Verizon said it will 'make available a service plan to Lifeline and other prepaid customers through TracFone that includes 5G service.' But the carrier didn't say which flavor of 5G it might offer.

NEC and its Netcracker subsidiary aim to show off the benefits of running a 5G core in the public cloud without losing all the control of the traditional telecom OSS/BSS.

Microsoft plans to acquire AT&T's cloud technology, and to hire hundreds of AT&T's cloud technicians. In return, AT&T will be able to put its networking operations into Azure.

This brings SASE supplier Versa Network's total funding raised to a cool $196 million.

Via two separate deals, Atlantic Broadband will acquire WOW's Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, markets; and Astound Broadband will snap up WOW's Chicago, Evansville and Anne Arundel service areas.

French operator deploys vendor's 4G/5G network slicing solution to support a private mobile network at Schneider Electric.

Telstra has stolen a march on rival Optus with the sale of 49% of its tower business to a local consortium.

The man responsible for the industry's most state-of-the-art telecom network takes aim at the public cloud.

We're halfway there. Catch up with us on Mobile World Congress. Here's what we didn't get to - and some links to the things we did.

Swedish operator will retain a majority stake in its Finnish and Norwegian towers after the latest infrastructure deal.

An appearance by the man behind Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink is the most exciting thing to happen at this year's show.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: OneWeb secures more funding; Orange likes the smell of Brut; BICS helps fight robocalls.

In Lannion in northwest France, Orange has begun trying out 'zero-touch' systems that could serve as a blueprint for its future networks.

SPONSORED: The combination of OTN and PON can enable carriers to deploy an all-optical network that provides high-availability, low-latency connections across the network to enterprise and home customers.

BAI Communications said it will acquire Mobilitie in an attempt to expand its business across the US. BAI is the majority shareholder of Transit Wireless, which operates networks in the NYC subway system.

McLaughlin, an exec late of CommScope and Arris, is sizing up a plan for USTC to be a one-stop shop for telecom distribution and supply chain, replicating what USTC's parent, ETC Group, has already set up in Europe.

Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest service provider, has implemented Ciena's photonic infrastructure to add capacity to its optic fiber network in cities.

Public-private initiative on course to eliminate a pile of 'partial not-spots' says UK government.

There will be 5 billion humans with mobile Internet in 2025, says GSMA's annual mobile economy report for MWC. Plus 24 billion IoT connections.

With a total of $18 million in funding so far, this Palo Alto, California-based startup is promising up to a 60% reduction in the time it takes to resolve networking troubles.

'4K Plus,' a feature that also allows for unlimited streams in the subscriber's home, costs an extra $19.99 per month, extending the total baseline bill to almost $85 per month.

The road to 6G will be quite a ride - but one China Mobile exec is already warning of fragmentation.

Chipmaker and 43 friends to collaborate on 5G rollouts using frequencies above 24GHz.

Transporting video services over new distributed access architectures present some hurdles for cable ops, but the resulting jump in network performance and economic advantages could make the move worth pursuing.

T-Mobile is using the eSIM capability in newer iPhones to give customers a free month of service on its network, one of the many functions enabled by the shift to eSIM.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom does IoT with 1NCE and AWS; Vodafone turns to Cisco Meraki for small-business broadband; UK considers mobile phone ban in schools.

Need to catch up on everything that's happening in Barcelona? Here's a recap of what we didn't get round to covering - and links to what we did.

Amazon is the world's biggest provider of cloud computing services. Now the company is working to retain that position in a market that is also the focus of of its two biggest rivals.

The German telecom incumbent picks Asian and US vendors to build its first open RAN network - just like everyone else is doing.

As MWC gets underway, IBM trots out its wares with new tie-ups with Verizon and Telefonica, as the tech-telco mating season is in full flower in Barcelona.

The global health crisis is still with us, but the post-pandemic world is already heaving into view. For telcos to seize the opportunities they must be fast.

Locast adds favorites and individual user profiles to its streaming TV guide as registered users eclipse 2.7 million and its service reach extends to 33 US markets.

Europe's telecom sector attempts to show it is a good corporate citizen while having its usual moan about the unfair regulation of big tech.

GPU powerhouse talks up 5G and enterprise edge AI computing credentials as MWC 2021 opens its doors.

