Other carriers of note

The above are just the beginning. Other notable acquisitions include AT&T’s purchase of both Nextel Mexico ($1.88B) and Iusatel ($2.5B), signaling an increased foray into Latin American markets.

Sprint wholesale partner Shentel picked up fellow Sprint affiliate nTelos for $640M, signaling further consolidation among re-sellers as well.

Bharti Airtel acquired Augere Wireless Broadband India in August, which holds 20MHz of broadband spectrum in central India. Terms were not disclosed, but it’s certainly noteworthy as an indicator of Bharti’s push to expand 4G coverage and the overall scramble for spectrum in India and elsewhere.

And Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) purchased Golan Telecom for $277M, noteworthy because it gives Cellcom a larger entry into the low-cost market.

ICE TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS

Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent

On the integrated communication and entertainment (ICE) technology vendor side, there is perhaps no bigger story this year than Nokia’s (NYSE: NOK) acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU). The $17.6B deal signals a continuation of Nokia’s effort to reshape itself as a network equipment powerhouse, an effort made particularly clear by its $7.2B sale of its once-iconic handset division to Microsoft last year. Upon the merger’s announcement in April, Nokia noted that the company boasts a combined 40,000 R&D employees and spend 4.7 euros on R&D in 2014; and it, the new Nokia, seems intent on making life difficult for Ericsson and Huawei.

Amdocs and Comverse (BSS)

In a deal that’s even closer to our sweet spot, Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX) completed its acquisition of Comverse’s BSS assets in June. It was a $273M deal that helps extend Amdocs’ reach into AsiaPac, Latin America and Europe.

Comverse (Xura) and Acision

Comverse then turned around and gobbled up Acision, a privately held, UK-based company focusing on mobile messaging. The deal was worth $135M, and the combined company re-branded as Xura (NASDAQ: MESG) in September. Xura offers digital communication, monetization, and enterprise services, and most of the C-suite is from Comverse (though several of the business lines are helmed by Acision personnel).

NetScout and Danaher Corporation’s Communications Lines

In one fell swoop, NetScout (NASDAQ:NTCT) picked up Tektronix, Arbor Networks, VSS Monitoring, and parts of Fluke Networks to broaden its reach and deepen its offerings in the realm of security and service assurance. The deal was worth $2.3B (62.5 million shares of NetScout common stock) and wrapped up in July.

Redknee and Orga Systems

Redknee (TSX: RKN) picked up an insolvent Orga Systems for €38M this summer, and in doing so eliminated a competitor in the real-time monetization space while also expanding its reach into the growing IoT market.

BroadSoft, mPortal, and Leonid Systems

Unified communications (UC) firm BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT) has picked up two more tools for its kit by acquiring mPortal and Leonid Systems. mPortal will serve as the foundation of a new division, BroadSoft Design, which will deliver customized services to numerous market segments in new verticals, including healthcare, education, and government. Leonid, meanwhile, is a VoIP OSS provider and was already a BroadSoft partner. It developed a purpose-built web portal to enhance the BroadSoft user experience.