Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Jim Hodges sees new network virtualization deployments on the horizon in 2015.

DVR pioneer racks up robust results for another quarter as it adds subscribers on both the cable and retail fronts, pushing its total customer count near 6 million.

Reports suggest Ericsson might respond to the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent by Nokia with a major deal of its own - but would that make sense?

Find out more about the players that made it on to our awards shortlist for Company of the Year (Public).

Finalists in this category showed global ambition.

ISPs are signing new pacts with edge providers before the FCC's Open Internet rules go into effect in two weeks, but measuring what's fair in an interconnection deal still won't be easy.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Germany's spectrum auction heats up; Telefonica closes GVT buy; Jolla sails into Africa.

The three finalists for Most Innovative Ethernet/Optical service know that software now outweighs hardware and raw speed.

Now more than ever, the industry needs to come together to ask and answer the big questions facing the communications networking industry -- and that's going to happen at the upcoming Big Telecom Event (BTE) in Chicago.

Consumers have no way of knowing if the aftermarket Sprint phone they're buying will work on the operator's network -- and that's burning Sprint's MVNOs.

Marcelo Claure had some bold claims to share at the Recode conference, including that its network would be ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in every single market in the next 18 to 24 months.

Interconnection deals between Netflix and ISPs have had a major impact on bandwidth usage in North America.

Hassan Ahmed, CEO of Affirmed Networks, is making some big claims for his NFV startup. I sat down with him at the Light Reading HQ in New York City to get the skinny on what this Acton, Mass.-based startup is up to.

Avago could look at Broadcom in the same way it did LSI, says analyst.

Many bring-your-own-device handsets used by MVNO customers on the Sprint network are failing a new eligibility check.

As expected, Avago is swallowing Broadcom in a deal that will create a $77 billion networking chip giant.

Quad-play is just so 2014. Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sigfox in French IoT deal; Ericsson opens cloud lab in Rome; Huawei and Volkswagen share the ride.

European Commission's broadband targets for 2020 are already looking out of reach, according to projections from research house Point Topic.

Facebook designs and builds its own networks, which sparks the question, will carriers want to do the same?

Altice owner says the company wasn't ready for Time Warner Cable, but it still has some big moves planned.

ConteXtream lets carriers identify and manage flows on a per-subscriber basis, which can be handy.

Broadcom's stock is soaring on the news.

Security firm says enterprise WiFi company will bolster its BYOD strategy and more.

With its TWC & Bright House deals done, Charter aims to extend its business services and wireless reach to compete for customers in areas beyond its cabled footprint.

As the cloud market grows, it also continues to splinter and this time, it's AT&T partner BTG offering its own private cloud partner program.

Cisco's annual Visual Networking Index report shows traffic from digital media adapters growing to 32% of total global Internet set-top traffic by 2019.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange gets Spanish green light for Jazztel buy; Ericsson takes 5G down the mines; Drahi explains TWC pullout.

What are the main steps that CSPs need to take in order to compete on the digital playing field?

Heavy Reading analyst Steve Bell explains how IoT deployments are driving operators to invest in SDN and NFV, but some are still waiting on LTE-M.

Strategic acquisitions and partnerships helped five companies get shortlisted to be 2015's best deal maker.

The pioneering SDN player will help HP build a foundation for its NFV programs.

The networking vendor says its legacy business is dwindling as it positions itself as a partner to telcos both in transforming their networks to IP and in building a future comms strategy.

Charter plans to spend about $56 billion to acquire Time Warner Cable and another $10.4 billion to purchase Bright House Networks.

CableLabs is looking at virtualizing CMTS and CCAP devices in the headend, as well as in-home devices, says CableLabs' Karthik Sundaresan.

The trend to hybrid clouds and more focused cloud service options is well represented in our four finalists.

Most telecom and network equipment manufacturers are now shipping products with 100G ports.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone shareholders like the sound of a merger with Liberty; German spectrum auction imminent; TeliaSonera makes IoT investment.

Charter is closing in on a $55.1 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable, with the generous help of Liberty Broadband, according to multiple press reports Monday.

Altice head Patrick Drahi reportedly meets with TWC CEO Rob Marcus in New York while FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler clarifies his position on cable deals.

The FCC has awarded TiVo a temporary waiver so that it can continue to sell set-tops that don't comply with the DLNA's home networking standard to its cable operator customers.

Find out more about the broadband network operators that made it onto our awards shortlist for most innovative gigabit service.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia tests 5G in Oulu; French minister makes plea for market stability; BT boss minted.

For Verizon and other network operators to ramp up available bandwidth cost effectively, they need to move to SDN and agree on how to do that.

