Switch to deploy Tesla Megapack energy storage systems

Switch, which operates hyper-scale co-location data centers in Las Vegas, Reno, and Grand Rapids (Michigan), will use thousands of solar panels made by First Solar and energy storage systems made be Tesla as part of its Gigawatt Nevada solar energy and battery vision. The project is one of the largest solar footprint and battery storage projects in the technology industry.

“With today’s announcement Rob Roy’s Gigawatt Nevada now has four solar with battery storage projects in the state creating nearly 1 gigawatt of energy solutions,” said Adam Kramer, Switch EVP of Strategy. “This project also ensures Switch’s power costs will remain in the 5 cent a KWh range and Switch clients will continue to enjoy low-cost, 100% renewable power for decades to come.”

https://www.switch.com/switch-and-capital-dynamics-break-ground-on-massive-solar-and-battery-storage-developments-advancing-rob-roys-gigawatt-nevada/

Read More

Amdocs to acquire Openet for Digital BSS

Amdocs agreed to acquire Openet, a provider of 5G charging, policy and cloud technologies, in a deal valued at US$180 million.

Openet is a privately-owned company headquartered in Ireland, with offices in the US, Malaysia and Brazil and a global customer base.


“We are delighted the innovative Openet team is joining Amdocs. They bring world-class cloud-native capabilities, network pedigree, and deep 5G charging, policy and data management expertise,” said Shuky Sheffer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amdocs Management Limited. “The Openet solutions complement our portfolio and this acquisition is part of our mission to accelerate the industry’s move to the cloud.”

“We are excited to join Amdocs, with whom we have been alongside at customers for many years, and help bring fast value to service providers’ 5G plans. It is truly a momentous day for Openet and for all of our stakeholders,” said Niall Norton, Openet CEO. “Given the strong momentum of our business this is an optimal time to be joining Amdocs. The caliber, resources and reach of Amdocs will bring significant and widespread opportunities across each of our disciplines.”

“We have been on a 20-year journey in Openet to build a business of which we can all be proud,” said Joe Hogan, Openet founder and CTO. “In recent years, we have built new 5G products which are recognized worldwide for their innovation and modern open, cloud-native architecture. We all look forward to the combined technology strengths of Openet and Amdocs creating new opportunities for service providers at this exciting time of 5G adoption.”

https://www.openet.com/

Read More

Verizon's Q2 revenue dips 5% to $30.4 billion due to COVID

Citing significant declines in wireless equipment revenue in its consumer and business segments, Verizon reported total consolidated operating revenues in second-quarter 2020 of $30.4 billion, down 5.1 percent from second-quarter 2019. The decline was attributed to stores being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company delivered $1.13 in earnings per share (EPS), compared with $0.95 in 2Q 2019; adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), excluding special items, of $1.18, compared with $1.23 in 2Q 2019.

Capital expenditures in first-half 2020 were $9.9 billion.

Some highlights:

• Consumer wireless service revenues were $13.1 billion in second-quarter 2020, a 2.7 percent decrease year over year, and include impacts related to reduced roaming, usage, and waived fees, primarily due to COVID-19.
• Total retail postpaid churn was 0.69 percent in second-quarter 2020, and retail postpaid phone churn was 0.51 percent.
• Consumer reported 10,000 Fios Internet net additions as Fios installations were limited during the quarter due to temporary restrictions put in place on work inside customers' homes. Consumer reported 81,000 Fios Video net losses in second-quarter 2020, reflecting the ongoing shift from traditional linear video to over-the-top offerings.
• Business reported 280,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions in second-quarter 2020. This consisted of 76,000 phone net additions, 61,000 tablet net additions, and 143,000 other connected device additions.
• Total retail postpaid churn was 1.12 percent in second-quarter 2020, and retail postpaid phone churn was 0.90 percent. 
• Total Verizon Media revenues were $1.4 billion, down 24.5 percent year over year, primarily as a result of COVID-19 related impacts. 

