopefully providing equally deep insight into its cloud business and the larger market for data center infrastructure in China.

Some key trends observed on the telecoms side for 1H2018:

• China Mobile is slowing, while China Unicom and China Telecom appear reinvigorated.
• 4G network construction has been mostly completed and CAPEX levels are declining at all 3 carriers. 
• Mobile data has entered its highest period of growth, reflecting the bulk of the subscriber base migrating onto 4G.  China Telecom reports +349% yoy growth!
• Infrastructure sharing through the newly-public China Tower joint venture company is having a measurable effect in reducing OPEX. All three carriers talk about driving down tower costs even more, especially as each carrier has in excess of 1 million base stations in operation.
• ARPU levels are very low compared to developed economies.
• China Telecom gaining traction with a triple play option combining gigabit home broadband, TV service and 4G mobile service.
  
• The government intervention to force/lure investment from the nation's most successful tech companies in the floundering state-owned China Unicom is successful in this early stage.
• The end of provisional roaming tariffs is a welcome bonus for users but a direct hit on carrier revenues.
• All three top carriers have 5G field trials underway in multiple cities, with pre-commercial user trials expected in 2019, followed by commercial launches in 2020.
• None of the carriers reported significant network upgrade disruptions arising from ZTE's troubles in Q2.
• None of the top three Chinese carriers has a viable overseas strategy, either through investments in other operators (Singtel's model) or direct subsidiaries (Orange or Telefonica's model). This is perhaps the missed opportunity of the past decade but understandable given the enormous challenge of modernizing their home market. On the other hand, the equipment supplied by Huawei and ZTE is now well entrenched in carrier networks all over the world, so the influence of China on the global telecoms market is considerable. 

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China Telecom delivers strong results in 1H2018

China Telecom reported robust financial results and operational metrics for the first half of 2018, with overall operating revenues of RMB193.0 billion, of which, service revenues amounted to RMB177.6 billion, representing an increase of 7.0% over the same period last year. EBITDA amounted to RMB55.9 billion and EBITDA margin was 31.5%. Net profit amounted to RMB13.6 billion, representing an increase of 8.1% over the same period last year while basic earnings per share were RMB0.168, achieving persistent favorable growth.

Capital expenditure was RMB32.9 billion, representing a decrease of 19.9%. Free cash flow reached RMB18.4 billion which has increased remarkably over the same period last year.

Some operational metrics:

• The total number of mobile subscribers reached 282 million, representing a net increase of 31.66 million which was more than double of the net addition in the same period of last year. 
• Handset data traffic growth over the past year has been +379%
• Average data usage now tops 4.6 GB per month
• China Telecom captured a 46.5% market share in the net additions for China
• Overall total market share increased to 18.9%
• The total number of 4G users reached 217 million, representing a net increase of 35.27 million. 
• 4G penetration is now at 77%
• The total number of wireline broadband subscribers reached 141 million, representing a net increase of 7.09 million. 
• 56% of wireline broadband subscribers are getting over 100 Mbps service
• Average access bandwidth is 85Mbps
• China Telecom now has 1.2 million base stations in operation with 98% population coverage and 36% utilization rate
• 96% FTTH home pass coverage in cities and towns
• Gigabit-class broadband has been deployed in >170 cities
• China Telecom's IP metropolitan network and backbone network bandwidth reached 500Tbps and 170Tbps respectively
• China Telecom is building a premium network of Internet data center clusters; deployment focused on Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, southern China, Chengdu-Chongqing-Shaanxi and other key regions
• Video service penetration reached 70%; 9 mil Smart Home Networking service delivered, Family Cloud subs ~20 mil
• China Telecom now serves 30 million IoT devices and is aiming for 60 million this year

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Akraino Edge Stack advances as LF project

The Akraino Edge Stack project, which promises new levels of flexibility to scale edge cloud services quickly, has moved from formation into execution as a project hosted by The Linux Foundation.  The project originated inside AT&T.

