AT&T posts growth in postpaid mobility and fiber

AT&T reported Q1 2022 revenue of $38.1 billion versus $43.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, down 13.3% reflecting the impact of divested businesses, mainly U.S. video in the third quarter of 2021 and Vrio in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as lower Business Wireline revenues. The decreases were partially offset by higher Mobility revenues and, to a lesser extent, higher WarnerMedia, Consumer Wireline and Mexico revenues. Excluding impacts of the U.S. Video business and Vrio from the prior-year quarter, revenues were $38.1 billion, up 1.6%. First-quarter net income attributable to common stock was $4.8 billion, or $0.65 per diluted common share, versus $7.5 billion, or $1.02 per diluted common share, in the year-ago quarter. 

First-quarter Communications revenues were $28.9 billion, up 2.5% year over year due to increases in Mobility and Consumer Wireline more than offsetting a decline in Business Wireline. Operating contribution was $7.0 billion, down 5.4% year over year, with operating income margin of 24.3%, compared to 26.4% in the year-ago quarter.

“Our momentum in growing customer relationships is reaching historical levels,” said John Stankey, AT&T CEO. “We had our best first quarter for postpaid phone net adds in more than a decade and our fiber broadband net adds remain consistently strong. Our results, including free cash flow, are in line with our expectations toward delivering on the full-year guidance provided at our recent Analyst Day.”

“AT&T has entered a new era, meeting this opportunistic moment from a position of flexibility and strength thanks to our evolving networks, enhanced customer experience, growing 5G and fiber customer base and a much stronger balance sheet. And we continue to make good consistent progress on our journey to becoming America’s best broadband provider.”

Some highlights

Mobility

• Revenues were up 5.5% year over year to $20.1 billion due to higher service and equipment revenues. Service revenues were $14.7 billion, up 4.8% year over year, driven by subscriber growth. Equipment revenues were $5.4 billion, up 7.3% year over year, driven by increased sales of higher priced smartphones. Total net adds were 5.5 million including:
• 965,000 postpaid net adds, which excludes impacts of the 3G network shutdown of 900,000 that were reflected as adjustments to the subscriber base consistent with historical practice, with:
• 691,000 postpaid phone net adds
• 62,000 postpaid tablet and other branded computing device net adds
• 212,000 other net adds
• 113,000 prepaid phone net adds
• Postpaid churn was 0.94% versus 0.93% in the year-ago quarter.
• Postpaid phone churn was 0.79% versus 0.76% in the year-ago quarter.
• Prepaid churn was less than 3%, with Cricket substantially lower.
• Postpaid phone-only ARPU was $54.00, down 0.2% versus the year-ago quarter, due to the impacts of promotional discount amortization.

Business Wireline

• Revenues were $5.6 billion, down 6.7% year over year due to lower demand for legacy voice and data services and a strategic decision to deemphasize non-core services. 
• AT&T Business serves nearly 2.5 million customers, from the largest global companies and government agencies to small businesses. More than 675,000 U.S. business buildings are lit with fiber from AT&T, enabling high-speed fiber connections to approximately 3 million U.S. business customer locations. Nationwide, more than 9.5 million business customer locations are on or within 1,000 feet of AT&T fiber.

Consumer Wireline

• Revenues were $3.2 billion, up 2.0% year over year due to gains in broadband more than offsetting declines in legacy voice and data services and other services. Broadband revenues increased 6.8% due to fiber growth of 24.7%, partially offset by non-fiber revenue declines of 5.3%.
• Total broadband gains, excluding DSL, were 5,000, reflecting AT&T Fiber net adds of 289,000, mostly offset by losses in non-fiber services. 
• AT&T Fiber now has the ability to serve 17 million customer locations.

https://about.att.com/story/2022/q1-earnings.html

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Amazon Aurora Serverless delivers fast scaling for databases

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of Amazon Aurora Serverless v2, the next generation of Amazon Aurora Serverless capable of scaling database workloads to hundreds of thousands of transactions in a fraction of a second. Instead of doubling capacity every time a workload must scale, Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 continuously monitors database activity and adjusts capacity in fine-grained increments to provide just the right amount of database resources an application needs. 

Customers  pay for the capacity they consume, which AWS says can save up to 90% of database costs when compared to the cost of provisioning for peak capacity. 

Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 inherits the previous version's capabilities for high availability, performance, and resiliency, with low latency and fast querying.

“Amazon Aurora is the first relational database built from the ground up for the cloud. Today, more than a hundred thousand customers choose to run their database workloads on Amazon Aurora because it delivers the performance and availability of the highest-grade commercial databases at one-tenth the cost,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Databases, Analytics, and Machine Learning at AWS. 

https://aws.amazon.com/aurora/serverless.

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Oracle Cloud boosts its VMware Solution with AMD EPYC

The latest release of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's (OCI's) VMware Solution, which is targeted at leading enterprises in finance and banking, retail, telecommunication, manufacturing, government, and global systems integrators, is adding the following features:

• New E4 Dense bare metal AMD EPYC processor powered Compute shapes
• Support for OCI File Storage as secondary storage that scales to 8 exabytes
• Shielded VMware Instances to prevent ransomware attacks
• Integration with OCI Monitoring and OCI Notification services using email, PagerDuty, and Slack
• VMware product validations for vRealize Cloud Management, Site Recovery Manager, Horizon, and Tanzu.
• Greater flexibility with E4 Dense AMD EPYC processor Compute shapes

OCI is releasing three new E4 Dense Compute shapes for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution with AMD EPYC processors available in 32-, 64-, and 128-core configurations to provide a more cost-effective path to the public cloud. 

The Third Gen AMD EPYC processors offer a base clock frequency of 2.55 GHz and a max boost (maximum frequency achievable by any single core on the processor under normal operating conditions for server systems) of up to 3.5 GHz and up to 256 MB of L3 cache. These instances provide up to 2 TB of RAM, 100 Gbps of overall network bandwidth, and 54.4 TB of raw NVMe internal disk.

“AMD EPYC processors have enabled efficient and high-performance cloud computing solutions at OCI with the E4 instance launched in 2021, and now with the new E4 Dense instances we are growing the types of solutions powered by EPYC processors, like the newest Oracle Cloud VMware Solution,” said Lynn Comp, corporate vice president of cloud business at AMD. “Customers will not only have an easier path to the cloud for certified VMware workloads, but they will get the performance they expect from OCI compute shapes powered by AMD EPYC processors. We’re thrilled to work with OCI and VMware and look forward to growing customer adoption.”

https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud-infrastructure/post/announcing-the-oracle-cloud-vmware-solution-spring-release

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Aligned opens massive data center campus in Chicago

Aligned Data Centers completed first-phase construction of a new hyperscale data center campus in Chicago

The new facility, Aligned ORD-01, is a 220,000 square-foot, 48 MW data center (expandable to ~60 MW) and is strategically positioned at the convergence of more than 12 metro, long haul and international fiber networks. 

The company also announced groundbreaking for a second, adjacent facility on the same 18.5-acre campus. 

The announcement comes on the heels of the Company’s new waterless hyperscale data center campus in the Phoenix Metro Area and is the third deployment of approximately 270 MW of planned new development for Aligned in 2022.

“Chicago’s centralized location, long-haul connectivity, and access to renewable energy options make it an ideal geostrategic destination for hyperscalers and multinational enterprises to deploy their mission-critical infrastructure,” states Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “Bringing one hyperscale data center online the same day that we break ground on a second facility is a testament not only to the demand for Aligned’s adaptive and sustainable data center platform, but to our ability to deliver infrastructure at the velocity our customers need it, even in a supply-and power-constrained market such as Chicago, anywhere in the world.”

https://www.aligneddc.com/chicago/

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U.S State Department revises its subsea cable licensing procedure

The U.S. State Department has revised the procedures for its review of submarine cable landing license applications.

The State Department’s review will begin after the the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector completes its national security and law enforcement review of an application and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) notifies the Commission of the Committee’s final recommendation on the application.

The State Department’s revised procedures are separate from the Commission’s public interest review of submarine cable landing license applications, which includes seeking feedback from the expert Executive Branch agencies, including the Committee, on any national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, or trade policy issues that the Commission should consider as part of its public interest review of applications from applicants with reportable foreign ownership.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/revised-procedure-state-department-review-subcable-applications

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SpaceX signs first airline for Starlink

 JSX, a U.S. regional airline operating a fleet of Embraer jets from private terminals, will be the first to offer Starlink satellite service as an onboard amenity.