Read More

Box turns to Google Cloud for global data storage

Box has formed a strategic partnership with Google under which it is significantly expanding its usage of Google Cloud to enhance its core infrastructure. As part of this extended partnership, Box will leverage Google Cloud as a key provider for data storage across the globe. The companies are also building on their advanced machine-learning integrations to deliver Google Cloud’s Document AI as part of the Box Skills Kit to improve intelligent data processing

"We're in the middle of a major transformation in how business gets done. The ability to work from anywhere, leverage global talent and virtual teams, and to collaborate securely with colleagues, partners, and customers is the 'new normal' for every business," said Aaron Levie, cofounder and CEO of Box. "Google Cloud is an incredibly important partner as we innovate and scale to bring secure collaboration to our customers globally, and we're excited to continue making the combination of Box and G Suite as intuitive and seamless as possible for our customers."

“We are excited to extend our partnership with Box as a key global cloud infrastructure partner, and to enable more seamless integrations between Box and G Suite environments,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. “By building on Google Cloud and continuing to invest in the integration between Box and G Suite, we believe we can provide optimal experiences for our joint customers and for remote teams.”

Read More

Dell'Oro: Worldwide data center CAPEX continues to grow

Data center capex, which includes capex for servers and other data center infrastructure equipment, is forecasted to grow at a 6% CAGR to just over $200 B over the next five years, according to Dell'Oro Group. Growth is forecasted to be mixed depending on the customer segment. The Cloud, which already accounts for more than 60% of the worldwide data center capex, will continue to gain momentum over Enterprise/On-premise data center deployments. Edge data centers deployed over Telco networks could emerge in the longer-term horizon.

Capex on servers, which generally accounts for nearly half of the data center capex, may be influenced by the following factors:

• Change in server unit demand from Cloud capacity and digestion cycles.
• Market volatility of commodity pricing of components such as memory.
• Server refresh cycles, which could prompt the replacement of aged servers and drive new deployments, could impact server architecture and pricing.
• Servers also drive the demand for auxiliary data center infrastructure equipment such as networking switches, storage systems, and facilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to profoundly disrupt global demand for data center infrastructure equipment in 2020. Impacted vertical industries, especially brick-and-mortar retail, travel, hospitality, and small and medium enterprises, have seen a pull-back in IT spending as they wait for the business climate to stabilize. As enterprises seek to conserve capital, Public Cloud, which offers a flexible and consumption-based infrastructure, could help meet the growing demands of remote work and distance learning. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession may have the long-lasting effect of accelerating the permanent migration of certain industries and workloads to the Cloud.

Market and Technology Trends to Watch Out For

• The Top 4 U.S. Cloud service providers—Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft—are positioned to continue their momentum of expansion over the next five years. Servers will continue to be consolidated in fewer mega Cloud data centers that could potentially provide greater capacity than the same number of servers spread out across thousands of Enterprise data centers.
• The Top 4 U.S. Cloud service providers have been prolonging the useful life of servers in an effort to lower server depreciation expense while maintaining high efficiencies and reliability of their server fleet.
• The Intel server processor refresh cycles have historically influenced IT spending. While the major Cloud service providers typically ramp server capacity outside of the processor refresh cycle, the upcoming Intel 10 nm Whitley server platform refresh due later this year could generate an uplift on server spending. Viable alternatives to Intel processors, AMD EPYC and ARM, for server and storage system applications are starting to materialize in certain markets.
• Various open-source organizations have come together to share and standardize best practices in the design of efficient, scalable, and sustainable data center infrastructure. The Open Compute Project (OCP), in particular, has introduced various technological innovations in the areas of server and server connectivity, rack architecture, and networking switches, which could shape the future development of data center infrastructure.

https://www.delloro.com/news/worldwide-data-center-capex-to-grow-6-percent-cagr-by-2024-2/

Read More

BT team with Ericsson for UK’s First Live 5G Private Network

BT is working with the Worcestershire 5G Testbed (W5G) as its lead technology partner to accelerate its vision of smart manufacturing. BT is to run and manage the live 5G Private Network, which uses Ericsson equipment, for Worcester Bosch factory and Malvern Hills Science Park. The project is described as the UK’s first live 5G factory installation.

Gerry McQuade, CEO of BT’s Enterprise business, said: “Working with W5G and Worcester Bosch, we’re creating a smart factory where machines can learn and adapt to changes on the factory floor as they happen, and make instant, autonomous decisions to optimise the production line.