New members of the Akraino project include Arm, AT&T, Dell EMC, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, inwinSTACK, Juniper Networks, Nokia, Qualcomm, Radisys, Red Hat, and Wind River.

Akraino Edge Stack seed code will be opened up to the community this week based on AT&T’s seed code, (the Network Cloud blueprint,) contributed to The Linux Foundation.

“Since forming earlier this year, the Akraino Edge Stack project has generated strong industry support and is now well-positioned to create blueprints optimized for various edge use cases,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking and Orchestration, The Linux Foundation. “We are pleased to welcome leading members with a broad swath of edge expertise and resources to collaborate on improving the state of open source edge software.”

“We welcome the new members to the Akraino Edge Stack project. As a community, we can expand the development of next gen zero-touch edge cloud infrastructure for carrier and enterprise networks, and foster a new ecosystem of applications that demand high performance, ultra-low latency and blazing speed,” said Mazin Gilbert, vice president of Advanced Technology & Systems, AT&T. “Embracing open interfaces and collaboration with edge computing will expedite new solutions and innovations for 5G services.”
 
“The Akraino project helps fill a critical gap in the ecosystem by supporting the rapid scale of edge solutions across Industrial, Enterprise and Telco. We look forward to establishing Akraino as a blueprint, helping to form the foundation of known-good software and hardware configurations that the ecosystem can easily adopt to foster collaborative development across industries and speed innovation,” said Imad Sousou, corporate vice president and general manager of the Open Source Technology Center, Intel. “We highly anticipate a continued collaboration to realize the bright future that is edge computing.”

“As application use cases at the edge continue to emerge, the need for a lightweight, low-latency, secure edge stack that’s also easy to deploy and manage is becoming more and more clear,” said Randy Bias, vice president of Technology and Strategy for Cloud Software , Juniper Networks. “The goal of Akraino is to deliver that stack in an open model allowing both network operators and the enterprises that rely on them to innovate and differentiate further up the stack. Juniper is actively engaged with the communities that are supporting edge infrastructure and Akraino is an important part of that mix.”

“Nokia is excited to join the Akraino Edge Stack project to support the emerging edge cloud ecosystem across multiple industries,” said Antti Romppanen, head of Cloud Foundation Product Management, Nokia. “Nokia has a long experience with carrier grade edge stacks, being the first company to demonstrate radio access network functions on OpenStack cloud infrastructure and recently launching Nokia’s Open Edge server specifically targeting edge deployments. We are looking forward to sharing our experience in the Akraino project!”

AT&T seeds Akraino project for carrier-scale edge computing

Tuesday, February 20, 2018  Akraino, Linux  

The Linux Foundation will host a new Akraino project to create an open source software stack supporting high-availability cloud services optimized for edge computing systems and applications.

To seed the project, AT&T is contributing code designed for carrier-scale edge computing applications running in virtual machines and containers.

“This project will bring the extensive work AT&T has already done to create low-latency, carrier-grade technology for the edge that address latency and reliability needs,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation. “Akraino complements LF Networking projects like ONAP in automating services from edge to core. We’re pleased to welcome it to The Linux Foundation and invite the participation of others as we work together to form Akraino and establish its governance.”

“Akraino, coupled with ONAP and OpenStack, will help to accelerate progress towards development of next-generation, network-based edge services, fueling a new ecosystem of applications for 5G and IoT,” said Mazin Gilbert, Vice President of Advanced Technology at AT&T Labs.

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Cumulus Linux runs on Broadcom Trident 3 switches

Cumulus Networks announced support for switching platforms powered by the new Broadcom Trident 3 (TD3) ASIC.

