Optical Transport Month at Light Reading has come to an end, but stay tuned for much more optical coverage.

Brocade's Kelly Herrell and Light Reading's Steve Saunders talk about Brocade's approach to the New IP and the telecom industry's future.

AT&T is the biggest spender in the massive $45 billion AWS-3 spectrum auction.

Light Reading readers have confirmed the metro is where it's at for optical in 2015.

Three days after introducing its new Freewheel WiFi phone service, Cablevision sues Verizon over the telco's "false" and "deceptive" WiFi ads.

T-Mobile teams with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to build new DAS to connect Chicago's entire subway system to 4G LTE.

Thanks to recent technology improvements, a UK-wide G.fast deployment based largely on FTTC now looks commercially viable.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Tele2 sales up in Q4; Jay-Z buys Scandinavian streaming service; startups in ice-holes.

This year is expected to be a year of great market evolution across most telecom sectors, specifically in virtualization and Long Term Evolution (LTE).

G.fast standard will support the rollout of 500Mbit/s services across most of UK, says incumbent.

Comcast's customer retention department seems unclear on the concept of retaining customers.

4G spectrum sure ain't going cheap as the FCC pulls in $44.89B for AWS-3.

Michigan operator Comlink explains how and why it just joined the 100G race.

The FCC has voted to raise the minimum broadband speed threshold from 4 Mbit/s downstream and 1 Mbit/s upstream (4/1) to 25 Mbit/s downstream and 3 Mbit/s upstream.

Despite falling shy of Wall Street financial targets, the No. 2 US MSO enjoyed a resurgent quarter, adding broadband and voice subs by the bucket while sharply cutting video sub losses.

Virtualization vendor says it will invest more in mobile, networking, Workspace Cloud and ADC.

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri fends off criticism of Technologies business after profits shrink in fourth quarter.

An early user report suggests Sony's new PlayStation Vue video service will compete at the high end of the pay-TV market... in direct contrast to the new Sling TV service from Dish.

NTT DoCoMo adds fiber products to its mobile offerings in challenge to KDDI.

Light Reading will bring the Gigabit Cities community together in Atlanta May 13 and 14.

Combines the functions of a top-of-rack switch, edge router, and conventional load balancer for high-traffic SDN networks.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica buys stake in Indra; ETNO calls for level playing field with OTT crowd; Cinven bids for Telekom Slovenia.

Scandinavian operator reports first revenue decline in developed-markets region 'for a long time.'

Google is hunting wireless experts to help it integrate WiFi and LTE with its Fiber cities.

There are three important questions service providers need to address for in-market and out-of-market expansion.

Finnish vendor ends the year on a high with improving sales across all units and expectations of further growth in 2015.

New CEO expects uptick in second half of 2015 after company reports fourth-quarter loss that wasn't as bad as analysts expected.

Merger will help CommScope enter new geographical and product markets and generate $150 million in annual cost synergies.

The service provider IT giant reported record quarterly revenues for the final three months of 2014 and announced a diverse set of new customers.

CEO says Ma Bell can now build a network covering 400 million across the two countries.

AT&T's fiber-fed platform sees its growth slow down markedly in fourth quarter as company shifts focus to higher-end consumers and lower churn rates.

New monitoring tools and VMware, Dell support for Big Cloud Fabric.

Heavy Reading senior analyst Sterling Perrin takes stock of the metro 100G movement percolating in the optical sector.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Apple revenues 20% up in Europe; Norwegian government cuts stake in Telenor; retailer goes OTT in France.

Huawei NFV lab a testbed for new business model as well as tech.

Bring your own device (BYOD) is flourishing, creating the need for better security on shared personal/workplace mobile devices.

iPhone maker reports biggest quarterly profit in corporate history as influence in mobile sector grows.

With the soft launch of Sling TV, Dish has introduced a service that's neither a high-end cable competitor nor a low-end Netflix knock-off, but something in between.

Carrier aims to bring TV Everywhere service to every device and put content on every wireless handset bought in stores once it closes DirecTV deal.

VMware's SDN software isn't just for early adopters anymore, say executives.

Also introduced expanded Meraki services for managing networks from the cloud.

Google Fiber head Dennis Kish says the cities with the most-prepped infrastructure and processes are most attractive to Google.

Google Fiber continues its gigabit quest with announced rollouts in three more cities.

NFV pioneer has seen significant benefits from introducing virtual CPE to enterprise customers during the past two years, executive tells webinar audience.

Imagine Communications picked up video specialist RGB Networks in its fourth acquisition over the past year.

