ADVA says Layer 1 encryption will help secure 100G metro optical networks.

Consolidated spends $350 million to expand its network reach and give the combined carrier more business services savvy.

Eight members of Congress are pushing FCC Chair Tom Wheeler to use agency power to protect the rights of municipalities to build broadband nets.

Support for Apache Spark and Hadoop Yarn gives Guavus a more complete network picture in its latest big data analytics platform release.

Level 3 hints that major progress may be coming shortly on the pesky peering issues in the network neutrality debate.

Cisco has purchased cloud startup Assemblage to bring real-time communications to any device, including those in the Internet of Things.

Telefonica's Diego Lopez says moves are afoot to hook up operator NFV reference labs to validate use cases.

Aereo has halted service after last week's US Supreme Court ruling, but CEO Chet Kanojia says, "Our journey is far from done."

The seven members of the Big Telecom Event's Innovation Zone tell us why their product or service is unique, notable, and worthy of being in the zone.

OIF and ONF team up on demo based in carrier labs that uses real-world experience to find out how to move OpenFlow into optical networks.

A 'Behind the Music' rockumentary charting the decline and fall of the telco show circuit's biggest, and only, ever band.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: DT units opt for 'joyn' RCS; Virgin Mobile France sold; dismantling Google.

Verizon says its billing system is down in parts of the Northeast, Midwest, and South and it is working on a fix.

Did you see what happened when we mixed booze + balls at this year's Leading Lights awards party?

Cable tech group launches 'Energy 2020' program to curb industry energy use by 20% and cut power costs by 25% by the end of the decade.

Planning 5G will likely mean some huge antenna headaches for operators, reckons Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs.

Longmont Power & Communications decides not to develop a video option for its FTTH-based service package, opting to give customers a fat pipe for OTT services instead.

Also in today's EMEA-based regional roundup: Google starts forgetting; Vringo takes on ZTE in Romania; EE adds value with mobile security.

In a week of bold optical transport announcements, Huawei announces a 200G PIC for metro networks.

Authorities issue FDD LTE licenses to two of the three major operators.

"Verizon Germany is a German company, and we comply with German law," Verizon says following reports that Germany has canceled contracts with the US telco over spying allegations.

In yet another attempt to conquer the TV set, Google is launching its Android TV operating system for the big video screen. But will it succeed where other attempts have failed?

Germany cancels an ISP networking deal with Verizon Germany as part of its post-Snowden overhaul. Are other US deals also in danger?

As IPv6 process shows, heavy investment in standards doesn't always pay off as expected when deployment takes unexpected turns.

While the public access market is slowly ramping up, demand is strong for indoor LTE small cells, both residential and enterprise, a BTE panel says.

Jumping into an already crowded market, Huawei is promoting a Distributed Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) solution that also supports the new DOCSIS 3.1 spec.

A municipal utility in Tennessee upgrades its billing system to integrate all triple-play and utility services.

By adding MMS, plus short-code messaging and toll-free numbers for SMS, Bandwidth hopes to help voice app providers be a true voice alternative.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Carphone Warehouse/Dixons merger wins EC approval; Swisscom picks PlumGrid; an Ofcom rocket up BT's bottom.

See what the winners of this year's Leading Lights awards had to say when we put them in front of a TV camera immediately after accepting their gongs at our gala dinner.

Hong Kong operator tells Chinese vendors to play nice.

More support for open source capabilities from a major operator.

Ekinops has jumped into the metro 100G optical race with new transponder and muxponder modules.

Moving to Hadoop-based storage and analytics platform from RainStor makes data analytics faster and less expensive.

The Supremes ruled that Aereo's business model of transmitting TV signals over the web constitutes a public performance and therefore violates US copyright law.

Pay-TV providers are in a great position to increase their platform revenue and sales of digital copies through a sustained, proactive consumer education program.

The rapid rollout of LTE is driving demand for ATCA-based systems to support the EPC, IMS and many related applications.

With 4G just getting into its stride, 5G is already a hot topic. But is it too early? I don't think so.

The five creators of customizable news app Thumbnail took home the prize in the inaugural Comcast/NBCU hackathon for software developers.

