STL acquires Clearcomm for FTTx integration expertise

STL (Sterlite Technologies Ltd) has acquired Clearcomm Group Ltd, a UK-based network integration company. The transaction is structured to acquire 100% of the share capital in 2 tranches. Tranche 1 entails acquisition of 80% of the share capital which will happen immediately (subject to customary pre-closing conditions), and is based on an Enterprise Value of GBP 15.5 million. The balance 20% shareholding will be acquired in 2023.

Clearcomm is a privately held company that provides end-to-end network integration solutions and capabilities in the UK, including for large-scale FTTx projects. The company claims revenues in the range of GBP 20 million and growth rates of over 25% over the past 3 years. 

STL said the deal will enhance the presence of its Network Integration solutions across UK and Europe.

Welcoming Clearcomm on board, Dr Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL said, "As digital infrastructure investments are increasing across the globe, STL is globalising its System Integration solutions to help build these advanced networks. With the addition of Clearcomm's network integration expertise to STL's Optical Connectivity and Data Centre integration capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers deliver the most advanced, deep-fiberised digital networks."

https://www.stl.tech/

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Lightspeed to offer XGS PON in East of England

Lightspeed Broadband plans to offer a 10G symmetric fiber broadband service based on XGS-PONg to 1 million homes and businesses in the East of England by the end of 2025. 

Nokia will provide Lightspeed with its XGS-PON kit for both customer homes and the operator’s points of presence, and aggregation switching and IP edge solutions. It also includes Nokia’s whole-home Wi-Fi 6 Beacons and Nokia’s Altiplano management platform.

Steve Haines, CEO, Lightspeed Broadband, said: “We are delighted to be a key account for Nokia, which we feel reflects our strategic relationship and growth potential. Nokia has demonstrated the flexibility and agility we need to support our ambitious deployment plans.”

Jeremy Steventon-Barnes, CTO, Lightspeed Broadband, said: “Following a rigorous selection process we chose Nokia for their industry-leading and future-proofed solution which means we can offer 10Gb/s services with best-in-class whole-home Wi-Fi 6 today, and upgrade to even faster speeds in the future.”

Lightspeed will connect the first 100,000 customers by the end of 2022, starting in 10 market towns in South Lincolnshire and West Norfolk, including Spalding, Stamford, Boston and King’s Lynn, and expanding through Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

Nokia aims Quillion chipset at next gen access

Tuesday, October 08, 2019  Nokia, Silicon  

Nokia outlined plans for a new family of chipsets to power next-generation massive scale access networks.

The forthcoming "Quillion" chipset will allow operators to introduce 10G PON in their fiber networks and to serve more users from G.fast access nodes. For next-generation fiber access networks, the Quillion chipset powers Nokia’s 16-port Multi-PON line card, which supports both GPON and NG-PON on each port. This allows operators with an existing GPON network to simply “switch on” NG-PON services on each port without recabling or disrupting the GPON service.

Nokia said Quillion is also optimized to allow for low-latency applications that are critical for 5G transport and has built-in programmability to support intents that pave the way toward automated workflows, such as network slicing for 5G transport.

In addition, the Quillion chipset supports copper infrastructure access, including the highest density G.fast and Vplus solutions on the market.

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Openreach offers long-term FTTP price certainty for wholesalers

Openreach announced long-term price certainty on its FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises) lines for its wholesale Communications Provider customers in the UK. 

Openreach said its offer is based on the following set of principles:

• Commitment: where CPs choose to purchase from Openreach they commit to using FTTP wherever it’s available (including new provides and technology regrades) - rather than older services such as those based on Fibre-to-the-Cabinet or purely copper technology - with no volume or migration targets.
• Pricing certainty: Openreach will give pricing certainty for up to 10 years in return for this ‘stop-sell’ commitment
• Simplicity: A single national rental price will apply to the entire Openreach FTTP footprint
• 
  Competitive prices: Prices will be competitive whilst offering a fair return for Openreach. CPs can tailor offers across a range of speed tiers and take-up of higher bandwidths will be encouraged with further rebates, whilst pricing is set by Ofcom on the lowest speed tier (40Mbps upstream, 10Mbps downstream).