“This is only possible by harnessing 5G Private Networks, IoT, data analytics and mobile edge computing. BT’s role is in making these technologies work in perfect harmony to gather and interpret the vast volumes of data generated by connected machines and turning this into real-time and actionable insight.

Read More

Qualcomm adds the Chairman of Schneider Electric to Board

Qualcomm appointed Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric SE, to the Board, effective immediately. 

Tricoire has led Schneider Electric SE as CEO since 2006 and was named Chairman & CEO in 2013. He joined the Company in 1986 and has held global operational and leadership roles throughout his tenure. Tricoire is Vice President of the France-China Committee and Director of the Board of the United Nations Global Compact (USA). He is also a UN #HeForShe Corporate IMPACT champion and a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum.

Read More

Blueprint for the Quantum Internet

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) outlined a blueprint strategy for the development of a national Quantum Internet.

The DoE's 17 national laboratories will serve as the first nodes on the Quantum Internet. Also participating will be the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the National Security Agency, and NASA. The academic community and industry will also be invited.

At a launch event hosted by the University of Chicago, officals described the initiative as "bringing the United States to the forefront of the global quantum race and ushering in a new era of communications."

“The Department of Energy is proud to play an instrumental role in the development of the national quantum internet,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “By constructing this new and emerging technology, the United States continues with its commitment to maintain and expand our quantum capabilities.”

In February, scientists from DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, and the University of Chicago entangled photons across a 52-mile “quantum loop” in the Chicago suburbs, successfully establishing one of the longest land-based quantum networks in the nation. That network will soon be connected to DOE’s Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, establishing a three-node, 80-mile testbed.

“The combined intellectual and technological leadership of the University of Chicago, Argonne, and Fermilab has given Chicago a central role in the global competition to develop quantum information technologies,” said Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago. “This work entails defining and building entirely new fields of study, and with them, new frontiers for technological applications that can improve the quality of life for many around the world and support the long-term competitiveness of our city, state, and nation.”

 “Argonne, Fermilab, and the University of Chicago have a long history of working together to accelerate technology that drives U.S. prosperity and security,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. “We continue that tradition by tackling the challenges of establishing a national quantum internet, expanding our collaboration to tap into the vast power of American scientists and engineers around the country.”

Video of the event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR0wVCs9DxI

Technical report: From Long-distance Entanglement to Building a Nationwide Quantum Internet
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1638794/

Read More

AT&T announces nationwide coverage for 5G

AT&T announced nationwide coverage status for its 5G network, which now covers a population footprint of 179 million people.

AT&T has enabled dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology in numerous markets.  DSS allows carriers to share the same channel between both 4G and 5G users simultaneously, based on demand.

"Our strategy of deploying 5G in both sub-6  (5G) and mmWave (5G+) spectrum bands will provide the best mix of speeds, latency and coverage that are needed to enable revolutionary new capabilities to fuel 5G experiences for consumers and businesses,” said Chris Sambar, EVP of Technology Operations. “Our competitors are still working to provide that same mix, which for them could take months or even years. What we offer is available to consumers and businesses today, and we’re not slowing down. As we have throughout our 144-year history, we’ll continue to innovate and invest in our network to expand our 5G coverage to more consumers and businesses across the country.”

Read More

AT&T: COVID-19 impacted revenues

Citing the impact of COVID-19 across all its business segments, AT&T reported Q2 revenues of $41.0 billion versus $45.0 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The COVID-19 impact included 338,000 mobile accounts which ceased paying their monthly bill and for which the company continues to provide service under the Keep America Connected programs but which are now considered "disconnects" for accounting. AT&T also saw lower content and advertising revenues at WarnerMedia, drops in domestic video and legacy wireline services, and currency exchange pressure in Latin America.

“Our solid execution and focus in a challenging environment delivered significant progress in the quarter, most notably the successful launch of HBO Max, resilient free cash flow and a strengthened balance sheet,” said John Stankey, AT&T chief executive officer. “Our resilient cash from operations continues to support investments in growth areas, dividend payments and debt retirement. We are aggressively working opportunities to sharpen our focus, transform our operations and continue investing in growth areas, with the customer at the center of everything we do.”