The service is expected to launch this year.

https://www.jsx.com

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HPE targets RAN Automation and Orchestration

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a service management and orchestration solution that provides multi-vendor management and automation for Radio Access Networks (RANs).

HPE RAN Automation is a pre-integrated cloud-native solution, delivered as a service. It leverages HPE operations support systems and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technologies to offer zero-touch management of multi-vendor RAN infrastructure. The solution orchestrates the full life-cycle of both virtual Distributed Units (vDUs) and virtual Centralized Units (vCUs), enabling operators to dynamically configure radio frequency parameters and optimize the use of radio access resources and spectrum.

“While the direction towards the open disaggregated RAN is clear, many operators will have to manage a mixture of existing 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, virtualized RAN and Open RAN solutions over the next few years,” said Tom Craig, VP and GM, HPE Communications Technology Group. “The winners will be those who embrace automation and commit to a disaggregated, open, multi-vendor future. Building on our experience gained from one of the largest RAN disaggregation deployments in the industry, HPE RAN Automation provides a pre-integrated, truly open, fully vendor agnostic solution that addresses existing, pure Open RAN and traditional networks. With this latest innovation, we are introducing a zero-touch operational experience to manage the ever-growing complexity, accelerate roll out and optimize multi-vendor radio access networks.”

HPE RAN Automation highlights:

• Fully-automated lifecycle management with AI/ML powered assurance – detects anomalies, predict failures, correlate information across the hardware and software layers, perform advanced analytics and send actionable signals to the appropriate components to take action according to the specific use cases.
• A single secure web user interface – allows operators to interact with the different functions of the platform with single sign-on authentication.
• A consistent set of management capabilities across heterogeneous hosting environments, compliant with ETSI specifications – supports operators by providing the ability to onboard and deploy third party RAN vDU and vCU network functions.
• HPE RAN Automation follows the principles of O-RAN Alliance’s Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) architecture which provides the capability to provision, monitor and operate all layers of the disaggregated RAN from infrastructure to RAN software. Furthermore, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices ensure that HPE RAN Automation is constantly updated according to the latest O-RAN standards and integrates seamlessly with the latest software updates from RAN partners.

https://www.hpe.com/telco/openran

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NTT demos first high-quality aluminum nitride transistor

 NTT demonstrated an aluminum nitride (AlN) transistor featuring a large breakdown field. The innovation is seen as a promising semiconductor material for achieving low-loss, high-voltage power devices. NTT produced the high-quality AlN by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)4 and also developed formation methods of ohmic and Schottky contacts.

NTT said that by using a wide bandgap semiconductor with a large breakdown field, it is possible to reduce the loss and increase the breakdown voltage. Therefore, wide bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are being developed for power devices. UWBG semiconductors with a breakdown field larger than that of SiC or GaN further improve the performance of power devices. UWBG semiconductors include AlN, diamond, and gallium oxide (Ga2O3) (Table I). For AlN power devices, the power loss is theoretically expected to be only 5% of Si, 35% of SiC, and 50% of GaN.

In 2002, NTT succeeded in fabricating semiconducting AlN for the first time in the world, thus opening up new avenues in semiconductor device applications. Among UWBG semiconductors, AlN is advantageous in that devices can be fabricated on large-scale wafers and various device structures can be obtained by heterojunction formation with other nitride semiconductors such as GaN. However, there have been few reports on power device fabrications in this vein, and their characteristics need to be improved.

https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2022/04/22/220422a.html

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OneWeb signs launch contract with New Space India

OneWeb, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, announced a launch contract with New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The first launch with New Space India is anticipated in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launches will add to OneWeb’s total in-orbit constellation of 428 satellites, 66 per cent of the planned total fleet, to build a global network that will deliver high-speed, low-latency connectivity. 

Sunil Bharti Mittal, OneWeb Executive Chairman, said: “This is yet another historic day for collaboration in space, thanks to the shared ambition and vision of New Space India and OneWeb. This most recent agreement on launch plans adds considerable momentum to the development of OneWeb’s network, as we work together across the space industry toward our common goal of connecting communities globally."