Not sure what to do with your not-so-popular tablet anymore? We have some ideas for you...

India's recently launched smart cities project faces huge challenges even though vendors are enthused by the business opportunity.

Wave plans to bulk up on fiber in Washington, Oregon and California after raising $130 million in a corporate bond sale.

Service provider and US federal customers drove increased year-over-year IP sales, Brocade says.

Reuters reports that Mercedes, Audi, BMW and General Atlantic are getting closer to making a bid for Nokia's HERE mapping division, but they'll have competition.

Accedian vCPE has been deployed by carriers in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, likely including Cox and T-Mobile.

The Optical Internetworking Forum delivers a white paper based on last year's transport SDN demonstration and gears up for next steps.

Comcast is rolling out its residential Gigabit Pro service to six new regions across the country.

The French communications giant has bold ambitions to play a major role in consolidating the US cable market over the next couple of years, but will it happen?

Kevin Crull will join the carrier at the end of the month to step up Sprint's brand, advertising and social media efforts.

The German incumbent may be on the prowl for takeover opportunities in Europe if it can first offload T-Mobile US.

Videocon Telecom aims to become the market leader for services that do not require the use of mobile spectrum.

This is the big question facing all operators - SDN and NFV look like they could be very beneficial in many ways but can a massive transformation be justified?

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Slim sells off KPN shares; TalkTalk walks the Gigabit walk, in York; Finland tops mobile data survey.

Some folks say they'll never forgo six-nines reliability and 50 millisecond restoration standards, but there are definite signs Web 2.0 approaches are taking hold.

Heavy Reading Analyst Sterling Perrin talks about how uncertainty about SDN standards and approaches may be slowing deployment.

New research suggests the proliferation of connected cars could be a major network problem for mobile operators.

Altered records in an attempt to provide equipment to Russian military and security services, according to a report on BuzzFeed News.

Cablevision has filed suit against Verizon for claiming its FiOS network is all fiber when the telco still uses coaxial cable in subscribers' homes.

Instead of competing for cloud services, AT&T is now leveraging NetBond to sell integrated access to hybrid clouds that is on-demand and secure.

In yet another strange twist, French communications giant Altice swoops into US to buy Suddenlink and woo Time Warner Cable. But is it all for real?

SBC and wireless access gateway are available as VNFs now, with the messaging platform, app server, WebRTC gateway and call session controller to follow in 2015.

CFO says that Sprint might be happy enough with its network position to ignore the next major US spectrum auction in 2016.

Ciena adds a dedicated data center interconnect product to its line-up, along with APIs and cloud emulation to encourage app development.

After five years with a gigabit network, Chattanooga has discovered and created some killer gigabit apps.

Claims to be first to manage both kinds of networks with multivendor support.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ireland's eircom rejects takeover offer; BT appeals against "margin squeeze" test; Amino buys cloud TV specialist; UFO sighted in York.

Liberty Global chairman says two companies would be 'great fit' a day after Vodafone boss is quizzed about likelihood of a deal.

Aggressive French communications player adds to its European cable and mobile assets with a deal to buy 70% of US cable operator Suddenlink.

Comcast, UPC Hungary and MobiTV make the shortlist this year with new, cloud-based video services.

The industry is at an inflection point, and one of the looming disruptors is 5G.

Price vs. quality and industry consolidation were two common themes of a changing sector at International Telecom Week.

Just 2,000 more to go as the carrier looks to swap out all the copper in its central offices for fiber, significantly reducing their size, costs and energy usage.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao is weighing up a bigger push into the content arena as the operator looks to build on a long-awaited return to revenue growth.

SkySecure is intended to provide continuous, tamper-proof protection and auditing from manufacture to grave.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT wants EE acquisition fast-tracked; Swedish startup launches mobile money gizmo; AlcaLu partners with KT on 5G; Nokia offers LTE-in-a-box.

Versa is developing technology that enables virtual network functions to run anywhere they can find compute resources - on customer premises gear, in a carrier data center or in the cloud.

CenturyLink VP James Feger discusses concerns that virtualization could create new vulnerabilities unless network operators build in safeguards.

Charter Communications and Bright House Networks are extending negotiations with the intention of having Charter complete its $10.4 billion acquisition of the smaller operator.

Find out more about the players that made it onto our awards shortlist for company of the year (private).

Pay-TV operators are learning to adapt as TVs connected with game consoles and media streamers start to lead to a major jump in over-the-top video service adoption.

UK regulator indicates that all options are on the table during its first strategic review of the market in a decade.

On top of its fiber-based symmetric gigabit services, CenturyLink is bringing Managed Office and a range of IT offerings to this hot market.