Highlights:

• Mobile service revenues were down 1.1% due to decline in international roaming; equipment revenues up year over year.
• 17.7 million premium TV subscribers – 886,000 net loss; 91,000 attributed to Keep America Connected programs.
• 225,000 AT&T Fiber net adds
• Operating expenses were $37.4 billion versus $37.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, essentially flat. 
• Operating income was $3.5 billion versus $7.5 billion in the year-ago quarter

https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-reports/quarterly-earnings/2020/q2-2020/att-2q2020-earnings.pdf

Read More

Marvell intros a customizable ASIC program in 5nm

Marvell debuted a cutomizable ASIC targetting applications ranging from next generation 5G carriers, cloud data centers, enterprise and automotive.

Marvell’s new ASIC solution enables a multitude of customization options and a differentiated approach with best-in-class standard product IP including Arm-based processors, embedded memories, high-speed SerDes, networking, security and a wide range of storage controller and accelerators in 5nm and below.

With its legacy as part of IBM, GlobalFoundries and AveraSemi, the Marvell ASIC team brings decades of expertise with the custom ASIC model across 14 leading-process nodes and has produced over 2,000 custom ASICs.

“The future of compute requires scalable and highly optimized solutions that can power the data center all the way to the network edge,” said Mohamed Awad, vice president of Marketing, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm. “Marvell brings a fresh and differentiated approach to addressing these requirements by uniquely utilizing Arm platforms to improve power, performance, and time-to-market for our mutual partners.”

“Marvell custom ASIC has a rich history in significant customization, advanced interfaces and memory solutions. Our ability to pull optimized components, like the Arm processor subsystem, from across Marvell’s product portfolio adds a whole new dimension to what we can deliver,” said Kevin O’Buckley, general manager of the ASIC BU at Marvell. “The breadth of Marvell’s infrastructure technology portfolio is unique in the industry – and is available in one comprehensive offering. We see this as an opportunity to deliver greater value to our existing customers while opening up possibilities for custom silicon implementations that had not previously been viable.”

Key features of Marvell’s 5nm and beyond ASIC:

• Leading Arm-based processor technologies
• Pre-optimized processor IP to improve power, performance, and time-to-market
• Multiple power-optimized SerDes solutions at 112G and beyond
• Ability to solve demanding system topologies at reduced system cost
• Advanced packaging solutions for chiplets, integrated memory and optics
• Lower board and ASIC costs
• Simpler system integration
• Bandwidth scaling and power reduction enabled with world-class SerDes
• Enhanced security, networking and memory IP for the most demanding applications

https://www.marvell.com/products/custom-asic.html

Read More

Intel hits Q2 revenue of $19.7B, Data Center Group up 43% yoy

Citing strong demand for cloud services and work-from-home and study-from-home upgrades, Intel reported Q2 revenue of $19.7 billion, up 20 percent year-over-year (YoY). GAAP earnings-per-share (EPS) was $1.19, up 29 percent YoY. However, the company warned of slower growth in the second half of the year and production delays with its next-gen 7-nm CPU manufacturing, which will be delayed by six months.

“It was an excellent quarter, well above our expectations on the continued strong demand for computing performance to support cloud-delivered services, a work- and learn-at-home environment, and the build-out of 5G networks,” said Bob Swan, Intel CEO. “In our increasingly digital world, Intel technology is essential to nearly every industry on this planet. We have an incredible opportunity to enrich lives and grow this company with a continued focus on innovation and execution."

Data-centric revenue grew 34 percent, accounting for 52 percent of total revenue; PC-centric revenue grew 7 percent YoY.

Some highlights:

• Data Center Group (DCG) revenue was up 43 percent YoY driven by broad strength including 47 percent YoY growth in cloud service provider revenue. 
• In Q2, the company introduced its 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and new additions to its hardware and software AI portfolio for data center, network and intelligent-edge environments. 
• Intel's memory business (NSG) set a new revenue record in the quarter. 
• Intel's portfolio for 5G network infrastructure gained customer momentum, most notably the 10nm-based Intel Atom P5900 for wireless base stations. 
• Mobileye continued to win new ADAS designs in a challenging economic environment for automotive, and Intel acquired Moovit, a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions company.
• The PC-centric business (CCG) was up 7 percent YoY in the second quarter on notebook strength driven by the continued work- and learn at home dynamics of COVID-19, which also contributed to a volume decline in desktop form factors as demand shifted to notebooks. 
• Intel's first 10nm-based server CPU “Ice Lake,” which remains planned for the end of this year. In the second half of 2021, Intel expects to deliver a new line of client CPU’s (code-named “Alder Lake”), which willinclude its first 10nm-based desktop CPU, and a new 10nm-based server CPU (code-named “Sapphire Rapids”).
• Intel said its 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations due to the yield of its 7nm process, which based on recent data, is now trending approximately twelve months behind the company's internal target. 