The offer will be open for participation between 1st October 2021 and 30th March 2022. The long-term pricing certainty will last until 30th September 2031 and be available across the entire FTTP footprint. Discounts are available to CPs where they choose to place new orders with Openreach and commit to making a percentage of those on the FTTP network, where available.

Katie Milligan, Managing Director of Customer, Commercials and Propositions at Openreach said: “Nobody’s building Full Fibre broadband faster, further, or at a higher quality than Openreach, and we’re well on track to reach 25 million premises by December 2026. At the same time we’re determined to make Full Fibre the default option for customers throughout the UK, so we’ve been working closely with Communications Providers to offer simple and competitive pricing which gives them the long-term certainty and flexibility they need."

More than one million homes and businesses have now ordered ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband over the Openreach network. BT is investing £15 billion to build the gigabit-capable technology to 25 million UK premises by December 2026 and it’s making the technology available to 43k premises every week, with more than five million homes and businesses already able to place an order.

https://www.openreach.com/news/openreach-announces-special-offer-for-communications-providers-to-drive-adoption-of-full-fibre-broadband/

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Iron Mountain to sell and lease back its UK storage centers

Iron Mountain has sold a portfolio of five storage centers in the UK to Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), generating gross proceeds of approximately $178 million, based on current exchange rates. The transaction, totaling 550,000 square feet, is a sale-leaseback transaction with the properties located in the greater London area. Iron Mountain will remain in these facilities under an initial twelve-year lease term, with options to renew up to an additional 20 years.

“With our strong development pipeline together with highly attractive market valuations for industrial assets, we are pleased to continue our capital recycling program,” said Barry Hytinen, executive vice president and CFO at Iron Mountain. “The sale-leaseback of these assets allows us to generate significant investable proceeds while essentially maintaining long-term control of the facilities. On a leverage neutral basis, we estimate this transaction will generate nearly $140 million of capital, which we intend to invest in higher growth areas, including our data center business.”

https://www.ironmountain.com/

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UK pilots ‘vehicle-to-everything’ road safety system

The UK Government Centre for Connected and Automated Vehicles (CCAV) and the Midlands Future Mobility (MFM) consortium has begun testing a "vehicle-to-everything" environment developed by Vodafone, Nokia and Chordan.

Vodafone’s 4G and 5G network and advanced multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology is built into the platform, allowing real time road information from Highways England to be displayed initially on users’ smartphones, and in the future, on in-car infotainment systems. 

The platform works with Convex, Chordant’s Mobility Data Exchange facility, to enable dynamic data to be exchanged with road operators and their traffic systems and is the UK’s first live implementation of Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology. C-V2X combines the latest mobile technologies with in-vehicle computer systems to create new mobility services for improved safety and reliability as well as allowing road operators to build ‘greener’ and more sustainable transport networks.

Mike Waters, Director of Policy, Strategy and Innovation at TfWM, said: “We are now reaching the point where connected vehicle technology is genuinely able to start making a meaningful and very powerful difference to the big issues in transport like safety and energy efficiency. The work we have done with Convex and Vodafone is moving solutions forward not just for the West Midlands, but for the whole country and really exemplifies the UK’s position of global excellence in this space.”

https://www.vodafone.com/news/press-release/trial-uks-first-mobile-vehicle-everything-road-safety-system-goes-live

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Snap to acquire Wave Optics for its AR waveguides

Snap Inc. will acquire WaveOptics, a start-up specializing in Augmented Reality lenses, for approximately $500 million.