Carrier offering exclusive subscription access to Muuzii's translation SMS service after the startup worked its way through AT&T's developer program.

There were 16 Leading Lights awards winners this year -- see who picked up the trophies.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK faces telco data retention legal challenge; Telefonica/E-Plus latest; Tata revamps Telenor network; DT eases parking in Pisa.

Norwegian operator is revamping its fixed line operations to slim down, and is opting for a hosted OSS/BSS approach.

Chipmaker acquires fabless semiconductor company to strengthen its mobile devices.

Intel is aiming for a summer launch for its Edison module for wearables and other IoT devices.

The move of NFV management and orchestration to an open source model seems inevitable, but how it happens is as transparent as the World Cup refs' game time calculations.

Swisscom is implementing the ThinkAnalytics content search and recommendation engine with its TV 2.0 service in Switzerland.

Snaps from Sprint's visit to Chicago where it showed off its first 8T8R basestations, launched nationwide HD voice calling, announced a partnership with Under Armour, and more.

Suddenlink and Charter both launch higher-speed data tiers in key markets as cable operators seek to counter or preempt 1-Gig rollouts by rival broadband providers.

Veteran industry analyst Tom Nolle reveals his new model for managing and orchestrating NFV and SDN implementations via open source protocols.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telekom Austria bags cable operator; ThinkAnalytics scores at Swisscom; Google Glass reaches UK.

Mobile operators need a strategy to deal with the demise of traditional voice and the rise of mobile voice-over-IP (mVoIP), and that includes working with the OTT players.

5G will ultimately become "personal backhaul for 5G points of presence," Sprint's chief network operator says.

Alpental buy gets Google some radio talent now and helps it hedge bets on a 5G future.

Sprint is wrapping up field tests of 8T8R antennas, and its first base stations are now live in Chicago.

A Minnesota service provider relies on its network strength and local presence to compete in the crowded SMB cloud market.

Dish is delivering the first wireless set-tops with 802.11ac WiFi, thanks to the Broadcom BCM4360 chipset.

Cloud security startup has raised $66 million in the past two years to help companies secure their employees' use of cloud apps.

Google has bought a millimeter wave radio startup founded by ex-Clearwire execs that may give it table stakes in the future of 5G.

Cloud-based, single-card approach addresses chronic issue of lost passwords and security credentials, which cause two-thirds of data breaches.

Spirent demos a 400G test suite with Huawei and Xilinx.

Service providers should beat back the advance of the OTTs using business support systems that help provide more customized service experiences, said an Oracle keynoter at BTE.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: national watchdogs flex their muscles; TSIC sends for Ciena; UK mobile operators may be forced to share networks.

Ciena lands pan-European transport network deal ahead of incumbent Coriant, and may be joined in further rollouts by key rival Infinera.

CTO promises LTE network will cover more than 230 million PoPs by the end of the month.

Cellcom claims a 35% reduction in mobile service latency thanks to Vasona Networks' RAN congestion tech.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says his friend John Chambers consulted him about the CEO succession situation at Cisco.

In a new study, eMarketer predicts that 54% of Americans will use a connected TV to access the Internet at least once a month by 2017.

More snaps from the Big Telecom Event in Chicago.

New Open Platform for NFV group and purchasing requirements for open NFV are two ways they can show real support for open solutions.

Customers will invent new ways to use networks, going beyond the abilities of service providers to innovate.

The market for connected cars is growing rapidly, with an expected CAGR of 41.2% between 2013 and 2018.

The embedded software vendor launched a certification program for partner products to assure interoperability with its NFV platform.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EE to introduce WiFi calling service, trial VoLTE; HD video streaming with NFV; M2M's killer app!

Industry experts say networks of the future could be highly automated with the help of next-generation BSS systems.

UPC Hungary is using ActiveVideo's CloudTV StreamCast platform to deliver a YouTube app to cable set-tops for all of its 1.5 million video customers.

Rural wireless operators say they're in the business because of the Tier 1s' shortcomings, but their main competition is in the cable camp.

Tax season brought a huge wave of banking phishing scams to Chicago, Cloudmark says, urging operators to do more to protect against it - and talk more about it.