Key capabilities:

• Simplified EVPN operations: built-in simplicity on different technological layers, thus reducing human errors and downtime.
• Scale and robustness in data and control plane: The EVPN solution on Trident 3 supports VXLAN routing/tunneling in a single pass at 100/25 GbE line rate, supporting both symmetric as well as asymmetric routing
• Switch platform: The Trident 3 family of programmable switches are 3.2Tbps and 2Tbps devices designed for data center, enterprise, and service provider networks transitioning to high-density 10/25/100G Ethernet. Trident 3’s programmability allows new enhancements to VXLAN-EVPN, such as VXLAN-GBP, to roll out via a field upgrade, avoiding forklift upgrades and providing investment protection
• Investment protection: The Cumulus and Broadcom solutions maximize ROI through investment protection with interoperability, flexible positioning and re-use of resources, making it easier for customers to migrate spine devices downstream in the future to operate at the top of rack leaf switches, if and when needed.

“Cumulus Networks and Broadcom have been building network architectures for years, empowering the data center switching market and providing operators with greater control over their infrastructure resources,” said JR Rivers, CTO and Co-founder of Cumulus Networks. “This Cumulus Linux support for Broadcom supports our goal of bringing even more modern, scalable networks to more organizations around the world.”

Cumulus raises $43 million for its open networking

Thursday, January 25, 2018  Cumulus, Funding, Linux, Open, Silicon Valley, Start-Ups, Switching  

Cumulus Networks, which offers a Linux operating system environment for open networking, announced $43 million in new funding. Cumulus plans to expand its sales force and invest in growing its marketing programs, with a particular focus on reaching new customers in EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Cumulus's mission is "to free customers from expensive proprietary network stacks and bring the automation, agility and scalability of web-scale networks to companies of all sizes."

The company cited the following recent milestones:

• During 2017, the company signed over 350 new customers and now serves more than 800 customers, including over a third of the Fortune 50.
• Growth outside the U.S. was particularly strong. Cumulus tripled its business in the Asia Pacific region and more than doubled its business in EMEA during 2017.
• Cumulus Networks debuted in the Visionaries quadrant of the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking.
• In October 2017, Cumulus was inducted into the Innovation Hall of Fame by JP Morgan Chase.
• During 2017, the company released new solutions including NetQ, a telemetry-based fabric validation system; Host Pack, software essentials for the host enabling web-scale networking for containers, microservices and more; and Cumulus in the Cloud, a personal virtual data center to build and test network designs and operations.

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NTT DOCOMO tests 5G with Keysight’s emulation

Keysight Technologies supplied its 5G network emulation solutions to NTT DOCOMO for characterizing and validating new 5G New Radio (NR) mobile devices intended to operate on the leading mobile operator’s 5G network.

Keysight’s solutions can be used to validate the protocol signaling and Radio Frequency (RF) performance of 5G NR mobile devices in a laboratory environment. Keysight’s comprehensive mmWave over-the-air (OTA) test capabilities combine network emulation solutions with anechoic chamber, such as Keysight’s Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR), which is consistent with 3GPP’s decisions approving the chamber as an indirect far field test methodology.

"Keysight’s proven expertise in mmWave and 5G test capability in OTA environments enable us to accelerate our 5G commercialization plans and ensure that new 5G mobile devices will operate reliably on our network." said Toshiyuki Futakata, vice president and general manager of Communication Device Development Department, NTT DOCOMO. "Collaboration with Keysight includes refining highly-specialized technology necessary for testing 5G devices in an OTA environment.”

Keysight is also collaborating with NTT DOCOMO to develop specific test scenarios for their mobile ecosystem to ensure new 5G mobile devices will operate as expected on their network. This enables NTT DOCOMO’s ecosystem to reduce R&D efforts and accelerate market introductions of new 5G mobile devices.

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CloudPassage debuts its security for public cloud infrastructure

CloudPassage, a start-up based in San Francisco, announced the general availability of its Halo Cloud Secure service for the continuous protection of public cloud infrastructure.

The company cites the following differentiators:

• Broadest and deepest coverage for AWS with a comprehensive library of policy checks and coverage that monitors server and container workloads in addition to IaaS services and resources.
• Full scope visibility of all IaaS assets delivered in a unified view to quickly answer important questions about asset inventory.
• Unique environment and requirements are adapted to with powerful policy customization options.
• Enable fast and effective remediation by providing actionable information in an automated fashion. Streamline remediation workflows by sending vulnerability and remediation information via Amazon SNS and other notification mechanisms.

