Broadcom launches its $61 billion bid for VMware

 Broadcom unveiled plans to acquire all of the outstanding shares of VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction that values VMware at approximately $61 billion, based on the closing price of Broadcom common stock on May 25, 2022. In addition, Broadcom will assume $8 billion of VMware net debt. The deal has the support of VMware's Board of Directors, along with Michael Dell and Silver Lake, which own 40.2% and 10% of VMware shares outstanding,

The deal would bring together Broadcom's extensive portfolio of networking silicon and software solutions with VMware's leading position in virtualization technology and services. 

Broadcom says the acquisition  will provide enterprise customers an expanded platform of critical infrastructure solutions to accelerate innovation and address the most complex information technology infrastructure needs.

Hock Tan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcom, said, "Building upon our proven track record of successful M&A, this transaction combines our leading semiconductor and infrastructure software businesses with an iconic pioneer and innovator in enterprise software as we reimagine what we can deliver to customers as a leading infrastructure technology company. We look forward to VMware's talented team joining Broadcom, further cultivating a shared culture of innovation and driving even greater value for our combined stakeholders, including both sets of shareholders."

Raghu Raghuram, Chief Executive Officer of VMware, said, "VMware has been reshaping the IT landscape for the past 24 years, helping our customers become digital businesses. We stand for innovation and unwavering support of our customers and their most important business operations and now we are extending our commitment to exceptional service and innovation by becoming the new software platform for Broadcom. Combining our assets and talented team with Broadcom's existing enterprise software portfolio, all housed under the VMware brand, creates a remarkable enterprise software player. Collectively, we will deliver even more choice, value and innovation to customers, enabling them to thrive in this increasingly complex multi-cloud era."

Michael Dell, Chairman of the VMware Board, said, "Together with Broadcom, VMware will be even better positioned to deliver valuable, innovative solutions to even more of the world's largest enterprises. This is a landmark moment for VMware and provides our shareholders and employees with the opportunity to participate in meaningful upside."

A Broadcom investor presentation is online.

https://investors.broadcom.com/static-files/232c0cd2-02d9-4704-bb7b-5659cef67fae

VMware completes spin-Off from Dell Technologies

Monday, November 01, 2021  Dell, Vmware  

VMware completed its spin-off from Dell Technologies. The move provides VMware increased freedom to execute its multi-cloud strategy, a simplified capital structure and governance model, and additional operational and financial flexibility. VMware and Dell said they will continue to partner with each other and to continue support/services to mutual customers.“VMware’s mission is to deliver the trusted software foundation that accelerates our customers’...

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Meta selects Azure as strategic cloud provider for AI research

Meta has selected Azure as a strategic cloud provider to help accelerate AI research and development. 

Specifically, Meta will utilize a dedicated Azure cluster of 5400 GPUs using the latest virtual machine (VM) series in Azure (NDm A100 v4 series, featuring NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core 80GB GPUs) for some of their large-scale AI research workloads.

In addition, the companies agreed to collaborate to scale PyTorch adoption on Azure. 

“We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Azure to advance Meta’s AI research, innovation, and open-source efforts in a way that benefits more developers around the world,” Jerome Pesenti, Vice President of AI, Meta. “With Azure’s compute power and 1.6 TB/s of interconnect bandwidth per VM we are able to accelerate our ever-growing training demands to better accommodate larger and more innovative AI models. Additionally, we’re happy to work with Microsoft in extending our experience to their customers using PyTorch in their journey from research to production.”

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/meta-selects-azure-as-strategic-cloud-provider-to-advance-ai-innovation-and-deepen-pytorch-collaboration/

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Broadband Forum kick off App-Enabled Services Gateway project

The Broadband Forum has launched an app-enabled services gateway project to help service providers deploy, activate and manage third party applications such as parental controls, Wi-Fi analytics, streaming services and security solutions to consumers on a centralized Internet gateway device or other Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). 

