• Broadcom leads Wi-Fi 8 charge
• Bell Canada unveils new three-year strategy
• Digital Realty and Lumen Technologies offer ‘AI WAN’

In today’s industry news roundup: Broadcom has launched its first Wi-Fi 8 chips and is licensing its tech; Bell Canada has unveiled a new three-year plan; Digital Realty and Lumen have teamed up to offer quick-to-provision, high-capacity data connectivity to datacentres to meet enterprise AI workload demands; and more!

There’s been lots of activity this week related to Wi-Fi 8, the next generation of wireless broadband technology that has been developed for “ultra-high reliability” rather than to achieve greater data throughput than Wi-Fi 7 and previous iterations. Chip giant Broadcom announced what it describes as “the industry’s first Wi-Fi 8 silicon solutions for the broadband wireless edge ecosystem, including residential gateways, enterprise access points and smart mobile clients”. The Broadcom Wi-Fi 8 solutions are “purpose-built to address the stringent performance, reliability, intelligence and efficiency demands of AI-era edge networks,” noted the vendor, adding that to help with the rapid adoption of “AI-first wireless connectivity for the edge”, it has announced the availability of its Wi-Fi 8 IP (intellectual property) for licence to the internet of things (IoT), automotive and mobile device ecosystem. The IP is available to license now and Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 chip samples are available to select partners. Phil Solis, research director at IDC, noted: “Wi-Fi 8 features further enhance wireless connectivity performance and resilience across consumer, enterprise and industrial domains. Broadcom’s two-pronged strategy of providing Wi-Fi 8 chips to its core markets and expanding its innovation-rich IP offering into everything else has market disruption potential. In combination with licensees’ implementations, this move will open the doorways for more Wi-Fi 8 chips in various end user and IoT devices to create a comprehensive next-generation Wi-Fi ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Taiwanese broadband equipment contract manufacturer Sercomm has launched its next-generation wireless connectivity products that are based on Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 chipset. “Designed around the new IEEE 802.11bn standard, Sercomm’s Wi-Fi 8 platform delivers deterministic latency, multi-gigabit throughput, intelligent spectrum management and integrated AI/ML capabilities – the ideal foundation for AI-driven homes. The platform enables operators to elevate subscriber experience while unlocking new service revenues,” the company noted in this press release. Derek Elder, president of Sercomm’s Service Provider Business Group, stated: “Wi-Fi 8 is a strategic enabler for carriers aiming to differentiate on experience, not just bandwidth. We are proud to be among the first OEMs partnering with Broadcom to introduce Wi-Fi 8 connectivity solutions. Together, we’re providing operators a turnkey platform that unifies next-generation connectivity, smart-home orchestration, and edge intelligence, all within a single device.”

In addition, access equipment vendor TP-Link has announced it has “successfully demonstrated Wi-Fi 8 connectivity, transmitting data with a prototype device developed through a joint industry partnership.” 

Bell Canada has unveiled a new three-year strategy which, the telco says, is based around four strategic priorities, namely: “Put the customer first; deliver the best fibre and wireless networks; lead in enterprise with AI-powered solutions [based on its AI Fabric infrastructure]; and build a digital media and content powerhouse.” The operator is expecting its annual revenues to grow at between 2% and 4% over the three-year period, which could take its 2028 revenues to CAN$27.8bn. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth rate is due to be 2% to 3%. The telco is also planning CAN$1.5bn in cost savings through “company-wide transformation and efficiency initiatives”, which usually means there are job cuts on the way. 

Datacentre and colocation giant Digital Realty, which operates more than 300 facilities across more than 25 countries, has forged a strategic partnership with US long-distance and metro network operator Lumen Technologies to offer  “high-capacity, AI-ready connectivity services (AI WAN) across major US metro markets,” the companies announced. Lumen’s recently launched Wavelength RapidRoutes services, described as “a faster way for enterprises to get the high-capacity connections they need” with a 20-day delivery service level agreement (SLA), is now available via Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL service enablement system, enabling enterprise connectivity at up to 400 Gbit/s. “This collaboration empowers organisations to rapidly prototype and deploy traditional and AI applications with the bandwidth and proximity needed to reach hyperscaler clouds, neo-clouds, and other critical datacentre locations,” noted Digital Realty. “This truly unlocks high-scale networks on our flexible platform, letting customers build out their network connections with almost no performance limitations,” stated Chris Sharp, CTO at Digital Realty. “Combined with our high-density datacentres in critical metro areas, it’s a strong foundation for enterprise AI infrastructure,” he added. 

– The staff, TelecomTV