The IaaS capabilities of Halo Cloud Secure have been in beta just a few months and already protect over one million AWS assets.

https://www.cloudpassage.com/freetrial

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Ciena expands in Tokyo

Ciena opened a new, larger office in Tokyo, supporting recent growth in the company’s local business and preparing for future expansion of its workforce and customer base. Located in the center of Tokyo in the Marunouchi neighborhood, the new Ciena office is more than twice the area of Ciena’s original Japan office in Uchisaiwaicho, Tokyo.

“With skyrocketing user demand for cloud-based services, video and mobile broadband and the volume of devices and data exploding, our clients in Japan are under intense pressure to automate and scale their networks,” said Rick Seeto, Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), Ciena. “Ciena’s new office in Tokyo strengthens our ability to help our clients build more intelligent and adaptive networks that can cater to the growing digital economy.”

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Murata expands MEMS production in Finland

Murata Manufacturing Co. will invest five billion yen to expand its MEMS sensor manufacturing operations in Vantaa, Finland.

The MEMS sensors manufactured by Murata in Finland are used in applications such as car safety systems and pacemakers.

"The market for advanced driver-assistance systems, self-directed cars, healthcare, and other emerging technologies are expected to be significant growth drivers. MEMS sensors are critical solutions for these applications and deliver proven measurement accuracy and stability in a variety of conditions," said Yuichiro Hayata, Managing Director for Murata Electronics Oy.

Murata acquired the Finnish company VTI Technologies – today known as Murata Electronics Oy – in 2012. It is the only factory of Murata which manufactures MEMS sensors outside of Japan,.

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AirTrunk raises AUD$850M for hyperscale data centers in Australia

AirTrunk, a colocation data center operator based in Singapore, announced AUD $850 million (US$621 million) in new financing for a major expansion of its Australian data centers in Sydney and Melbourne, and across key Asia-Pacific markets.

AirTrunk said it is seeing strong customer demand for its hyperscale data center solutions.

The funding was led by Deutsche Bank, with investments from AirTrunk founder and CEO, Robin Khuda, as well as Goldman Sachs and TSSP.

Khuda commented, “We saw a substantial amount of global interest in AirTrunk throughout the process, and are delighted to complete this financing arrangement with Deutsche Bank. Together with the new capital recently contributed by our shareholders, the new funds put us in a strong position to meet the growing demand from large cloud, content and enterprise customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

AirTrunk Melbourne, which opened in November 2017, is designed for large cloud, content and enterprise customers. When fully completed, the data center will have a total capacity in excess of 50 megawatts of IT load across 20 data halls, making it the largest carrier neutral data center in Victoria.

AirTrunk Sydney, which opened in September 2017, promises a total capacity in excess of 80 megawatts of IT load when fully completed, covering 64,000 square metres of floor space.

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BT backs Telecom Infra Project's start-up accelerator programme

For the second year in a row, BT will host a start-up competition at the TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centre (TEAC) at the BT Innovation Labs in Martlesham, Suffolk and in London’s Tech City.

The competition seeks start-ups in the Intent-Based Networking and Mobile fields.  Entries will be judged by a panel of senior network and technology leaders from BT, Facebook, and TIP.Shortlisted companies will be invited to a final pitch event at BT Tower on Friday 12th October, where the winners will be chosen.

Last year's winners included Unmanned Life, Zeetta Networks and KETS Quantum Security.

Howard Watson, CTIO of BT, and a member of the TIP Board, said: “TIP was created to help tackle some of the big challenges in Telecoms, boosting global connectivity by supporting big ideas. We’re particularly interested in start-ups with innovative ideas on how to deploy mobile networks cost-effectively in rural areas, as we look ahead to the roll-out of 5G services.

The Telecom Infra Project is a global community that includes more than 500 member companies, including operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators, and other technology companies working together to transform the traditional approach to building and deploying telecom network infrastructure.

