JFrog soars in IPO -- Database of DevOps

 JFrog, which describes itself as "the “Database of DevOps” and de-facto standard in release and update management", raised $509 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of 11,568,218 ordinary shares at a price to the public of $44.00 per share. 

The shares (Nasdaq: FROG) began trading on Wednesday and closed at $64.79, up 47%.

JFrog products are available as open-source, self-managed, and SaaS services on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. JFrog claims more than 5,800 customers.

JFrog has headquarters in both Netanya, Israel and Sunnyvale, California. 

https://jfrog.com/

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Champion ONE names Michael Rapp as its new CEO

 Champion ONE, a leading designer, marketer, and supplier of optical networking components worldwide, named Michael Rapp as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. As part of this transition, Pete Kirchof, C1's acting CEO, will return to his primary role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

 Rapp's extensive executive experience ranges from serving as Chief Revenue Officer at En Pointe IT Solutions to heading integration and growth strategy at Insight. He has also held key senior leadership positions at PCM, En Pointe Technologies, Software Spectrum, and Admor Memory.

"I am thrilled to be taking the helm of C1 at such an exciting time," said Mr. Rapp. "Over the last few years, the management team and employees have propelled C1 forward, achieving record-level performance and expanding C1's capabilities to serve its customers.  C1 is an industry leader with respected brands and exponential growth potential. I am humbled to be entrusted with leading this team and look forward to continuing C1's established history of recruiting top-tier talent and driving operational excellence while servicing customers at the highest levels.

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T-Mobile US signs 15-year lease with American Tower

 T-Mobile announced a 15-year agreement to lease sites from American Tower across the United States. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies said the new agreement allows T-Mobile to increase momentum on its rapid 5G deployment, adding coverage and enhancing speed in thousands of cities and towns across the country.

“Wireless mobility has never been more critical for consumers and businesses alike, and as technology continues to advance into 5G and beyond, that will only increase,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “Through our multiyear agreement with American Tower, we’ve secured T-Mobile’s ability not only to accelerate our aggressive 5G build, but also to continue to deliver connectivity for our customers well into the future.”

“We look forward to strengthening our valued partnership with T-Mobile through this mutually beneficial, long-term agreement,” said Tom Bartlett, CEO, American Tower Corporation. “We’re excited to help T-Mobile deploy next-generation 5G service across the country quickly and efficiently by utilizing our extensive nationwide portfolio of communications sites.”

https://www.americantower.com/investor-relations/investor-presentations/

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Google Fiber to offer 2 Gig service for $100/month

 Google Fiber plans to introduce a 2 Gig performance tier for residential broadband customers.

The 2 Gig service will be priced at $100 per month and will come with a new Wi-Fi 6 router and mesh extender.

The new 2 Gig service will begin rolling out in Nashville, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama beginning in October. The company expects to extend 2 Gig to other Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass cities in early 2021.

• Google Fiber is available in parts of the following cities: 
• Atlanta, GA 
• Austin, TX 
• Charlotte, NC 
• Chicago, IL 
• Denver, CO 
• Huntsville, AL 
• Kansas City, KS/MO 
• Miami, FL 
• Nashville, TN 
• Oakland, CA 
• Orange County, CA 
• Provo, UT 
• San Antonio, TX 
• San Diego, CA 
• San Francisco, CA 
• Salt Lake Valley, UT 
• Seattle, WA 
• The Triangle, NC 
• West Des Moines, IA

https://fiber.google.com/blog/2020/the-next-step-in-speed-experience-2-gig-now-with-the-google-fiber-trusted-tester-program/

• Google Fiber first introduced its 1 Gig residential broadband service in 2010

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Silicon photonics pioneer Michal Lipson elected by The Optical Society

 Dr. Michal Lipson, Eugene Higgins Professor at Columbia University, has been elected members of The Optical Society (OSA) to serve as the society’s 2021 Vice President. Lipson’s four-year commitment to OSA’s Board of Directors consists of serving one year as vice president in 2021, followed by one year as president-elect in 2022, president in 2023 and past president in 2024.

“In the field of silicon photonics, Lipson is a pioneer whose work in tailoring the electro-optic properties of silicon and advancing research and development is world-renowned,” said OSA CEO Elizabeth Rogan. “Her contributions to OSA and the optics and photonics community have been extraordinary and the society will continue to benefit from her serving in this key leadership role.”