"The f*ckers hate you," the T-Mobile Chief proclaimed of his competition as the carrier launches VoLTE and wideband LTE in 15 markets.

Things got a little out of hand at Light Reading's Leading Lights awards in Chicago...

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange appeal against Bouygues' spectrum refarming rejected; ZTE sticks it to Vringo; UK fracas over Freeview's future.

Deployment plans should include significant improvement in TCO, Gedeon tells the BTE crowd.

The range and depth of topics discussed at the Big Telecom Event has been almost overwhelming.

Sprint kicks off Day 2 at BTE by explaining how it plans to get to 180Mbit/s peak download speeds on LTE in 2015.

Sprint, TWC, Telus, and AlcaLu suggest that SDN, open APIs, and programmable networks will help them collaborate with web companies, a big challenge today.

Even very conservative businesses use IT hosting, managed services, and co-location. But it's different when it's called "cloud."

Panelists at BTE agree that telecom service providers are the strongest purveyors of enterprise cloud services, as long as they attend to issues of customer experience and security.

Google is working on a new, more advanced set-top box for its relatively unnoticed Google Fiber TV service.

Merging Savvis's managed service capabilities into its new cloud platform puts CenturyLink a bit ahead of the competitive curve.

But "big routers" will stay in the picture, AlcaLu's Basil Alwan insists at BTE.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Europe's cable operators strategize; UK spooks licensed to spy on Facebook et al; Telefonica's new doubles partner.

Network functions virtualization provides short-term value, but its tie to hardware means SDN will become more important over time, says a top SDN guy.

The inaugural Big Telecom Event is underway in Chicago, and the keynotes, show floor, and sessions have been bustling all day.

Carriers typically concern themselves with just their network and technology, but they are starting to experiment with new service models and form partnerships with OTT players.

The SDN pioneer wants to jump start work on network configuration data and topology models it considers crucial by contributing its work to the IETF.

New strategy intended to help network operators make the transition from Carrier Ethernet at the edge to virtualized functions.

Today at BTE, three telcos outlined their own progress bringing NFV technology into their networks.

In his BTE keynote, tw telecom's Mike Rouleau plays up a flexible, dynamic, on-demand Ethernet service delivery model.

The networking vendor sees SDN and NFV as key to winning telco H-E-A-R-T-S.

Major names such as Cisco and Deutsche Telekom, and killer topics such as SDN, NFV and M&A, are the talk on Day 1 of the Big Telecom Event (BTE).

Carriers are in the business of delivering services, not operating networks, just as shipping companies are in the business of moving cargo rather than operating ships.

Deutsche Telekom executive Axel Clauberg tells a packed BTE keynote audience that networks have to transform, nothing is sacred, and vendors need to embrace 'open.'

The software is designed to allow carriers to increase revenues by making new services available more quickly.

Integration of OpenStack lets Amartus Chameleon SDS platform offer real-time orchestration of cloud as well as WAN services.

Cisco has struck a deal to acquire next-generation network management and orchestration specialist Tail-f, one of the darlings of the SDN world.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone trials GSM-LTE Dynamic Spectrum Sharing with Huawei; Iraq blocks comms channels as militants run amok; shareholders say "ciao" to Telecom Italia.

Network managers will be able to use NMS software to manage Omnitron network interface devices.

Through open interfaces and programmability, carriers can control and tweak the behavior of network apps, OIF's technical lead says.

Distinguished panel of NFV experts tackle a tricky issue - has the telecom view of open source changed such that it's the new standard?

The ETSI NFV Group, meanwhile, is planning its own "landmark" open-source project.

Five companies have made the Leading Lights shortlist for public company of the year.

Two previously little-known elements are moving center stage.

The carrier adds 12 carriers through its partnership with the CCA and NetAmericas to bring LTE to rural America.

Time Warner Cable Treasurer Matthew Siegel will become CFO of 'SpinCo,' the new spin-off company that Comcast plans to create after completing the TWC acquisition.

tw telecom has been a rumored takeover target for years and Level 3 a rumored suitor. But is there more to this deal than just getting bigger?

