March 2015

Partnership taps OPNFV platform for test lab, small cell gateway, C-RAN Wind River said it has partnered with China Mobile on a number of network function virtualization projects, including an NFV test lab, and working on developing virtualized small cell …

BARCELONA, Spain — Latin America’s upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction and the expected expansion of LTE deployments and coverage is set to drive discussion about the region. With operators having invested almost $8 billion in spectrum licenses over the past three …

BARCELONA, Spain — While the expansion of LTE is expected to be a major topic this year in Latin America, vendors who do business with local carriers expect the fourth generation of telecommunications to boost their operations. Two of those …

Verizon claims Dish collusion with DEs impacted fairness of Auction 97 You can add Verizon Communications to the list of companies unhappy with Dish Network’s bidding activity during the Federal Communications Commission’s recent Auction 97 proceedings. In a letter filed …

Agreements tap into growing NFV, SDN services Cisco Systems touted a number of telecom carrier wins connected with its virtualization and cloud services, including deals with Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia. Cisco reported that DT had launched its first cloud …

Two newly released reports from network monitoring companies spotlight how wireless networks are continuing to evolve in terms of Voice over LTE and where usage is the most intense. Newfield Wireless, part of Tektronix Communications, has been keeping an eye …

AT&T and Microsoft are joining forces to offer smaller businesses a mobile office suite based on Microsoft 365. The service will be bundled with AT&T’s wireless plans for small to medium businesses, and will work with iOS, Android and, of …

Google said this week that while it does not aspire to become a “network operator at scale,” it does plan to share its plans regarding wireless service within the coming months. The news came at Mobile World Congress from Sundar …

DoCoMo announces partnerships with Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo announced plans for a commercial network function virtualization deployment on its network beginning next year, on its way toward tapping NFV to power virtualized services across its mobile …

Ericsson integrates legacy system with open cloud stack; focus on security, governance BARCELONA, Spain – Ericsson debuted its HDS 8000 cloud platform designed for data center and telecom deployment at Mobile World Congress 2015. Jason Hoffman, head of cloud technologies …

As expected, last week was full of rhetoric with respect to the Federal Communications Commission’s pending Open Internet Order. Pictured below is Verizon Communications’ response typed in Morse Code – a brilliant PR move, although one unlikely to help their …

Heterogeneous networks have been brewing for a few years now, but 2015 will be the year they become mainstream as several core components reach maturity. The starting point came with mobile network operators offloading data to Wi-Fi in order to …

BARCELONA, Spain – One of my favorite discussions from the first day of Mobile World Congress was with Panasonic regarding its launch of Nubo – which it claimed is the first monitoring camera supporting 4G. Nubo doesn’t require Wi-Fi or broadband. It’s …

AT&T expects 5% of 150 targeted functions virtualized using NFV, SDN by year-end AT&T’s network virtualization push continues as the telecom giant announced updates to its cloud migration plans, expectations of service efficiencies and an update on its drive to …

Sprint and big-box retailer Best Buy announced a new arrangement that will see Best Buy offer an all-inclusive wireless service under its brand name. The service will tap into Sprint’s device portfolio and network assets under the Best Buy One …

BARCELONA, Spain — The future is set to be all about the connected world: connecting wearables, cars, homes, cities and enterprises. But that connection brings up a very complex scenario due to security and privacy concerns. At a keynote session during this …

Many opportunities for LTE despite emphasis on 5G BARCELONA, Spain – Industry trade association 4G Americas singled out broadband spectrum access as the major driver of advancements in current LTE networks and as a key part of evolving potential 5G …

Spectrum auction is latest attempt by Canada to bolster wireless competition On the heels of its southern neighbor conducting its most lucrative spectrum auction ever, Canada this week is set to kick off bidding for 50 megahertz of spectrum in …

Freescale, the Texas chipmaker that was once part of Motorola, has agreed to be acquired by NXP Semiconductors, which was once part of Philips N.V. The cash and stock deal values Freescale at roughly $16.7 billion (including debt) based on …

Hewlett-Packard is buying Wi-Fi access point vendor Aruba Networks for $2.7 billion. The network-equipment giant said the shift to mobile is taxing its enterprise network infrastructure and that the Aruba purchase will help it offer integrated and secure networking solutions …

BARCELONA, Spain — Telecommunications giant Telefónica said it’s confident about the future growth potential of most of its operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, coming on the heels of celebrating 25 years of operations in those markets. Speaking to …

Sensors are vital to smartphones today We use the sensors embedded in our smartphones every day, often without even realizing it. The screen flips as you hold your phone in a landscape position because an accelerometer has detected the change. …

Alcatel-Lucent is demonstrating software at Mobile World Congress that it says can combine standalone cellular and Wi-Fi networks into one unified wireless network. The company calls the solution Wi-Fi boost and is demonstrating it on Qualcomm handsets with specialized operating …

In most cases, the management structures of mobile network operators have yet to grasp the value proposition of the “Internet of Things” as they have been historically hyper-focused on competing according to who can offer the lowest price for handling …

Samsung Galaxy S6 features wireless charging BARCELONA, Spain – Samsung unveiled its lasted Galaxy models in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Edge smartphones at an event prior to the kick-off of Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung President and CEO JK …