Dr. Lipson pioneered critical building blocks in the field of silicon photonics, which today is recognized as one of the most promising directions for solving the major bottlenecks in microelectronics. In 2004, she showed the ability to tailor the electro-optic properties of silicon (Almeida, et al., Nature 2004 with more than 1300 citations and Xu et al Nature 2005 with more than 2000 citations) which represented critical advances that led to the explosion of silicon photonics research and development. The number of publications related to silicon photonic devices and systems is now more than 50,000 a year. Many of these publications are based on Lipson’s original papers published since 2001. 

OSA members also elected two directors-at-large to serve on the OSA Board of Directors for the 2021-2023 term:

• Dr. Joyce Poon is a Director of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Toronto, Canada and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. She and her team specialize in integrated photonics on silicon. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for Optics Express. Poon founded the OSA Student Chapter at the California Institute of Technology, USA where she earned her Ph.D. She subsequently built a research program centered on silicon integrated photonics for telecom applications at the University of Toronto, Canada. 
• Dr. Ulrike Woggon is Professor of Experimental Physics, in particular Nonlinear Optics, at the Institute for Optics and Atomic Physics of the Technical University Berlin (TUB).  In 1985, she received her Ph.D. from Humboldt University in the field of nonlinear optics in semiconductors. Her research interests, documented by more than 200 refereed publications and approximately 7,500 citations, several book chapters and numerous invited lectures as well as third-party funding, are in the field of nanophotonics, ultrafast spectroscopy, solid-state optics and photonic materials. Woggon is one of the founding members of the Berlin School of Optical Sciences and Quantum Technology (BOS.QT). She became an OSA Fellow in 2010, and has served as chair or member on several OSA program committees. 

Lipson and the new directors-at-large will begin their terms on 1 January 2021.

https://www.osa.org/en-us/about_osa/newsroom/news_releases/2020/silicon_photonics_pioneer_michal_lipson_elected_20/

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VIAVI validates the performance of Nokia's CFP2 modules

 Nokia has validated its coherent optical modules using the VIAVI Solutions' ONT 800G FLEX DCO Module, which tests pluggable (CFP2) Digital Coherent Optics (DCO) modules. Nokia utilized this test capability as a beta customer, providing valuable feedback, and ultimately purchased the first ONT 800G FLEX DCO Module upon release.

Nokia collaborated with VIAVI to test its CFP2 DCO module against the different technologies with the 800G FLEX DCO Module. In particular, Nokia sought a solution which had coherent interfaces on the optical as well as the electrical sides, a capability not available from other vendors.

VIAVI said the 800G FLEX DCO Module for its optical network test platform offers native support for both 400G class CFP2 DCO and QSFP-DD 400ZR modules. Electrical adapters allow testing on prototype boards and integrated circuits before module integration, greatly accelerating product development.

"Carriers worldwide are investing in optical transport upgrades as they prepare for next-generation communications, and are entrusting us to drive more efficient operation while enhancing service quality," said Andreas Leven, Head of Engineering, High Speed Optical Networks, Nokia. 

"We are honored to work with industry leaders such as Nokia, allowing us to anticipate and respond to network technology evolution," said Tom Fawcett, Vice President and General Manager, Lab and Production Business Unit, VIAVI. "Thanks to that partnership, VIAVI has blazed yet another trail with the first coherent test solution to support the multiservice market at 400G, accelerating high-speed network test to ensure performance and interoperability."

https://www.viavisolutions.com/en-us/news-releases/nokia-selects-viavi-validate-performance-coherent-optical-modules

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PacketLight supplies data center interconnect in Santiago

 PIT Chile, a major Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for major CDNs including Facebook, Fastly, Google, and Microsoft, and local Chilean ISPs businesses, has deployed PacketLight's PL-2000T transponder to connect two of its data centers in Santiago, Chile.

The solution supports a 200G protected DCI link between two data centers in El Bosque and Santa Marta on three nodes of dark fiber. 

PacketLight's PL-2000T enables the high capacity transport of up to 8 x 100Gbs Ethernet with integrated EDFA and optical switch, as well as optional embedded physical layer encryption to support future requirements. 

"The link between El Bosque and Santa Marta sites ensures more capacity, more resilience, and lower latency between the data center nodes so we can operate at full capacity without any service degradation to our customers," said Ivan Žilić Schmidt, Director of Technology at PIT Chile. "Our experience with PacketLight Networks has exceeded expectations from the simplicity of installation to the quality of the DCI link."