Comcast is strongly considering expanding its spectrum use for upstream bandwidth in its HFC networks from an upper limit of 42MHz to 85MHz.

Network architects aiming to upgrade their networks to support agile, open, virtualized services in the 21st century need to consider new criteria when choosing between technology suppliers.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: New execs at eircom; MTN faces strike; BT virtualizes the contact center.

Small cells, along with WiFi, SDN and NFV, will be crucial to the build out of 5G, two SK Telecom senior managers tell Light Reading in an extensive Q&A.

Recent developments suggest Mukesh Ambani-led RJio will soon launch a 4G service.

In part 2 in a series of blogs on 'Accelerating NFV Implementation,' Caroline Chappell looks at the long-term vision for NFV and how operators can get there.

Experts offered tips on how to spread the gigabit love at this week's Light Reading Gigabit Cities Live event in Atlanta.

NFV-based optical line terminal debuted in an Open Compute Project demo that is being repeated next month, using standard hardware.

TeliaSonera's wholesale unit is quietly building a name for itself in North America.

If anyone now asks me why consumers would ever need a Gigabit broadband connection, I have a few suggestions thanks to the team at Orange GigaStudio.

NetCracker's latest software release is aimed at network operators planning to migrate step by step to a fully virtualized environment.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Turkey less than delighted by 4G; Zuckerberg likes the EU Digital Single Market; TalkTalk's FTTH plan.

After proving out the agile startup model in its Partner Exchange, AT&T's Brooks McCorcle says the carrier is looking to scale it up to wholesale -- and eventually the entire company.

UK incumbent insists Ofcom's proposals would be detrimental to the business connectivity market after the regulator aims for some bold changes.

Arista says it competes on its software.

At the Gigabit Cities Live confab in Atlanta, speakers and participants float suggestions for the nation's first Gigabit State.

Proceeds will support Crown Castle's $1 billion takeover of Sunesys and help to pay off debts.

Rovi lost two of three Board of Director seats in a fight with activist investment firm Engaged Capital.

Despite the dire warnings of top telco and cable execs, Gigabit service rollouts and announcements have only sped up since the FCC passed its Title II rules less than three months ago.

A WiFi service provider called Ozone Networks is banking on a surge in demand for WiFi-offload services among India's mobile operators.

Spain's biggest operator saw takeover activity in other parts of Europe bolster first-quarter earnings but says conditions are improving at home.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia Technologies cuts jobs; Orange under competition scrutiny in France; AlcaLu sells optical plant.

Find out more about the companies that made it onto our first awards shortlist for most innovative IoT vendor.

By not targeting all clouds equally, Verizon Enterprise is growing its cloud business significantly.

But outgoing CEO John Chambers is optimistic the company is well positioned to grab business when the service provider market inevitably bounces back.

Hong Kong conglomerate confirms plans to merge 3 Italia and Wind, creating Italy's biggest mobile operator.

AT&T becomes the latest pay-TV provider to resell Hulu service, but gets sued by Cox for patent infringement on the same day.

Selling outcomes - architecture, security and business value - will be the key to Cisco's future prosperity, outgoing CEO John Chambers says.

If Cisco doesn't work out, Chambers and successor Chuck Robbins can take their comedy act on the road.

Comcast is reducing serving group sizes to around 100 subscribers in some markets targeted for gigabit services and is adopting a 'node-plus-zero (N+0)' approach.

At the Gigabit Cities Live! Event in Atlanta, Eric Small of AT&T GigaPower talks about what happens once a Gigabit broadband network is built and notes the importance of wireless in the gigabit trend.

Light Reading founder and CEO Steve Saunders talks with Rod Naphan, the CTO of Fujitsu Network Communications.

The new Virtualized Services Assurance Platform helps correlate flaws on the SDN software overlay and networking fabric underlay.

Verizon's AOL buy is its latest push in an ongoing strategy to deliver more mobile video to its customers.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Hutchison and VimpelCom allocate merger jobs; Deutsche Telekom bids for Slovakian stake; FreedomPop brings free offer to UK.

Our annual awards shortlist of companies that are taking an innovative, effective approach to security.

The German incumbent is still riding high thanks to the turnaround at T-Mobile US and a strong performance at home.

New data center in central Washington will have significantly lower costs, which CenturyLink can use to attract new customers.

Hunter Newby says he's being approached by OTTs about leasing Allied Fiber's dark fiber network to launch their own wireless services.

New Light Reading conference in Atlanta will feature talks by senior execs from AT&T, Comcast, CenturyLink and Cox, as well as major city CTOs and CIOs.