Two announcements at Reliance Industries' AGM around the JioPhoneNext and the cloud seal the deal on the love affair with Google.

Last week's telecom news highlights included a look back at some huge 5G product news for Nokia, a summary of some new cloudy ideas coming from Mobile World Congress, and a summary of what's up at Switzerland's Astrocast - a company launching a network of satellites for IoT connectivity.

Group is working with Mavenir and Parallel Wireless on open RAN in Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telecom Italia launches 5G cloud; Eurofiber helps NGN extend German network; BICS opens 5G Lab.

Tampa Electric is asking the FCC for permission to test a private wireless LTE network using spectrum from Anterix and equipment from Motorola Solutions.

President Biden's big infrastructure spending proposal, which now includes $65 billion for broadband, took a big step forward. And it appears to sidestep some of the telecom industry's deepest fears.

Despite the risk of losing some subs, analyst says company's move is likely intended to push customers who need more bandwidth to higher, costlier tiers.

Musk says Starlink will IPO once its cash flow is predictable. Meanwhile its satellite Internet gets continuous global coverage in September.

India's second-largest service provider has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services on homegrown open RAN-based radio, non-standalone and standalone core 5G.

Launches 'commercial pilot' in three cities on the back of a cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core supplied by Ericsson.

AT&T plans to spend $24 billion a year on building fiber and 5G networks. That will make the company the single largest infrastructure investor in the US. But will all that spending be worth it?

A much bigger rollout of 5G services will not break the bank, says Rakuten, but it is unlikely to start before September.

Comcast, which has an internal project underway called 'PlatCo,' is exploring ways to build or buy options as it resolves to become a 'streaming powerhouse,' according to The Wall Street Journal.

This week in our WiC roundup: International Women in Engineering Day highlights disparities; Pride Month marches on with the Queer 50 list; women far more unlikely to have access to Internet than men; and more.

The industry forum releases a new paper that aims to ensure that 'legitimate' US-bound traffic originating from abroad is not affected.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Proximus goes drone-farming; CMA probes online giants over fake reviews; TIM brings 5G smarts to Italian factory.

SPONSORED: Key findings from Heavy Reading's Accelerating Open RAN Platforms Operator Survey show that hardware acceleration is critical to delivering the performance and cost savings improvements expected from Open RAN.

Organization has wrapped the specs for a 'Coherent Termination Device' that will help cable operators to mine more capacity out of the limited fibers available between the headend or hub and the fiber node.

Facebook said it plans to test a system that will have 'a simple radio head that will be able to operate as a Wi-Fi Radio at 2.4GHz and as a Band 3 cellular radio concurrently.'

But, in Germany, access networks will likely skew toward fiber-to-the-premises tech in high-density areas and multiple-dwelling unit scenarios, predicts Vodafone Germany CTO Gerhard Mack.

The mobile chips whizz says it won't be challenging Intel in open RAN and there are few other signs of competition.

This week: Roger Timmerman, CEO, UTOPIA Fiber, on running an open access, municipal fiber network in Utah, why the model works and what other communities should know as they embark on building broadband.

T-Mobile's new Marketing Solutions division is headed by Mike Peralta, a longtime advertising technology executive who previously worked at Future, AOL, Criteo and MediaMath.

There are potential cost savings to service providers by improving 5G network capacity, but the revenue from supporting enterprise applications could be operators' real golden ticket.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 UK accused of return to roaming charges; Openreach rolls on; telcos aim to make parcel delivery more eco-friendly.

After a product reboot, the Finnish vendor seems to measure up to its rivals on some of the most important criteria.

Deal also weaves in distribution on Amazon devices for NBCUniversal's network apps for NBC, Bravo, NBC News, NBC Sports and Telemundo.

While enterprises might not be familiar with Gartner's terminology around SASE, many do see the combining of networking and security services as an important step for their businesses.

Looking well beyond organic network capacity needs, Tele2 has developed a data-driven model fueled by other factors, including profitability, competition and risk assessment that help to justify where and when to deploy.

Starry in 2016 said it planned to cover the world with broadband. Now it's expanding into its sixth market - Columbus, Ohio - which counts around 368,000 households.

T-Mobile said it will sell limited quantities of 5G-branded gin and ginger beer through its website. But it will not provide detailed mapping information for its 5G network.