Broadband Forum’s WT-492 ‘Software-Based Architecture for the App-Enabled Services Gateway - Design Principles’ aims to enable an ecosystem for the end-user network. This also presents an opportunity for “app-store-like” or “install on-demand” functionality for end-user services, deployment of secure and trustworthy applications, and the formation of adaptable and powerful platforms to support new and innovative cloud services.

The Broadband Forum envisions that app-enabled services gateways could, for example, monitor and troubleshoot regimens that support unloading bad applications and isolating bad network devices to protect the end-user when needed.

“Service providers’ customers have confronted them with unprecedented demand on their networks and app-enabled services gateways will help unlock a plethora of third-party applications and services,” said Jason Walls, of QA Cafe, Chair of the Broadband Forum Connected Home Council and BUS Work Area Director. “Our work pulls together industry leaders from multiple Standards Development Organizations and the open-source community to create quality, interoperable, open standards. The adoption of faster access technologies and resulting exponential growth in bandwidth opens up new ARPU opportunities for service providers to capitalize on.”

https://www.broadband-forum.org/2022-06-26-broadband-forum-launches-app-enabled-service-gateway-project-to-revolutionize-service-providers-business-plans

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Broadcom's Q2 revenue rises 23% yoy to $8.1 billion

Citing strong sales in networking and server storage segments, Broadcom reported revenue of $8.103 billion for its second quarter of fiscal year 2022, ended May 1, 2022, up 23% over the same period last year. Net income increased to $2.590 billion, compared to $1.493 billion a year ago.

"Broadcom's second quarter revenue accelerated sequentially, and was driven by strength in networking and server storage," said Hock Tan, President and CEO of Broadcom Inc. "We expect this momentum to continue into the third quarter."

"Consolidated revenue grew 23% year-over-year to a record $8.1 billion and operating profit increased 30%," said Kirsten Spears, CFO of Broadcom Inc. "We generated $4.2 billion in free cash flow and are expecting free cash flow to remain strong in the third quarter. Consistent with our commitment to return excess cash to shareholders, we returned $4.5 billion to shareholders in the quarter including $1.7 billion of cash dividends and $2.8 billion of share repurchases."

https://investors.broadcom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/broadcom-inc-announces-second-quarter-fiscal-year-2022-financial

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Marvell posts sales of $1.447 billion

 Marvell reported net revenue of $1.447 billion for the first quarter of its fiscal 2023. The result exceeded the midpoint of the company's guidance provided on March 3, 2022. GAAP net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was $(166) million, or $(0.20) per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was $448 million, or $0.52 per diluted share. Cash flow from operations for the first quarter was $194.8 million.

"We had a strong start to fiscal 2023, delivering record first quarter revenue of $1.45 billion, which grew 8 percent sequentially and 74 percent year over year. Revenue exceeded the midpoint of guidance, driven by higher-than-forecasted results from the datacenter end market. Our new product ramps and growth in content have been instrumental in driving strong revenue growth," said Matt Murphy, Marvell's President and CEO. "We are guiding for growth to continue in the second quarter, projecting revenue at the midpoint to grow 5 percent sequentially and 41 percent year over year. With 88 percent of our overall revenue derived from data infrastructure, we are confident that our unique secular growth drivers in cloud, 5G, and auto, will continue to help drive sustainable long-term growth."

https://investor.marvell.com/quarterly-results

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Webinar replay: Solving the interconnect density bottleneck in 51.2T switch

https://youtu.be/ggaOx2qs5gs

Webinar replay - first presented on 04-May-2022

With the first generation of 51.2T switches running at 100 Gbps per lane on the horizon, the market will soon be considering the pros and cons of different board design choices for managing so many high capacity channels.  Will co-packaged optics (CPO) or near-packaged optics (NPO) scale to meet the bandwidth density challenge?

In this one-hour webinar, we hear from Dr. Rebecca K. Schaevitz, a Board Member of COBO and a Principal Engineer and Product Line Manager at Broadcom . 