Vendor is in the early stages of working with partners and customers to understand how they want to use the network going forward so it can build out 5G to meet their needs.

Millimeter wave technology holds tremendous potential for delivering ultra-high-speed wireless broadband, but so far the market has been more smoke than fire.

Merger would create company with more than $6 billion in annual revenues and generate synergies of $50 million next year, say analysts.

Orchestration and virtual CPE tools are designed to help service providers boost revenue, cut costs, and move fast.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Dutch regulator issues net neutrality fines; TE Connectivity close to sale of network gear unit; Bell Labs' HetNet boasts.

Vendors and operators are turning to Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) testing to ensure that their mobile networks are working as efficiently as possible.

Arbor Networks' latest security report indicates that large cyber attacks are on the rise while defenses look weak.

As NFV strategies evolve from tests and trials to production telco networks, expect to hear a lot about virtual CPE (customer premises equipment) rollouts during 2015.

Swedish giant sees a further dip in US revenues but growth in other regions, including China, helped it to remain steady.

Cablevision's new Freewheel WiFi service will offer 'unlimited data, talk and text' plus access to Cablevision hotspots for a smallish monthly fee, but is hotspot access worth the price?

TM Forum is changing up its leadership again by appointing long-time board member Peter Sany as president and CEO starting March 1.

Pair promise faster time to market and lower costs with Amdocs as the systems integrator for ipAccess small cells.

AT&T makes another purchase in Mexico, adding Nextel Mexico to its Iusacell holdings to grow its customer base there.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: AlcaLu deploys GPON network in South Africa; snub for Spanish regulator over Orange/Jazztel deal; 'snoopers' charter' fears revived in UK.

Altiostar now has $120 million in funding from Cisco and others.

A revolutionary manufacturing process holds out the promise of transforming photonic integrated circuits.

Standards body claims technology would deliver fiber-like capacity and lower operating costs.

LightSpeed joins the ranks of gigabit providers addressing demand in mid-sized communities being passed over by incumbents for higher speeds.

Research firm Parks Associates predicts that 17% of US broadband households are "likely to subscribe" to a standalone online video service from HBO priced at $14.99 per month.

With Dish, HBO and CBS moving forward with their Internet video ventures, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo is optimistic about his company's OTT plans.

Optical comms technology underpins the whole communications sector and there are some really hot trends set for 2015.

Optical vendor is adding sales, improving margins and growing a diversified customer base, a combination that has lit a fire under its share price.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange nurtures startups; Austrian spectrum row; will anyone download the bride-valuation app?

Merger between Hutchison's 3 and Telefonica's UK subsidiary would create new mobile market leader.

BlackBerry says the US government should make those nasty developers write apps for its platform.

Verizon's FTTP platform sees its growth re-surge in the fourth quarter as it continues to suck video subscribers away from cable operators.

Fiber upstart aims to carve out a position as a major infrastructure alternative to the UK's fixed-line incumbent.

The Google-Sprint-T-Mobile three-way is "just another competitor as we look at it," says the ever-chatty Fran Shammo on Verizon's Q4 call.

A new Cisco box made for Comcast has shown up in an FCC filing, while Charter has confirmed that Humax will be a second supplier for its Worldbox set-top initiative.

Clarifying his earlier remarks, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo ripped into proposals to reclassify ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act, arguing that such a move would jeopardize US private investment in broadband networks.

NITCO is deploying a high-speed fiber network to deliver gigabit connectivity to businesses, including a local farm/tourist attraction.

Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) technologies could help relieve future bottlenecks in communications networks.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU compromise on net neutrality; data-tapping back on the agenda; Tele2 in M2M deal.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says the vendor expects to see revenues grow by about 20% this year and admits to internal corruption challenges.

We weren't at PTC 2015, but our press release-issuing friends were.

Integrated multicore processors offer a cost-effective solution for hardware systems used in demanding SDN and NFV applications.

Google is now backing or actively exploring three ways of delivering cheaper Internet connectivity to the world: satellites, drones and balloons.

Gets results on a small scale before embarking on a big SDN or NFV network transformation.

One of the IoT standards groups issues the first reference implementation model for its approach.

As the cable industry looks toward downloadable content security, there's a power vacuum waiting to be filled.

The telecom sector leads other industries when it comes to the sophistication of security systems and executives' confidence in them.

Elephant Talk scores a big win with Vodafone Spain, which is running its low-cost MVNO entirely over the vendor's SDN platform.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: probe into Orange/Jazztel deal resumes; LTE-Advanced in Kenya; more O2 sale rumors.

Fabric vendor gets a $50 million Series D round, bringing the total war chest to $95 million.

