NTT Comm activates PoP in Manchester

NTT Communications (NTT Com) expanded its Tier-1 Global IP Network with a new Point-of-Presence (PoP) in Manchester, United Kingdom, at Equinix’s MA4 Manchester IBX data center, a strategically-located facility within the Manchester Science Park.

Equinix’s MA4 data center enables direct interconnection to IX Manchester and the London Internet exchange, LINX, as well as a wide range of network service providers and major cloud service providers.

NTT Com customers at MA4 will be able to connect to the Global IP Network at numerous capacity levels including 100G ports.

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Turkcell deploys nationally-produced ULAK base station

Turkcell is deploying a locally-produced "ULAK" base station to bring 4.5G mobile connectivity to rural areas in Anatolia. The deployment, which is part of Turkey’s “Universal Connectivity” project, upgrades 9 villages in the town of Cankiri, which were previously served only with 2G. The agreement with the Turkish government requires 10% use of locally produced base stations.

Turkey’s national base station was developed by Aselsan with the contribution of Netas and Argela, under the coordination of the Undersecretariat of Defence Industries and with the support of Ministry of Transport, Communication and Maritime Affairs, and Information and Communication Technology Agency.

Turkcell plans to deploy Turkey’s nationally-produced base station ULAK for nearly 50% of the “Universal 4.5G Connectivity” project - with Cankiri being one of the first areas to be connected with the national base stations.

“If we want Industry 4.0 to transform the societies, we cannot leave anyone behind, no matter what today’s economic feasibilities suggest. As the digital operator, we are honored to support the Turkish Government in taking 4.5G to rural parts of Turkey,” said Gediz Sezgin, Chief Technology Officer of Turkcell. “We are also proud to see that Turkey today has the capability to support this effort with locally produced technology. We are happy to help foster the growth of Turkey’s local technological capabilities and ecosystem through our deployment of the national base station. Both dimensions of our recent deployment in Cankiri exemplify a public-private partnership done right.”

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Gigalight launches 40km 100G Single Receiver Optical Modules for DPI

Gigalight, which is based in Shenzhen, introduced two 40km single receiver optical modules for Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) applications.

• a single receiver 100G QSFP28 ER4 Lite optical module with a power dissipation less than 2.5W. This module uses a high-sensitivity APD detector (ROSA) with a receiving sensitivity up to -15dBm per channel (1E-12, @25G). This module increases the optical transmission budget for users and meets the optical transmission applications (optical fiber directly connected without splitting) up to 40km when the Forward Error Correction (FEC) function in the front of the system side is enabled.
• a single receiver 100G CFP2 ER4 optical module with a power dissipation less than 3.5W. It uses the PIN photodetector (ROSA) and the miniaturized Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA). At the same time, it adopts the SOA closed-loop adaptive gain control algorithm developed by Gigalight, which can quickly lock the working current of SOA and quickly adjust the amplification performance of SOA, to ensure that the receiver's acceptance sensitivity is as high as -21.4dBm per channel (1E-12, @25G). 

Gigalight said the optical interface of the front-end, DPI flow collection and distributary equipment needs to be upgraded from 10GE to 100GE ports. When the flow collection equipment cannot be placed in the same room as the analytics and storage, a long distance fiber transmission is needed.

http://www.gigalight.com/news_detail/newsId=431.html

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Marvell appoints Bethany Mayer and Donna Morris to Board

Marvell has appointed Bethany Mayer, former President and CEO of Ixia, and Donna Morris, Executive Vice President, Customer and Employee Experience at Adobe, to its board of directors. Incumbent directors Gerri Elliott, who recently joined Cisco Systems as its new Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, and Peter Feld have notified Marvell that they will not be standing for re-election at the company's 2018 annual general meeting of shareholders to be held on June 28, 2018.

Bethany Mayer is currently an executive partner with Siris Capital Group LLC. From 2014 through 2017, she was the president, CEO and a board member of Ixia, a market leader in test, visibility and security solutions acquired by Keysight Technologies in 2017. From 2011 through 2014, Mayer was senior vice president and general manager of HP's Networking Business unit and the NFV Business unit and as vice president, marketing and alliances for HP's Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking Group from 2010 until 2011.

Donna Morris has served as Executive Vice President, Customer and Employee Experience at Adobe Systems Incorporated since 2016, and in other senior positions with Adobe since 2002.

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Alibaba's cloud revenue grew at 103% yoy pace in March quarter

Alibaba Group reported that its cloud division (Aliyun) generated revenue of RMB 4.385 billion (US$699 million) for its fiscal quarter ending 31-March-2018, representing 103% increase over the same period last year, and an 8% growth.