Comcast is building a broader device ecosystem for its smart home service, and it isn't the only one.

Blockchain has the potential to help telecom vendors increase security and value to their solutions -- if they are willing to invest in its development.

Network analytics lets customers programmatically provision network services.

AOL answers the question of how Verizon will monetize all its planned video offers, and it also indicates the carrier is becoming a content provider, whether it calls itself one or not.

Entire industry needs a standard version of SDN to which it can build, in order to quickly get programmability into its networks.

Different carrier business units have different needs when you ask them what they want from SDN.

Through an agreement with Cablevision, ESPN will reportedly offer advertisers access to set-top usage data for developing targeted ad campaigns.

Telefonica has been one of the most aggressive operators when it comes to SDN and NFV, but one exec says the technologies are still stymied by a lack of vendor interoperability.

A slide show from Light Reading's first ever commercial drone event in Atlanta.

French quad-play aspirant's stock rises in European trading after it posts strong earnings results for the first three months of the year.

Carving up BT would ultimately create a more level playing field in the UK's broadband market while lessening the need for future regulation, says one of the incumbent's emerging infrastructure rivals.

Telecom giant is doubling down on digital media and video content for its broadband and wireless networks with a $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swisscom tests driverless cars; EE racks up complaints; Nokia gets the party started.

But several service providers use the SDN code.

BlueLight, a new company with a new smartphone app, is using Bandwidth.com's intelligent network platform to enable a campus security service.

In part 1 in a series of blogs on 'Accelerating NFV Implementation', Caroline Chappell looks at why OpenStack is set to play a key role in the NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) stack.

Light Reading founder and CEO Steve Saunders talks with Eric Pratt, the CEO of Taqua.

Aircel CTO Sameer Dave highlights the technical challenges that India's operators face in launching 4G.

Bright House wants to remain independent, while the FCC appears poised to restart its review of AT&T's proposal to buy DirecTV.

The Commission turns down petitions from cable, telco and wireless interests to delay implementation of the new Title II regulatory regime for ISPs.

Former Google executive to co-lead a new-look Japanese operator prioritizing investments in overseas and Internet ventures.

Light Reading's quick primer on fixed broadband access technology G.fast.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MTS uses vendor financing for Huawei deal; Tele2 erects IoT Portal; Safaricom upgrades with Ericsson.

A fresh injection of funds from Prudential and Woodford will help Gigaclear accelerate the rollout of a 1Gbit/s fiber network for rural homes and businesses.

New Rovi Knowledge Graph combines curated metadata with real-time information from 100,000 online sources.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler tells cable executives that he favors broadening the definition of an MVPD to cover online video providers.

An Equinix takeover of Telecity would create Europe's biggest data center player, but it might scupper Telecity's own move for Dutch player Interxion.

After almost three decades of writing about fiber-to-the-home, I'm finally getting it and I'm going for the whole gig.

Cable companies still dominate the scene at INTX, the event formerly known as The Cable Show.

What is the best way to support both layer 2 and layer 3 services at the edge of the network that incorporates virtual network functions?

Following its acquisition by Comtek, Sorrento Networks returns to a greatly changed optical sector with plans for new products.

Italian incumbent says spending on fiber networks and mobile data services is already starting to pay off.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Hutchison Whampoa lines up investors for O2 takeover; Ericsson files suits against Apple; mixed fortunes for Liberty Global.

Making networks more dynamic and automating the provisioning process is great, but not if it threatens the five-nines reliability of telecom.

How fast is too fast in terms of communication? Unless our lives and actions start being measured in seconds, do we really need a 43 Tbps connection to fulfill our everyday tasks?

The modest efforts of India's operators to educate consumers about the benefits of Internet services may ultimately benefit 4G players.

Social network built custom-designed open storage hardware to accommodate photos its users shared a long time ago.

The shortlists (some of them not so short) are out for this year's Leading Lights awards program and it's an incredible mix of runners and riders...

A featured workshop at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event will dig deep into the details of Carrier Ethernet's evolving role in the cloud era.

Networking giant wants to make a bigger push into the API economy by acquiring Tropo and its real-time voice, video and messaging APIs.

What are the biggest SDN questions facing service providers today? Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin highlights the major talking points as he prepares for a full day's debate in Denver.

UK incumbent's earnings are buoyed by impressive growth at its consumer division and the launch of 4G services in March.

Executives from Microsoft joined Chicago CIO Brenna Berman in a roundtable discussion on how technology changes are creating new opportunities for women in the industry.

Snaps from Chicago where women from Microsoft and the Women in Cable Telecom both held events to promote women in the industry and the good work they are doing for others.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Huawei opens R&D command center; Nokia upgrades GSM-R in Greece; Interoute facilitates cross-border current account.