Court dashes vendor's hopes of an appeal, but Ericsson continues to raise concerns over business in China.

Swiss-based Astrocast joins a growing industry trying to come up with the IoT answer to satellite Internet for people.

While deploying OFDMA upstream channels on DOCSIS 3.1 networks can provide a lot more pop than legacy tech, cable operators must keep the plant clean and be mindful of noise, particularly in lower frequencies.

Everynet says it is fully funded for a LoRaWAN-powered network that will be lit up later this year and initially cover 36 US metropolitan areas.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swisscom taps Teoco for drones analytics; BICS supports Azure Peering; connected caffeine.

Gabriel Brown and Wind River CTO Paul Miller discuss Vodafone's selection of Wind River Studio to build one of the largest open RAN networks in the world.

Billionaire Charlie Ergen is the majority shareholder of two companies with far-reaching 5G ambitions. Will they combine forces and bring 5G to the world?

The two Japanese giants announce a further extension of their ongoing open RAN collaboration.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise bombards press with slew of announcements on first day of HPE Discover event.

Flexible Mac Architecture (FMA) will give operators the ability to stick with HFC and upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0, or pull fiber all the way to the home, and make those decisions on a granular, market-driven basis.

Bidding to be the Elon Musk of telecom, Danielle Royston has hijacked this year's shindig and made it all about the cloud.

Videon, a company whose heritage extends back to early HDTV tuners, DVD-ROM upgrade kits and the original Google TV gizmo, has raised its first-ever round of funding to fuel an ambitious growth plan.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica is booking hotel rooms at MWC; Nokia wants bodies in the office; BT in talks with News UK over future of TV sport offering.

The Swedish equipment maker will run baseband software on x86 processors supplied by Intel in a sign of RAN upheaval.

As the dust settles on the FCC's blockbuster C-band spectrum auction for 5G, investors appear to be turning to other potential sources of spectrum once thought unusable or uninteresting.

Cable op launches Cox Edge, an edge cloud computing service with global aspirations focused on a range of low-latency apps and services that can be offered in and out of Cox's traditional network footprint.

For Dish Network, the Nokia 5G core in the AWS public cloud will support 'near zero-touch automation' and the ability to offer service level agreements to customers.

Samsung was a major beneficiary of the PLI for mobile device manufacturing, but it's decided not to make additional investment.

Last week's highlights included Viavi's ongoing pursuit of a merger with Exfo, Rakuten's open RAN plan to reveal what it's really paying for telecom gear, and we briefly ponder why Nokia would roll out the red carpet for open RAN developers in Dallas.

A US appeals court throws out Huawei's complaint against the FCC, though there's more to keep its lawyers busy in Canada, Poland, the UK and Sweden.

Deal to merge Celcom and Digi is said to be worth $15 billion.

The US may be struggling to persuade the world to ban Huawei gear from 5G networks, but it's a clear winner in the Pacific subsea cable wars.

Network resiliency is a difficult thing to achieve because wireless networks are typically spread across large geographies so there are many points where the network can fail.

AT&T and T-Mobile balked at requests for their 'heat maps.' Such data would help to show their network signal strength data in the same way as the number of bars of service on a customer's phone does.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Incari touts new 'European operating system'; Orange branding guys totally smash it; Proximus downsizes in Brussels.

The Antwerp-based startup emerges from stealth mode with a new 5G product just as operators call for local alternatives to Asian and US providers.

Though many cable operators will continue to head down the road of DOCSIS in the years to come, they're also taking a close look at various FTTP options as they explore next-gen network moves.

Back from his foreign junket, Biden issues an order letting the government subpoena or ban Chinese app makers, while the FCC closes Huawei loopholes.

At issue are billions of dollars worth of spectrum licenses that Dish Network is still trying to acquire. The FCC, meantime, is loaning those licenses to AT&T and Verizon.

The China 5G handset juggernaut is slowing down - after growing at a thundering pace in early 2021 with 91 million devices shipped in the first four months.

Huawei retains its grip with a 36% share outside North America, almost equal to the combined share of Nokia, Ericsson and ZTE.

Eyeing the SouthBank Group blueprint, South Korea's SK Telecom hives off an investment arm, with $5 billion and five IPOs lined up.

