Evolving Systems and its client, Orange Belgium, won the Customer Experience prize at the 21st Annual World Communication Awards, held in London in early November. And, Pipeline announced it opened nominations this month for its annual Innovation Awards program to invite both service providers and technology providers to showcase their latest technical advancements. Companies can enter the awards by nominating themselves, their partners, suppliers, and customers in any of 10 categories of innovation. Pipeline's Innovation Awards are the hallmark of industry innovation, and are globally recognized as the most credible validation of innovation in the industry.

In data center news, DE-CIX, one of the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operators with the largest IX in the New York market, announces that it has enhanced its partnership with NYI, a leading global provider of managed hybrid IT solutions, with the deployment of a new Point of Presence (PoP) within NYI’s data center facility. 

In other industry news, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the body leading development of next generation Wi-Fi services, confirmed the successful completion of its phase one trial of Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure and services at the Mettis Aerospace factory in the UK.  The trial was the first of its kind in the world and an important part of the WBA’s Wi-Fi 6 test and development program. Tests included applications of 4K video streaming, large scale file transfers, messaging and voice/video communications as well as the first stage of IoT sensor and mixed reality testing.

5G News

This month, a couple of UK partnerships made headlines in 5G news. Virgin Media has agreed a five-year deal with Vodafone UK to bring innovative new services, including 5G, to more than three million mobile customers and provide further flexibility to grow its mobile operation. The new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement, which runs until 2026, will see Vodafone supply wholesale mobile network services, including both voice and data, to Virgin Mobile and Virgin Media Business. After striking a new deal with Openreach, the UK’s largest network infrastructure provider, Vodafone is expanding its Gigafast Broadband roll-out to bring full fiber services to many more businesses and residences in the UK. This complements Vodafone 5G, which is now available in 58 cities across the UK and Europe.

GL Communications, a global provider of telecom test and measurement solutions, announced updates to its 5G Core Network Emulator Suite, which is enhanced to support N4 interface simulation.

In the US, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to establish the 5G Fund, which would make up to $9 billion in Universal Service Fund support available to carriers to deploy advanced 5G mobile wireless services in rural America.  This major investment in rural America would be allocated through a reverse auction and would target hard-to-serve areas with sparse populations and/or rugged terrain.

Network Evolution News

In California, Nokia has been selected by the Cal OES Public Safety Communications office to upgrade CAPSNET, which is operated by Cal OES Public Safety Communications and supports the communications needs of many key state and local government public safety agencies. The network upgrade is part of a solution to transform the current time division multiplexing (TDM) technology system to support more advanced Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks. SiFi Networks is funding, building and operating a citywide fiber optic network throughout the city of Fullerton, California. Fiber will pass by every home and business, allowing every resident and business the opportunity to sign up for service, including Gigabit internet.

New research from CentralSquare reveals that citizens increasingly expect the same speed and quality of services from their city that they receive from their favorite retailers. According to the CentralSquare Voice of the Citizen Survey, which collected responses from over 5,000 Americans spanning all states and backgrounds, CentralSquare found that two thirds of respondents identified infrastructure improvements as their top priority if they ran their city.