We then hear from Tom Mitcheltree, Advanced Technology Manager at US Conec, a supplier of connector embodiment packages based on standardized and custom optical interconnect ferrules.  

This is the 10th in a series of webinars presented by COBO, the Consortium for On-board Optics, and sponsored by DuPont’s Silicon Valley Technology Center.

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Video: Simplifying Connectivity at Cloud Scale - Prosimo

https://youtu.be/oT6fNlB1Kj4

Enterprises, including major financial institutions, have been struggling to provide connectivity at cloud scale for all of their application workloads, says Faraz Siddiqui, Head of Solutions Architecture, Prosimo.

Filmed at ONUG Spring 2022.

https://prosimo.io

Who is Prosimo? CTO presentation

Tuesday, April 06, 2021  Prosimo, SD-WAN, Start-Ups  

https://youtu.be/58YMebmBJwMProsimo, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California,  has launched its Application eXperience Infrastructure (AXI) platform for ensuring secure application experiences across multi-cloud environments.In this 40-minute presentation, Nehal Bhau, Co-founder & CTO, Prosimo, shares his insights on the SD-WAN market, Prosimo's vertically integrated stack and its method to leverage the global infrastructure of the top...

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Verizon and AWS expand edge computing to 19 U.S. metro areas

Verizon and AWS launched 5G mobile edge computing in Nashville, TN and Tampa, FL. 

The mobile edge solution, which was first launched in August 2020, the companies provide mobile edge computing via AWS Wavelength Zones in 19 locations in the U.S. That means 75% of the U.S. population is now within 150 miles of a Wavelength Zone.

“With the ongoing expansion of our mobile edge compute infrastructure, we’re enabling developers to build transformational applications that enhance consumers’ experiences by moving the data and processing done by applications and services to the edge of Verizon’s wireless network and closer to the end-user’s device,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “By offering both public and private mobile edge compute, we’re giving businesses ultimate optionality. This can transform the way companies can leverage predictive analytics, allowing them to improve operational efficiency, mitigate risk and increase revenue.”

“With the rapid expansion of AWS Wavelength Zones across the US, even more developers can innovate faster and deploy powerful cloud-based applications to the edge – offering ultra low latency, high bandwidth, and high performance for these applications,” said George Elissaios, director and general manager of AWS EC2 core product management at AWS. “We’re excited to collaborate with Verizon to bring AWS services to the edge of the Verizon 5G network across the US to help our customers transform consumer experiences.”

Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength is currently available in 19 locations including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, TN, New York City, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Tampa, FL and Washington DC. Verizon and AWS also offer private mobile edge computing for enterprises called Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Outposts.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-aws-expand-edge-computing-19-us-metro-areas

Verizon debuts mobile edge cloud with Microsoft Azure

Tuesday, August 31, 2021  Azure, Microsoft, Verizon  

Verizon is now offering an on-premises, private edge compute solution in collaboration with Microsoft Azure.Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge is a cloud computing platform that brings compute and storage services to the edge of the network at the customer premises providing enterprises with increased efficiencies, higher levels of security, and the low lag and high bandwidth needed for applications involving computer vision, augmented...

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Verizon 5G Edge taps Google Distributed Cloud Edge

Thursday, December 16, 2021  Edge, Google Cloud, Verizon  

Verizon and Google Cloud agreed to collaborate on 5G edge services for mobile and connected devices, including autonomous mobile robots, intelligent logistics and factory automation.Verizon 5G Edge with Google Distributed Cloud Edge, will bring Google’s compute and storage services to the edge of the local network.The companies also plan to develop public 5G mobile edge computing for developers and enterprises. In addition, Ericsson, in collaboration...

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Ayar Labs teams with NVIDIA on Optical Interconnects

Ayar Labs is working with NVIDIA on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure based on optical I/O technology to meet future demands of AI and high performance computing (HPC) workloads. 