WaveOptics, which is based in Oxfordshire, UK and has offices in Taipei and Beijing, develops AR lenses (also known as waveguides) and projectors which can be integrated into smart glasses, enabling users to see digital images overlaid on top of the real world. The waveguide technology transfers the light waves from the light source and projects them into the user’s eye. The technology produces a large eye-box, binocular viewing and a high field of view. WaveOptics previously announced $39 million in Series C funding, including investments from Octopus Ventures, IP Group plc, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, China’s Gobi Ventures, Goertek and new investor HostPlus.

https://snap.com/

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Colt appoints Google Cloud exec as EVP of Strategy and Transformation

Colt Technology Services appointed Jaya Deshmukh as Executive Vice President (EVP) of Strategy and Transformation, reporting to Colt’s Chief Executive Officer, Keri Gilder.

Jaya joins Colt from Google Cloud, where most recently she held the position of Head of Strategy – EMEA, responsible for creating and curating Google Cloud’s EMEA strategy. She has also recently held roles at Microsoft, PwC and Cognizant, where she was responsible for implementing digital solutions and accelerating cloud consumption to drive customer success.

Jaya’s appointment follows Colt’s recent announcement of its new three-year strategy, aiming to further develop Colt’s IQ Network through innovation and digitisation.

https://www.colt.net/

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Airspan to set-up 5G lab in Slough, UK

Airspan Networks plans to open a 5G Innovation Lab this month at its Slough, UK offices outside of London.

The company said it intends for the lab to serve multiple purposes: as a showcase and demonstration facility for partners, customers and government institutions, to focus on the development of Open RAN software, 5G sub 6 GHz and mmWave indoor and outdoor equipment, and private network use cases. The lab is expected to feature:

• A full, end-to-end 5G Open RAN solution provided by Airspan software (CU, DU, RIC) and hardware (RU), including mmWave and sub 6GHz radios, ready to connect to any other elements of a 5G network.
• Critical interoperability testing with the key elements of a 5G standalone network: 5G Core, other RAN vendors, devices, transport/PTP, COTS servers, cloud native platforms, orchestrators and xApps.
• Indoor over the air (OTA) RF testing using a recently awarded Ofcom license in sub 6 and a future license in mmWave. This includes massive MIMO and beamforming features.
• Validation of real use cases for public and private networks, to accelerate adoption of Open RAN and showcase its many benefits.
• Development, testing and validation of new features following 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance latest releases in a fully virtualized 5G network based on Open RAN architecture.
• Support for the UK government’s disruptive Supply Chain Diversification plan.

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UK completes spectrum auction for 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz

Ofcom completed the assignment stage for its recent auction of 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz bands in the UK.  Here are the results:

• EE Limited – 723-733 MHz and 778-788 MHz;738-758 MHz; and 3680-3720 MHz.
• Hutchison 3G UK Limited – 713-723 MHz and 768-778 MHz.
• Telefónica UK Limited – 703-713 MHz and 758-768 MHz; and 3760-3800 MHz.
• Vodafone Limited – 3720-3760 MHz.

Winners of spectrum in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band also had the opportunity to negotiate their spectrum positions among themselves. This stage was an important step towards helping companies bring their spectrum holdings in the wider 3.4-3.8 GHz band closer together by giving them the opportunity to discuss post-auction trades to consolidate spectrum won in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band and airwaves they already held in the 3.4-3.6 GHz band. Telefónica UK Limited and Vodafone Limited entered into an agreement during the negotiation period.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/final-spectrum-auction-results

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UK's Network Rail invites private investment in railway fibre

Network Rail, which manages most of the railway network in Great Britain, is seeking up to £1bn in private sector investment to pay for upgrades in its trackside fibre optic cable network.

Network Rail operates over 16,000 kilometres of data cables next to the railway. The cable infrastructure delivers data essential to running the railway such as signalling for trains, trackside sensors, CCTV, and internet for trains, railway depots and offices. The upgraded fibre would offer excess capacity that could be leveraged by a third party to run its own telecoms services.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “Our telecoms infrastructure requires an upgrade if we are to meet the growing connectivity needs of passengers and the railway itself – particularly to make sure our fibre capacity can handle more data, at greater speed, more reliably.

