#MWC16: Huawei Showcases 5G Technologies

Huawei showcased a number of 5G innovations at Mobile World Congress, including:

• 5G New Radio Access Technologies (5G New RAT) in a large scale field trial with NTT DOCOMO,
• 5G Full Duplex Radio Technology with China Mobile,
• 5G mobile architecture for the Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) applications with Vodafone,
• Extremely fast 5G mmWave technology operating at 70 Gbps, and end-to-end network slicing technologies with Deutsche Telekom.

In addition, Huawei collaborated with Rohde Schwarz to demonstrate the 5G new waveform technologies and with Aeroflex, a Cobham Company, to demonstrate the 5G grant free access technologies.

Huawei also cited a number of R&D challenges it is pursuing in 5G, namely,

• a new air-interface with capability to meet all the requirement for the 5G applications,
• a programmable application-driven-network architecture built on the cloud-native platform and
• a holistic set of the new capabilities to enable the vertical applications for emerging 5G services and applications

In terms of industry partnerships, Huawei now has 5G initiatives underway with more than 20 operators, including CMCC, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, NTT DOCOMO, Telefonica, TeliaSonera and Etisalat, and 10 industry partners, spanning in Asia, Europe, and North America.

http://www.huawei.com/en/mwc2016

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#MWC16: Ericsson Supplies First 5Gbps Microwave Link in Egypt

Ericsson announced the first commercial deployment of its E-band microwave radio with 5 Gbps capacity.  The installation occurred in January in Mobinil's network in Egypt.

Hisham Sibilini, Mobinil CTIO, said: "We hold our customers at the core of our operations. Launching this global first technology is an anticipatory move in light of our expanding customer base and its long-term sustainability. With Ericsson as our partner in Egypt, we are able to ensure the highest quality experience for our customers. It is also a demonstration of our commitment to continuously invest in our infrastructure and ensure our networks have the capacity to handle future traffic."

http://www.ericsson.com

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ThousandEyes Raises $35 Million for Monitoring Software

ThousandEyes, a start-up based in San Francisco, closed $35 million in Series C funding for its network intelligence solutions.

ThousandEyes is a network intelligence platform that delivers visibility into every network an organization relies on, enabling them to optimize and improve application delivery, end-user experience and ongoing infrastructure investments. The company said modern enterprises rely on third-party applications, services and infrastructure connected over networks they don't manage or control and have little visibility into.  Its solution provides the ability to see their now borderless network, providing network intelligence so they can better deliver on customer service level agreements.

The new funding was led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from new investor GV (formerly Google Ventures) and existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures.

https://www.thousandeyes.com/

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Palo Alto Networks Posts Revenue of $335M, up 54% YoY

Palo Alto Networks reported record revenue of $334.7 million for the fiscal second quarter 2016, up 54 percent compared with total revenue of $217.7 million for the fiscal second quarter 2015. GAAP net loss for the fiscal second quarter 2016 was $62.5 million, or $0.72 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net loss of $43.0 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, for the fiscal second quarter 2015.

“We reported strong fiscal second quarter results across all metrics, including record revenue of $334.7 million, which increased 54 percent year-over-year. We are proud to now be serving more than 30,000 customers globally who are rapidly adopting the prevention capabilities of our Next-Generation Platform to achieve superior security, simplify their networks and greatly improve total cost of ownership,” said Mark McLaughlin, president and chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks.

“During the quarter we saw broad adoption of all aspects of our Next-Generation Security Platform with particular strength in our subscription services,” said Steffan Tomlinson, chief financial officer of Palo Alto Networks. “Our results demonstrate our commitment to balancing high growth and profitability as well as the increasing strength in free cash flow from our hybrid-SaaS model.”

Palo Alto Networks also announced the appointment of Frank Calderoni to its board of directors. He also will be joining the board’s audit committee. Calderoni currently is executive vice president, operations and CFO of Red Hat Inc. From May 2004 to January 2015, he held various positions at Cisco Systems, including executive vice president and CFO.