Speaking to skeptical cable execs at INTX Show, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says Title II regulatory regime will help make US broadband market more competitive.

In an unexpected twist, Cablevision CEO James Dolan jumps into the industry's M&A action by calling for the consolidation of the New York metro market.

Quality-of-service demands will delay NFV adoption for existing services, carrier executives said. But new services, such as 5G and machine-to-machine communications, will be able to jump in.

Shares in Alcatel-Lucent rose in early-hours trading after the French equipment maker appeared to outperform its chief European competitors.

Comcast will introduce a 4K set-top and 4K service for its X1 IP video platform later this year, followed by the launch of an HDR set-top in 2016.

Level 3 Communications is capitalizing on early work in automating its network to advance an SDN agenda but it wants to see more commercial software as well.

Move to virtualization seen as key to faster service deliver, collapsing of silos, delivering video from the cloud and more.

Comcast has promised to improve customer service in the past. Is this time any different?

Operators aren't required to implement the good neighbor protocol for LTE-U to coexist with WiFi, but a T-Mobile exec expects it to be built into the design anyway.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telenor numbers get a lift from Myanmar; Swisscom impresses in Q1; Sky versus Skype.

The connection validates the vision of disaggregated routers, SDN, open source software and ON.Labs' open source ONOS OS.

Playing comeback against Arris and Casa, Cisco finally launches its new cBR-8 CCAP box with announced deployments by Comcast and Numericable.

The first version of the NFV reference implementation, named "Arno," is still due in the spring.

NFV software on a standard server, configured for service providers and ready to go.

Comcast reveals new details on its DOCSIS 3.1 trial plans and RDK-B devices.

Cox and Comcast reveal new gigabit plans at INTX.

Cyan argues that its prospects were bright before Ciena offered to acquire, and presents a first-quarter revenue jump as evidence.

Forget Network Vision - Sprint's now planning to densify via its Next-Generation Network, as the carrier reports fourth-quarter earnings that show improvements.

Integrated solution targets fast-growing market of metro connections that need high capacity, flexibility, scalability and more.

Comcast officials say they have now moved on after the collapse of their $45.2 billion deal to buy out Time Warner Cable two weeks ago.

There's more to SDN than decoupling network control from the forwarding plane, argues the executive director of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF).

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Allot revenues up 4.4%; EU takes its time over Apple/Amazon tax probe; Abertis lists masts business.

John Chambers leaves Cisco challenged by SDN and NFV, but in a good position to compete.

The cable industry is showing its newfound love for both TiVo and OTT services at this year's Internet & Television Expo in Chicago.

As the cable industry continues to consolidate, NCTA launches rebranded Cable Show as INTX in Chicago to stave off further attendance declines.

A new study by Amdocs and IE Market Research finds that pay-TV providers could better retain subscription revenue by offering unified search and discovery for pay-TV and OTT services.

Expanding from infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Cablevision stresses connectivity first as video subscriber numbers continue to slide.

Network operator aggressively integrated dynamic capacity abilities acquired from tw telecom to roll out nationally and globally.

Ciena looks to buy its way into the SDN/NFV revolution by acquiring fellow packet-optical vendor Cyan.

After years of talking about it, Cisco CEO John Chambers will finally retire this July, to be replaced by Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations Chuck Robbins.

As INTX -- formerly known as The Cable Show -- opens its doors in Chicago this week, here are some of the hot technologies to watch for.

Fourth-largest US MSO is investigating ways to use skinnier OTT-based video bundles to draw in more cable subscribers.

Rolls out a new communications application server but the big news is whether it will add Salesforce.com to its cloud effort.

The sixth-largest US MSO has now emerged as a key player in cable's ongoing M&A soap opera as both Charter and TWC try to woo it.

Like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, Tata Teleservices is now exploring WiFi partnership options.

Amid lingering concern about Nokia's all-stock bid for Alcatel-Lucent, shares in Western vendors have taken a pounding after some disappointing results.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Colt hires former Pacnet man; Sky invests in mobile advertising, extends deal with Viacom.

As the quest toward the Gigabit City continues, it is becoming clearer that public-private initiatives may be the key to success.

Strengthening its case for remaining independent or commanding a higher takeover price, the No. 2 US MSO racks up its best subscriber gains ever in first quarter.

Take a walk on the unconnected side with a slideshow of five of the most technologically remote places in the US.

Then pick up your axe, put on your spandex trousers and get yourself down to Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE). Kerrang!!!

CSPs have to devise a strategy either to monetize third-party OTT services or develop and deliver their own OTT-telco service offering.