Deal for Optelian, the first acquisition under new DZS CEO Charlie Vogt, will add coherent optics technology to DZS's portfolio and provide it with a path to 200-Gig and 400-Gig transport capabilities.

The FCC's recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction came in below expectations and will provide money to fresh faces. President Biden will need to decide whether that's good or bad.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone and MTS stay friendly; Nokia slices FWA for Saudi Arabia's Mobily; mobile sales slump at Dixons Carphone.

Telstra has thrown down the gauntlet on 5G – and NBN Co has picked it up. The operator unveiled its first 5G home service three months ago, promising to expand availability.

Drawn-out $4.5 billion merger overcomes the final hurdle as China's antitrust regulator, the SAMR, approves merger on condition fair competition is protected.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone gets in on the drones act; BT faces class action over landline charges; Deutsche Telekom eggheads investigate quantum-assisted artificial intelligence.

Vivint Internet announced plans to shut down service to 8,500 customers just two weeks before COVID-19 rampaged across the US. This is the story of the company's collapse.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom's Access 4.0 platform goes live; everyone loves Tim Höttges; CityFibre rolls into Sunderland; EE extends unlimited mobile data offer for NHS workers.

On the first episode of 'The Divide' – a new series from the Light Reading Podcast – Ernesto Falcon, senior legislative counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) talks with pod host Nicole Ferraro about the need for a commitment to fiber in the US and what's holding that up.

Under amended deal, Cisco is set to acquire Acacia for $115 per share, or roughly $4.5 billion, a sweetened deal that handily beats an original offer of $2.6 billion.

With markets seemingly craving tech IPOs, Zoom announces a $1.5 billion secondary share sale, to take advantage of shares now 10x the platform's IPO level.

eero's CEO discusses Wi-Fi 6, pandemic connectivity and how the company is courting service provider broadband partners.

GeoLinks' new GIGA-AIR platform, built with vendor Globtel, will use the DOCSIS 3.1 spec and the 60GHz band, and will be sold to other providers, including cable operators.

Unmoderated social network Parler, popular with Trump supporters, is suing AWS after the cloud provider said the platform's posts incited violence.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia helps Kalmar with cargo handling; Virgin Media touts whole-home Wi-Fi offering; Colt targets Microsoft Teams with cloud-based voice offering.

The components vendor said its business is growing thanks to bandwidth demands and it stands by its desire to call off its pending acquisition by Cisco.

German incumbent reportedly in talks with private equity investors in a deal that could be worth in excess of $6 billion.

Elon Musk's Starlink has launched its satellite Internet network service in rural Britain, where it will compete with the recently bankrupt OneWeb.

The UK spending watchdog slams the government's gigabit record, but does anything really need to be fixed?

Acacia says China's State Administration for Market Regulation didn't approve the deal, but Cisco claims the agency has provided signoff for its purchase of Acacia.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK's Public Accounts Committee fears the worst for rural broadband notspots; BT 'snubbed' over pandemic broadband offer; Nokia steers private network at Port of Seattle.

BT's networks business is under pressure to build its full-fiber network as efficiently as possible. Monitoring tools from EXFO could make a difference.

WeLink described its financial agreement with Digital Alpha Advisors, which is tied to Cisco, as a 'template for the network operator of tomorrow.'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telia gets ready to Ramboll; Netflix increases its prices in UK; CityFibre breaks ground in Nottingham.

Latest offer to support businesses comes with the requirement to sign up to a 36-month contract.

Viasat, a Starlink competitor, argues that Starlink's mega-constellation will harm the Earth's atmosphere, increase orbital debris and worsen light pollution.

After testing the service in 4G LTE during 2020, T-Mobile confirmed it is now offering 5G devices and services through its Home Internet fixed wireless offering.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK mobile operators help out with home schooling; Iskratel is high in fiber; Kenya imposes Digital Services Tax.

Verizon has focused much of its recent energy on small cells for its millimeter wave spectrum. That could change as it eyes CBRS and, potentially, C-band deployments.

US Ignite's Mari Silbey shares how her organization is partnering across the industry to address broadband access in underserved areas.

They urge Comcast to yank back introduction of usage-based broadband policies in the cable operator's northeastern US region.

2020 broke all the records for mobile game downloads, but 5G, new players, and more app stores will make 2021 exciting to watch, too.