Interested companies should apply by 24th September 2018 via the TEAC UK website: https://www.btplc.com/Innovation/TEAC/index.htm

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Verizon and Nokia complete 5G NR mobility call

Verizon and Nokia announced a5G milestone: the first successful transmission of a 3GPP New Radio (NR) 5G signal to a receiver situated in a moving vehicle, seamlessly handing off the signal from one radio sector to another.

The test, which took place at Nokia’s campus in Murray Hill, NJ, used two 5G NR radios on a Nokia building and a third radio/receiver in a vehicle outfitted with equipment to measure transmission statistics. The transmission used 28 GHz spectrum. Seamless 5G NR Layer 3 3GPP-compliant mobility handoffs were achieved between the two sectors (intra-gNB and inter-DU).

“Unlike some of the incremental 5G technology announcements we’ve seen lately, tests like the one we conducted are significant advancements in the development of 5G technology,” said Bill Stone, vice president, Technology Development and Planning for Verizon. “By taking these tests out of the lab and into the field, we’re replicating the experience users will ultimately have in a 5G mobility environment.”

“We are pleased to showcase the acceleration of the mobile capabilities in 5G,” said Marc Rouanne, president, Mobile Networks, Nokia. “Enhanced mobile broadband is one of the first services being delivered on Nokia's end-to-end 5G Future X portfolio. As a result, we can help our customers meet their early 5G deployment schedules and initial coverage demands.”

Verizon is preparing to launch a fixed 5G service in four U.S. markets to deliver broadband and video service. The company has not announced a launch date for a mobile 5G solution.

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China Unicom sees growth following mixed ownership reform

China Unicom reported 1H2018 service revenue of to RMB134.4 billion, representing an 8.3% year-on-year growth, topping rivals China Mobile and China Telecom.

EBITDA amounted to RMB45.7 billion, up by 4.9% year-on-year. The profit before income tax reached RMB7.8 billion and the profit attributable to equity shareholders of the company increased by 145% year-on-year to RMB5.9 billion.

China Unicom attributed its improving condition to the mixed ownership reforms undertaken one year ago at the behest of the central government. China Unicom has been increasing its level of collaboration with Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com and DiDi, especially in outreach areas for the youth market.

Mr. Wang Xiaochu, Chairman and CEO of China Unicom said, “Looking ahead, by unleashing
the unique edges, the Company will persevere in the implementation of the Internet-oriented
operation, creating differentiated competitive advantages. Centred on return and efficiency, and
riding on Internet-oriented operation transformation, the Company strived to enhance total-factor
development efficiency. The Company will enhance its key capability in network, IT and
management on all fronts to provide a solid foundation for the healthy and sustainable
development of various businesses. We will step up investments appropriately for nurturing the
future growth engines. Seizing opportunities afforded by the mixed-ownership reform, we will
deepen strategic cooperation and further advance the system and mechanism reform, accelerating
the delivery of benefits from the reform and comprehensively enhancing the Company’s overall
competitive strengths with a view to creating greater value for shareholders.”

Some highlights:

• Mobile service revenue reached RMB84.3 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 9.7% 
• Mobile billing subscribers achieved a net increase of 17.86 million, reaching a total number of 302 million mobile billing subscribers. 
• Mobile ARPU amounted to RMB47.9, which was largely stable compared to the full year of 2017. 
• The 4G subscriber base saw a net increase of 28.23 million in 1H2018 to a total of 203 million. 
• The 4G subscriber market share was up by 3 percentage points year-on-year. 
• The proportion of 4G subscribers in total mobile billing subscribers increased by 16 percentage points year-on-year to
• over 67%. 
• Fixed-line broadband access revenue amounted to RMB21.5 billion, which was largely stable compared to the same period last year.
• The number of fixed-line broadband subscribers increased by 2.38 million on a net basis to 78.92 million. 
• Video service subscribers accounted for over 43% of the fixed-line broadband subscribers, up by 10 percentage points year-on-year.
•  4G BTS: 910K (up by 60K), focus on capacity expansion & experience enhancement
• Actively deploy 10G PON & other new technologies in Northern China to progressively achieve 1,000Mbps access capability

China Unicom's US$11.7B strategic investment brings advantages

Tuesday, September 05, 2017  China Unicom, Commentary  

China United Network Communications Group (China Unicom or 中国联通), the fourth largest mobile operator with over 270 million subscribers, recently closed a deal that will bring in US$11.68 billion in cash from top Chinese tech companies. Under the deal, the Shanghai-based holding company of China Unicom, will sell a 35.2% stake worth RMB 78 billion to 14 strategic investors, including the following. The deal is backed by the Chinese government, which...