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com

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#MWC16: Cavium Demos M-CORD with ON.Lab

Cavium hosted a Proof of Concept (POC) for the Mobility Data Center (M-CORD) in collaboration with ON.Lab.  The demo used for using Cavium's ThunderX COTS servers and OCTEON Fusion-M baseband processors at Mobile World Congress.

CORD (Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter) combines SDN, NFV and the elasticity of commodity clouds, leveraging merchant silicon, white boxes, standard leaf-spine fabric for network connectivity and open source platforms such as ONOS, XOS, OpenStack, and Docker to bring datacenter economies and cloud agility to the Telco Central Office.

The MCORD POC includes specific uses cases of SDN and NFV for mobility wireless applications, including Cloud RAN (C-RAN), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and the ability to virtualize core functions such as the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

Cavium said M-CORD promises to further transform the mobile network from a transport network into a service delivery platform, allowing operators to achieve considerable opportunities for edge services with cloud-based economies and cost-savings. With M-CORD’s potential, operators and their collaborators may tap deeper into services such as digital gaming, video streaming, IOT, safety, big data analytics, mobile health, education, smart cities, vehicular communications, and much more with improved QoE and agility.

 "We are excited  to collaborate with ON.Lab for a 3GPP compliant disaggregated, and virtualized mobile infrastructure using our ThunderX workload optimized servers and our OCTEON Fusion-M Baseband Processors," said Raj Singh, General Manager of the Wireless Broadband Group at Cavium. "The M-CORD collaboration allows us to demonstrate the benefits of SDN and NFV in mobile infrastructure, and several agile service deployment scenarios of mobile edge computing."

“We’re excited about the progress that our collaboration and community have made on M-CORD in such a short amount of time – a testatment to the importance of this initiative to vendors, service providers and enterprises alike,” said Guru Parulkar, Executive Director, ON.Lab and ONOS Board Chairman. “The delivery of M-CORD not only generates new opportunities for competitive mass market solutions such as IoT, Big Data, mobile healthcare, education and more, but also enables the supply chain efficiencies needed for the industry to provide cutting-edge innovation to consumers at affordable prices. We welcome new members to join us.”

http://onlab.us
http://www.cavium.com

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#MWC16 - Nokia Demos NB-IoT with Intel and Vodafone

At this week's Mobile World Congress, Nokia demoed Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) in collaboration with Intel and Vodafone. The demo shows future NB-IoT services from Vodafone in both rural and urban scenarios, supported by NB-IoT-enabled network equipment from Nokia and client device technology from Intel. The system highlights NB-IoT’s capability to support the massive number of low-throughput sensors and devices that will enable next-generation services to consumers, smart cities, utilities and industry.

NB-IoT is a 3GPP Rel. 13 radio access technology designed especially for enabling cellular connectivity to Internet of Things devices, and is designed to combine long range mobile connections with long battery life.

Nokia said NB-IoT has the potential to help billions of things connect by reducing costs, enhancing coverage and extending the battery life of connected objects. The enhanced coverage of NB-IoT compared to conventional LTE will allow for the tracking of objects deep within buildings and in rural areas, as shown in the joint demonstration.

http://networks.nokia.com

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#MWC16: MulteFire Alliance Pursues LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum

There is a growing interest in using LTE in unlicensed spectrum, according to The MulteFire Alliance, which was launched just over a year ago to promote the technology.  The alliance is developing a global ecosystem for LTE in unlicensed spectrum and the further development of small cell technology. Ericsson, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm are key players behind MulteFire. Multiple demos were held at MWC16 this week in Barcelona.

The MulteFire Alliance technical specification group is developing the MulteFire specification based on 3GPP Release 13 and Release 14 advancements, including downlink and uplink in unlicensed spectrum. MulteFire is designed to initially operate in 5 GHz unlicensed bands and coexist with other technologies using the same spectrum. MulteFire can also act as a neutral host to serve multiple entities or deliver provider-specific services at enterprises, venues and small businesses. The Alliance plans to provide interoperability, conformance and coexistence specifications and to enable conformance testing to ensure a robust and interoperable ecosystem.