"We are thrilled to provide PIT Chile an intuitive solution capable of meeting their needs for high capacity DCI while being simple enough to install amidst the challenges created by the pandemic," said Koby Reshef, CEO of PacketLight Networks. "The PL-2000T is an excellent representation of PacketLight's carrier-grade solutions that are simple, cost-effective, and easily scalable to support pay-as-you-grow architecture."

https://www.packetlight.com

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Nokia updates Self-Organizing Network software for zero-touch 5G automation

 Nokia introduced upgraded cognitive Self-Organizing Networks software to drive zero-touch operations for 5G.

Instead of the traditional operator console, the software provides an objective driven dashboard that helps operations stakeholders – from chief experience officers to market engineers – to  decipher how their objectives are realized by SON.

Nokia said its updated SON software increased operational efficiency by 80 percent in a proof of concept exercise conducted with a leading North American operator.

Nokia cognitive SON has a vendor-agnostic network slice management function to automate the radio slice life cycle and resource optimization. Leveraging ML and automation capabilities, Nokia cognitive SON will be able to optimize each slice separately to ensure better network availability and quality.

Brian McCann, Chief Product Officer of Nokia Software, said: “This cognitive upgrade to our Nokia SON solution massively reduces the need for manual work and technical expertise when optimizing radio networks, allowing us to deliver our promise for a much more efficient and error-free process that will ultimately result in better network quality and reliability. It is a timely product and one that reinforces Nokia’s software innovation leadership.”

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ZenFi brings Telia Carrier to carrier and enterprises in NYC metro

ZenFi Networks will offer connectivity to Telia Carrier's global IP backbone to its wholesale and enterprise customers throughout the New York and New Jersey metro region.

The collaboration enhances ZenFi Networks’ footprint outside of the New York City and New Jersey metro region, empowering customers to expand their reach to more than 300 Points of Presence in 120 global markets. The partnership also gives Telia Carrier access to ZenFi Networks’ expansive fiber footprint, spanning more than 1,100 route miles, to provide diverse access to enterprise destinations across New York and New Jersey, a market with one of the world’s densest concentrations of commercial business.

“Like Telia Carrier, ZenFi Networks is focused on the customer experience,” said Rob Pulkownik, Telia Carrier’s Head of Channel Sales. “We’ve found that the core values of the two companies are in alignment. Both organizations focus on the customer with rapid delivery, collaboration and transparency as guiding principles. The complementary nature of ZenFi Networks’ metro NYC footprint and Telia Carrier’s #1 Global IP backbone adds up to a consistently positive experience for our shared customer base.”

“We have had a long-standing relationship with Telia Carrier and are excited for the evolution of our partnership.  Our mutual customer-centric values create a collaboration that better serves our customers,” said Walter Cannon, Vice President of Business Development at ZenFi Networks. “Telia Carrier’s expanded global reach compliments ZenFi Networks’ ability to offer enhanced solutions and services to our channel partners, our wholesale customers, and enterprise businesses within and beyond our regional footprint.”

http://www.teliacarrier.com

http://www.zenfi.com

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Co-founder of ARM urges UK to block sale to NVIDIA

 Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Arm, published an open letter to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom urging that the sale of Arm to Nvidia be blocked.

Hauser presents three arguments:

• the impact on jobs in Cambridge, Manchester, Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield and Warwick once the company's headquarters are moved out of the UK;
• the inevitable destruction of Arm's open licensing business model 
• national economic sovereignty.

As an alternative to the sale, Hauser urges a public listing on the London Stock Exchange, with the UK government investing £1-2bn and getting a Golden Share to ensure the public interest.

https://savearm.co.uk/

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Tencent to build digital hub in Singapore

Tencent announced plans to build a digital hub of operations in Singapore to serve customers throughout southeast Asia.

In August, Tencent reported 1H2020 revenue of RMB222.948 billion (US$31.492 billion), an increase of 28% over the first half of 2019.

• Bytedance and Alibaba have also recently announced plans to invest in Singapore. These announcements follow the recent decision by India to ban Chinese applications.

https://www.tencent.com/en-us/investors.html

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Silicon Photonics Copackaging Webinar - September 16

Silicon photonics is advancing rapidly with new approaches in manufacturing. 

On Weds., September 16 at 10:00am (Pacific) we will host a webinar on Silicon Photonics Co-Packaging and Manufacturing Techniques with IBM's B. Alexander Janta-Polczynski and Vikas Gupta of GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

The manufacturing techniques for silicon photonics being developed by these partners have the potential to significantly reduce packaging costs for datacom, LiDAR & photonic computing applications — including at very high data rates of 800G. 

This is a free webinar and everyone is welcome to attend.  If you can’t make it at that time on September. 16, we will post a replay soon.  Thanks!