https://s21.q4cdn.com/600692695/files/doc_financials/2020/q2/Q2-2020_Earnings-Release.pdf

Read More

HPE, Orange and Casa demonstrate 5G slicing

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Orange, and Casa Systems conducted a technical demonstration of automated 5G network slice orchestration.

The demo, which was illustrated using a kit robot, showed use cases and service agility needed to support 5G business applications, including location-based, telemetry, IoT, and edge computing.

“Our robot demo underscores how a cloud-native, software-defined 5G network will support latency-sensitive business use cases with automatic detection and migration to a dedicated network slice to meet the strictest SLAs for mission-critical applications,” said Emmanuel Bidet, VP, Convergent Networks Control, Orange. “This is a new step forward marking the emergence of the real-time enterprise as companies now expect to use data as soon as it is produced from sensors, cameras, robots and other devices and services to power digital transformation strategies. We are proud to have achieved this project with HPE and Casa Systems, two leading companies in the open 5G solutions market.”

A robot was fitted with a 5G radio and connected to the robot’s management software over an open 5G core network, comprising cloud-native Network Functions from both HPE and Casa Systems.

HPE’s Service Director orchestration software created, configured and deployed network slices for the robot’s service to connect at low latency. The demo shows the service set up and the robot operating normally until additional data traffic and latency are introduced and the robot’s performance is visibly impacted. This triggers an alarm and Service Director works with the 5G core network within seconds to create and deploy a new dedicated network slice with the proper QoS restoring the robot to normal operation.

“This demonstration with Orange and Casa underscores our ability to automate and orchestrate the complete lifecycle of 5G services in cloud-native, multi-vendor environments,” said Domenico Convertino, Vice President Product Management, Communications & Media Solutions, HPE. “An open 5G Core is key for operators to break out of the single vendor lock-in of previous generation networks. The HPE 5G Core Stack, as well as our newly announced HPE 5G Lab, enable an accelerated evolution to 5G networking that is open and interoperable.”

Read More

MaxLinear sees Q2 sales rise 5% sequentially but down 21% yoy

MaxLinear, which supplies RF, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, reported Q2 revenue of $65.2 million, up 5% sequentially, and down 21% year-on-year. GAAP gross margin was 50.2%. GAAP diluted loss per share was $0.30, compared to diluted loss per share of $0.21 in the prior quarter, and diluted loss per share of $0.03 in the year-ago quarter.

“In the second quarter, revenue results were in line with our recent preliminary revenue guidance, gross margin was strong, and operating expenses were tightly managed to below the mid-point of our guidance. Our business showed solid improvements due to stronger-than-expected revenues in broadband driven by demand uptick, as well as analog product sales recovery. The work-from-home environment has strongly benefited our connected home business owing to noticeable inflection in bandwidth demand at home. The infrastructure business also saw meaningful quarterly improvements over previous results, supporting our positive outlook on the new product ramps. Finally, the high-performance analog products selling into our industrial, multi-market segment recovered extremely well in the quarter with impressive results,” commented Kishore Seendripu, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO.

Read More

Filtronic ships 50k E-band transceivers for 5G backhaul

UK-based Filtronic plc announced a company milestoneL a total of 50,000 high-performance E-band transceiver modules shipped for the growing 5G backhaul market.

E-band spectrum (in the mmWave frequency ranges 71 – 76GHz and 81 – 86GHz) offers OEMs wide bandwidth, enabling them to provide 5G mobile network operators with high-capacity and high data rate backhaul, midhaul and front-haul (collectively known as XHaul). E-band has been identified as one of the critical wireless technologies required to address the demanding XHaul capacity requirements of 5G networks, and is now experiencing significant growth. Systems containing Filtronic’s core E-band technology have been successfully demonstrated at data rates up to 40Gbps.