The ardent debates around open RAN have obscured the reality that many of the biggest proponents of the new architecture are in the developing world.

This week in our WiC roundup: AI needs an overhaul; only 5% of tech roles are held by women of color; women take on the autonomous vehicle industry; and more.

Company ties streaming subscriber data with its AI and machine learning engine to get to the core of why or when subs are about to churn and provides provides potential remedies to keep them from fleeing.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Proximus demonstrates 5G with VR gig; Infosecurity Europe goes online-only; A1 puts its faith in esports.

The gigabit-happy ISP is also tossing in whole-home Google WiFi upgrades as Google Fiber seeks to eventually detach itself from its legacy, managed IPTV product.

Avangrid is testing a private wireless LTE network with equipment from Nokia and GE working on spectrum bands including 900MHz from spectrum-leasing company Anterix.

An 'evolution' of Microsoft's previous offering in the area, Azure private MEC represents a melding of the company's cloud computing technology with its new Affirmed and Metaswitch assets.

Exfo's board said a merger with Viavi 'is not capable of being completed.' But one financial analyst firm said Viavi's prospects in the sector, even without an acquisition of Exfo, remain undimmed.

Comcast's multi-line pricing and break-even status of its mobile biz, coupled with traffic offload opportunities presented by CBRS, show 'it's time to take cable's wireless business seriously,' according to Craig Moffett.

This week: Sarah Armstrong, executive director of the Internet Society Foundation, on the organization's mission to support Internet access for everyone and its current work to award grants for community-led efforts in Bangladesh, Colombia and Senegal.

Cloud services provider brings 22 more industry application providers into the fold as part of broader telecoms strategy.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia rolls out 5G for TTN in Denmark; MTN digs open RAN; UK government gets gung-ho on gigabit broadband.

The Japanese firm plans to reveal exactly what it pays for components in a move that the big vendors may not welcome.

Market research firm expects transition to 400G products, along with mobile backhaul upgrades, as key demand drivers going forward.

Portal gives clearance to telecom gear before it is installed by service providers, as new rules mandate telcos use equipment from 'trusted' sources only.

Operator's cloud company taps into expertise of seasoned enterprise networking giant.

The UK's mobile core market looks increasingly Nordic as Ericsson extends its role within Vodafone's network.

Verizon is spending billions of additional dollars on capital expenses over the next few years. But that higher level of spending isn't permanent, according to the company's CFO.

Viavi has made a $430 million offer to purchase testing and measurement company Exfo, a play that counters the plans of Exfo's founder to take the company private.

Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks, explains why future 5G services will be virtualized, and how the company plans to further automate data center operations.

Lightpath, the fiber connectivity company now owned by Altice USA and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP), will enter a market served by incumbents that include Comcast, RCN and Verizon.

Nokia opens an open RAN collaboration and testing center in Dallas, as CEO Pekka Lundmark bets large on O-Ran to catch Ericsson and hobbled Huawei.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: HMD Global does IoT with Nokia's WING; Ekinops lands Croatian transport deal; Deutsche Telekom updates on 5G rollout.

Dish went all-in with AWS. Nokia is splitting its time and attention between the three leading cloud providers. Contributing analyst Roz Roseboro looks at the merits of the approach and how it lines up with each cloud provider's strengths.

The UK gets its first taste of a low-latency 5G service this week as it launches the Wavelength service that was first promised last year.

New data shared exclusively with Light Reading shows just how badly Europe has now fallen behind other parts of the world in 5G, says the Swedish equipment vendor.

According to a new Ericsson report, mobile data traffic grew 75% in 2018 and early 2019, but that growth slowed this year.

Stephen Spellicy, VP of product marketing and solutions from VMware, Caroline Chan, GM, 5G infrastructure from Intel, and Ray Dolan, CEO from Cohere Technologies join Gabriel Brown to discuss a recent announcement in the RAN.

T-Mobile's marketing leadership is in a transition phase. Meantime, AT&T is preparing a brand refresh campaign. The actions are in response to expectations of frenetic growth in the 5G industry this year.

OTT-TV provider has a 'robust restart business' among customers who come and go, while others, particularly families with multiple users, tend to be more loyal and represent more value.

Windstream Enterprise plans to make VMware's new cloud-based security service available to its SD-WAN customers later this year.