The collaboration will focus on integrating Ayar Labs’ technology to develop scale-out architectures enabled by high-bandwidth, low-latency and ultra-low-power optical-based interconnects for future NVIDIA products. Together, the companies plan to accelerate the development and adoption of optical I/O technology to support the explosive growth of AI and machine learning (ML) applications and data volumes.

“Today’s state-of-the-art AI/ML training architectures are limited by current copper-based compute-to-compute interconnects to build scale-out systems for tomorrow’s requirements,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs. “Our work with NVIDIA to develop next-generation solutions based on optical I/O provides the foundation for the next leap in AI capabilities to address the world’s most sophisticated problems.”

“Over the past decade, NVIDIA-accelerated computing has delivered a million-X speedup in AI,” said Rob Ober, Chief Platform Architect for Data Center Products at NVIDIA. “The next million-X will require new, advanced technologies like optical I/O to support the bandwidth, power and scale requirements of future AI and ML workloads and system architectures.”

https://ayarlabs.com/

Ayar Labs lands $130m for In-Package Optical I/O

Tuesday, April 26, 2022  Ayar Labs, Silicon, Start-Ups  

Ayar Labs, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, secured $130 million in additional financing for its optical I/O solution. 

With the new investment, Ayar Labs said it is ramping production and securing supply chain partners, as signaled by previously announced multi-year strategic collaborations with Lumentum and Macom, both leaders in optical and photonic products, as well as GlobalFoundries on its new GF Fotonix platform. The company also confirmed that it made its first volume commercial shipments under contract and expects to ship thousands of units of its in-package optical interconnect by end of year.

The new funding was led by Boardman Bay Capital Management. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA entered this investment round, joining existing strategic investors Applied Ventures LLC, GlobalFoundries, Intel Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include Agave SPV, Atreides Capital, Berkeley Frontier Fund, IAG Capital Partners, Infinitum Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Tyche Partners. They join existing investors such as BlueSky Capital, Founders Fund, Playground Global, and TechU Venture Partners.

 

http://www.ayarlabs.com

 

What's hot at OFC22? Ayar Labs on Optical I/O

Tuesday, March 15, 2022  #OFC22, Ayar Labs  

There is a lot of discussion about optical I/O and the challenge of getting photonics integrated much closer to compute units, says Mark Wade, co-founder and CTO, Ayar Labs.Last year, Ayar Labs demonstrated its end-to-end, DWDM micro-ring solution for optical I/O. This year, it's clear that big parts of the industry are heading in this direction.  Some highlights for the ecosystem include GlobalFoundries newly announced photonics platform, a...

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Marvell milestone: 100,000 400G Coherent DSPs shipped

Marvell announced a significant milestones: the cumulative shipment of more than 100,000 400G Coherent Digital Signal Processors (CDSPs).

Marvell's CDSP portfolio includes Canopus, the industry's first 7nm CDSP enabling 400G ZR/ZR+, metro and long haul pluggable optical modules, and the Marvell Deneb, an ultra-low power, multi-mode 400G DSP for OpenZR+ and OpenROADM.

The company also noted having achieved several industry firsts:

• Fueled the industry's first 400G ZR/ZR+ QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors for data center interconnect (DCI) applications in cloud networks.
• Delivered the industry's first 400ZR module with coherent DSP for hyperscale cloud data networks.
• Enabled the industry's first and highest performing 200G and 400G CFP2 deployments in networks worldwide.
• Delivered the industry's first and only DSP to enable probabilistic shaping within a CFP2 form factor.
• Created the industry's largest open ecosystem of partners offering standards-based small form factor coherent pluggable modules that enable massive scalable bandwidth in metro, access and DCI transport networks.
• Enabled the industry's first CDSP to integrate power and thermal management functionality to support operation over the entire industrial temperature range, from -40C to 85C.