“This proposal makes good business sense for all parties. We get a cutting-edge, future-proof telecoms infrastructure; the investor gets a great business opportunity; train passengers in Britain get an improved service for years to come; and the taxpayer saves a significant amount of money.”

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/

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UK's WPD Telecoms deploys Infinera’s XTM metro optical

WPD Telecoms, Western Power Distribution’s telecoms division, selected Infinera’s XTM Series metro optical platform for its high-capacity network, enabling delivery of next-generation high-speed services to its customers across South West England.

WPD Telecoms is currently rolling out new optical infrastructure to build an advanced 100G/200G optical transport network, positioning the company for a smooth transition to the latest generation of 400G pluggable optical technology.

WPD Telecoms said its new network enables the company to meet the increasing demand for optical and packet-based high-speed services. 

“WPD Telecoms invests in the latest leading-edge technology. That is why we selected Infinera’s XTM Series for this major new network,” said Richard Slane, WPD Telecoms Commercial Manager. “We have always found that Infinera’s metro and regional solutions have provided the capacity and functionality we’ve needed, while also being easy to use and very power efficient. We are confident the XTM will provide our network with the capacity required now and will scale easily to 400G when we’re ready.”

“Enhancing WPD Telecoms’ network with Infinera’s latest XTM Series will enable the company to continue offering its customers reliable, high-capacity, low-latency bandwidth using the latest technology in the industry,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Sales at Infinera. “WPD Telecoms’ longstanding relationship with Infinera and its ongoing selection of Infinera’s metro and regional solutions underscore the value Infinera’s platforms deliver to network operators.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/wpd-telecoms-deploys-new-regional-network-with-infinera-xtm-series

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UK to examine NVIDIA’s takeover of ARM

The U.K.'s Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden, instructed the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to begin an investigation into the proposed sale of ARM to NVIDIA.

ARM, which is headquartered in Cambridge, is a major global player in the semiconductor industry. 

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden states: “Following careful consideration of the proposed takeover of ARM, I have today issued an intervention notice on national security grounds.

“As a next step and to help me gather the relevant information, the UK’s independent competition authority will now prepare a report on the implications of the transaction, which will help inform any further decisions.

“We want to support our thriving UK tech industry and welcome foreign investment, but it is appropriate that we properly consider the national security implications of a transaction like this.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/digital-secretary-instructs-cma-to-look-into-nvidias-takeover-of-arm

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euNetworks connects LSE with hollowcore fibre from Lumenisity

Lumenisity Limited, a start-up based in Romsey, United Kingdom, supplied its ultra low latency CoreSmart cable solution based on "NANF" hollowcore fibres, to euNetworks Fiber UK. The fibre route connects an Interxion data center with the London Stock Exchange.

Lumenisity Limited, which was formed in early 2017 as a spin out from the University of Southampton, said data travels 50% faster in hollowcore cable, reducing latency by 1/3, and providing a round trip saving of 3μs per km. These latency savings are very significant in financial trading applications. 

euNetworks offers a fibre-based, dedicated network platform supporting the bandwidth needs of the financial services community. 

“We’re very pleased to partner with euNetworks to enable them to provide the lowest latency performance to a major trading exchange using our CoreSmart cable,” said Tony Pearson, Business

Development Director at Lumenisity. “We are excited to be collaborating with such an established Carrier and to already have hollowcore deployed, carrying traffic as part of this development.”

“We continue to focus on delivering lowest latency services for our customers. We focus on identifying new and innovative technologies that can be deployed on our network to provide the best possible bandwidth solutions,” said Brady Rafuse, Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks. “We’re excited to be working with Lumenisity, helping to develop and deploy hollowcore fibre. We’re confident that with this technology we can achieve market leading fibre-based latencies much closer to radio frequency systems, without the constraints that are inherently present with those radio frequency solutions.”

https://lumenisity.com/

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Vector Photonics secures funding for PCSEL-based semiconductor laser

Vector Photonics, a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, announced a £1.6m equity investment to commercialise its PCSEL-based, semiconductor laser technology. 