“There has been a record demand this year for our flagship E-band transceiver module, Orpheus, which has been delivered in volume to a number of customers for integration into high-capacity mobile backhaul radio solutions,” said Reg Gott, Executive Chairman of Filtronic. “Earlier this year we added the new-generation Morpheus II to our product range, and demand for this module is beginning to take off as well, in particular for the high power option that is desirable for implementing carrier aggregation.”

Read More

Sierra Wireless to sell its Automotive Embedded Module business

Sierra Wireless will divest its Shenzhen, China-based automotive embedded module product line for US$165 million in cash. The purchaser, Rolling Wireless (H.K.) Limited, is a consortium led by Fibocom Wireless Inc. of Shenzhen.

The divested product line is part of the company’s Embedded Broadband reporting segment. Sierra Wireless will exit automotive applications but will continue to invest in other product lines in its Embedded Broadband segment, specifically high-speed cellular modules typically used in Enterprise applications.

These retained products include 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced cellular embedded modules that are ordered in large volumes, as well as new industry-leading 5G modules that will be made available to customers from its retained business. Sierra Wireless’s 5G modules and gateways are expected to be available in Q4 2020, extending its broad portfolio of IoT solutions.

“This divestiture enables Sierra Wireless to strengthen our focus and investment in our fully integrated IoT solutions that deliver high-value recurring revenue,” said Kent Thexton, President and CEO of Sierra Wireless. “This transaction will improve our balance sheet and allow us to expand our R&D centre in Richmond, British Columbia to accelerate our innovation in integrated IoT solutions and 5G modules, gateways and routers.”

Read More

NETGEAR: booming demand for home network upgrades started in March

Consumers in the U.S. rushed to upgrade their home office set-ups beginning in March.

NETGEAR reported Q2 rvenue of $280.1 million, an increase of 21.3% from the comparable prior year quarter. Second quarter 2020 GAAP operating income was $8.9 million, or 3.2% of net revenue, as compared to operating income of $0.3 million, or 0.1% of net revenue, in the comparable prior year quarter.

"Patrick Lo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NETGEAR, commented, “The NETGEAR team navigated challenging conditions to accommodate the robust end demand we saw during the quarter, all while working remotely. Driven by the CHP side of the business, we achieved revenue growth of 21% and more than doubled our operating profit over the prior year. The surge in demand that began in March continued throughout the entire quarter and resulted in strong growth in both the retail and service provider channels for the CHP business. The work-from-home transition taking place worldwide is driving the adoption of high performance WiFi at home as an indispensable necessity and, as the leader in WiFi 6 technology, we stand well positioned to enable this new reality. In conjunction with the increased penetration of high-end WiFi 6 mesh systems and routers into the market, we accelerated the acquisition of new service subscribers, particularly in cybersecurity protection and parental control services, growing our paid subscriber base 28% sequentially and putting us on a trajectory to exceed our goal of doubling our subscriber count in 2020.”

Mr. Lo continued, “As many employees continue to work from home today, companies are growing increasingly confident that their workforce can be productive remotely and are beginning to measure the positive aspects of remote work. This is driving a consensus that remote work will be a larger part of the landscape even as the pandemic eventually eases. As a result, we see strong demand for high performance home WiFi continuing to fuel our revenue growth at least through the rest of this year. While providing an unexpected tailwind for CHP, the pandemic has at the same time created a headwind for SMB."

Read More

Microsoft Azure growth rate now at 47%

Microsoft reported Azure revenue growth of 47% (up 50% in constant currency) for the quarter ended June 30th, as cloud usage increased due to shifting work and study patterns during the pandemic.

Overall, Microsoft posted revenue of $38.0 billion, and increase of 13% YoY. Operating income was $13.4 billion and increased 8%. Net income was $11.2 billion and decreased 15% GAAP (up 5% non-GAAP).

“Our commercial cloud surpassed $50 billion in annual revenue for the first time this year. And this quarter our Commercial bookings were better than expected, growing 12% year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “As we drive growth across the company, we remain committed to investing in long-term strategic opportunities.”