This launch contract follows a separate agreement between OneWeb and SpaceX to enable the company to resume satellite launches, announced in March 2022. OneWeb has already activated service with its network at the 50th parallel and above, as demand for the company’s broadband connectivity services continues to grow from multiple sectors and markets.

 

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Starlink launches 53 more Starlink satellites

On Thursday, April 21, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral using a Falcon 9 booster that had previously flown 11 other missions, including GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and eight Starlink missions.

Starlink is now live in the Caribbean, bringing the total number of global markets served to 33. 

Here is the current Starlink availability map

https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl4-14/

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LuminWave raises $20 million for solid-state LiDAR

LuminWave, a start-up based in Hangzhou, China, raised more than $20 million in Series B financing for its Si-photonics 4D LiDAR.

LuminWave develops unique Si photonics-based frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) coherent detection and solid-state scanning technologies and highly integrated LiDAR solutions. It currently has two product families: a solid-state large FOV (up to 120⁰x90⁰) Diversity Series (D-Series) and a FMCW 4D Foresight Series (F-Series).

The D-Series aims at collision avoidance and blind area detection applications for ADAS and autonomous driving as well as applications in industrial automation and smart infrastructures. Its large FOV, high resolution, compact size, and appealing price make it a perfect choice for a large variety of use cases. D1, the first product in this family, was released early last year and is currently in volume production. A next generation higher performance model is on its way.

The F-Series takes advantage of Si photonics-based solid-state FMCW to provide unique high accuracy, 

 "As more LiDARs are being deployed on the road, immunity from LiDAR crosstalk will become crucial to safety. Our FMCW LiDAR perfectly addresses this issue ," said Dr. Feng, CEO of LuminWave Technology.

http://www.LuminWave.com

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Hurricane Electric deploys POP at CoreSite Boston

Hurricane Electric deployed a new Point of Presence (PoP) at CoreSite BO1 data center in Boston. It is Hurricane Electric’s second PoP in Boston. The facility is located at 70 Inner Belt Rd, Somerville, MA.

CoreSite BO1 serves a wide variety of sectors, offering access to leading network, cloud and IT providers. The facility has over 253,000 square feet of data center space and can support high-density, computer-intensive requirements, and can scale from cabinets and cages to private suites. The facility offers a 100% uptime SLA, supported by an operations team and 24x7x365 security.

“We’re excited to launch our second Point of Presence in Boston,” said Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric. “Hurricane Electric looks forward to offering Greater Boston’s bustling economy increased connectivity options to meet their demanding network requirements.”

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Kyocera expands manufacturing in Sendai, Japan

Kyocera unveiled plans to build the largest manufacturing facility it has ever operated in Japan, expanding production capacity for components including organic semiconductor packages and crystal device packages. 

The new facility, which will open in October 2023, will provide a 4.5-fold increase in production capacity for organic packages at the Sendai Plant Campus, as well as a substantial increase in capacity for crystal device packages.

Kyocera cites rising demand for its organic semiconductor packages and crystal device packages from 5G applications as well as automotive cameras and high-performance processors used in Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. 

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NASA's Communications Services Project issues $278M in contracts

NASA selected six American satellite communications (SATCOM) providersto begin developing and demonstrating near-Earth space communication services that ultimately will replace the agency's near-Earth satellite fleet. 

The combined value of NASA's Communications Services Project (CSP) funded agreements is $278.5 million. The funded companies are:

• Inmarsat Government Inc. of Reston, Virginia, has been awarded $28.6 million. Inmarsat's proposed approach demonstrates a commercial radio frequency geostationary orbiting L-band relay network for low-rate SATCOM services to spacecraft and launch vehicles for routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications.
• Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS) LLC of Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded $67 million. Kuiper's proposed approach demonstrates a commercial optical low-Earth orbiting relay network for high- and- low-rate SATCOM services to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions, contingency operations, and early operations phase communications.
• SES Government Solutions of Reston, Virginia, has been awarded $28.96 million. SES's proposed approach demonstrates commercial radio frequency geostationary orbiting C-band and medium-Earth orbiting Ka-band relay networks for high- and- low-rate SATCOM services to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications.
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, has been awarded $69.95 million. SpaceX's proposed approach demonstrates a commercial optical low-Earth orbiting relay network for high-rate SATCOM services to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions, contingency operations, launch and ascent, and early operations phase communications.
• Telesat U.S. Services LLC of Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded $30.65 million. Telesat's proposed approach demonstrates commercial radio frequency geostationary orbiting C-band and low-Earth orbiting Ka-band relay networks for high- and- low-rate communications services to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine missions.
• Viasat Incorporated of Carlsbad, California, has been awarded $53.3 million. Viasat's proposed approach demonstrates a commercial radio frequency geostationary orbiting Ka-band relay network for high- and low-rate communications services to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for routine launch and missions.