The US government is offering training, workshops, handbooks and, most importantly, money, to encourage countries to block the purchase of Chinese 5G equipment.

Dish Network has erected a website signup page for its planned 5G network that carries the 'Project Gene5is' branding and promises to 'democratize wireless access.'

New master services agreement comes together about a month after TiVo emerged as the top bidder for MobiTV's assets.

Once again, the Malaysian government has surprised the industry with a sudden and unexplained spectrum allocation.

The UK operator positions itself to meet the challenge of converged rivals BT/EE and O2/Virgin Media.

Telecom industry faces an uphill battle over the next two years, warns Rakuten Mobile's Tareq Amin.

About $8,000 in RDOF funding is going to LTD Broadband to provide 1-Gig service in areas surrounding Apple's massive $5 billion headquarters. That's drawn a complaint from the Competitive Carriers Association.

The recent approval by India's DoT of 5G trials has put the spotlight on state-owned BSNL, which is still struggling to build a 4G network.

From the Big 5G Event to Connect (X) 2021, ACA Connects and the NAB Show, US telecom executives are expecting a strong return to in-person events in the fall.

Broadband usage today is completely asymmetrical, making symmetrical requirements misguided.

Telia Carrier CEO Staffan Gojeryd said his company is poised to keep growing and will likely become more focused and more competitive now that it is standing on its own. Meanwhile, the need to balance technology investments and market expansion looms larger than ever.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle Nibbles into northern Europe; UPC mobile customers move over to Sunrise; AI for Spain's industrial sector.

Led by Telkomsel, Indonesian operators have begun rolling out limited 5G deployments in the face of a severe spectrum shortage.

New deal paves way for Comcast Technology Solutions to transition video distribution services to a different satellite and help SES eventually vacate a portion of the C-band that will be used for 5G.

ACA Connects and Cartesian connected on a multi-faceted study finding that it would cost in the range of $61 billion to $118 billion to bring 1 Gbit/s to certain locations not covered by the phase I RDOF auction.

Traditionally, public cloud was regarded as unable to meet the performance, security and data governance requirements of the mission-critical business and operation support systems used by the communications and media industry. However, faced with the need to increase their agility and operational efficiencies, a growing number of CSPs are now looking at migrating their operations support systems (OSS) to public clouds in order to achieve these objectives.

AT&T plans to implement open RAN first in its indoor networks, mainly because such networks are often relatively simple. And the operator can push traffic onto its outdoor networks if there are problems.

Last week's highlights included a piece of good news for TikTok users in the US, a big bet on BT's fiber rollout from French telecom giant Altice and Starlink's plans to provide in-flight Wi-Fi.

The French group says a cyberattack was not to blame for a major network outage that affected calls to emergency numbers.

UAE achieved one of the world's best 5G rollouts using Huawei kit. But Biden tells the Emirates to break with Shenzhen or lose an F-35 jet shipment.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and Ooredoo deploy 4G and 5G FWA in Oman; STC adds fire alarm system to its smart armory; Openreach's Selley lands a CBE in Birthday Honours list.

There seems to be a tug of war going on between the satellite communication firms and Indian service providers over the 28GHz spectrum band.

The South Korean vendor emerges as the key player in the deployment as Vodafone works on replacing China's Huawei in its 5G network.

Although a New York judge issued an injunction against legislation requiring $15 per month broadband, the issue is still very much undecided.

Deployments of distributed access architecture (DAA) equipment are also showing signs of life, but suppliers of DOCSIS CPE could be in for more pain as chip shortages persist.

'The minimum delay reported by members was generally three to four weeks,' NTCA told the FCC. Some network operators report 'not being able to obtain the equipment for the 2021 construction season.'

Tapping into the 6GHz band with Wi-Fi 6 will enable service providers to free up the 5GHz band and pursue a new wave of high-bandwidth, low-latency apps and services, CommScope exec says.

US chip giant said to have offered $2 billion to get its hands on chip-designer startup.

Service providers need to both bend to the technology realities of the moment, while continuing the march towards a longer-term vision, writes A10's Terry Young.

Asia's most valuable company, TSMC, is weighing construction of an advanced chip-making plant in Kumamoto, western Japan.

A wide range of companies - from mobile network operators to cloud computing companies to startups - are colliding in their pursuit of the private wireless networking opportunity.