In December 2014, Light Reading brought together telecom executives in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss their vision for high-capacity networks through the end of the decade. The intimate, interactive meeting was set against the backdrop of Iceland's spectacular natural beauty. As one of the event's founding sponsors, Cisco's Doug Webster shared his company's strategy in a presentation during the event.

Adtran suffers a decline in sales and profits but marginally beats expectations in tough conditions.

A second look at the cars, phones and drones at CES.

Keeping his critics always on their toes, Obama surprised many observers by touching only very lightly on net neutrality in State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Elon Musk's spacecraft company has received $1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity to help accomplish its mission of bringing satellite Internet to the unconnected.

Ciena was long thought to be favored but now Cisco is also seen as a winner, according to analyst reports.

The pay-TV giant appears keen on developing a mobile offering to ward off looming quad-play competition.

Deutsche Telekom's IT business has named the heads of three new divisions charged with turning around its performance.

Adds complete API support to its ADCs to let network operators do everything programmatically, rather than having to use CLI.

Ericsson stripped Mediaroom 'down to bare metal' before starting over with the new MediaFirst platform, set to debut commercially in the second quarter.

In December 2014, Steve Saunders sat down with Cisco VP of Products & Solutions Marketing Doug Webster at Light Reading's 2020 Vision executive summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. They spoke about Cisco's approach to network virtualization as well as how service providers can begin to monetize high-capacity networks through the end of the decade.

The Vyatta Controller, shipped today, is based on OpenDaylight and designed to let network operators give SDN a try.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Saudi Telecom hires new CEO as Q4 profits slump; ETNO seeks new director general; Envivio lands French multiscreen gig.

Small cells with advanced C-RAN capabilities create a new opportunity to meet wireless demand more economically and deliver the best possible user experience to subscribers.

Judging by the fall in the Chinese company's share price, investors had been hoping for a better performance in 2014.

With an eye on a possible White House run, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces $500 million matching grant program for broadband providers willing to meet certain speed and other standards.

New breed of facility combines data center, interconnection and high bandwidth, say partners 365 Data Centers and TSIC.

Companies team to help wireless operators work with developers on enhanced communications apps through cloud-based PaaS and APIs.

Time Warner Cable started its OpenStack efforts only one year ago, and today it has OpenStack-enabled cloud environments in two of the company's national data centers.

Middle East operator to deploy Alcatel-Lucent's virtual radio network controller in additional territories.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: VimpelCom's Renee walks away; 'roam like at home' a step closer; AlcaLu claims subsea breakthrough.

Chinese vendor expands its relationship with Telenor by landing a back office transformation deal with the operator's Hungarian operation and hints at further deals.

Senior Alcatel-Shanghai Bell executive accuses colleagues of corruption before disappearing in mysterious circumstances.

Merger between Hutchison's 3 and O2 would give rise to UK's biggest mobile operator by customer numbers.

In a letter to the FCC, Stephen Bye says that a 'light touch application' of Title II would not harm mobile broadband investment.

Optical vendor moves some distribution, repair and other responsibilities to partners to improve its supply chain.

The FCC wants Dish Network to hand over details about the programming distribution deals that the satellite TV provider has negotiated for its online Sling TV service.

Satellite startup is launching a new venture, funded by the Virgin Group and Qualcomm, to bring Internet connectivity to the unconnected via a huge satellite constellation.

AT&T's Texan gateway to the Internet of Things – in pictures.

New player touting stability and greater affordability including elimination of monthly recurring interconnection fees.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Liberty Global hikes European prices; TeliaSonera sounds warning; UK and US play cyber war games.

Next-generation passive optical network (PON) pushes fiber closer to the edge.

China's third-biggest mobile operator awards most of planned work to Huawei and ZTE.

Mobile division racks up operating losses of $4.2 billion as it chases market share, but that didn't stop the chip giant from having a standout year, with data center and IoT products contributing to growth.

Arsenal goalkeeping legend Bob Wilson was Light Reading's guest interviewee at the 2020 Vision Executive Summit in December. See what the former soccer star and sports broadcaster had to say when he took to the stage in Iceland.

Social networking giant takes campaign to boost Internet adoption into Latin America.

TV authentication specialist Synacor has acquired online video startup NimbleTV.

President Obama's stance on municipal broadband is politically polarizing – but could there be an upside for commercial service providers?

BlackBerry's patents and IoT expertise would be the main attraction for the South Korean firm.

Terming high-speed broadband 'a necessity,' 'not a luxury,' for Americans, Pres. Obama calls for preempting state laws that ban municipally owned broadband networks.