Aliyun currently represents 7% of Alibaba's overall revenue, which amounted to  RMB 61.932 billion (US$9.873 billion) for the quarter, an increase of 61% year-over-year.

The gross market value (GMV) transacted on Alibaba's China retail marketplaces for the full fiscal year ended 31-March-2018 was RMB 4,820 billion (US$768 billion), representing an accelerated year-over-year growth rate of 28% (compared to an annual growth rate of 22% in fiscal year 2017).

Some highlights of the Aliyun business

In the March 2018 quarter, Aliyun launched 316 new products and features, over 60 of which were
focused on artificial intelligence, data management and security.

Aliyun launched Link Edge, a proprietary edge computing software to enable the development of IoT applications in industries such as manufacturing, real estate and public facilities, such as airports and train stations.

Aliyun continues to expand its global footprint and customer base, most recently adding a new data
center in Indonesia, increasing the global footprint to 18 countries and regions worldwide.
Here are some selected large customers:

• China National Petroleum Corporation, one of the largest petroleum companies in China, is building its procurement platform on Alibaba Cloud, leveraging private cloud, big data, and security products and services.
• Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation is using the City Brain platform for traffic management in Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur. This platform leverages advanced technologies, including AI, big data analytics and computer vision to manage and optimize city traffic.
• Cathay Pacific, a leading global airline headquartered in Hong Kong, adopted Alibaba's security and data protection consultancy services to protect its operations in China.

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Final splice complete on Hawaiki transpacific cable with up to 43 Tbps of capacity

The final splice of the Hawaiki Submarine Cable has been made and the system is on schedule for commercial launch next month

The carrier-neutral Hawaiki subsea cable links Australia and New Zealand to the mainland United States, as well as Hawaii and American Samoa, with additional potential future landings in New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.

The Hawaiki Cable System comprises over 15,000 km of high-capacity cable, and the use of TE SubCom's optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM) nodes allows for additional landings in the Pacific region to be added as needed.
Hawaiki will provide 43 Tb of new capacity in the Pacific region, significantly dropping the cost of connectivity in this area.

“Hawaiki will positively impact the countless communities and economies in the Pacific,” said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. “Because of its scope and impact for communities in the Pacific region, the Hawaiki Cable System is a critical and multi-faceted endeavor. We are pleased with the progress to date and are looking forward to the project’s completion in June and the much-needed capacity it will bring to the region.”

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Shares in Carbon Black leap 26% in IPO - end point security

Shares in Carbon Black rose 26% over their IPO price to close at $23.94. The shares are now traded on Nasdaq under the symbol CBLK.

Carbon Black, which is based in Waltham, Mass., specializes in endpoint security and its solutions encompass application control, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and next-generation antivirus (NGAV).

Carbon Black operates a big data and analytics cloud platform that enables customers to defend against the most advanced cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks. The company serves more than 3,700 customers globally.

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Three weeks in, ZTE appeals to U.S. Commerce Dept as shares remain suspended

ZTE has appealed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to lift the ban on the export of U.S. products to the company, according to a regulatory filing made by ZTE to the Hong Kong exchange. There is no word on whether the appeal will be heard or acted upon by BIS.

Meanwhile, trading of ZTE's shares on the Hong Kong market remain suspended since April 16th.

ZTE posted a Q1 growth rate of 12% prior to export ban on its suppliers

Monday, April 30, 2018  Financials, ZTE  No Comments

ZTE reported revenue of RMB 28.879 billion (US$5.548 billion) for the first quarter of 2018, up 12% over the same period in 2017. Net profit after extraordinary items attributable to holders of ordinary shares of the listed company amounted to RMB 1.368 billion (US$216 million). The company said it is still assessing the impact of the export ban imposed on its U.S. suppliers by the U.S. Department of Commerce, stating that this action will have...

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Mediatek halts shipments to ZTE

Friday, April 27, 2018  Mediatek, Silicon  No Comments

Following an order from Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade, Mediatek has suspended shipment of its chips and components to ZTE, according to Nikkei Asian Review. Mediatek is the second largest global supplier of systems-on-chip (SoC) solutions for mobile devices. It also supplies a range of connectivity chips for home networking and broadband CPE, along with a new line of optical components. https://s.nikkei.com/2HFl...

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Chairman of ZTE says U.S. export ban is "unfair and unreasonable"

Wednesday, April 25, 2018  China, Legal, ZTE  No Comments

The Chairman of ZTE, Mr. Yin Yimin, issued a public statement acknowledging that the company is "in a very difficult situation," stating that his team is doing its utmost to solve this situation through active communication, and imploring the company's 80,000 employees to "be stable-minded and perform their respective duties." The public statement comes nine days after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed...