Highlights:

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $11.8 billion and increased 6% (up 8% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 5% (up 7% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 19% (up 22% in constant currency)
• Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 6% (up 7% in constant currency) and Office 365 Consumer subscribers increased to 42.7 million
• LinkedIn revenue increased 10% (up 11% in constant currency)
• Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 13% (up 15% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 38% (up 40% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $13.4 billion and increased 17% (up 19% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Server products and cloud services revenue increased 19% (up 21% in constant currency) driven by Azure revenue growth of 47% (up 50% in constant currency)
• Enterprise Services revenue was relatively unchanged (up 2% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $12.9 billion and increased 14% (up 16% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Windows OEM revenue increased 7%
• Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 9% (up 11% in constant currency)
• Xbox content and services revenue increased 65% (up 68% in constant currency)
• Surface revenue increased 28% (up 30% in constant currency)
• Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs decreased 18% (down 17% in constant currency)

Read More

ADVA posts Q2 revenue of EUR 145 million, up 9%

ADVA's revenues for Q2 2020 increased by 9.3% to EUR 145.0 million from EUR 132.7 million in Q1 2020 and grew by 8.9% from EUR 133.2 million in the same year-ago period. Net income was EUR 7.6 million in Q2 2020 and overcompensated a net loss of EUR 7.2 million in Q1 2020 and also grew substantially from a net income of EUR 1.3 million in Q2 2019.

"Our results in the second quarter of 2020 were convincing. So far, the demand for our products and services has developed positively during the Covid-19 pandemic. A recession-related slowdown in the second half of the year is still possible, but, in the meantime, we believe that we will have further revenue growth in Q3,” said Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA. “The pandemic has made our production and supply chains more complex and our transportation costs increased. But our ability to deliver is stable and fundamentally intact. Additionally, we have a global, well-diversified and loyal customer base with which we can expand and improve the digital infrastructure that our society is so increasingly dependent on.”

”Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we managed to increase revenues and earnings in the second quarter, both sequentially and year over year,” commented Uli Dopfer, CFO, ADVA. “Our significantly improved profitability is mainly the result of the cost improvement measures that we introduced in 2019. Furthermore, we were able to improve our cash position compared to the first quarter by around EUR 15 million to EUR 67.6 million providing a solid financial basis. Due to the ongoing risks, both on the supply and on the demand side, we have concluded a KfW back-up facility of EUR 40 million for hedging purposes should a further Covid-19-driven crisis occur. With this preventive measure, we feel prepared for all scenarios.”

https://www.adva.com/en/about-us/investors/financial-results

Read More

Dell'Oro: RAN investments to surpass $200 billion

Dell'Oro Group is forecasting that the RAN market will grow at a healthy pace over the next three years, before growth tapers off in the outer part of the forecast period, resulting in a mid-single digit CAGR between 2018 and 2022. Cumulative investments over the 2019-2024 period are expected to eclipse $200 billion.

Some highlights of Dell'Oro's 5-Year RAN Forecast:

• The Millimeter Wave outlook has been revised upward driven by improved momentum in the Asia Pacific region.
• The pickup in mid-band deployments has propelled the demand for Massive MIMO. In this forecast, 5G NR Massive MIMO is projected to comprise more than half of the cumulative 5G NR capex.
• The underlying assumptions driving the regional projections remain fairly unchanged, with the APAC region being the main near-term growth vehicle.
• With more clarity about the 5G rollout plans in the North America region, we have adjusted the near-term outlook upward and now forecast the North American RAN market to continue advancing over the near-term.
• Global macro base station (BTS) shipments are projected to remain elevated between 2020 and 2022, underpinning projections that 5G activity is set for an upturn. This positive momentum will eventually slow, resulting in some softness in the outer part of the forecast period.
• The high level small cell vision has not changed. We expect unlicensed WiFi systems to coexist with cellular technologies. For upper mid-band deployments, operators will need to accelerate indoor deployments rapidly while the sub 6 GHz micro adoption phase will be more gradual.
• Since the last forecast, we have adjusted the outdoor small cell outlook upward, driven primarily by a more favorable Millimeter Wave forecast.
• Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Radio Access Network (RAN) investments, including mobile network and dedicated fixed networks, are projected to comprise a growing share of the overall RAN capex envelope over the next five years, reflecting the size of the potential upside, various technology advancements, and improving market sentiment for both basic and high performance connectivity

https://www.delloro.com/news/radio-access-network-investments-to-surpass-0-2-trillion/

Read More