April 2016

After 10 months of negotiations for a new employment contract, some 36,000 Verizon unionized workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions walked off the job at 6 a.m. this morning making good on strike threats. The employees involved work on …

Axiata paid $1.36 billion for a 80% stake of Ncell Malaysia-based Axiata Group has entered the Nepal telecommunications market through the acquisition of the country’s largest mobile operator Ncell. The Malaysian telco paid a total of $1.36 billion for a …

Network rollout to be completed in the first half of the year Finnish vendor Nokia and Swedish mobile telephony operator 3 Sweden announced plans to deploy TD-LTE-Advanced mobile broadband technology to improve the operator’s quality of service in the European …

Data Hub solution is part of Amdocs’ CES 10 product portfolio ORLANDO–Amdocs is currently helping service providers deal with certain challenges and preparing them to compete in the digital era with its Data Empowerment strategy, Amdocs’ marketing director for Big …

On this week’s Carrier Wrap, we talk with RootMetrics so get some insight into the company’s network testing methodology for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint Few would argue the competitive nature of the domestic mobile space, especially among the nation’s …

IGR explains the reasoning for putting out today forecasts for 5G connectivity and bandwidth needs up to a decade down the road We recently published a report with a model of the global “5G” connections for 2021 to 2026, combined …

The ETSI OSM group announced leadership structure and roadmap for first specification release in 2 months, subsequent updates every 6 months The European Telecommunications Standards Institute said its Open Source MANO group has laid out a roadmap for work this …

TWC Wi-Fi business remains the cable giant’s wireless broadband offering of choice, and notes long-running competition has made it better ORLANDO, Florida – The cable industry’s continued struggles with the cellular market was highlighted by comments this week from Mike …

T-Mobile COO notes the carrier’s current challenge is getting out the word on its increased network coverage ORLANDO, Florida – T-Mobile US results over the past couple of years has shown the carrier’s “Un-carrier” message is being well received by …

AT&T is promising to lock in DirecTV prices for two years for wireless customers who sign up for the satellite TV service. Customers who add DirecTV Select to an existing wireless service account or home Internet service will pay $50 …

In the incredibly competitive mobile carrier market, it’s important to stay on the cutting-edge of new technologies and consumer products. That means carriers have entire teams dedicated to what is essentially technology scouting. RCR Wireless News Editor-in-Chief Dan Meyer discussed …

Understanding LTE call flow in-depth With Long Term Evolution (LTE) comes a myriad of new and exciting attributes. One of these is the LTE call flow itself. In fact, call flow and signaling is unique for LTE, and is driven …

Flexibility of cloud gets carriers 5G ready, eases enterprise digitalization The complexity of ultimate 5G networks, often described as a network of network, will acquire a new approach on the radio access side, according to Huawei officials presenting during the …

CCA Mobile Carrier Show revamp highlights expanded interest in IoT and 5G, though policy and spectrum expected to remain core to event The Competitive Carriers Association is looking to alter business as usual for its spring fling, going with a …

Vertix Consulting looks at the challenges and opportunities surrounding Wi-Fi calling, including LTE-U, LAA and LTE Industry news reports surrounding the implementation of Wi-Fi calling are getting noisy, but many challenges still stand in the way of wide-scale adoption. Many …

Jim Patterson looks at AT&T in Mexico, Verizon eyeing Yahoo, Sprint’s financial position and Binge On impact at T-Mobile At what point should AT&T be viewed as a global communications network provider and not as a traditional wireless service company? …

Total Call accused of rampant abuse of FCC Lifeline program, including enrollment of duplicate and ineligible customers On the heels of adopting reforms to its government subsidized Lifeline telecom service, the Federal Communications Commission announced a record $51 million fine …

The First Responders Network Authority has extended the deadline for responses to its call for bids for a national public safety LTE network for another two weeks. Request for Proposal responses are now due by May 31, and FirstNet still …

The Indian telco paid $526 million for the LTE airwaves Indian mobile telephony operator Bharti Airtel reached a deal to acquire spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band from rival telco Aircel, local press reported. With this acquisition, Bharti Airtel will …

Municipal services, business climate targeted by smart city projects in Jeddah Saudi mobile telephony operator Zain KSA and Finish vendor Nokia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a smart city initiative in Jeddah. Under the terms …

If a strike happens, Verizon says its ready Some 39,000 unionized Verizon workers are threatening to strike beginning April 13 pending a negotiated employment contract materializing between now and then despite 10 months of negotiations getting us to this point. …

The market for in-building wireless connectivity, supplied by both distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells, is red hot right now. But will the cost and business case associated with small cells lead to DAS becoming obsolete, or will DAS …

The market for in-building wireless connectivity is red hot with venue owners spending big on deployments for hotels, shopping malls, concert venues and more. In this DAS case study, learn how a JMA Wireless deployment currently supports Telefonica mobile services …

Looking to rebrand its marketing message and drive new subscriber business for T-Mobile Netherlands, parent company Deutsche Telekom could emulate the success of subsidiary T-Mobile US’ “Un-carrier” branding, according to Bloomberg. Industry watchers attribute the success of T-Mobile US to …

KT aims to launch 5G trial services in 2018 Japanese company NEC Corporation and Korean telecoms carrier KT completed of a Proof of Concept (PoC) trial for a 5G wireless backhaul solution that utilizes E-Band spectrum (70 GHZ-80 GHz). The …