"We are proud to see our vision of open pluggability everywhere come to life. This milestone is a testament to Marvell's leadership in delivering on our core values of performance innovation at the lowest power to drive mass deployment of 400G coherent pluggables," said Pranay Aiya, vice president, Product Marketing and Customer Applications Engineering at Marvell. "We are thankful to our team, customers and partners for helping us execute on this mission of industry firsts!"

https://www.marvell.com/company/newsroom/marvell-achieves-industry-leading-100000-400g-coherent-dsp-shipment-milestone.html

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NVIDIA reports strong data center sales, trims outlook

NVIDIA reported record revenue for the first quarter ended May 1, 2022, of $8.29 billion, up 46% from a year ago and up 8% from the previous quarter, with record revenue in Data Center and Gaming.

GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $0.64, down 16% from a year ago and down 46% from the previous quarter, and include an after-tax impact of $0.52 related to the $1.35 billion Arm acquisition termination charge. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.36, up 49% from a year ago and up 3% from the previous quarter.

“We delivered record results in Data Center and Gaming against the backdrop of a challenging macro environment,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “The effectiveness of deep learning to automate intelligence is driving companies across industries to adopt NVIDIA for AI computing. Data Center has become our largest platform, even as Gaming achieved a record quarter.

“We are gearing up for the largest wave of new products in our history with new GPU, CPU, DPU and robotics processors ramping in the second half. Our new chips and systems will greatly advance AI, graphics, Omniverse, self-driving cars and robotics, as well as the many industries these technologies impact,” he said.

However, NVIDIA trimmed its outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 is as follows:

Revenue is expected to be $8.10 billion, plus or minus 2%. This includes an estimated reduction of approximately $500 million relating to Russia and the COVID lockdowns in China.

GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 65.1% and 67.1%, respectively, plus or minus 50 basis points.

Some highlights:

• Data Center: First-quarter revenue was a record $3.75 billion, up 83% from a year ago and up 15% from the previous quarter.
• Gaming: First-quarter revenue was a record $3.62 billion, up 31% from a year ago and up 6% from the previous quarter.
• Professional Visualization: First-quarter revenue was $622 million, up 67% from a year ago and down 3% from the previous quarter.
• Automotive and Robotics: First-quarter Automotive revenue was $138 million, down 10% from a year ago and up 10% from the previous quarter.

https://investor.nvidia.com/home/default.aspx

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Nutanix reports sales of $403.7M, up 17%, and supply chain delays

Nutanix reported revenue of $403.7 million for its third quarter ended April 30, 2022, up 17% from the $344.5 million reported for the same period a year earlier.

The company cited 28% a YoY ACV billings growth to $204.7 million, but trimmed its outlook due to supply chain delays.

“Our third quarter reflected continued solid execution, demonstrating strong year-over-year top and bottom line improvement,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix. “Late in the third quarter, we saw an unexpected impact from challenges that limited our upside in the quarter and affected our outlook for the fourth quarter. Increased supply chain delays with our hardware partners account for the significant majority of the impact to our outlook, and higher-than-expected sales rep attrition in the third quarter was also a factor. We don’t believe these challenges reflect any change in demand for our hybrid multicloud platform, and we remain focused on mitigating the impact of these issues and continuing to execute on the opportunity in front of us.”

https://www.nutanix.com/press-releases/2022/nutanix-reports-third-quarter-2022

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Google Cloud region opens in Madrid in partnership with Telefónica

Google opened a new cloud region in Madrid, Spain. 

The new Madrid region (europe-southwest1) provides low-latency, highly available cloud services with high international security and data protection standards. The Madrid region is launching with three cloud zones to prevent service interruptions, and our standard set of products, including Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Storage, Persistent Disk, CloudSQL, and Cloud Identity.

The facility, which joins Google Cloud's network of 33 regions throughout the globe, was built partnership with Telefónica.

“We welcome the Cloud capabilities that the Google Cloud region is bringing to Spain. It is especially important for the alignment with the security levels that public sector organizations demand and as required in the National Security Scheme. They must take advantage of a cloud that is offered locally with the highest security guarantees. The collaboration with hyperscalers is key. It is also essential to continue advancing with best practices adoption, training, security configurations and supervision” Luis Jimenez, Subdirector del Centro Criptológico Nacional.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/new-google-cloud-region-in-madrid-spain-now-open

Google's Grace Hopper subsea cable lands in Cornwall

Wednesday, September 15, 2021  Google, Subsea, UK  

The Grace Hopper subsea cable has landed in Bude, Cornwall, UK. This follows a successful Bilbao landing earlier in September.