Too much too soon, says Broadbandtrends analyst Teresa Mastrangelo.

Improving processor performance and virtualized network architectures are opening up new opportunities for rackmount appliance platforms.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TeliaSonera must wait on Tele2 deal; Finns unsure about online eavesdropping; jamming in the name of road safety.

Ericsson CEO Vestberg to take charge of networks business as Wibergh takes key role at giant mobile operator.

Network and data center operator continues its acquisition spree with a deal that adds facilities across the US and in London.

Project Ara – smartphones built around modules – will be launching soon, creating questions about how operators will price such devices as leasing programs have become the norm.

Alcatel-Lucent's incoming President IP Platforms, Bhaskar Gorti, will have overall control of the vendor's NFV strategy, including CloudBand, but is he the right person for that role?

Despite the deal announced a CES last week, Arris CEO Bob Stanzione doesn't believe Cisco's Worldbox agreement with Charter will take any set-top market share away from his company.

New CEO Rich Napolitano says less talk about SDN, more talk about solving networking problems.

Communications service providers are looking to offer cloud services to any device, anywhere and at any time to boost their revenues from enterprise and SMB customers.

Supporters of municipal broadband gather in Kansas City, the site of the first Google Fiber deployment, as the US government gets behind munis.

Swedish equipment giant retaliates after Apple says its licensing fees are unfairly high.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telecom Egypt signs wholesale deals; Telefonica boosts VoIP with Zaark; AlcaLu reaches vectoring milestone.

But there's no launch date for the bandwidth-saving video technology yet.

Western US carrier Integra creates two new units to better address the needs of different-sized businesses.

A year after OnStar replaced Verizon with AT&T, Verizon is creating its own OnStar competitor for those cars without connectivity today.

Longtime Oracle Communications executive Bhaskar Gorti has joined Alcatel-Lucent as the head of IP Platforms and takes responsibility for NFV.

Sale of 1800MHz spectrum attracts new mobile entrant besides existing players.

Mavenir to acquire Ulticom for its NFV-ready signaling business, while its partner Radisys announces an important new contract with Nokia Networks.

Today's big data boom means that companies can know more about their customers than ever before, but if they don't have the right processes and infrastructure to act on it, the data is useless, according to Disney Theme Parks Merchandise.

Service providers are looking to social customer relationship management (CRM) to provide superior customer experience

Time Warner Cable continues its all-digital transition with a rollout of its TWC Maxx initiative in Kansas City, its fourth upgrade market.

Having made its fortunes in hardware, Cisco is now planning to revamp its strategy and plan a future based on software and cloud developments.

Unaudited 2014 financials from the Chinese equipment maker show it is going from strength to strength while others flatline.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Liberty Global reorganizes; Netflix rolls on to TalkTalk; German cable capers.

New single-mode LTE platform brings chipset costs down to 3G ranges, while a partnership with Ecrio will give a 4G voice to any of those IoT devices that need one.

As operators deploy NFV, NetNumber says it becomes more important to have a single interface for dealing with all flavors of signaling.

Chinese vendor provides greater detail on 2014 financials.

Mobile operator touts importance of 4G indoor signal quality and content offerings.

Product demos, panel discussions and unfettered gossip spoke volumes about the chaotic state of the smart home at CES 2015.

Germany's third-biggest cable operator claims new broadband service will be twice as fast as current market offerings.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telecom Italia gains mobile customers; Ivory Coast operator acquired; last tango at Openreach.

Decision to let customers roam at domestic rates should satisfy European regulators.

To get real customer visibility and to consistently deliver a higher quality experience, MNOs must have access to real-time location awareness.

Things are looking up for Cyan, which raised its fourth-quarter outlook this week on the heels of a new contract and new funding.

A municipal utility in Sebewaing, Michigan, tries to transform a sugar beet capital into a Gigabit Village.

AT&T will host the first live, on-site demo of LTE Broadcast technology at the college football national championship game on January 12.

Sebewaing Light and Water recently deployed a fiber-to-the-home network to deliver gigabit services to its 1,800-person community.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TDD LTE-A breakthrough in Finland; ARM's new money man; Dorset goes superfast!

This could be a big year for converged service offerings but quad play might prove a tough game for telcos.

The current definition, 4 Mbit/s downstream, is inadequate for present-day needs, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says.

Social network aims to improve video experience for customers with QuickFire's compression technology.

Under AT&T's ownership, Cricket is shutting down its popular Muve Music service in favor of a partnership with streaming and download service Deezer.

Encouraged by money raised in the AWS spectrum, Sprint's CEO says the carrier is in the early stages of exploring ways to monetize its 2.5GHz spectrum holdings.