“The MulteFire Alliance is committed to developing a technology designed to meet global unlicensed band regulations, including Listen-Before-Talk features required in regions such as Europe and Japan, for a truly global reach,” said Stephan Litjens, MulteFire Alliance Board Chair and head of Innovation Steering at Nokia. “Our members are taking great care to ensure that MulteFire technology will harmoniously coexist with other technologies in unlicensed spectrum bands.”

The newest members of the MulteFire Alliance include Athonet, Baicells, Boingo Wireless, Casa Systems, Ruckus Wireless and SpiderCloud Wireless.

http://www.MulteFire.org

#MWC16 - Qualcomm Brings Gigabit LTE, 4x4 MIMO LTE, Ultra HD Voice

Sunday, February 21, 2016  #MWC16, MulteFire, Qualcomm  No comments

Qualcomm Technologies is showcasing its recently-announced Snapdragon X16 LTE modem at this week's Mobile World Congress -- representing a 10X leap over first gen LTE and 500X over early 3G devices. In a demo featuring Ericsson's Software 16B release, the modem is achieving download speeds up to 1 Gbps using a combination of 3x carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO on two aggregated carriers, and higher-order modulation using 256-QAM. Other Qualcomm demos...

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#MWC16: Qualcomm and SpiderCloud Pitch Small Cells for Unlicensed

Saturday, February 20, 2016  #MWC16, Qualcomm, Spidercloud  No comments

Qualcomm and SpiderCloud Wireless are collaborating on LTE-U, LTE-LAA, and MulteFire systems for enterprises and public venues. SpiderCloud’s Enterprise RAN (E-RAN) architecture that includes a Services Node controlling up to 100 self-organizing LTE small cells, capable of delivering coverage and capacity in indoor locations as large as 1.5 million square feet. Verizon will trial SpiderCloud’s LTE-U system in the third quarter of 2016. SpiderCloud’s...

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#MWC16: Baicells' Mini Base Station Fits in Palm of Your Hand

Baicells introduced a mini, small cell base station based on Qualcomm's the FSM90xx chipsets.

The palm-sized elfCell, which integrates baseband, RF and antenna, is considered to be one of the world’s smallest base stations.

“Compliant with 3GPP standard, elfCell can be used by the general public. It can support flexible frequency bands, FDD/TDD dual modes and most importantly plug & play, which means a zero configuration, zero installation for indoor coverage. Qualcomm Technologies’ FSM90xx chipsets help the elfCell achieve stable performance in a palm-sized design with built-in antenna. We really appreciate support from Qualcomm Technologies,” said Mr. Wei Bai, Vice President Marketing of Baicells. 

“ElfCell can support 16 active users simultaneously, with DL rate reaching 150Mbps and UL rate reaching 75Mbps. We believe that the small and exquisite elfCell will gain widespread popularity among operators by tremendously reducing their deployment and maintenance cost,” Wei Bai added.

Baidcells is rolling out the LTE-U small cell solution with China Mobile and the company says it has plans to deploy in the U.S. in the near future.

http://www.baicells.com

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#MWC16- Samsung Spins 256GB Flash for High-End Phones

Samsung Electronics has begun mass production of the first 256-gigabyte (GB) embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard.  The newly introduced embedded memory, which is targeted at high-end mobile devices, exceeds that of a typical SATA-based SSD for PCs.

The new Samsung UFS memory is based on the company’s most advanced V-NAND flash memory chips and a specially-designed high-performance controller. The UFS memory handles up to 45,000 and 40,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) for random reading and writing respectively, over two times faster than the 19,000 and 14,000 IOPS of the previous generation of UFS memory.

For sequential reading, the 256GB UFS takes advantage of two lanes of data transfer to move data at up to 850MB/s, which is nearly twice as fast as a typical SATA-based SSD used in PCs. In terms of sequential writing, it supports up to 260MB/s, which is approximately three times faster than high-performance external micro SD cards.