Report notes that CSPs' goal is to capture a true percentage of digital revenue.

This past year saw record investment in Indian telcos, as well as two operators choosing to develop their own 5G solution.

Omdia envisages the next-gen PON market to heat up next year due to greater demand for capacity and ROI attractions of GPON infrastructure reuse.

Speed may be of the essence, but quality of service is even more important for consumers, points out Omdia.

Ciena CEO Gary Smith discusses his photography practice and what life is like in the square frame.

Finnish vendor confirms Sandra Motley will remain on the payroll, but the roles of Gabriela Styf Sjöman and Bhaskar Gorti remain in doubt.

Vodafone Group has made an offer worth €2.1 billion ($2.6 billion) to minority shareholders in Kabel Deutschland, seven years after acquiring the German operator.

Italy's inching toward a national broadband operator in a flurry of joint ventures, but its AGCM regulator said it'll have a look at that, thank you.

Enel agreed to sell Macquarie a 40% to 50% stake in Open Fiber, getting Italy closer to mashing together a single national fast broadband operator.

Head honchos at UK broadband provider agree non-binding deal with Toscafund Asset Management, Penta Capital that will see it delist from the London Stock Exchange.

The wholesale carrier said it will use routing platforms that support 400G pluggable optics to build a faster, more manageable network.

Also in today's epoch-closing EMEA regional roundup: Swisscom's fiber rollout under investigation; ADVA plays a part in German open RAN trial; Prysmian touts teeny-weeny fiber.

The pandemic has helped tell the upstream story for a key FTTP advantage as people continue to work and school from home, Google Fiber's Melani Griffith said at the 2020 Virtual Fiber Connect event.

High-speed subscriber growth surged again in Q3, but 'pull-forward' growth fueled by the pandemic will likely mean the rate of customer additions among US cable operators will ramp down in 2021.

Fixed networks boss Sandra Motley and software head Bhaskar Gorti may be next in line for the exit as Lundmark cuts the size of his management team.

Under the deal, Telstra will become one of Uniti's retail service providers.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone extend wholesale agreement; Slovak Telekom switches on 5G with Ericsson; Orange migrates Siemens to SD-WAN.

Merging of the units follows Cisco's recent exit from the cable amplifier business and the slow migration by operators toward network and service convergence.

As discussed at Light Reading's 5G Transport & Networking Strategies event, operators are looking at practical approaches to converged fronthaul transport, but they need to act quickly.

One of the UK telecom sector's most highly respected bosses has been lured to the US.

Altnet plans to pass more than 1.4 million premises in the city over the next five years.

A Republican Senator from West Virginia is arguing that Frontier won't be able to deliver 1Gbit/s services in her state through the FCC's RDOF auction.

'We believe a major acceleration in nodes on air is more likely to happen later than 2021 or 2022,' predict the financial analysts at Raymond James.

The completion of Australia's wholesale broadband network does not banish its financial woes.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Giffgaff goes with AWS; Telefónica teams up for robotic cybersecurity; BT fined for procurement sneakiness.

Looking ahead to 2021, Ciena's CEO talks about its 800G systems, network automation and webscale supplier status as the company looks beyond the pandemic.

Many of the big winners in the FCC's RDOF program – including LTD Broadband, SpaceX and Starry – are relatively new and untested telecom providers. And that's causing some concerns.

Management expresses confidence the optical giant can outperform the market and says long-term financial goals remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, Frontier and AT&T lag the field, according to a PCMag study of the best gaming ISPs.

In 2018, AT&T loudly boasted that it was the first operator in the US to launch mobile 5G in mmWave spectrum. Now, two years later, the operator has little to show for its efforts.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia goes zoom! with Zain; Elisa brings its SD-WAN knowhow to paper giant; Benetel unveils open RAN radio unit.

The cloud computing giant plans to substitute routers developed in-house for equipment it currently buys from Juniper, according to MKM Partners.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Finland approves 'no Huawei' law; Iskratel brews up 10G broadband in Belgium; Ofcom says public service broadcasting needs to adapt to survive.

Charter was the winning bidder across more than 1 million locations, alongside smaller wins for Cox, Atlantic Broadband, Midco and Altice USA, among others.

Here is the full list of RDOF winners organized by the amount of money each bidding entity won. For the top 10, Light Reading also listed the identity of the winner and the technology it will use.