Broadcom unveils first reference design for a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem at CES, while STMicroelectronics demos D3.1 platform with RDK-B.

In our latest community poll, readers pick Comcast as the most likely US pay-TV provider to introduce an HDMI streaming media stick first, edging out Verizon.

Equinix ties apps to the appropriate cloud using Apigee's API management platform.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TalkTalk buys Blinkbox; Belgacom homes in on the IoT; ZTE grabs some Dutch smart cities action.

IP systems vendor buys SDN technology from Treq Labs, announces a reverse stock split and provides preliminary fourth-quarter financials.

Suffering a loss of market share in China, South Korean tech giant says recent profit decline was not as bad as feared.

Flying killers turn into duckface enablers!

Impressive quarterly performance keeps Sprint ahead of T-Mobile in US mobile market.

Taking his cue from Pres. Obama, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler strongly hints at CES that he'll push for Title II reclassification of ISPs when the Commission tackles the issue late next month.

Democrats get ahead of the Republicans' own bill, as the FCC prepares to vote.

The connected car is king at CES, but there's plenty more to see, too.

Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Networks and Samsung all chip in to help Sprint accelerate its Spark LTE network rollout.

Number-four mobile operator will soon overtake Sprint on subscriber numbers, says CEO.

Roku says more apps from pay-TV providers will hit its platform in the US this year.

A troubled spoke of the Asia America Gateway subsea cable faces repairs following the latest of multiple cuts within the past year.

Charter and Cisco have forged a new set-top deal, but the cable company isn't tying down its new cloud-based user interface to any one type of box.

Perhaps in response to T-Mobile's recent offer, AT&T's new Rollover Data plan will let any person or family on a Mobile Share Value plan keep their unused data for the next month.

Parent company Lenovo plans to launch three devices in early 2015.

By gaining an automated back-end system and data services portfolio, carrier lays groundwork for significant expansion strategy.

The Indian government expects to raise at least $10.3 billion from the sale of new spectrum licenses across multiple bands.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 'Grexit' threatens OTE; Portugal Telecom in fraud probe; O2 Czech Republic management changes; Wiko launches 4G phone in Kenya.

The scary thing is that this massive Las Vegas show could get even bigger, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The AWS-3 spectrum auction has so far garnered bids worth $44.6 billion and it's still not over!

Aggressive LTE strategy is paying off for the world's biggest telco.

Competition and churn were up in Q4 and CEO says he's happy, as Verizon's highest value customers stayed.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, the carrier showcases its role as facilitator of app development for the industrial and consumer Internet of Things.

Despite its video content ambitions, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam sees the company as a platform – maybe apps and services – company, but definitely not a content provider.

To combat low tablet sales, AT&T is offering iPad owners a different way to get on its LTE network – via a case.

Lowell McAdam dismisses rumors of a Verizon move for AOL but raises possibility of a content partnership.

Channel Master is adding linear online TV channels to its retail DVR box.

Metaswitch CTO says virtual functions implemented on IT-grade cloud infrastructure require extra engineering help to handle network volumes.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: a cloud for mariners; Kabel Deutschland taps Cisco knowhow; AlcaLu's man in Shanghai.

Dish has opened the door to skinnier content bundles with the launch of its much-anticipated online video service, Sling TV.

Along with the pending sale of European assets, improved earnings should put Oi on a sounder financial footing.

Wi-Fi Alliance announces Wi-Fi Aware, a new proximity-based technology that creates a power-efficient, offline mode of discovery.

Carrier's CTO says it has begun working with its chipset, radio infrastructure and device partners to trial LTE-Unlicensed this year.

Another small community is gigabit-ready, thanks to a utility-owned FTTH network.

Celeno and Quantenna prep their latest Wave 2 802.11ac chipsets for the CES spotlight.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telenor feels the anti-corruption heat; Asiacell launches '3.9G' in Iraq.

In a 'New Year Message for 2015,' the current CEO cites a year-on-year sales increase of 15%.

The South Korean operator provides Light Reading with an update on its biggest moves in small cells during the past year, from virtualization, to carrier aggregation, to 5G.

Having failed to make a dent in the smartphone OS sector, Samsung is taking its Tizen operating system into the living room.

Also in today's regional roundup: ADVA names a new CFO; Birdstep sells part of its mobile security business; Blinkbox could attract rival bids.

Here's what we think will happen on the cable/video front next year. (Just don't remember what we get wrong.)

Vik Saxema, CTO for Cable & Media at Alcatel-Lucent, talks about the vendor's developments for the cable operator market, including virtual CPE.