"We are following the agency's proven approach developed through commercial cargo and commercial crew services. By using funded Space Act Agreements, we're able to stimulate industry to demonstrate end-to-end capability leading to operational service," said Eli Naffah, CSP project manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center. "The flight demonstrations are risk reduction activities that will develop multiple capabilities and will provide operational concepts, performance validation, and acquisition models needed to plan the future acquisition of commercial services for each class of NASA missions."

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-industry-to-collaborate-on-space-communications-by-2025

https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/space/communications-services-program/#learn-more

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Comcast tests Lumenisity's hollowcore fiber

Comcast confirmed its first deployment of advanced hollowcore fiber optics.

Comcast connected two locations in Philadelphia, which enables network engineers to continue to test and observe the performance and physical compatibility of hollowcore fiber in a real-world deployment. Comcast successfully tested bidirectional transmission (upstream and downstream traffic traveling on a single fiber), used coherent and direct-detect systems (allowing for forward and backward technology compatibility), and produced traffic rates ranging from 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) to 400 Gbps all simultaneously on a single strand of hollowcore fiber.

Comcast believes its 40-kilometer hybrid deployment of hollowcore and traditional fiber to be the longest in the world by an Internet provider. 

“Hollowcore fiber is a leap forward in how we deliver ultra-fast, ultra-low latency and ultra-reliable services to customers,” said Elad Nafshi, EVP & Chief Network Officer at Comcast Cable. “As we continue to develop and deploy technology to deliver 10G, multigigabit performance to tens of millions of homes, hollowcore fiber will help to ensure that the network powering those experiences is among the most advanced and highest performing in the world.”

“We are proud to be working with Comcast on the next generation hollowcore fiber, which we believe unlocks exciting new potential for connectivity around the world,” said David Parker, Executive Chairman of Lumenisity.

http://www.comcastcorporation.com

Lumenisity unveils Hollow Core Double Nested Antiresonant Nodeless Fiber

Thursday, March 10, 2022  Fiber, Lumenisity  

Lumenisity Limited, a start-up based in Romsey, United Kingdom, announced a new generation of hollowcore fibre with the lowest attenuation of any hollowcore fibre reported to date. The company says its new product surpasses the attenuation of conventional germanium-doped single-mode fibre (SMF) in the O and C bands. Specifically, Lumenisity’s new Hollow Core Double Nested Antiresonant Nodeless Fiber (DNANF) achieves attenuations of <0.22...

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BT begins testing hollow core fibre

Tuesday, June 01, 2021  BT  

BT kicked off trials of hollow core fibre at the BT Labs in Adastral Park, Ipswich, in a collaborative project with Lumenisity, a Southampton University spin out company, and Mavenir.BT researchers are conducting the trials at BT’s research and engineering campus, using a 10-kilometre-long hollow core fibre cable provided by Lumenisity. The new fibre has a hollow, air filled centre that runs the entire length of the cable. It will be used to test...

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euNetworks connects LSE with hollowcore fibre from Lumenisity

Thursday, April 15, 2021  Eunetworks, Hollowcore, Lumenisity, Start-Ups, UK  

Lumenisity Limited, a start-up based in Romsey, United Kingdom, supplied its ultra low latency CoreSmart cable solution based on "NANF" hollowcore fibres, to euNetworks Fiber UK. The fibre route connects an Interxion data center with the London Stock Exchange.Lumenisity Limited, which was formed in early 2017 as a spin out from the University of Southampton, said data travels 50% faster in hollowcore cable, reducing latency by 1/3, and providing...