“By providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the mobile data storage market,” said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. “We are determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups – OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS – by moving aggressively to enhance performance and capacity in all three markets.”

http://www.samsung.com

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#MWC16: IDT Partners with 5G Lab Germany on Autonomous Cars

Integrated Device Technology announced a multi-year collaboration with 5G Lab Germany on 5G tactile networks, including the application of IDT technology to enable network-connected autonomous vehicles.

The project extends the Dresden-based lab's focus on combining 5G technologies with system-transforming applications.

IDT said its RapidIO technology will be used to explore two key elements of the network. First, the 100ns latency RapidIO switching and interconnect technology will be used to realize 5G Lab Germany's vision of transforming the vehicle into a connected appliance by networking it with a 5G base station's "edge computing" server. Second, it is planned for RapidIO technology to be evaluated to connect multiple vehicle sensors in real time for the mission-critical sensor fusion network essential for the self-driving or computer-assisted driving experience. A RapidIO-connected heterogeneous computer network will run real-time analytics to assist various network devices, including vehicles.

"With Germany's leadership in the global automotive industry, our lab's focus on the tactile Internet of Things, and IDT's low-latency interconnect and market-leading timing portfolio, the key elements are in place to tackle the real-time mission-critical challenges of platforms for the tactile Internet, including autonomous vehicles," said Gerhard Fettweis, 5G Lab chair and Vodafone chair professor for Mobile Communications Systems. "With the 1 millisecond round trip constraints in 5G deployments, we need low-latency computing platforms for vehicles, base station and edge computing servers. This project will explore connecting the requisite high-performance computing nodes through the deployment of IDT RapidIO technology and associated timing products."

The collaboration will build on IDT's recently announced RXS family of 50 Gbps RapidIO products, as well as computing appliances under development by IDT partners in the Open Compute Project's (OCP) High-Performance Computing group. The OCP's projects support heterogeneous computing between x86, ARM, Power Architecture, GPU and FPGAs.

http://www.idt.com/

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#MWC: Pluribus Updates SDN Software for Dell ON Switches

Pluribus Networks released a new version of its Open Netvisor Linux (ONVL) for Dell, enabling the automatic creation of fully connected mesh networking for the data center along with deep visibility and application-awareness for applications like big data, network storage and virtual desktop infrastructure.

Highlights of Open Netvisor Linux version 2.3.2 for Dell include:

• The ability to create an agile, fully connected and single fabric regardless of the number of switches, with the added benefit of simplified deployment and maintenance of the data center network
• Complete visibility and application-level awareness of the flow of information between applications and services for optimizing demanding applications
• The unlocking of hardware potential found in the Dell Open Networking family of switches by providing wire-speed and low-latency switching with complete Layer-2 and Layer-3 compatibility for existing infrastructures
• The industry’s only high-availability, fully distributed controller architecture based upon proven protocols, which also offers a familiar, but fabric-wide management interface

http://www.pluribusnetworks.com

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#MWC16: Vimplecom Picks ZTE for NFV Rollout in 5 Countries

Vimplecom has selected ZTE to build a complete virtual network infrastructure providing 4G, 3G and 2G mobile data services to customers across five markets in 2016. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ZTE’s virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) network will be introduced in Kyrgyzstan and Laos in February 2016. Following these two markets, VimpelCom plans to introduce the fully virtualized network in Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Tajikistan during the course of 2016. With virtualization, the networks in the five VimpelCom markets will move from a legacy-heavy network made up of separate network elements to a common software-driven, lean infrastructure.