To Register: https://lnkd.in/g7qtZvb

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DISH picks Nokia for cloud-native, 5G standalone core

DISH Network selected Nokia’s cloud-native, standalone Core software products to help it build the most advanced, disruptive, fully-automated, cloud-native 5G network in the U.S..

The deal, which follows months of joint testing, includes subscriber data management, device management, packet core, voice and data core, as well as integration services. Nokia will also deliver additional cloud-native products that will provide 4G, 5G standalone and Voice over Wi-Fi access to core network functions. Financial terms were not disclosed

Marc Rouanne, DISH Chief Network Officer, said: “This is an important step in bringing to life DISH’s plans to deliver the first open, agile, virtualized 5G network in the U.S. Nokia’s new release is cloud-native, standalone and ready for full automation, providing DISH the software capabilities required to deliver thousands of network slices with low latency and SLA on demand.”

Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software and Nokia Chief Digital Officer, said: “The benefits of Nokia’s industry-leading, cloud-native standalone 5G Core products built on our proven Common Software Foundation -- near-zero-touch automation capabilities, high-level operational efficiencies, scale and performance – continue to set us apart from the competition. DISH has great ambition and we are both excited and laser-focused on helping them deliver on that.”

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AT&T and NTT DOCOMO enter 5G roaming pact

AT&T announced a 5G international roaming agreement with NTT DOCOMO.

“As a longtime industry leader providing global connectivity, we’re evolving the breadth and depth of our global coverage with 5G,” said Susan A. Johnson, executive vice president – Global Connections & Supply Chain, AT&T. “This marks a significant milestone for AT&T and our customers.”

“We’re excited to launch 5G roaming in Japan on NTT DOCOMO, Inc.’s network because of what it means for our customers,” said JR Wilson, vice president – Tower Strategy & Roaming, AT&T. “Our teams never stop innovating, developing and deploying the latest technology to provide our customers with access to a next-generation network – at home and abroad.”

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CenturyLink is now Lumen

CenturyLink changed its name to Lumen Technologies.

The company's mission statement is "to help lead enterprises through the challenges and opportunities of the 4th Industrial Revolution – a time when smart, connective devices are everywhere."

"Our people are dedicated to furthering human progress through technology. Lumen is all about enabling the amazing potential of our customers, by utilizing our technology platform, our people, and our relationships with customers and partners," stated Lumen president and CEO Jeff Storey.

Effective with the opening of the trading day on Sept. 18, 2020, the company stock ticker will change from CTL to LUMN.

Lumen said its worldwide fiber network infrastructure and complementary capabilities deliver unique competitive advantages to customers in four key areas:

• Adaptive Networking: Lumen provides hybrid network solutions built to quickly respond to customers' ever-changing data and application needs. 
• Edge Cloud & IT Agility: Lumen enhances application experiences by delivering low-latency, high performance data access and by moving data and workloads closer to where customers need them.
• Connected Security: Lumen offers global threat intelligence, network-based security controls and deep security expertise to help customers protect their data and applications against constantly evolving threats.
• Communications & Collaboration: Lumen's communication and collaboration solutions make it easy for people to stay connected, productive and engaged wherever they are located.  

https://news.lumen.com/jeff-storey-introduces-lumen

• 2008 - CenturyTel acquires Embarq, which was the former landline business of Sprint and served cities in 18 states. 
•  2011 - CenturyLink acquires Qwest, which consisted over a nationwide long-haul fiber network along with the local access networks of the previous US West (a Baby Bell serving much of the western United States) 
•  2011 -  CenturyLink acquires Savvis, a global provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT services. 
•  2017 - CenturyLink acquires Level 3 Communications in a deal valued at around $25 billion.
• 2017 - CenturyLink sells its data centers and colocation business to private investors, forming the new company called Cyxtera Technologies

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Verizon to acquire Tracfone and its 21 million prepaid users for $6.5 billion

Verizon agreed to acquire Tracfone from America Movil for $6.5 billion, including $3.125 billion in cash and $3.125 billion in Verizon common stock.

Tracfone is a leading pre-paid and value mobile provider in the U.S. serving approximately 21 million subscribers through a network of over 90,000 retail locations nationwide. A longtime partner of Verizon, more than 13 million Tracfone subscribers currently rely on Verizon’s wireless network through an existing wholesale agreement.

“This transaction is aligned with what we do best: providing reliable wireless service alongside a best-in-class customer experience,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. “We are excited about the opportunity to bring Tracfone and its brands into the Verizon family where we can put the full support of Verizon behind this business and provide exciting and compelling products into this attractive segment of the market. We are pursuing this important strategic acquisition from a position of strength given our very strong and prudent financial profile.”