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MIT's novel photolithography targets thin mirrors and silicon wafers

Researchers at MIT have developed a novel photolithography technique that could significantly improve the fabrication of thin mirrors and silicon wafers.

The new approach to reshaping thin plate materials enables precise and complex shapes typically used for high-level, complex systems, like deformable mirrors or wafer-flattening processes during semiconductor manufacturing. By printing stress patterns lithographically to deform optical or semiconductor surfaces, the researchers believe future production will be more precise, scalable, and cheap.

The research is published in the April 20 issue of Optica.

https://news.mit.edu/2022/mit-scientists-develop-low-cost-high-precision-fabrication-method-thin-mirrors-and-silicon-0420

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Lightwave Logic cites hybrid polymer-silicon photonics innovation

Lightwave Logic announced the publication of a U.S. patent application on a new invention that will simplify polymer modulator fabrication when integrated with silicon photonics for high-volume foundry manufacturing applications.

The company said its patent application - entitled "TFP (thin film polymer) optical transition device and method," - illustrates the design of a simpler to fabricate, lower cost hybrid integrated photonics chip using electro-optic polymers which are more advantageous for high-volume production. The essence of the invention is a hybrid polymer-silicon photonics engine that fits into fiber optic transceivers (either pluggable or co-packaged) that are used in the routers, servers and network equipment that are proliferating with the growth of data centers, cloud computing and optical communications capacity.

Dr. Michael Lebby, Chief Executive Officer of Lightwave Logic commented, "This patent application is core to our drive to provide a hybrid integrated photonics platform to boost the performance of silicon photonics technologies using our proprietary electro-optic polymers. The patent application teaches the simplicity of fabricating the design in standard large volume silicon foundries, further simplifying manufacturing for our foundry partners.

https://www.lightwavelogic.com/news/

Lightwave Logic announces $33M for electro-optic polymers

Thursday, October 07, 2021    

Lightwave Logic announced that Lincoln Park Capital Fund purchased $3 million of common stock at closing, which was sold at $9.16/share. Under the purchase agreement, Lightwave Logic will have the right, but not the obligation, to sell up to an additional $30.0 million of its common stock to Lincoln Park over a 36-month period.  Lightwave Logic will control the timing and amount of any sales to Lincoln Park with no upper limits to the price...

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Lightwave Logic develops photo-stable organic polymer for optical modulators

Wednesday, October 21, 2020  Lightwave Logic  

Lightwave Logic announced photo-stable organic polymer material for use in the company's next-generation modulators. The technology will be trialed with potential customers under NDA.Lightwave Logic said its materials have shown high tolerance to high-intensity infrared light, common in a fiber optic communications environment and increasingly important as higher density of devices access the network, directly resulting in higher intensity infrared...

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Comcast Business mitigated 24,845 DDoS attacks in 2021

In 2021, Comcast Business DDoS Mitigation Services successfully identified and helped defend 24,845 multi-vector attacks targeting Layers 3,4, and 7 simultaneously. Overall, 69 percent of Comcast Business customers experienced DDoS attacks, a 41 percent increase over 2020, while 55 percent were targets of mulit-vector attacks, as opposed to in 2020 where most customers experienced single vector attacks.

The statistics were reported in the newly released 2021 Comcast Business DDoS Threat Report, which found that mulit-vector DDoS attacks targeting Layers 3, 4, and 7 simultaneously represent a 47 percent increase from the record number set in 2020.

“DDoS attacks, when they occur, can be costly and difficult to defend. The risk of losing network, server and application availability is higher than ever,” said Shena Seneca Tharnish, Vice President, Cybersecurity Products, Comcast Business. “With threat actors constantly innovating, organizations must stay vigilant to help protect their infrastructure from bad actors determined to cause financial and reputational damage."

• Other key findings from the 2021 Comcast Business DDoS Threat report include:
• Attacks on information technology customers grew steadily, ending the year at 10X the January numbers.
• 98 percent of all multi-vector attacks were under 5 Gbps, as bad actors often strike at low volumes to avoid detection, degrade site performance and map out network vulnerabilities for reconnaissance.
• 69 percent of all multi-vector attacks lasted under 10 minutes, as short duration attacks are harder to detect and give IT organizations less time to respond, quickly overwhelming defenses.
• The number of vectors deployed in a single multi-vector attack increased from five to 15, while the number of amplification protocols used in multi-vector attacks increased from three to nine.
• 99 percent of customers experienced repeat attacks, while the largest and most severe attack was delivered at a rate of 242 Gbps.