Yogesh Malik, Group Chief Technology Officer at VimpelCom said: “VimpelCom believes in instant innovation. Investing in innovative solutions to reinvent our network is high on the agenda as we transform into the digital operator of the future. We are convinced that virtualization represents the new way forward for the industry. The reinvention of the current network to one that is software-driven and asset-light plays an important part in our digital transformation and is a leap forward in bringing the digital world to each and every customer as they navigate their digital lives.”

http://www.zte.com

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Martin Casado Joins Andreessen Horowitz as a General Partner

Martin Casado, the founder and CTO of Nicira and most recently General Manager and Executive Vice President of VMware's Networking and Security Business, has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a General Partner. Casado is known for his pioneering work with OpenFlow while at Stanford.  In 2009, Nicira Networks was established to commercialize software-defined network. In 2012, VMware acquired Nicira for $1.26 billion. In a blog post, Marc Andreessen notes that under Casado's leadership, VMware’s networking and security portfolio closed out 2015 at a $600 million annual revenue run rate, and with a six-fold increase in paying customers only three years after Nicira was acquired.

http://a16z.com/2016/02/24/martin-casado/

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VMware Appoints Rajiv Ramaswami as GM of Networking & Security

VMware announced the appointment of Dr. Rajiv Ramaswami as General Manager and Executive Vice President of its Networking and Security Business, replacing Martin Casado.

Ramaswami most recently served as executive vice president and general manager of the Infrastructure & Networking Group of Broadcom Corporation. Prior to Broadcom, Ramaswami was vice president and general manager of the Cloud Services and Switching Technology Group at Cisco Systems, Inc., where he also served as vice president and general manager for a variety of business units in Optical, Switching and Storage Networking. Ramaswami holds both a Master of Science degree and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a B. Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.

http://www.vmware.com

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#MWC16: Telefónica Picks Ericsson for UNICA

Telefónica has selected Ericsson as a key partner of this program to provide the infrastructure and software required to launch the UNICA architecture in Telefónica Germany in 2016.

UNICA is the telecommunication cloud architecture of Telefónica which aims to virtualize NFV in an automatized fashion across its operations. It is a solution open, modular, multi-vendor, multi-site, standard, secure, flexible and extensible, designed to meet Telefonica's evolving requirements and cost efficient.

Ericsson said it will supply its new Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000, Ericsson Cloud Manager, Cloud SDN and automation, as well as systems integration and support services. In addition, Ericsson will provide systems integration and support services to deploy the certified solution in Germany. Telefónica will certify the Ericsson solution to ensure fulfillment of UNICA functionalities and roadmap during Q1 and Q2, targeting the rollout of UNICA in Germany during Q4 2016.

Telefónica said a new concept introduced in the architectural design is the "Multi-VIM" requirement, which ensures an open platform avoiding vendor lock-in and to minimize integration efforts.

Telefónica also confirmed that HPE and Huawei, which have been collaborating until now with UNICA, will continue to participate in this program as strategic partners for NFV.

http://www.telefonica.com
http://www.ericsson.com/news/1988285

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#MWC16: Juniper Selected for Telefónica Fusión Network.

Telefónica has selected Juniper Networks to provide the core infrastructure for its next generation Fusión Network, which aims to transform the customer experience for mobile, residential and business services across Spain. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Specifically, Telefónica Spain will use Juniper's MX Series 3D Routers to provide a high performance, intelligent SDN control, service rich core network for the Fusión Network. The MX2020 will provide Telefónica Spain the multi-terabit IP/MPLS routing capacity and connectivity across all metro regions as traffic ingress and egress from all of Telefónica's Internet Exchange locations. The new core network is extensible to address service interconnectivity for the Internet, content providers, content delivery networks (CDNs) and data centers relying on Telefónica's national infrastructure.

Juniper's MX2020 scales up to 32Tbps of system capacity. The platform offers a fully redundant and resilient architecture, advanced Junos OS automation and analytics functionality and SDN/NFV programmability.The core rollout will begin imminently, with estimated completion by 2019.

http://www.juniper.net
as one of the 

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#MWC16: Linux Foundation Backs Open-Orchestrator Project

A new OPEN-Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O) is getting underway to develop the first open source software framework and orchestrator to enable agile software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) operations. The initiative is driven by China Mobile and Huawei, with early support from Brocade, China Telecom, DynaTrace, Ericsson, F5 Networks, GigaSpaces, Infoblox, Intel, KT, Red Hat, Raisecom, Riverbed and ZTE. The project will be hosted by The Linux Foundation.

