Telecom Industry News - March 2018

March also included two important developments involving Ericsson. In a deployment first for North America, Ericsson successfully deployed Ericsson Expert Analytics for T-Mobile across its nationwide network of more than 72 million subscribers; the goal is to monitor the customer experience across all mobile services to elevate it to new heights. Additionally, NTT DOCOMO selected Ericsson to automate the deployment of Ericsson's virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) solution, Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment (CEE) based on OpenStack, at commercial sites in Japan. 

Managed software-development wide area networks services (SD-WAN) got a lift this month with the integration of EXFO's NFV Service Assurance solution with the ADVA Ensemble open virtualization suite. The fully integrated and automated solution provides communications service providers with tools to transform their networks from physical to digital and drive new efficiency and revenue. 

With more and more connected devices and signal interference straining in-home wi-fi networks, Nokia introduced several enhancements to maximize performance and simplify network management. The enhancements are designed to help reduce or more efficiently resolve service issues that can account for up to 30 percent of customer calls each month. In other Nokia news, the company is collaborating with Verizon and Intel on Cloud RAN architectures to provide flexibility crucial to the operator's future services and to meet requirements for 4G, 5G, and IoT in the cloud. 

In other stateside news, T-Mobile announced a partnership with NBC5 that would add 600 MHz to LTE network, enhancing capacity more than a year earlier than planned for large areas of north Texas. The enhancement provides capacity and coverage for subscribers while also laying the groundwork for 5G. 

Dictum Health also announced it has chosen AT&T to power mobile connectivity for its Virtual Exam Room (VER) product line, which provides clinical care almost anytime and anywhere through telehealth solutions. 

To offer its corporate customers the most complete, flexible, and secure multicloud services in the B2B market, Telefonica Business Services announced the inclusion of Microsoft Azure services in its cloud portfolio.

Global partnership news proliferated this month. In a modernization project to prepare for the launch of 4G services in seven African countries, Nokia and Orange Middle East & Africa are rolling out a Nokia single radio access network and network management technology. The modernization involves 11,000 radio sites in Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger in one of the largest LTE rollouts in Africa. 

In an effort to accelerate internet exchange speeds for communication service providers globally, Omantel Wholesale and DE-CIX embarked on a partnership announced this month. The speed at which local, regional, and global service providers will be able to connect to DE-CIX IXs globally will be reduced. Additionally, Omantel Wholesale is the first connectivity partner in the Gulf to provide ultra-low latency networking to DE-CIX IX exchanges in Europe and the US.

VOSS Solutions and BroadSource will develop a range of automation solutions for Cisco's BroadSoft platforms, BroadWorks and BroadCloud. Service providers will see enormous advantages in new automation tools and professional services to be competitive in the cloud collaboration environment.

In other global news, Microsoft Corp. has announced its first renewable energy deal in the Karnataka state of India. Microsoft will purchase 80 percent of the projected electricity needs for its new facility in Bangalore and the deal encourages investment in developing local solar energy initiatives. 

Telia Carrier and Coriant completed their first complete fiber field trial with real-time optical awareness on the Telia network between Hamburg and Prague. An industry first, the trial showcased the ability to reduce manual provisioning and increase service agility.

Etisalat, the leading communications provider in the Middle East, serving 142 million customers with a range of 3G, 4G, and fiber-to-the-home services, has selected NEC/Netcracker's Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) solution to deploy a complete virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) solution for enterprises. 

At the Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition, Huawei officially released its latest 400G optical network solution for commercial use. Huawei's network optimizes high-speed transmission signals, balancing between the theoretical limit and commercial use.