On an acquisition spree in recent months, the maker of routers and switches has just bagged a company whose big selling point was vendor neutrality. Er...

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OMG it's an FWA record; where we are with open RAN; Ethiopia's telecom privatization going ahead.

Omdia's Julie Kunstler outlines why the broadband equipment market uptick will keep on going in 2021.

Delivered on XGS-PON gear from Calix, MLGC's speedy new offering sells for $199 per month.

IDATE forecasts a near tripling of FTTH/B subscribers in EU member states (plus UK) between 2020 and 2026. UK and Germany no longer full-fiber laggards.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: more on Vodafone's edge deal with AWS; better times lie ahead, says Analysys Mason; blockchain gets a telecom workout.

Move by regulator signals support for BT's FTTP rollout, but TalkTalk challenges 'multibillion-pound giveaway' to the former incumbent.

'We see a very high likelihood of NeoPhotonics being acquired by a larger optical component supplier or even by Ciena or Cisco,' wrote the financial analysts at MKM Partners.

New video monitoring tool is designed to help service providers auto-detect and diagnose the root cause of video streaming issues and impairments.

Dell'Oro Group finds the two Chinese suppliers making revenue-share inroads in the worldwide telecoms equipment market, thanks to heavy domestic spending.

Following a summer of stability, upstream and downstream traffic has been rising steadily in recent weeks. Cable operator network spending in Q3 indicates that MSOs were preparing for this latest surge.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone hopes for AR specs appeal; Nokia knocks up more private networks; Slovenian winemaker toasts 10G XGS-PON.

France-based operator considers buying out majority shareholders in Orange Belgium.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: no more copper in Salisbury; Orange builds new cable repair ship; Enea gets it on with Matrixx.

Jill Szuchmacher, an exec late of Google Fiber, is Ting Internet's new chief strategy officer. One of her key aims is to accelerate the company's ability to deploy FTTP networks.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ziggo adds probes to boost network performance; Colt upgrades its SD-WAN offering; Iskratel touts new OLT for easier virtualization.

Dish inked fiber agreements with Everstream, Segra, Uniti and Zayo in order to connect its planned 5G cell towers with the country's wider Internet backbone.

European Commission sees no problem in FiberCop's ownership structure and its absorption of Telecom Italia's last-mile network assets.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Plymouth hosts 5G marine testbed; Ericsson upgrades Mozambique's TMCEL; Swisscom spotlights 5G startups.

As the company transitions from old-school telco to cloud edge provider, it is deploying cloud edge nodes across the US and overseas.

Iliad-owned operator expresses confidence about the future thanks to 'healthy core business momentum.'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefónica edges towards Andalusia; Nokia helps Graz cut it as a smart city; Tele2 beefs up IoT offer with Cisco.

Several top Nokia executives are heading for the door, creating a challenge for Nokia's new CEO, Pekka Lundmark, as he works to assert control.

Cogent, one of the world's largest ISPs, offers customers and competitors the ability to create their own global network, across its entire footprint, while paying on a per-usage basis.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and A1 switch on private network for Siemens; BT and Transatel renew MVNOs partnership; TIM and Google combine on 'Voice Smart' calling.

Indian service provider suggests setting up new Optic Fiber Regulatory Authority for the 'faster, transparent and economic rollout of fiber' in the country.

Broadband player prepares to activate customers on assets held by FiberCop, part of Italy's plan to create a single national network.

Operator confirms it will extend usage-based data policy and unlimited data option to its northeast division starting next year, matching up with policies already in place in the MSO's central and west divisions.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: why the UK needs a Brexit data deal; Nokia lands China Mobile IoT contract; Vodafone targets net zero carbon by 2040.

The fiber network construction specialist, which counts Level 3 exec Kevin O'Hara as a founder, has been on a buying spree to help meet rising buildout demands among large, midsized and rural players.

T-Mobile claims San Francisco officials are not moving fast enough to approve its 5G cell site upgrades. The company's lawsuit again highlights the tensions between industry and city regulators.

By snapping up the remaining 51% stake of a wholesale broadband venture with Eutelsat, Viasat will ramp up its business in EMEA amid plans to launch a high-capacity ViaSat-3 satellite for the region.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson upgrades CETIN's Czech network; Nokia touts 25G PON; Arcep lays down the law on FTTP line rental.