Google says Grace Hopper will use a new switching architecture to provide optimum levels of network flexibility and resilience to adjust to unforeseen failures or traffic patterns. 

https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/our-grace-hopper-subsea-cable-has-landed-uk/?linkId=131609522

Google's Grace Hopper subsea cable to link US-UK-Spain

Tuesday, July 28, 2020  Google, Subsea  

Google unveiled plans for a new subsea cable — Grace Hopper — which will run between the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain. The cable is named for computer science pioneer Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906–1992), an admiral in the U.S. Navy best known for her work in developing the COBOL programming language.

The Grace Hopper cable will be equipped with 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers). Subcom has been selected as the lead contractor. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.

Google said the Grace Hopper cable system will be the first to use a novel optical fiber switching that allows for increased reliability by moving traffic around outages.

Grace Hopper joins Google's other private subsea cables, Curie, Dunant and Equiano.

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Dell'Oro: Mobile Core and MEC market rebounds

The total Mobile Core Network (MCN) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) market revenues for 1Q 2022 rebounded to a positive year-over-year (Y/Y) growth rate after the decrease in 4Q 2021 which was the first decrease since 4Q 2017, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

The MCN market growth was driven by an extremely high double-digit percentage Y/Y revenue growth rate in the 5G MCN market overcoming the Y/Y revenue declines in the 4G MCN and IMS Core markets. For the MCN market regionally, the China region had a high growth rate while the MCN market excluding China had a negative growth rate for the quarter.

“With the continued aggressive build-out of 5G Standalone (SA) networks in China, the China region in 1Q 2022 substantially increased its share of the 5G MCN market over last quarter,’ stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “At the end of 1Q 2022, we have identified 25 Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that have commercially launched 5G SA Mobile Broadband networks (MBB) with services available to consumers. The 5G Core vendors (in alphabetical order) include Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE. We have identified 150 MNOs with 5G Core contracts with the above vendors plus Mavenir. There are still more 5G Core contracts that vendors have acknowledged without revealing the associated MNOs.

“We see fewer 5G Core network launches slated for 2022 as compared to 2021 when 16 networks were launched. However, many are being readied for 2023 launches and we project mid-single-digit percentage Y/Y growth rates for the balance of 2022. One of the most anticipated and publicized 5G Core launches is Dish Wireless – the first to run 5G Core on the Public Cloud. The company is preparing to launch in many cities by mid-June 2022 to meet regulatory coverage requirements. In early May 2022, Dish had a soft launch in its first city, Las Vegas. Nokia is the primary 5G Core vendor.

“Multi-access Edge Computing deployed by MNOs has barely scratched the surface in spite of all the hype, except for the China region, which has deployed thousands of MEC nodes throughout their MNO networks, with a mix of Public MEC and Private MEC sites,” continued Bolan.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2022 Mobile Core Network and Multi-Access Edge Computing Report:

• The top two vendors for the MCN, 4G MCN, and IMS Core markets were Huawei and Ericsson.
• The top two vendors for the 5G MCN market were Huawei and ZTE.
• Nokia and Ericsson had the highest Y/Y growth rates for the 5G MCN market coming from a low small base. However, Huawei had the highest dollar revenue gain, with a lower Y/Y growth rate coming from a larger base.

https://www.delloro.com/news/china-5g-deployments-drive-mobile-core-networks-to-growth-in-1q-2022/

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Australia's NBN Co reports financials

Australia's NBN Co. reported total revenue of $3.8 billion for Q3 FY22 for the nine months to 31 March 2022:, up 10 per cent on Q3 FY21, primarily due to growth in activations and customers upgrading to higher speed tiers. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), including subscriber costs, was $2.3 billion, a $1.4 billion improvement on the corresponding nine-month period.