As an open source orchestration framework, OPEN-O will integrate open networking technologies and enable carriers to quickly and cost-effectively implement SDN and NFV through open source code development. The project will also aim to accelerate multi-vendor integration, service innovation and improve agility across network operations.

"China born and global in nature, OPEN-O will unite industry forces to set up the world's first SDN and NFV unified orchestrator, serving as an important step in promoting deeper convergence among SDN and NFV technologies and innovation in the networking industry,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation.

“The Telecommunication 4.0 era features the full convergence of IT and CT; it relies on NFV and SDN as the key technical enablers for automatic deployment and agile operation. The orchestrator functions at the top part of them play the critical role. We are hoping that all partners work together to build the healthy ecosystem and accelerate the maturity of SDN and NFV. By embracing open source, China Mobile is expecting that the OPEN-O project will develop state-of-art open-source orchestrator software,” stated Li Zhengmao, executive vice president of China Mobile.

https://www.openo.org

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#MWC16: China Mobile Outlines Network Roadmap

At Mobile World Congress, China Mobile provided an update on its current 4G rollout and outlined next steps as it contemplates the transition to 5G.

As of the end of 2015, China Mobile had:

• deployed 1.10 million TD-LTE base stations covering a population footprint of over 1.2 billion
• established 4G roaming with 114 countries and regions
• sold 300 million TD-LTE devices in 2015 - this represents the addition of more than 400 TD-LTE users every minute
• 4G subscriber base reached 340 million, accounting for about 30% of global number
• completed the deployment of carrier aggregation (CA) in over 300 cities and has commercialized VoLTE services in 100 cities. 

For 2016, China Mobile will speed up its 4G deployment. Plans call for:

• increasing the number of TD-LTE base stations to 1.40 million
• deploying CA technologies in central and hot-spot areas of all cities by the end of 2016
• commercializing VoLTE services in over 260 cities in the first half of 2016
• launching Rich Communication Service (RCS) in the second half of the year
• accelerating the uptake of VoLTE/CA-enabled devices by selling 330 million 4G devices and 
• expanding the 4G user base to over 500 million in 2016.     

China Mobile also confirmed plans for dedicated networks for the Internet of Things. It aims to develop 100 million IoT connections in 2016.

In addition,China Mobile, together with the representatives of the first 11 partners, jointly launched the China Mobile 5G Joint Innovation Center, which will collaboratively develop applications and products in such areas as basic communications, IoT, telematics, industrial Internet, cloud robotics and virtual/augmented reality. Early partners include Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Datang, Intel, Keysight, Beijing Shougang Automation Information Technology Co., Ltd., Haier, and Hisense.

China Mobile also introduced cost-effective VoLTE/CA devices and chip solutions during the summit, including its self-branded VoLTE/CA devices. Together with Samsung, China Mobile introduced 5 new customized VoLTE devices; in partnership with Qualcomm and MTK, China Mobile launched VoLTE+ down-link and up-link CA chip solutions at the price point of $100; jointly with Spreadtrum and Leadcore, China Mobile released VoLTE chip solutions at the price point of $50.

http://www.chinamobile.com

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#MWC16: AT&T Highlights Business Agility, IoT, Connected Car

AT&T outlined its plans to invest nearly US$10 billion in 2016 to deliver our integrated solutions for businesses worldwide. The company's guidance for overall capital investment in 2016 remains unchanged to be in the US$22 billion range.