This week in our WiC roundup: Working from home does not work for everyone; the biggest diversity trends; women in engineering experience daily microaggressions; and more.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telia Carrier highlights pandemic security spike; 5G gaming-by-the-sea; AWS to plant data centers in Israel.

It performs well in a comparison with other international 4G networks, but one analyst says the loss-making Japanese firm desperately needs a deep-pocketed investor.

Programmer's first live primetime coverage of the Olympic games in the eye-popping format will be complemented by live 4K HDR coverage on NBCU's Golf Channel and the Olympic Channel.

DZS CEO Charlie Vogt and Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Phil Harvey discuss the accelerating tailwinds and significant opportunities present in the access market today, the turnaround at DZS and how the company is helping service providers capture "generational" opportunities.

'Selling to enterprises is very difficult, and we don't know why anyone would work with Dish, which has no experience in building networks or working with enterprises,' argued the financial analysts at J.P. Morgan.

The Miramar competition provides a look into the breakthrough wireless technologies that the DoD investments have already produced.

Airspan reported a 67% year-over-year increase in its revenues to $45.9 million and a 42% year-over-year increase in its gross profit to $20.9 million ahead of its planned debut as a public company.

The Biden administration's plans to tip tens of billions into new tech to counter China is a throwback to the Cold War - not necessarily a bad thing.

SpaceX exec says Starlink's aviation product is in development and talks are now underway with 'several' airlines, moves that are sure to amp up competition with satellite broadband companies such as Viasat.

Biden overturns Trump's TikTok and WeChat bans, but his new review on how Chinese companies use US data may see them die another day.

This week: Ben Edmond, founder and CEO of Connected2Fiber, and Mel Wagner, CEO of INDATEL, on the economic challenges of rural broadband and how Connected2Fiber is helping operators plan and monetize their networks.

Regarding people as a problem, BT's chief network architect is determined to automate as much as he possibly can over the next decade.

Verizon may not get early access to the B and C Block portions of its C-band holdings. However, it plans to add CBRS capabilities to its network as part of its C-band buildout.

Biggest single shareholders in UK incumbent are now French and German.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica invests in Monogoto; TIM teams up to digitalize Italian industry; Sky Italia fails to bag sports content.

Operators believe open RAN can spur competition and supplier diversity in the radio access network. So how come today's ecosystem is built around one giant chipmaker?

Eyeing China, the US Senate passed a $250 billion bill to boost the US semiconductor, telecoms, and AI sectors, but its path ahead is uncertain.

Staneff said on Twitter that it's time for a new adventure. He left the wireless carrier on June 1.

'You can't operate in a silo,' CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney says regarding a pair of recent convergence-focused initiatives that are actively seeking out cross-industry collaboration.

Private wireless networks are emerging in locations such as the Port of Oakland and the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia – an indication of the maturation of the space.

DOCSIS 4.0 presents a multitude of spectrum options, but operators are already gravitating towards expanding the upstream to 396MHz, which would support upstream speeds of about 3 Gbit/s, CommScope exec says.

There is still immense pressure on women to balance the demands from their careers and personal lives, and tech companies need to provide employees with the flexibility to succeed at home and in the workplace.

Alan Breznick and Tien Fu share bad British humor as they prep for LR's upcoming Cable Next-Gen Europe digital symposium on June 22 and 24.

The China-based vendor insists that country of origin does not affect the security of network equipment.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Iskratel expands into Germany; online living in the post-pandemic world; Lebara sticks with Vodafone in the UK.

SPONSORED: Key findings from Heavy Reading's 'Accelerating Open RAN Platforms Operator Survey' show that carriers are shifting to open source for their RAN software.

Operators have multiple tech options, including HFC, PON and even wireless, to achieve the capacity, low latency and security goals of the cable industry's 10G initiative, execs at the Anga Com event say.

UK government rules may deter thousands from attending this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The social media giant has sought more time from the government to comply with the new IT rules, possibly marking an end to the standoff.

After being late to the European operator open RAN party, the Italian group is trying to build a head of steam.

Performance on the Internet middle mile, once the network service provider's problem in the MPLS network, is now a concern for the enterprise, writes TeleGeography's Greg Bryan.