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WSJ: Huawei under criminal investigation by U.S. authorities

Wednesday, April 25, 2018  Huawei  No Comments

The FBI is investigating Huawei over possible exports of prohibited technologies to Iran in violation of international sanctions. The case could lead to a ban on the export of products from the U.S. to Huawei, as happened earlier this month with ZTE.  There has been no official confirmation of an investigation. Huawei has not commented on the reports. The news sent share prices down for many suppliers of silicon and optical component...

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U.S. Commerce Dept. bans exports to ZTE

Monday, April 16, 2018  Legal, ZTE  No Comments

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has imposed a denial of export privileges against Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation (ZTE) of China. The ban prohibits companies or individuals from participating in any way in an export transaction with ZTE. The order prohibits "Carrying on negotiations concerning, or ordering, buying, receiving, using, selling, delivering, storing, disposing of, forwarding,...

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Australia's Vertel launches SD-WAN with Nuage Networks

Vertel, an Australian national telecommunications carrier specialising in the design, build and operation of next-generation wireless networks, is deploying Nuage Networks for it upcoming SD-WAN services launch for government, enterprise and service provider customers. The service launch is expected in July this year.

The SD-WAN will also underpin the delivery of a range of enhanced ICT services such as managed security, Unified Communications, IP-PBX, video conferencing, carrier-grade WLAN, private LTE, Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) and multi-access edge computing (MEC) services.

Overview of the solution to be deployed:

• Nokia Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) will enable Vertel to add automation, reduce operational expenditure and deliver secure and scalable WAN services across Australia
• Nokia Professional Services team will ensure the efficient and timely completion of the project
• Nuage Networks solution provides a single SDN automation platform for the private cloud, WAN, and public cloud, ensuring flexibility, agility and operational simplification

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EdgeConneX expands North American edge data centers

EdgeConneX announced multiple planned expansions at it sEdge Data Centers (EDCs) across North America. The company plans to accommodate up to 50 MWs of additional capacity across multiple markets, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Phoenix, Portland, and Toronto.

EdgeConneX said it is experiencing significant growth from new customers as well as increased need for additional power capacity and space from its anchor tenants and existing clients.  In some markets, EdgeConneX is building its second and third data center facility, evolving these Edge Data Centers into campus-like environments that contain a robust ecosystem of networking, content, cloud and IT service providers interconnecting and growing at the Edge.

“I’m extremely pleased to see continued and growing demand from customers for Edge deployments,” comments Randy Brouckman, CEO of EdgeConneX.  “For over five years, we have been building Edge Data Centers for the service provider community, creating a vibrant, localized service delivery enablement platform made up of a diverse customer ecosystem.  As demonstrated by this current expansion across North America, and based on robust customer demand and positive technology trends, we expect this growth at the Edge to continue for the foreseeable future.”

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Seaborn Networks appoints Chief Sales Officer

Seaborn Networks announced the appointment of David Zimmer as its Chief Sales Officer.

Zimmer most recently served as Senior Vice President - Carrier Services Business Unit for Earthlink (acquired by Windstream). Before that, he rose through the ranks at Level 3 Communications (now CenturyLink) over a 13-year period, culminating in his serving as Vice President of Sales - Wholesale Markets.

In a related announcement, Jim Olson of Seaborn now serves as Vice President, Corporate Development, where he will focus on Seaborn's portfolio of new-build opportunities, including ARBR (Argentina to Brazil; RFS H1 2019), SABR (South Africa - Brazil; RFS H1 2020), and Seabras-1 branches for Virginia Beach, Miami, USVI/BVI, Fortaleza and Brazil South.

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NETGEAR intros 10G and 40G Switch for SDVoE

NETGEAR introduced a 2U modular switch starting at $100 per port that scales up to 96 ports of 10G Ethernet or up to 24 ports of 40G Ethernet, or a combination.

The M4300-96X stackable switch features 12 open slots and two redundant power with support for copper, PoE+ and fiber ports.

The switch supports standard APIs from the Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) Allianc. It is pre-enabled with IGMP/multicast.