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Ericsson to build IP transport network for 5G in Denmark

Hi3G, which operates under the "3" brand in Denmark, has selected Ericsson to modernize its transport network with 5G-ready routers over the next three years. Deployment begins this autumn.

The new IP Mobile Backhaul transformation project will use Ericsson's Router 6000 platform. Hi3G is already using Ericsson’s MINI-LINK product portfolio, which shares a common management system with Router 6000 series.

Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Ericsson in Europe & Latin America, says: “Hi3G is establishing itself as one of the 5G leaders in the region and we are committed to helping them on this journey by building the highest quality network that provides an outstanding user experience. The network is at the heart of 5G and our portfolio – the most complete in the industry – will enable service providers today to evolve smoothly to the next generation of networks.”

Ericsson introduced its Router 6000 platform at Mobile World Congress 2015, but has rarely mentioned it in press briefing since that time.

Ericsson Debuts Next Gen Radio System, Backhaul Routers

Thursday, February 19, 2015    

Ericsson introduced its next generation Radio System modular architecture, aiming to provide greater flexibility in how mobile networks are built and operated.
Ericsson Radio System features multi-standard, multi-band and multi-layer technology. It delivers three times the capacity density with 50 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to current systems.

Ericsson also took the wraps off its new Router 6000 series advanced radio integrated transport for high-performance backhaul with precise synchronization required LTE Advanced, 5G and M2M.

The new Router 6000 series is a key element in Ericsson's next-generation portfolio, a comprehensive suite of platforms running one network operating system (IPOS), spanning from cell-site routers to edge, mobile core and data centers. The architecture will integrate SDN capabilities and, when matched with the new Ericsson Virtual Router, will enable distributed cloud applications. New Ericsson Network Manager capabilities will bring application aware traffic engineering with plug-and-play installation.

"The Ericsson Router 6000 series is a game changer since it responds directly to operators' challenges of  dramatic increase in the number of connected devices, and the video explosion driving the demand for traffic scale and higher quality of experience," said Anders Lindblad, Senior Vice President, Head of Business Unit Cloud and IP at Ericsson.

Some highlights of the Ericsson Router 6000 series:

• Integrated into the new Ericsson Radio System that supports a multi-standard, multi-band, multi-layer architecture
• Series consists of the Router 6672 for access, the Router 6675 for pre-aggregation and the Router 6274 for metro aggregation.
• First access router with 100GE interfaces in a single Rack Unit (RU) -- more capacity and higher density of 10GE/100GE interfaces in a compact form factor.
• Support for Segment Routing provides an evolutionary migration from IP/MPLS to SDN, offering user-defined policy routing, faster roll out of revenue generating services and optimal usage of network resources.

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MIT: Lincoln Lab looks to narrow-beam lasers for underwater comms

Researchers at Lincoln Laboratory are investigating laser technology for underwater communications. The work builds on the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) project conducted with NASA, which successfully transmitted data from a satellite orbiting the moon to Earth at 622 Mbps.

Researchers are using narrow-beam optics to help overcome the significant absorption and scattering effects of water.

This technique contrasts with the more common undersea communication approach that sends the transmit beam over a wide angle but reduces the achievable range and data rate. “By demonstrating that we can successfully acquire and track narrow optical beams between two mobile vehicles, we have taken an important step toward proving the feasibility of the laboratory’s approach to achieving undersea communication that is 10,000 times more efficient than other modern approaches,” says Scott Hamilton, leader of the Optical Communications Technology Group, which is directing this R&D into undersea communication.