The company’s PCSELs (Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers) is based on semiconductor research led by Professor Richard Hogg. The company said its technology has applications in data communications, additive manufacturing, including metal and plastic printing, LiDAR, and optical sensing.

Neil Martin, CEO of Vector Photonics, said, “We are pleased to announce the £1.6m equity investment for Vector Photonics, which comes from a consortium of three specialist funding companies – Foresight, the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Equity Gap. This is in addition to three government grants worth £2.4m and takes our seed funding round to more than £4m – a fantastic achievement for a one-year-old, Covid era, University of Glasgow start-up.

“Each investment company adds its own unique value to our business and will have board representation. Foresight invests in high growth-potential companies with innovative and transformational technologies via the Foresight Scottish Growth Fund and Foresight Williams, a joint venture with Williams Advanced Engineering. UKI2S is a specialist deep-tech seed fund focused on spin outs from the UK’s research base. Equity Gap is an angel investment syndicate, investing early in new technology businesses throughout Scotland.”

https://www.vectorphotonics.co.uk/

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Openreach selects STL to supply millions of km of fibre

Openreach has selected Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) as a key partner to provide optical cable solutions for its 'Full Fibre' broadband network.

Under the partnership, STL will be responsible for delivering millions of kilometres of optical fibre cable to support the build over the next three years. Financial terms were not disclosed.

STL said it will supply its Opticonn solution – a specialised set of fibre, cable and interconnect offerings designed to drive significant performance improvements, including up to 30 per cent faster installation. Openreach will also have access to STL's Celesta – a high-density optical fibre cable with a capacity of up to 6,912 optical fibres. This compact design is 26 per cent slimmer compared to traditional loose tube cables, allowing 2000 metres of cable to be installed in under an hour. The high density super-slim cable will also help minimise the use of plastic across Openreach's new network.

Kevin Murphy, MD for Fibre and Network Delivery at Openreach, said: "Our Full Fibre network build is going faster than ever. We need partners like STL on board to not only help sustain that momentum, but also to provide the skills and innovation to help us go even further. We know the network we're building can deliver a host of social and economic benefits – from boosting UK productivity to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips – but we're also trying to make this one of the greenest network builds in the world. So, it's good to know that STL's compact and efficient designs will contribute to this in a significant way."

Commenting on the collaboration, Ankit Agarwal, CEO Connectivity Solutions Business, STL, said: "We are extremely excited to join hands with Openreach as a key optical solutions partner to build Full Fibre broadband networks for millions in the UK. Our customised, 5G-ready optical solutions are ideally suited for Openreach's future-proof network requirements and we believe they will enable next-gen digital experiences for homes and businesses across UK. This partnership will be a major step towards our mission of transforming billions of lives through digital networks."

http://www.stl.tech 

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OneWeb launches 36 satellites, bringing its constellation to 146

OneWeb confirmed the successful launch of all 36 satellites by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, bringing the company's in-orbit constellation to 146 satellites. 

OneWeb said this is the second in a five-launch programme that will enable OneWeb’s connectivity solution to reach all regions north of 50 degrees latitude by the middle of 2021, with service ready to start by year's end, giving OneWeb the ability to connect millions of consumers in the northern hemisphere. These services will cover the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic Seas and Canada, and will be switched on before the end of the year. 

OneWeb anticipates launching global services in 2022. The company plans to have a fleet of 648 LEO satellites.