Apparently, suggesting government should respond to the will of the people can get you laughed at nowadays.

This week's Big Telecom Event will feature panels of SDN in optical networks, and the future of packet optical.

Level 3 says it will acquire Ethernet service provider tw telecom for $40.86 per share in a cash and stock deal worth $5.7 billion.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: European Commission gets cozy with South Korea on 5G; Telefonica to sell electricity; Swisscom does LTE-Advanced.

Seven companies have been shortlisted for the inaugural Leading Lights award for outstanding telecom test and measurement vendor.

How can cable engineers reduce the complexity in both network design and configuration?

Seven companies have been shortlisted for the inaugural Leading Lights award for outstanding OSS/BSS vendor.

AT&T, Orange, and Vodafone discuss challenges and opportunities for outdoor small cells.

In a separate but related move to its net neutrality inquiry, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says his agency is now collecting information from both ISPs and content providers about streaming video problems.

Big data analytics for carriers, self-optimizing networks, business small cells and a little app that could save you big money are among the contenders for the best mobile product of 2014 at Leading Lights.

Seven companies have been shortlisted for the inaugural Leading Lights award for outstanding components vendor.

A BTE panel and demo will spotlight how SDN and NFV can enable new personalized services with a faster time to market.

AT&T beat out seven other contenders, including Time Warner Cable, to bring gigabit broadband service to Durham and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Look out, here comes another Chinese smartphone challenger...

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: HERE buys into predictive analytics; Austrian mobile market hots up; that ain't no Starbucks!

WiFi roaming isn't just for cellular offload anymore - MSOs and enterprise customers are also moving toward WiFi networks for cost savings across the board, especially for international roaming.

It's time for the telecom sector to take a long hard look at itself, starting at BTE.

There are signs that telcos are delivering more innovative service packages, a trend driven by their marketing teams, says Heavy Reading's chief analyst.

AT&T's chief security officer explains why a whole new approach to mobile network security is needed in a world of smartphones, the cloud, and virtualization.

The phone is designed to help users block data from leaking out to criminals, private companies, and governments.

Broadcom has joined with Elemental and Sony in a partnership with Brazilian service provider Globosat to deliver the final three 2014 World Cup games in 4K/Ultra HD video.

Genband's second annual gathering in Orlando was full of snazzy presentations, power points, panels, and other Cheap Tricks.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Huawei's European innovation push; Bouygues to cut 17% of workforce; beware the 'news echo chamber' effect.

Find out how to get the benefits of SDN and NFV at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event next week.

The longtime Time Warner Cable CEO passes away less than six months after retiring from his post at the No. 2 US MSO.

The cable industry's Reference Design Kit (RDK) software stack for IP video set-tops and gateways adds support for Europe's Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard.

Fewer than 1% of the carrier's Simple Global Plan customers opt to upgrade their data speeds when abroad, T-Mobile EVP says.

Four vendors combine in a demo of what NFV can do today in enabling managed security services.

AT&T Chief Security Officer Ed Amoroso outlines his vision for the future of mobile network security and discusses the topic with colleagues from AT&T Labs. This video was produced by AT&T and is available to the Light Reading community courtesy of AT&T.

UC2B, a non-profit group in the Urbana-Champaign region of Illinois, has handed over control of its gigabit fiber network to a private company, iTV-3.

In the latest edition of its Visual Networking Index (VNI) study, Cisco forecasts that HD and Ultra HD video will account for nearly two-thirds of all IP video traffic by 2018.

Chinese vendor announces a revamped strategy but its focus remains on network operators.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica fosters innovation with China Unicom; Bouygues job cuts look likely; revenge of the cabbies.

Genband's 'kloud-platform-as-a-service' lets enterprises and developers quickly embed real-time communications in their apps and websites.

The telco sector needs to get radical and embrace a software-oriented approach to business, believes Redknee CEO Lucas Skoczkowski.

Cisco CEO John Chambers may be planning to announce his retirement soon, effective in the fall.

Operator CTOs remind the industry why they're not yet ready for the mass deployment of public access small cells.