TDS has selected the vendor's 4K-capable Android TV device for IPTV, a deal that builds on similar wins with Liberty Latin America, Cincinnati Bell, RCN and Grande Communications.

An unprofitable minnow temporarily paralyzes a few major organizations and knocks out a whole government website.

In era of unprecedented change, Hong Kong telco HKBN keeps focus on the customer - expanding to office stationery sales and more.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Virgin Media O2 uses recycled rubble; AWS plans more data centers in Spain; Ericsson-backed report sings the praises of mmWave.

The first of three ViaSat-3 satellites, set to provide coverage for the Americas region, has completed key integration and performance testing ahead of an expected launch in 'early' 2022.

Microsoft gets US regulatory approval to buy Nuance, the company behind Dragon voice-recognition software and the voice-rec engine for Siri.

RCN, Grande Communications, Wave Broadband and enTouch are pitching a gaming-optimized Wi-Fi 6-powered router from Netgear for an extra $12.95 per month.

Last week's news highlights included a look at big telco job numbers (they're dropping), Huawei's software strategy and T-Mobile's plans to connect rural America. This video first appeared on Informa Tech's executive community, The Network.

Could the high cost of building a fiber connection to each home and business be avoided by using fixed wireless technology? Let's see.

The UK is bustling with companies eager to build the next generation of broadband networks in what looks like a potentially nasty development for BT.

India's DoT has issued guidelines on the implementation of the Production Linked Incentive scheme to spur domestic telecom equipment manufacturing.

The two European telcos are the latest to decide against having a major physical presence at the 2021 event.

China aims to commercialize 6G by 2030, according to its leading 6G development body, the IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, integrating mobile and satellite.

Mobile handset subsidies are back on the table in Korea and China as operators race to sign up 5G subs.

AT&T plans to use fixed wireless some of the time. Except in locations where customers are using a lot of data. And it will somehow be able to figure this out before actually serving those customers. Make sense?

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telecom Italia trials satellite Internet service; ADVA supplies gear for TIP proof of concept; Orange makes health-tech move in Africa.

A large chunk of Pew Research Center survey respondents who don't have home broadband aren't really that interested in getting it in the future. And 11% without home broadband 'do not need it.'

President Biden's main telecom agency said it will test and price open RAN equipment and software. The program promises to lay to rest questions of open RAN efficiency, cost and capability.

Light Reading's Alan Breznick serves up an audio appetizer on what listeners can expect to learn at the Cable Next-Gen Europe Digital Symposium later this month.

New 'Essential' plan for Paramount+ replaces the ad-supported version of CBS All Access. Paramount+ with ads will fetch $4.99 per month, but will not include access to a local, live feed of CBS.

Still unclear whether there is a direct link between deaths that occurred during an outage which prevented calls to the emergency services.

The smartphone, being developed in partnership with Internet giant Google, is likely to be priced at $50, with two variants, 4G and 5G.

Biden starts a list of 59 Chinese companies, including China Mobile and Huawei, that US investors will now have a year from August to divest from.

T-Mobile describes rural America as covering 140 million people across 54 million households. The company's goal is to raise its market share there from the 'low teens' today to around 20% by 2025.

This week in our WiC roundup: What should we wear as we return to office?; how Sephora does things differently; who benefits most from mentors; and more.

The optical equipment maker stands to benefit from Huawei's unpopularity, Biden's stimulus spending and customer interest in its latest technology.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telecom Italia digitizes Philip Morris' logistics; EE preps for a staycation summer; UK charity wants cheaper broadband for those on low incomes.

SPONSORED: Key findings from Heavy Reading's 'Accelerating Open RAN Platforms Operator Survey' show that many operators will deploy a mix of open RAN acceleration techniques.

The challenges of distribution have gotten easier in the direct-to-consumer streaming era, but subscriber retention has emerged as the big test, says HBO Max's Andy Forssell.

New 'Transparent Security' open-source solution aims to identify and mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks by using in-band network telemetry technology.

Dish Network recently hired a longtime AT&T veteran, Abid Khan, as its new director of in-building systems. The move likely signals Dish's interest in supporting enterprise customers.

The FCC voted last year to rework the spectrum and technology dedicated to connected cars. Now it's facing a legal challenge to that decision from some prominent transportation advocacy groups.