Neil Masterson, OneWeb CEO commented: “This is the second of our ‘Five to 50’ launch series and represents a key moment in OneWeb’s return. The next launch in the series is scheduled for the end of April, as we continue our drive towards commercial service this year. OneWeb is rising to the challenge of our mission to provide connectivity to everyone, everywhere, all the time. Backed by exemplary shareholders, we are connecting the world.”

https://www.oneweb.world/media-center/successful-launch-marks-key-milestone-for-onewebs-five-to-50-ambition

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UK completes 5G spectrum auction

Ofcom, the official telecoms regulator for the UK,, completed an auction of 200 MHz of spectrum split across two bands:

• 80 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band. These airwaves consist of 2x30 MHz of paired frequency spectrum, and 20 MHz of supplementary downlink spectrum. The 700 MHz airwaves are ideal for providing wide area coverage – including in the countryside.
• 120 MHz of spectrum in 3.6-3.8 GHz band. These important airwaves are part of the primary band for 5G and capable of boosting mobile data capacity, carrying lots of data-hungry connections.

Four companies – EE Limited, Hutchison 3G UK Limited, Telefónica UK Limited and Vodafone Limited – took part in the principal stage of the auction, which involved them bidding for airwaves in 34 ‘lots’ to determine how much of the available spectrum they each secured. Principal stage bidding has now ended and Ofcom has published the results.

Results of the principal stage

• EE Limited has won 2x10 MHz of paired frequency spectrum in the 700 MHz band at a cost of £280,000,000; 20 MHz of supplementary downlink spectrum in the 700 MHz band at a cost of £4,000,000; and 40 MHz in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band at a cost of £168,000,000.
• Hutchison 3G UK Limited has won 2x10 MHz of paired frequency spectrum in the 700 MHz band at a cost of £280,000,000.
• Telefónica UK Limited has won 2x10 MHz of paired frequency spectrum in the 700 MHz band at a cost of £280,000,000; and 40 MHz in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band at a cost of £168,000,000.
• Vodafone Limited has won 40 MHz in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band at a cost of £176,400,000.

The total revenue raised from the principal stage is £1,356,400,000. The money raised by this auction will be passed on to HM Treasury.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/spectrum-auction-principal-stage-results

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Virgin Media tests Infinera XR optics - coherent optical subcarrier aggregation

Virgin Media has trialed prototype Infinera XR optics technology in its network in Reading, UK to send and receive data at up to 400Gbps in a single fiber.

In 2019, Virgin Media trialed 10Gbps symmetric full fiber home broadband technology in Papworth, Cambridgeshire. 

Infinera said this new trial goes a step beyond that, demonstrating that the operator’s passive fiber optic access network (PON) – which provides multiple premises with full fiber connections – could deliver 400Gbps symmetrical services.

In the trial, the traditional network transceivers were replaced with Infinera XR optics technology, splitting a single fiber optic cable into many connections.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Virgin Media, said: “Our next-generation network already offers gigabit connectivity to more than 7 million homes, but with data use and demand for hyperfast speeds surging, we’re continually investing in our network to prepare for whatever the future brings.

“The trial with Virgin Media provides a solid proof point that Infinera’s XR optics technology can be seamlessly applied to existing networks,” said Dave Welch, Infinera Chief Innovation Officer and Co-founder. “This represents a radical shift in the way networks can be built, promising a more flexible and sustainable way to meet the ever increasing need to transmit more data at higher speeds.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/virgin-media-trials-infineras-cutting-edge-multi-gigabit-network-technology

Infinera announces XR optics partnerships with II-IV and Lumentum

Tuesday, February 18, 2020  Infinera  

Infinera announced a collaboration with II-VI, a global leader in optical communications modules, to bring to market XR optics-based networking solutions. The companies said the partnership will result in the introduction of a family of easily deployable, pluggable XR optics offerings applicable across a wide variety of market applications.

Infinera said XR optics enables radically more efficient and cost-effective solutions for the transport networking challenges operators face in delivering new 5G, enhanced broadband, and cloud-based business services. Infinera's XR optics technology, which is optimized for hub-and-spoke traffic patterns, is powered by independently routable Nyquist subcarriers and coherent optical aggregation capabilities. XR optics technology enables a single high-speed transceiver to simultaneously send and receive independent data streams to/from numerous low-speed transceivers.