The 2021 Comcast Business DDoS threat report focuses on multi-vector attacks that target Layers 3, 4, and 7 simultaneously. 

https://business.comcast.com/community/browse-all/details/2021-comcast-business-ddos-threat-report

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EE tests carrier aggregation across 7 bands

 EE, in collaboration with Qualcomm, aggregated a 5G signal using seven different spectrum carriers, including its existing 3.4GHz and new 3.6GHz 5G channels, for a total of 170 MHz of spectrum.

The companies report 2.2 Gbps downlinks in lab testing. EE expects to see real-world speeds of over 1.7 Gbps on its network. 

Working in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies at BT’s Borehamwood lab, the EE network can now deliver a 5G signal using seven radio carriers, including some spectrum EE acquired in Ofcom’s spectrum auction last year. Using five 4G (LTE) carriers and two 5G (New Radio), it is the first time any European network has achieved this feat. A mobile test device featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform with Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System was used to achieve the milestone.

David Salam, Director of Mobile at EE, said: “Our commitment to technology investment and innovation, coupled with our leading 5G footprint, continues to see the EE network offer and sustain the best overall 5G experience in the UK. By pooling our research expertise with Qualcomm Technologies, we have been able to further enhance the EE network and will start to deliver some of Europe’s fastest 5G speeds in our major cities.”  

Vikrant Jain, Director, Business Development at Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd., said: “We’re proud to have worked with EE to achieve such a notable milestone in the evolution of 5G technology. Aggregating seven (5LTE +2NR) different spectrum bands for 5G is a significant achievement and will provide enhanced customer experience. Qualcomm Technologies would like to congratulate EE as it remains at the forefront of 5G technology innovation.”

https://newsroom.ee.co.uk/ee-collaborates-with-qualcomm-to--achieve-a-european-first-in-5g-speeds/

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Singtel and Indonesia's Telkomsel partner on data centers

Singtel and its Indonesian partner Telkom, the parent company of Singtel's regional associate Telkomsel, agree dto collaborate on data centre strategy. 

Singtel has carved out its data center business into a separate Singtel-owned entity with approximately 60 MW of capacity. In addition to securing a site in Tuas for a new integrated cable landing and data centre facility which will be ready in three to four years and add 30-40 MW in capacity, Singtel will continue to explore adding further capacity.

Telkom has an existing data centre portfolio of 27 data centres in Indonesia and the region. It is also building a hyperscale data centre with 75 MW capacity to serve local and foreign companies and hyperscalers. Selected data centre assets from Telkom will be placed in the data centre platform. The companies will also collaborate on development opportunities and explore bringing third-party investors or partners into the platform.

Besides Indonesia, Singtel has set its sights on the Thai data centre market. In February, Singtel signed a joint development agreement with Gulf Energy and Singtel's regional associate AIS to start developing data centres in Thailand, and the new joint venture will be launched soon.

"This partnership with Telkom is an important step for our data centre strategy, bringing together the prime assets, expertise and networks of two market leaders in data centre operations in Indonesia and Singapore. As the largest digital economy in ASEAN, Indonesia is a strategic data centre market which expands our platform’s footprint to cover the three fastest-growing locations in the region – Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand," states Yuen Kuan Moon, Singtel Group CEO.

Telkom CEO Mr Ririek Adriansyah said, “Telkom Group is currently consolidating our data centre business to answer the challenges of digital transformation. The regional data centre platform is a continuation of this data centre consolidation strategy and demonstrates our commitment to respond to customer needs and capture opportunities that will pave the way for our company to become a data centre player on a global level. These efforts require strategic partnerships with operators who have proven capabilities and track records. With its strengths and experience, Singtel is one of the strategic partners for Telkom in developing this regional data centre business."

Singtel also announced a collaboration to support Telkomsel’s transformation into Indonesia’s leading consumer fixed broadband and mobile operator through a fixed mobile convergence strategy with Telkom.

https://www.singtel.com/about-us/media-centre/news-releases/singtel-deepens-collaboration-with-telkom-in-regional-data-centr

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