The US threatens 25% tariffs on countries imposing digital services taxes, to coax G7 agreement for its own global minimum corporate tax proposals.

The Canadian telecom operator follows Verizon, Vodafone and others into the public cloud for its edge services despite an array of concerns.

Cable One is poised to see the biggest increase in competitive FTTH overlaps by 2025, according to a fresh forecast from MoffettNathanson.

A big part of that surge has been from growing Internet use in emerging markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam.

Amid rejoicing at the apparent end of a pandemic, Verizon believes the time is 'perfect' to offer a promotion worth more than $1,000. The stage is set for a fierce battle over 5G customers.

Social networking giant unveils tools that will enable businesses to message customers on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

Technological changes occurring at the network layer paired with a mix of new services and capabilities are ushering in a wave of training challenges for the telecom workforce.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson and more trial 5G VoNR; Orange boss gets a grilling over network outage; OBS, Ericsson combine on IoT security.

The launch of the new operating system on smartphones and connected gadgets threatens further clashes with the West.

Dycom may have lost Windstream's fiber-buildout business. The development comes amid signs the fiber industry could double in size.

Sales of smart sports and fitness devices, gaming consoles, e-readers, VR headsets and smart alarm systems all surged in North America during the pandemic-induced lockdowns last year, according to a new Cujo AI study.

This isn't your typical telco-cloud partnership, but it might be the most interesting of all, given Dish's greenfield status and a handful of unanswered questions, writes contributing analyst Roz Roseboro.

New offering, at $9.99 month, costs $5 less than the ad-free version of HBO Max. The ad-supported version of HBO Max does not allow downloads for offline viewing and caps streaming video quality at 1080p.

Zoom sees its Q1 revenues jump 191% as it seeks to now do hybrid working and cement its lead by starting a venture capital fund to create Zoom apps.

Survey by Ericsson Consumer Lab found 10% higher satisfaction rate with 5G over 4G, but also reveals 70% are dissatisfied at the absence of innovative apps.

With India giving the go-ahead to much-awaited 5G trials, 5G job postings have doubled over the last quarter, according to GlobalData.

Year one of the pandemic saw 55,000 net job cuts at the world's largest operators headquartered in the Americas and Western Europe.

Nokia and Ericsson voiced support for the open RAN trend, and both boasted of their work in the space. However, their support ends right at the point government mandates are raised.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica completes towers sale; Virgin Media O2 CEO raises prospect of BT joint venture; Ericsson digs into private networks.

Finnish vendor said new SON deal confirms its dominant position after ousting of Huawei.

The pandemic has changed the economy forever. This has created the need to develop new collaboration, efficiency and productivity muscles in this WFH environment and that implies fluid networking requirements with flexible, agile and scalable Multiservice Provider Edge.

While seasonal broadband usage patterns appear to have returned in Q1, usage is still notably higher than pre-pandemic levels and seems likely to remain so.

Verizon's latest promotion includes free 5G phones and up to $300 to encourage prospective customers to switch to the operator. But they're also contingent on Verizon's more expensive service plans.

Although Ericsson has been playing in the space for years, the company took the wraps off its new 'Private 5G' offering in part to refine its message to enterprises.

Germany will fast track rural broadband by subsidizing LEO satellite Internet hardware for users who sign up for Elon Musk's Starlink, according to reports.

On the global 5G battlefront, it's been a good news week for Huawei -perhaps that's why it still thinks it can get the US to drop its bans.

The espionage trial of ex-Huawei employee Wang Weijing begins in Warsaw, as his lawyer says he is collateral damage of the US campaign against the telco.

On this episode: Representative Drew Hansen on passing a law in Washington to reverse the state's ban on municipal broadband and what comes next.

Following SpaceX and OneWeb, Amazon is reportedly looking to bring low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite Internet services to India.

The ongoing subscriber drain continued apace in the winter quarter as both traditional pay-TV providers and their streaming rivals suffered significant declines.

Will operators be able to realize 5G's promise of higher revenue earnings?

Phishing and ransomware attacks increased by 11% and 6% in 2020, respectively.

Long-running litigation comes to an end after the two companies sign a patent-licensing agreement.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange joins quantum communication consortium; Telecom Italia bags loans from EIB; EQT bids for Telefonica's subsea cable business.