Some highlights:

• In the nine months to 31 March 2022, NBN Co paid $174 million in subscriber costs to Telstra and Optus, which was an 83 per cent reduction on the payments of approximately $1.05 billion in the prior corresponding period. NBN Co reaffirmed its expectation and guidance that these payments will cease during FY23. 
• Residential Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) remained steady in the third quarter at $46. Revenue from business customers increased to approximately $750 million, up approximately 22 per cent on the prior corresponding nine-month period.
• Approximately 76 per cent of residential and business customers were connected to plans based on nbn wholesale speed tiers with peak download speeds of 50 Mbps and above, up from 71 per cent a year ago, and approximately 18 per cent of customers were connected to plans based on nbn wholesale speed tiers with peak download speeds of 100 Mbps and above.
• Capital expenditure in the nine months to 31 March 2022 was $1.8 billion, down from $1.99 billion in the prior corresponding period.

https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-statements/nbn-co-q3-fy22-financial-results-update

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NTIA selects 5G Challenge vendors

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS), in Boulder, Colo., in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD), announced 5G Challenge contestants selected from final white paper entries. This prize competition aims to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable components, and multi-vendor solutions toward the development of an open 5G ecosystem.

Contestants selected from final white paper entries are:

Distributed Unit (DU)

• Radisys Corp.
• Signal System Management

Centralized Unit (CU)

• Capgemini Engineering
• Mavenir Systems, Inc.
• Signal System Management

Radio Unit (RU)

• Fujitsu Network Communications
• Mavenir Systems, Inc.

In this 2022 first-year 5G Challenge Preliminary Event, ITS will award part of the total $3 million prize purse to contestants who submit winning hardware and/or software solutions for one or more of these 5G network subsystems: Distributed Unit (DU); Centralized Unit (CU); Radio Unit (RU). 

https://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2022/ntia-s-institute-telecommunication-sciences-and-department-defense-select-5g-0

NTIA: ORAN will reinforce 5G vendor diversity 

Sunday, July 18, 2021    

Limited competition in the telecommunications infrastructure market can reduce supply chain resilience and security and contribute to higher prices for operators and consumers in the long run, according to a paper released by NTIA on behalf of the executive branch of the U.S. government.The 26-page paper explores the potential benefits of Open RAN in expanding the vendor ecosystem."The Executive Branch fully supports industry’s development of Open...

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Samsung and Red Hat collaborate on next-gen memory software

Samsung Electronics and Red Hat are collaborating on software for next-generation memory solutions. 

The newly announced partnership will focus on the development and validation of open source software for existing and emerging memory and storage products, including NVMe SSDs; CXL memory; computational memory/storage (HBM-PIM, Smart SSDs) and fabrics — in building an expansive ecosystem for closely integrated memory hardware and software.

"Samsung and Red Hat will make a concerted effort to define and standardize memory software solutions that embrace evolving server and memory hardware, while building a more robust memory ecosystem," said Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President and Head of the Memory Application Engineering Team at Samsung Electronics. "We will invite partners from across the IT industry to join us in expanding the software-hardware memory ecosystem to create greater customer value."

"In the upcoming data-centric era, the integration of memory-centric hardware and software architectures will become increasingly essential, and for this purpose, Red Hat is happy to participate in the joint undertaking with Samsung," added Marjet Andriesse, Senior Vice President and Head of Red Hat Asia Pacific.

https://news.samsung.com/global/

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NTT inaugurates data center in Madrid

NTT Ltd. opened its first data center in Spain. 

The high-availability, Tier 3-compliant colocation data center is located on NTT's Európolis Business and Technology Park site 20km northwest of Madrid. It provides hyperscalers as well as enterprise clients with 3,600m2 of IT space and a maximum IT capacity of 6.3MW when fully built out.