The 65 Virtual Service Edge is designed to combine the benefits of NFV with hardware located on the customer premises.

The service provider's wireless plans include small cells in the home and enterprise, an MVNO relationship, and a new LTE core using recently acquired spectrum.

Verizon has plans to employ SDN and NFV in its network, but one exec says it is behind in working through some of the associated operational challenges.

Airvana has developed a distributed LTE controller and radio node system for enterprises that takes on SpiderCloud and Ericsson's Radio Dot.

Forum's latest release focuses on urban deployment challenges, but its members are focused on understanding virtualization's role in their small cell networks.

Comcast is testing a new personal media sharing service for X1, which now uses the subscriber's cellphone number to unlock the beta features.

Ciena unveils a new platform leveraging its skills in programmable optical networking to target inter-data center connectivity, but has it done enough to excite the market?

The Internet is currently designed for expensive, high-bandwidth connections such as video. The Internet of Things doesn't need much bandwidth but needs to be inexpensive.

Carrier's AVP of small cells says it working with cable companies to lease their backhaul, and is already in deployment in some enterprise use cases.

Software profiling and offloading computational processes can help devices last up to a week between charges - say hello to the software-defined battery.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Cinven acquires Spanish fiber unit; Telefonica teams up with Dolby; Dailymotion talks stall; yet more Sky sport.

The software is designed to manage physical and virtual networks.

Uber scores a $1.2 billion round and could close it out at $1.4 billion with more money from strategic investors.

The combination of APIs plus analytics is an important enabler of the hybrid cloud and is missing in today's networks, new Apigee exec says.

Of course they are all related to virtualization - what else would I write about in Nice?

Arris has announced a new CCAP customer win with Austrian cable operator Liwest Kabelmedien GmbH.

Nearly half of all non-pay-TV subscribers in the US now get Netflix, while the number of Netflix customers who also subscribe to pay-TV services is falling steadily.

Vendor says it's moving towards a full-blown NFV architecture, starting with distributed SBC trials in the third quarter.

Advances in OTN switching are helping carriers deploy flexible and viable 100G metro transport networks.

The attraction to Netconf and Yang as tools for telco network management are growing stronger.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Megafon buys big from Huawei; Europe gets tough on data privacy; EE may exit the Carphone Warehouse.

Comments from company officials, one analyst's speculation, and other recent moves by Ciena suggest an imminent product announcement.

The pricing values the company at nearly $3B, and it's likely based on strong financials, despite a weird legal dispute with a co-founder.

Verizon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Netflix after the online streaming company laid the blame for service slowdowns directly at the telco's feet.

Sprint and T-Mobile's coverage overlaps, while the spectrum doesn't, meaning there will be a lot of work to do if the acquisition does go through.

Cox Business becomes the third major US MSO business services unit to receive Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certification from the Metro Ethernet Forum, joining Comcast and TWC.

More pictures from the TM Forum's event in Nice, France.

The management of networks that incorporate virtualized functions dominated discussion at this year's TM Forum event in Nice.

Stock leaps more than 18% as vendor exceeds expectations and forecasts even better times ahead from a broadening customer base.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BBC screens World Cup in 4K; STC joins Bridge Alliance; BA in Internet talks with Inmarsat... and donkey news!

Using a catalog-driven approach to pulling resources from multiple partners in an automated fashion will make it easier to sell virtualized functions.

Nokia is buying RF filter specialist Mesaplexx to help reduce the size of its basestations.

The merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable is still under regulatory review, but that hasn't stopped Comcast from filing for license transfers with the FCC ahead of the deal's approval.

News reports indicate that two carriers have agreed on broad terms of $32 billion acquisition of T-Mobile US by Sprint despite US regulatory concerns.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Com Hem IPO takes off; PCCW launches LTE TDD broadband service in London; mobile subscriber numbers fall in Russia.

Talk of an analytics acquisition fits in with the OSS firm's new strategy.

Swedish vendor is working on a carrier-grade server that could hit the market later this year.

Service providers and vendors that don't commit to NFV right now won't miss out, says Orange executive.

Director of engineering at Skype Business Operations, Patrick Hilt, has introduced a 'culture of data' at the multimedia services firm.