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Ribbon hires Sam Bucci to head its Packet Optical Networks business

Ribbon Communications announced the appointment of Sam Bucci as Executive Vice President & General Manager, Packet Optical Networks, a newly created position following Ribbon's acquisition of ECI Telecom earlier this year. 

Bucci most recently lead the optical business unit for Nokia, managing a multi-billion-dollar business unit and leading a global team. Prior to his tenure at Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, Bucci spent several years at Nortel Networks' optical business unit in various senior product management, sales and business development roles. He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree with distinction from McGill University in Canada.

"I am very excited to welcome Sam to the Ribbon leadership team," said Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications Chief Executive Officer. "He is a perfect fit to help us execute on both our short-term and long-term strategy of establishing Ribbon as a force in the global data communications industry. Sam is a thoughtful technology and business leader who has successfully built and executed multi-year strategies focused on taking advantage of technical and commercial discontinuities to deliver differentiated offerings and gain market share in a complex, competitive operating environment. His outstanding reputation and impressive track record will be a significant addition to the Ribbon leadership team."

"I am thrilled to join Ribbon during this exciting period for the packet optical market," said Bucci. "Ribbon's recent acquisition of ECI Telecom, combined with the renewed energy and great leadership Bruce is providing, creates a clear path for Ribbon to be a disruptive force in the market. I am excited to be a part of these efforts and look forward to supporting the strategy."

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EKINOPS appoints Munière as CTO

 EKINOPS announced the appointment of Vincent Munière as its new Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Research and Development.

Munière previously served at SFR (Altice Group), where he was most recently SVP, Network & OSS (Operations Support System) Engineering, managing a team of about 900 people and leading the network and IT OSS engineering activities. Prior to SFR, he spent 8 years developing solutions for carriers at Alcatel / Alcatel-Lucent in France, both in R&D and Pre-Sales organizations, and 3 years at ICO Global Communications in the UK. His dual background, strong customer focus and ability to understand the transport, switching and routing layers and challenges will be a great asset to deliver the innovative solutions service providers are looking for.

"We are very fortunate to have attracted such a talented executive and Vincent's experience will be invaluable to Ekinops. He knows how to deliver major technical innovations, define a strong technology vision and lead large teams through transformation programs to deliver on that vision. He comes in at a perfect time as we are migrating toward virtualization, 5G and edge computing which are areas he masters. His joining is a significant step toward continued growth and achievement of our strategic objectives," added Didier Brédy, CEO, Ekinops.

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Gigamon opens R&D center in Ottawa

Gigamon announced plans to build out a world-class Research and Development (R&D) team in Ottawa, Canada with the goal of an office opening in 2021. Gigamon currently has tech hubs in Santa Clara, California; Seattle, Washington; and Chennai, India with sales offices worldwide.

“When reviewing potential expansion opportunities in North America, we considered a number of attractive options. In the end, Ottawa’s diverse workforce and bustling tech community made it the clear choice,” said Shane Buckley, President and Chief Operating Officer at Gigamon. “I would like to thank our partners at Invest Ottawa for being such tremendous partners throughout this process. We look forward to adding the best of the best to our team as our new tech hub will play a vital role in supporting our accelerated growth trajectory.”

http://www.gigamon.com

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DASAN Network Solutions leverages SiTime's silicon MEMS timing

DASAN Network Solutions, the top provider of networking solutions in Korea, is using SiTime’s silicon MEMS timing solutions. 

SiTime said its MEMS oscillators are used by DASAN in products such as FTTx OLT/ONT, 5G mobile backhaul and Ethernet switches, as well as access products.

“DASAN is a premier vendor of networking equipment in Korea and the rest of the world, and has been working with SiTime for many years,” said SC Moon, VP of R&D, DASAN Network Solutions. “Our electronics must deliver the highest performance and reliability while working in harsh environments. SiTime’s MEMS timing solutions enable us to deliver this benefit to our customers.”

“In addition to its strong presence in Korea, DASAN’s equipment is deployed worldwide in a variety of environments. Additionally, DASAN’s innovative culture pushes the boundaries of equipment performance while operating in harsh conditions,” said Piyush Sevalia, executive vice president of marketing at SiTime. “In all these conditions, SiTime’s MEMS timing solutions deliver a game-changing benefit – they offer up to 20 times better performance and 30 times better reliability. We look forward to continue collaborating with DASAN and delivering these benefits for the foreseeable future.”

http://www.sitime.com

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