The cooling concept of the data center was adapted to the warm climate of central Spain: air-cooled chillers and higher cooling water temperatures reduce power consumption and ensure efficient operation of the facility. NTT’s first major client installation in the facility is powered entirely by renewable energy.

NTT's proprietary Global Data Center Interconnect (GDCI) offers private connections to internet nodes such as ESpanix, NetIX and DE-CIX, as well as cloud providers such as AWS, Google, Microsoft and others. Through Lyntia's fiber network, connections exist to 2,694 cities in Spain, to interconnects in France and Portugal, and to major submarine cables. In addition, fiber links exist to NTT's Global IP Network (GIN) as well as Colt IQ, euNetworks, GTT and other international and regional providers.

"The demand for data center capacity in Spain has grown strongly in recent years. Madrid is the largest data center hub in Spain and a European gateway to the world, and our investment in the region is another milestone on our global roadmap as we continue to expand our presence across the continent to meet the coverage, capacity and connectivity needs of our clients", said Florian Winkler, Chief Executive Officer of NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers division in EMEA.

https://services.global.ntt/en-us/newsroom/ntt-opens-its-first-data-center-in-spain

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Nokia milestone: 1.5 millionth Quillion-powered PON port shipments

Nokia has reached the 1.5 million port milestone for its Quillion chipset-based broadband solutions, potentially reaching 50 million subscribers.500K of the ports are 25G PON-ready.

The Quillion chipset now has more than160 operator customers around the world. Designed to offer multi-PON capabilities with GPON, XGS-PON and 25G PON all running on the same fiber, Quillion also reduces energy consumption, with 50% less power needed in fiber installations than previous generations which comfortably beats EU Codes of Conduct for Broadband Communication Equipment targets and helps operators to meet their emissions goals.

Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks Division at Nokia, said “I am delighted we have reached this milestone. Quillion’s multi-PON design and low power requirements have been instrumental in our ability to accelerate XGS-PON, especially with customers looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and future proof their networks.”  

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/05/24/nokia-announces-shipment-of-15-millionth-quillion-powered-pon-port-for-broadband-fiber-nodes/

Frontier tests Nokia’s 25G PON 

Tuesday, December 14, 2021  25G PON, Nokia  

Frontier Communications  completed the U.S.’ first trial of Nokia’s 25G PON. The two companies will continue trials on Frontier’s network while planning for commercial deployment in the second half of 2022.Veronica Bloodworth, Frontier’s Chief Network Officer, said, “Successfully completing the first U.S. trial of the country’s fastest fiber broadband is a critical step in offering a competitive advantage for Frontier and our customers. We already...

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Nokia builds mini-OLT with its Quillion chipset

Sunday, November 07, 2021    

Nokia introduced what it is calling the world's smallest Optical Line Terminal (OLT) based on its Quillion chipset. The Lightspan DF-16GM OLT, which can simultaneously provide services from 1 to 25 Gbps, is designed for deployment in street cabinets in low-density areas.The mini-OLT supports GPON, XGS-PON and 25G PON. These enables the unit to cover all service types (residential, business and anyhaul) from a single solution. Nokia says the...

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Ribbon supplies optical transport for Blueline Madagascar

Blueline, a provider of internet, voice and television services throughout Madagascar, has selected Ribbon's Apollo Optical Networking solution to upgrade the bandwidth capacity of its communications network.

The Apollo 9600 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Optical Transport solution provides Blueline multi-service transport capabilities on an energy-efficient multi-wavelength 100 Gigabit (100G) backbone that can be seamlessly upgraded to 200G as capacity needs increase.

"We are pleased to deliver a state-of-the-art end-to-end Optical solution to Blueline, enabling them to offer their customers highly desired high-speed broadband and connectivity communications services," said Lior Tourgeman, Ribbon's VP Sales, Africa. "Our Apollo solution provides Blueline with up to multi-terabit capacity in a very small form-factor, while offering carrier-grade reliability. We are also extremely proud of the fact that we could design a special solution that enables Blueline to protect its network equipment."

https://ribboncommunications.com

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