The waist-high Pepper household robot will go on sale in February, but start working in stores in Japan Friday.

The Portuguese MSO NOS becomes the second European company to announce deployment of Cisco's modular CCAP solution as the next-gen CCAP market continues to heat up.

Who's responsible when something goes wrong in a world of virtual functions running on commercial hardware?

Verizon Telematic's director of enterprise architecture says that the software industry is not keeping up with the M2M space, which is also in need of more standardization.

Samsung and Espial have announced a joint cable solution combining Samsung's set-top and gateway products with Espial's RDK software.

Finalists in the Leading Lights category for Company of the Year (Private) show healthy growth.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica in German negotiations; Ericsson appoints regional heads; Vodafone partners with Rogers.

There's a telecom show in Nice, France, but the best pics are to be had away from the booths...

The TM Forum is actively seeking industry input to its ZOOM project to enable NFV orchestration, but what if it went truly open source?

Dual-band LTE trials coming later this summer.

Just virtualizing things doesn't solve the basic problem of getting services to market at Internet speeds.

Network operators are taking a good look at their own operations and culture as they figure out how SDN and NFV will figure in their future, says ONF executive director and BTE keynote speaker Dan Pitt.

NFV, SDN and the changing role of standards will trigger the debate at two pre-BTE (Big Telecom Event) workshops.

Android's phenomenal market penetration has prompted alternative smartphone OS developments from Samsung and China.

Two largest US MSOs expand their commercial WiFi offerings in twin but separate moves to win more business customers and stimulate greater wireless use.

MKM Partners says that AT&T is working on a "Project Stream" broadcast LTE update for its network.

Tighter integration across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad potentially makes carriers less important.

Remote device diagnostics and support is sparking plans for other connected devices and use cases for the device data.

With its new HomeKit home automation platform, Apple is ready to compete with both cable and telecom companies and retail smart home players.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica closes pay-TV acquisition; Riedel hooks up to Viatel; Liquid Applications flow in Saudi.

Is T-Mobile the master of smile moments? Two industry figures' tips on customer-centricity sound a lot like the Magenta carrier's recent 'uncarrier' moves.

Arista Networks, MobileIron, and more could show whether the tech IPO market has got its mojo back this summer.

Google explores yet another method of getting Internet access into the hands of more of the world's population.

Operators agree on value of open source, but take different approaches to how it's going to be used.

Cloud services are in demand in Asia/Pacific, but the telcos are still finding their feet in the market.

Combining Reverb Network's centralized SON with Guavus' big data analytics platform gives operators deeper insights into the core of their network.

Carrier wastes no time in talking up WiFi calling on new Apple OS update.

Apple is diving into the Internet of Things, making another attempt to jump-start its cloud strategy, and tightening integration between Macs, iPads, and iPhones.

Analyst George Notter says that AT&T slowed its capital spending this spring.

Chinese vendor has a sizeable OSS/BSS presence and has been bolstering its software platform in an effort to attract new standalone business.

Even after all these years and all this talking, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler thinks this Net Neutrality thing hasn't been discussed enough.

Viaplay has deployed the ThinkAnalytics cloud-based content search and recommendation engine with customers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

Seven new cable products take the stage this year, covering a wide range of the technology spectrum.

Don Clarke, one of the leading NFV figures at BT, has jumped ship to help develop next-gen technologies for cable operators.

MSO says a one-year implementation of a 'lean and agile' framework is on its way to bringing in more than $100 million in savings.

Ericsson will completely replace the carrier's legacy systems with its Service Agility suite for billing and IT.

At the TM Forum Live! In Nice, cable operators see a real opportunity to generate more revenues from small and midsized business users.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom closes GTS deal; AlcaLu offers euro 1 billion in bonds.

Companies are starting to offer WebRTC-enabled services, and the network operators are - and should be - taking note.

The changes ahead will rip apart the current telecom operator culture and carriers need to be prepared.

Global service provider routers and switch revenue increased only 2% year-over-year, according to research from Infonetics, which attributes the slowdown to caution in the face of technology transformation.