MIT News: https://www.ll.mit.edu/news/lincoln-laboratory-advances-undersea-optical-communications

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Ericsson demos 5G at mall in Saudi Arabia with Mobily

Ericsson and Saudi telecom operator Mobily and Ericsson are showcasing 5G at the Mall of Arabia in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The demo features a standalone end-to-end 5G system, including a prototype 3.5GHz radio, baseband, and prototype UE device for the 5G demo, which showcased 5G throughput, targeting speeds of up to 1Gbps.

Mazid Al Harbi, CTO of Mobily, says: “We are wholly supportive of Saudi Vision 2030 and the push towards enhancing our digital economy. Our investment in 5G is demonstrative of our commitment to improving network performance and enhancing the customer experience across Saudi Arabia. Our partnership with Ericsson enables us to provide a state-of-the art scalable network to serve consumers and industries across Saudi Arabia now and in the 5G future.”

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Google Cloud Platform: Building a Hybrid Render Farm

Google Cloud Platform posted an online guide for building a render farm using its scalable architecture.

Render farms, which are needed by content creators for outputting digital productions, can be very expensive to build on-premise and require a lot of electricity to run.

GCP is now enabling render applications to scale from 2- or 4-core VMs all the way to a 160-core VM with up to 3844 GB of RAM. Up to 8 GPUs may be attached to any VM to create a GPU farm.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/building-a-hybrid-render-farm-on-gcp-new-guide-available

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Gartner highlights emerging risks for cloud computing, including GDPR

In its latest quarterly Emerging Risks Report, Gartner highlights a number of new risks for enterprises in using cloud resources, including new risks from cybersecurity threats, information disclosure leaks, and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance. The report is based on a survey of 110 senior executives in risk, audit, finance and compliance at large global organizations.

Gartner identifies social engineering and GDPR compliance as "most likely to cause the greatest enterprise damage if not adequately addressed by risk management leaders." Enterprises are also continuing to struggle with cybersecurity.

Nevertheless, the research consultancy remains bullish on the growth of cloud services, predicting cloud computing to be a $300 billion business by 2021.

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-08-15-gartner-says-cloud-computing-remains-top-emerging-business-risk

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Berlin Commercial Internet Exchange deploys Coriant Groove G30

The Berlin Commercial Internet Exchange (BCIX), Berlin’s leading Internet Exchange Point, has selected the Coriant Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform to scale its distributed peering infrastructure. BCIX will use the Coriant platform to connect major data centers across Berlin. High-capacity neutral exchange services will include 100G Data Center Interconnect (DCI).

“The German economy continues to experience strong growth. The year over year doubling of IP traffic volumes we are seeing in the nation’s capital is further evidence of a robust business environment,” said Christian Kroeger, Managing Director, BCIX Management GmbH. “To meet the evolving high-speed connectivity demands of our customers, we are boosting the scalability of our backbone network with the Coriant Groove G30. After rigorous testing and analysis of competitive offerings, the Coriant solution demonstrated superior performance and flexibility, and met our stringent performance requirements for scalable, resilient, and low latency transport.”

Coriant said its flexible plug-and-play modular architecture and the recent introduction of a new Coherent Multiservice Sled, enables its Groove G30 solution to provide BCIX with a seamless and cost-effective path to higher interconnect speeds, including 400G client side and 600G line side transmission – without the need for forklift upgrades or costly and complex flexi-grid ROADMs.

“Berlin is an important internet hub not only for Germany, but also for the rest of Europe, and BCIX plays a critical role as a nexus point connecting many of the world’s most recognized brands and tech giants,” said Ronald Van der Kraan, Managing Director, Europe, Coriant. "We are excited to be working closely with BCIX as they enhance their customer value proposition and extend their market leadership as a premier provider of high-capacity internet exchange services.”

Coriant debuts 1.2 Tbps modular sled for its Groove G3

Wednesday, March 07, 2018  Coriant  

Coriant introduced a new Coherent Multiservice Sled for its Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform.