Key features of the M4300-96X Modular Managed Switch

• Streamlines AV-over-IP SDVoE solutions, replacing 48x48 circuit switchers
• 1.92Tbps Non-blocking fabric for 96x10G or 24x40G or a combination
• 12 empty slots in 2RU for 8x10G or 2x40G port expansion cards
• Two empty slots for redundant power supply units (PSU)
• PoE over 10G is supported in first 6 slots (48x10G PoE+ 30W each)
• Zero Touch AV-over-IP with pre-configured L2 Multicast (SDVoE-ready)
• Advanced Layer 2, Layer 3 and Layer 4 feature set - no license required
• IGMP Snooping, IGMP Fast Leave, IGMP Querier are already enabled
• Innovative Spine-and-Leaf 1G, 10G and 40G mixed stacking with non-stop forwarding
• Front-to-back cooling for hot/cold aisle containment in server rooms
• 1G OOB, RJ45 RS232 and Mini-USB console management, USB storage
• Easy-to-use Web browser-based management GUI

“Our M4300-96X Managed Switch is far superior to a fixed port solution, as you can start small and add capacity in non-blocking mode, merely by adding port expansion cards. And the fact that it’s SDVoE-ready means it can easily co-exist with products from multiple AV vendors, without the need for separate programming interfaces,” said Richard Jonker, vice president of product line management for SMB products at NETGEAR. “It supports intuitive configuration of your entire AV system with higher flexibility, lower complexity, and stronger investment protection.”

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Deutsche Telekom begins pilot 5G rollout in Berlin

Deutsche Telekom has activated its first six cells with commercial 5G antennas in the heart of Berlin and thereby achieved the first 5G data connection in a live network in Europe.

The Deutsche Telekom 5G cluster covers an area of up to five kilometers wide in Berlin's Mitte and Schöneberg districts for test operations. The antennas, in three cells located in Leipziger Straße and three in Winterfeldtstraße, are based on the 5G New Radio (5G NR) specs. The antennas are using frequencies in the 3.7 GHz spectrum band under a testing license. The 5G equipment is integrated into the live network infrastructure, meaning it is interacting with Deutsche Telekom's 4G spectrum in Germany.

DT's plan is to install an additional 70 cells by the summer across a total of more than 20 sites.

DT is using commercial 5G equipment from Huawei, as well as software and terminals, based on the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard for 5G New Radio (in the non-standalone version).

"We're continuing on our strong preparation course for the rollout of 5G in 2020," noted Claudia Nemat, Deutsche Telekom Board member for Technology and Innovation. "Today, right in the heart of Berlin, we're taking the next decisive step – with the successful integration of commercial 5G technology into our network. We want to ensure that 5G is going to deliver on its promise of enhanced mobility, high speed and low latency."

"5G New Radio in Berlin is another major step towards 5G for all”, explained Walter Goldenits, Chief Technology Officer at Telekom Deutschland. "This 5G cluster in Berlin will serve as the basis for our future commercial 5G rollout in Germany. The antennas are providing important test results. At the same time, they are real elements of what will be our future 5G network. We are preparing the ground so that our network will be ready when the first 5G-capable smartphones appear on the market."

Deutsche Telekom said it is working in cooperation with its Berlin-based hub:raum start-up incubator, to launch a 5G Prototyping Program. Another relevant program, focused on low latency, is already successfully underway. Both programs are geared towards innovative application developers seeking to exploit the advantages of Edge Computing and 5G network performance. These developers will have the opportunity to verify their ideas on a live environment in the 5G cluster in Berlin.

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Telia Carrier Expands into Mexico

Telia Carrier has begun offering to provide wholesale IP Transit, Ethernet, IPX and Cloud Connect for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), content and cloud providers in Mexico. The company is rolling-out its first Point of Presence (PoP) in the city of Queretaro, north of Mexico City, a major industrial growth hub and nexus for content provider data center deployments.

Telia Carrier will enable ISPs and content providers in Mexico to connect to its global IP backbone, AS1299, one of the largest in the world, at the highest speeds available in the region.

The company said it will also build out its fiber infrastructure over time and the telecom reform initiatives in Mexico were opening the door for wholesale and other services.

“We see a huge demand in Mexico for IP Transit, DDoS protection and Cloud Connect services, and we already have many customers there, including mobile operators, local access providers and ISPs amongst others,” said Luis Velasquez, Mexico business manager, Telia Carrier. “ISPs and broadband carriers have had limited options to help them meet the needs of the Mexican market. The Mexican government is taking the initiative by opening the market and creating a competitive landscape, which will ultimately fuel the pace of digitalization in the country. With its formidable backbone, Telia Carrier now has the opportunity to directly serve mid-size ISPs looking for high-bandwidth solutions that will enable them to deliver better services and cloud connectivity to their customers.”

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Brazil's Eletronet expands with Ciena packet/optical

Eletronet, which operates a national OPGW-based fiber optic network with more than 16 thousand km, 155 POPs in 18 States of Brazil, has selected Ciena’s converged packet optical solution to launch new wavelength services for wholesale, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and webscale companies.