Some highlights:

• In Mexico, AT&T plans to integrate more than 6,000 kilometers of fiber currently supporting the wireless operations into the AT&T wireline network; enhance these assets by investing in more AT&T global network nodes and add hundreds of sellers focused on selling business solutions in Mexico. This is in addition to the US$3 billion announced in 2015 to extend its high-speed, mobile Internet service to Mexico, covering 100 million consumers and businesses in Mexico by year-end 2018.
• Connectivity – Bring high-speed, highly secure wireline and wireless network connectivity to more cities around the world.
• Network on Demand – Continue to software-enable the AT&T global network.
• Internet of Things (IoT) – Expand dedicated IoT networks in Europe and the U.S. to connect assets in different industries, like connected cars, fleets, shipping containers, utility meters, air cargo and heavy equipment.
• AT&T NetBond – Roll out additional features, extend highly secure connections to more leading cloud providers and expand in Asia-Pac, EMEA, U.S. and Canada.
• Security – Launch additional features and consulting services globally, while enhancing our security capabilities and alliances and simplifying the customer experience.
• Collaboration Solutions – Deliver integrated communications tools that help businesses of all sizes collaborate across platforms and over geographical boundaries to colleagues, collaborators, suppliers and customers around the world.

At Mobile World Congress, AT&T also announced:

• a proof of concept IoT solution that helps Red Bull monitor their network of beverage coolers. 
• an expanded, multi-year agreement with Audi for the connected car. Audi will be providing next-generation technology, featuring new safety, security and infotainment features, such as remote lock and unlock, stolen vehicle locator, online roadside assistance and service requests over the AT&T network. 
•  a connected car agreement with Porsche covering certain 2017 models 
• a deal with Ericsson to deploy CAT-M and NB-IoT 3GPP standards-based technologies to support the millions of IoT devices coming to market. 
• an expansion of its SmartCities framework, including a strategic alliance with Southern Company, a utility company based in Atlanta. 
• a collaboration with Intel to test Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The AT&T Internet of Things (IoT) team and the AT&T Foundry innovation center in Palo Alto, Calif., will be working with Intel to evaluate performance of the LTE network at higher altitudes. They will be testing to see how it affects video streaming, transmitting telematics and flight information. 
•  a program to integrate AT&T IoT Services with Cisco, Intel and Microsoft technologies. Developers using the AT&T Global SIM, AT&T Control Center and AT&T IoT Services now have access to Cisco’s Fog computing solutions. Developers that connect their devices through the AT&T Global SIM and AT&T Control Center will be able to store their data in the Microsoft Azure cloud. They will be able to use AT&T M2X and AT&T Flow Designer and access Microsoft Azure, big data, BI, advanced analytics and machine learning tools to transform their data into intelligent action. 

“Business is moving faster than ever and companies around the world need to be agile to quickly adapt to changing markets,” said Ralph de la Vega, vice chairman of AT&T Inc. and CEO of Business Solutions & International. “Our industry-leading network and innovative platforms give them the tools to do just that — where they want it and how they want it—around the globe.”

http://www.att.com

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#MWC16: Orange Rolls out VoLTE and WiFi Calling in Europe

Orange confirmed the rollout of VoLTE and WiFi calling across its European footprint. VoLTE will facilitate dramatically reduced connection times (falling from approximately eight to two seconds) and improved simultaneous use of voice and high speed data.

VoLTE is already available for Orange customers in Romania. Orange plans to activate VoLTE in its remaining European operations over the course of 2016 and early 2017. WiFi Calling will launch across Orange’s remaining European footprint over the course of 2016 and early 2017.

Orange also announces the launch of its first own-branded device to support both technologies – the Orange Neva 80. Retailing at under €200, the smartphone is Orange’s first own-branded ‘category 6’ device. Tt offers 300Mbps download speeds, making it the fastest device in the range and makes use of the very latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow software. In addition, responding to customers’ demands for durable screens, the smartphone will feature Dragontrail glass making it scratch and crack-resistant - also a first for Orange’s own-branded device range. At 5.2 inches with full HD, 143g and Orange’s slimmest own-branded phone ever at 7.6mm, the premium Orange Neva 80 is a sleek addition to the range. It also packs in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octo-core processor, 16 GB of memory and 2G of RAM. And features a high-quality 5 mega pixel front camera with face-detection and 13 mega pixel rear camera.  The Orange Neva 80 also comes with NFC and is pre-embedded with Orange Cash in the markets where the service is available including France, Poland and Spain.

http://www.orange.com

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