The new 1.2 Tbps modular sled leverages advances in integrated photonics and the latest 16nm coherent DSP.

Coriant said its new Groove G30 Coherent Multiservice Sled enables the platform to achieve new performance benchmarks, including:

• Highest density – 9.6 Tbps of capacity in a compact and highly modular 1RU, a 2X improvement over the closest comparable solution; delivers unprecedented OpEx savings as networks scale
• Lowest power consumption – the Groove G30 Coherent Multiservice Sled requires only 0.16 watts per gigabit of power, representing up to half the power consumption of competing solutions
• Advanced programmability – programmable baud rate (30-70G baud), FEC (0-27%), and modulation depth (QPSK to 64QAM) enable operators to fine-tune and cost-optimize any transport application for the optimal spectral efficiency, lowest latency, and required transparent reach
• Unmatched speed and reach – 600 Gbps single wavelength transmission for DCI and metro applications (up to 38.4 Tbps of capacity per fiber); 400 Gbps up to 1,000 kilometers, and 200 Gbps up to 4,000 kilometers for long-haul applications

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Telstra posts declining profitability, impact from nbn

Telstra reported flat  FY18 revenue of AU$26 billion, with EBITDA declining by 5.2 percent to AU$10.1 billion. Net profit was AU$3.5 billion, down by 9 percent from AU$3.9 billion in FY17.

The company attributed its declining profit to the National Broadband Network (nbn) and mobile competition.

Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said the results showed strong customer growth for the year and good progress on Telstra’s productivity program, however, the continued downward pressure on EBITDA and NPAT caused by the further rollout of the nbn and lower Average Revenue per User (ARPU) clearly reinforced the importance of the T22 strategy.

“We have seen strong subscriber growth, particularly in the second half of the year, adding 342,000 retail mobile customers, 88,000 retail fixed broadband customers and 135,000 retail bundles during FY18,” Penn said. “Despite this, the challenging trading conditions are expected to continue in FY19, including ongoing pressure on ARPU and further negative impact of the nbn network rollout on our underlying earnings.

Some highlights for the first half of the year

• Mobile net adds - 235,000 retail mobile customers including 130,000 postpaid handheld; churn 10.9%
• 21,000 Belong mobile; +118,000 wholesale mobile customers
• underlying core fixed costs declined 7.2% 
• Fixed EBITDA (ex nbn C2C1)-29% negatively impacted by growing nbn network payments and loss of wholesale margins. 
• nbn impact in period $370m; $870m life to date 
• >1m Telstra TVs
• >1.5m AFL, NRL, Netball Telstra Live Sports Pass users
• New nbn connections +454,000 (market share 51%, ex- satellite); retail bundle adds +57,000
• Mobile service revenue -1.2% with post-paid 
• handheld ARPU -2.9%
• Global connectivity revenue +6.7% (LC)

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NVIDIA posts 40% sales growth in Q2 but warns on crypto sales

NVIDIA reported revenue of $3.12 billion for its second quarter ended July 29, 2018, up 40 percent from $2.23 billion a year earlier, and down 3 percent from $3.21 billion in the previous quarter.
GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $1.76, up 91 percent from $0.92 a year ago and down 11 percent from $1.98 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.94, up 92 percent from $1.01 a year earlier and down 5 percent from $2.05 in the previous quarter.

“Growth across every platform - AI, Gaming, Professional Visualization, self-driving cars - drove another great quarter,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Fueling our growth is the widening gap between demand for computing across every industry and the limits reached by traditional computing. Developers are jumping on the GPU-accelerated computing model that we pioneered for the boost they need.

However, Colette Kress, NVIDIA's CFO, warned that boom in sales for crypto mining applications is over. In a prepared statement on the company's investor call she said "“Our revenue outlook had anticipated cryptocurrency-specific products declining to approximately $100 million, while actual crypto-specific product revenue was $18 million.”

For its data centers category, quarterly sales amounted to $760 million, driven by demand from hyperscale customers.

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