Eletronet currently ranks as one of the largest providers of connectivity to ISPs in the Brazilian market, supplying high-speed data transport over its national optical ground wire (OPGW) fiber optic network.

Eletronet is using Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to expand capacity and deliver up to 10 GbE as well as 100 GbE wavelengths to transport larger amounts of data across longer distances.

“As we thought about what we wanted a 100G network to achieve, it was key to provide both the lowest network latency on the market as well as establish direct routes to customers that would allow for rapid activation of services. By tapping Ciena’s expertise in the converged packet-optical industry, our network has become more agile, enabling us to expand connectivity further throughout Brazil,” stated Anderson Jacopetti, Chief Technology Officer, Eletronet

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Arista posts revenue of $472.5 million, up 40%

Arista Networks reported revenue of $472.5 million for its first quarter ended March 31, 2018, an increase of 1.0% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, and an increase of 40.8% from the first quarter of 2017. The GAAP gross margin was 64.1%, compared to GAAP gross margin of 65.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 63.9% in the first quarter of 2017. Non-GAAP net income amounted to $134.1 million, or $1.66 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $71.8 million, or $0.93 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2017.

"As we kick off 2018, I am pleased with our performance this quarter,” stated Jayshree Ullal, Arista President and CEO. “We continue to experience meaningful relevance and expansion as customers shift to cloud networking.”

Revenue expectations for Q2 are in the between $500 and $514 million, with non-GAAP gross margin between 62% to 64%, and Non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 32% to 34%.

https://www.arista.com/en/company/news/press-release/4578-pr-20180503

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Sierra Wireless posts sales of $187M, up 16%

Sierra Wireless reported revenue of $186.9 million for the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 15.9% compared to $161.2 million in the first quarter of 2017. Gross margin was $62.1 million, or 33.2% of revenue, in the first quarter of 2018, compared to $55.5 million, or 34.4% of revenue, in the first quarter of 2017. Non-GAAP net earnings were $3.3 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2018, compared to net earnings of $7.8 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2017.

Product revenue was $162.9 million, up 7.8% year-over-year and Services and Other revenue was $24.0 million, up 138.6% compared to the first quarter of 2017. This breaks down as follows:

• Revenue from OEM Solutions was $135.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, up 2.1% compared to $132.4 million in the first quarter of 2017
• Revenue from Enterprise Solutions was $29.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, up 34.5% compared to $21.7 million in the first quarter of 2017 
• Revenue from IoT Services was $22.5 million in the first quarter of 2018, up 217.6% compared to $7.1 million in the first quarter of 2017. IoT Services results include the first full quarter of contribution from Numerex.

“In the first quarter of 2018, we delivered strong year-over-year revenue growth in our higher margin Enterprise Solutions and IoT Services lines of business,” said Jason Cohenour, President and CEO. “With the acquisition of Numerex, we have added significant scale to our recurring revenue base and IoT services capabilities. We expect to leverage our stronger IoT Services business platform to expand our leadership position in Device to Cloud solutions for the IoT.”

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Zayo considers REIT tax structure

Zayo is continuing to study the possibility of converting its tax structure into a real estate investment trust (REIT). Preliminary investigation has revealed certain advantages. The company is now engaging with the IRS to seek clarification and has begun to execute the organizational changes that are required to operate as a REIT, including the realignment of its business segments to clearly delineate the leasing of network assets from ancillary services, which includes the separation and potential divestiture or deconsolidation of Zayo’s Allstream business segment.

At Zayo, we have a long and successful track record of creating shareholder value,” said Dan Caruso, chairman and CEO at Zayo. “Creating the optionality to convert to a REIT is potentially another avenue of value creation and is a high priority for Zayo, although the timing and probability of conversion remains uncertain.”

Separately, Zayo also disclosed that president and COO Andrew Crouch has resigned from the company, effective immediately.

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FCC requests 2019 budget of $333 million

The FCC is requesting a FY 2019 budget of $333,118,000, derived from regulatory fees for regular FCC operations, and an auction spending cap of $112,734,000. 

For comparison, the FCC received an appropriation of $322,035,000 for FY 2018, which was down approximately five percent from the FY 2017 appropriation.

The FCC noted that some of the additional funding will be used for upcoming spectrum auctions, including the nearly $2 billion Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction this year to expand fixed broadband service to unserved regions The FCC is targeting 2019 for the $4.5 billion Mobility Fund Phase II reverse auction.

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Zscaler's COO resigns soon after IPO

William Welch resigned as Zscaler's chief operating officer. No reason was given but the company said there is no impact on its upcoming financial results.

Zscaler provides cloud security services.

The departure comes less than two months after the company completed its IPO.

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