Nokia at MWC19 (picture courtesy of Nokia)
- Nokia lands DCI deals in China
- Huawei is the focus of two US administration moves
- GSMA has cancelled its US event
- KT is investing in its 5G robotics partner
Nokia success in China, the US administration’s latest maneuvering around Huawei and the latest blow to face-to-face industry networking are at the top of today’s news pile.
- Nokia has landed two data centre interconnect (DCI) equipment deals with two of China’s major cloud services companies, Tencent and Baidu. The vendor is supplying optical transport gear based on its 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect system, which incorporates the company’s Photonic Service Engine (PSE). The DCI market is hot right now!
- The US Department of Commerce has eased restrictions to allow US companies to collaborate with Huawei on standards development work, citing 5G as an example in its announcement on the ruling. “The United States will not cede leadership in global innovation,” stated Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. (No, we aren’t sure either…) The Financial Times noted that following the publication of the ruling, the share piece of Huawei’s domestic rival ZTE climbed by more than 14% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (Note: While ZTE is a traded company, Huawei is not.)
- But as if to confirm its ongoing anti-Huawei stance, the US has also been offering incentives to Brazilian operators to buy their 5G gear from Ericsson and Nokia (and thus not from Huawei). Vendor financing with a difference, we suppose!
- The GSMA has cancelled MWC Los Angeles 2020, which was due to take place in late October.
- South Korean operator KT has agreed to buy a 10% stake in Hyundai Robotics, with which it is developing 5G-enabled factory technology, according to multiple local media reports.
- Apple faces two probes by the European Commission into whether it has broken competition rules, reports the BBC.
- Back again to Huawei, which reportedly outsold Samsung in April to become the largest smartphone supplier globally, according to Counterpoint Research, making good on its goal set in 2016 to overtake both Apple and Samsung within five years. Despite US attempts to spike Huawei's guns, it now accounts for over 21% of smartphone sales.
- The European Court of Justice recently annulled the European Commission's decision blocking Three/O2's £10.25 billion merger in 2016 and the old “effective competition versus ability to invest” argument has reared its head again. However, that particular merger ship has sailed, particularly with the recent joint venture plans between O2 and Virgin Media. The decision may, however, tip the scales in favour of consolidation if and when new telecom merger attempts emerge, with a report in the Financial Times suggesting that telcos are prepping a new wave of M&A deals.
- Viavi has extended its OpenRAN testing suite with a solution that supports load testing on the Open Central Unit (O-CU) element in an architecture built to O-RAN Alliance specifications.
- Commscope has launched RUCKUS Cloud, an AI-enabled network management-as-a-service systems designed to help managed service providers and enterprises manage converged wired and wireless networks.
- Amartus has launched nBrace 2.0, which provides automation for “on-demand negotiation of inter-provider network and cloud services” based on the MEF LSO Sonata specifications.
- Finnish operator Welcom Net is to deploy a range of fixed broadband gear and SDN management tools from ADTRAN, which is on a hot streak in Europe right now.
- IBM is acquiring Spanugo, a developer of cloud security management tools.
- The staff, TelecomTV
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