Crown Castle, focusing on a restructuring plan, intends to trim its workforce by 15% in response to telecom firms reducing investment. Alongside staff reduction, it will cease tower installation services while continuing to offer site development. Despite lowered earnings predictions, the second quarter of 2021 showed strong revenue growth, highlighting the company’s resilience in a challenging market.
As telecom giants Ooredoo, Zain and infrastructure expert TASC Towers embark on exclusive negotiations to form a massive mobile towers firm, the telecommunications landscape beckons a potential shift. Combining assets from Qatar, Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, and Jordan, they plan on creating an autonomous company with a whopping portfolio of approximately 30,000 towers, directly rivaling industry leaders. Their strategic vision embraces a dual approach: stimulate shareholder value and reduce the MENA region’s carbon footprint.
In an exciting leap forward for 5G technology in Europe, Ericsson and O2 Telefónica in Germany have joined forces to accomplish a remarkable feat in the development of 5G Cloud RAN technology. Their groundbreaking Proof of Concept (PoC) deployment at O2 Telefónica’s Wayra innovation hub in Munich showcased the immense capabilities of Ericsson’s first 5G Cloud RAN installation on the continent. The PoC utilized cutting-edge mmWave frequency and a centralized control unit (CU), achieving an impressive end-to-end speed of over 4 gigabits per second.
To shed light on the recent changes in the A2P messaging industry, we sat down with Aaron Alter, the CEO and Co-Founder of Telgorithm, a leading cloud communications enablement API platform. Telgorithm delivers automated and reliable A2P text messaging API solutions, assisting businesses in navigating the complexities of the ever-changing A2P messaging market while scaling their operations seamlessly.
Five9, Inc., a provider of the Intelligent CX platform and listed on NASDAQ as FIVN, announced today that Frost & Sullivan has recognized it as a Growth and Innovation leader in the Frost Radar™: European Cloud Contact Center Market, 2023. The Frost Radar™ report highlights key criteria, including the company’s long-standing presence in Europe, consistent growth, effective go-to-market strategies, robust customer support, commitment to local markets, and investments in transformative technologies such as AI integration.
Vonage, a leading global provider of cloud communications solutions for businesses’ digital transformation, has introduced the Vonage Protection Suite, a comprehensive lineup of counter-fraud products and solutions aimed at safeguarding against the ever-evolving threats of online fraud and cyberattacks. The suite empowers developers and businesses to create robust counter-fraud measures, offering a unique level of customer control in managing communications.
Dell’ Oro Group has adjusted its predictions for the global Open RAN market share, a decision marking a first for the research company. They stress the necessary transformation in the RAN market will be far from smooth, while also affirming Open RAN’s permanence. Europe demonstrates a cautious approach, leaning more towards traditional RAN in 5G setups. Past bullish forecasts have not dramatically influenced the industry, prompting RAN providers to investigate alternative avenues with brownfield operators. Despite minor signs of rapid progression, Open RAN’s maturity in this field remains uncertain.
In a recently revealed Q2 report, Nokia showed flat sales at €5.7 billion year over year, suggesting reduced capital expenditure by operators. Interestingly, while a 5% sales growth in Nokia’s Mobile Networks unit occurred, a troubling 6% decline at the Network Infrastructure division offset this boost. With stark contrasts across regions, North American sales notably dropped by 42% as 5G deployments slowed, while energetic 5G deployments in India couldn’t adequately balance the losses. Mirroring these figures, Ericsson too reported a 9% year over year decrease in Q2 revenue. A gloomy yet realistic outlook from Nokia’s CEO Pekka Lundmark, coupled with analyst firm Dell’Oro’s forecast on the shrinking RAN predictions, suggests telecommunications could be in for a turbulent few years.
The Linux Foundation-led Ultra Ethernet Consortium brings AMD, Arista, Broadcom, and others together to refine ethernet architecture, addressing the escalating network requirements of AI and high-performance computing. Pledging to enhance ethernet performance, the alliance will leverage ethernet’s adaptability, ensuring scalability and cost-effectiveness for diverse workloads. Aiming for a holistic tune-up rather than a complete overhaul, consortium endeavours will encompass detailed protocols, signaling mechanisms, and software solutions.
The Competition and Markets Authority, UK’s competition watchdog, leans towards approving Broadcom’s monumental $61 billion takeover of VMware, after an in-depth Phase 2 investigation. The pivotal concern was whether it would discourage innovation due to reduced competition in the server market. However, the analysis suggests that competition in UK’s server hardware component supply won’t be notably hindered by the deal. This takes Broadcom a step closer to becoming one of the world’s largest server virtualisation software suppliers.