In addition, Infinera announced a separate partnership with Lumentum to bring to market XR optics-based networking solutions. The partnership will result in the introduction of a family of easily deployable, pluggable XR optics offerings applicable across a wide variety of market applications.

Infinera's XR Optics delivers coherent optical subcarrier aggregation

Monday, September 23, 2019  100G, ECOC, Infinera  

Infinera introduced a point-to-multipoint coherent optical subcarrier aggregation technology with the potential to significantly reduce the number of transceivers required in an access network while eliminating intermediate aggregation.

Infinera's XR optics technology, which is optimized for hub-and-spoke traffic patterns, is powered by independently routable Nyquist subcarriers and coherent optical aggregation capabilities. With coherent subcarrier aggregation (CSA) capabilities, XR optics technology enables a single high-speed transceiver to simultaneously send and receive independent data streams to/from numerous low-speed transceivers.

Subcarriers can be flexibly sized. For example, 4 X 25G subcarriers defined in a 100G QSFP-28 transcrivers; or 16 X 25G subcarriers defined in a 400G QSFP-DD transceiver.

The company says that by leveraging these capabilities, network operators will be positioned to significantly reduce the number of transceivers in the network, eliminate the need for costly intermediate aggregation devices, and more efficiently optimize transport infrastructure for hub-and-spoke end-user traffic flows.

Initial areas of focus include DAA fiber deep networks, 5G X-haul, DSL/PON backhaul, and fiber-enabled business services.

XR optics is designed to be integrated into a variety of form factors, including industry-standard pluggables, from low-speed interfaces with a single subcarrier to high-speed (400G+) interfaces with numerous subcarriers.
https://www.infinera.com/innovation/xr-optics

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Openreach activates first customer on ADTRAN’s GPON

Openreach has activated its first live subscriber with the ADTRAN SDX series fibre access platform and the Mosaic Cloud network automation platform.

This announcement comes as Openreach continues its record build rates for its Full Fibre broadband programme. With Openreach engineers now delivering faster, more reliable connectivity to 42,000 homes and businesses every week.  ADTRAN said its SD-Access portfolio will be instrumental in expanding delivery of the Full Fibre programme to UK homes and businesses.

Peter Bell, Director, Network Technology, Openreach said: “We’re fully committed to building the UK’s leading ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband network and to reinforce our vital role in keeping the nation connected. We’re confident that our new network will help deliver a host of social and economic benefits to the UK – from boosting productivity to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips."

Stuart Broome, Vice President of EMEA Sales, ADTRAN said: “ADTRAN is dedicated to delivering the products, technology and services required to support Openreach in its highly ambitious nationwide deployment goals. We are completely committed to the goal of making multi-gigabit services available across the UK to every home and business. We’re excited to see the network capability advancing so rapidly and look forward to expanding the deployment as part of this partnership.”

Openreach picks ADTRAN's OLTs and Cloud Platform

Thursday, May 14, 2020  ADTRAN, Openreach, UK  

Openreach, the wholesale infrastructure arm of BT, has selected ADTRAN’s SDX Series of OLTs and Mosaic Cloud Platform to help it achieve its ambition of making gigabit and multi-gigabit services available to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s with its Full Fibre network. ADTRAN said its SDX platform will enable Openreach to economically scale its GPON and XGS-PON network with a level of flexibility that could not be realized...

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Renesas to acquire Dialog for EUR 4.9B for mixed-signal ICs

Renesas Electronics agreed to acquire Dialog Semiconductor Plc for EUR 4.9 billion (approximately 615.7 billion yen). 

Dialog, which is based in Reading, UK, is provider of highly-integrated and power-efficient mixed-signal ICs used in IoT, consumer electronics and high-growth segments of automotive and industrial end-markets. Dialog brings a wide range of product offerings including battery and power management, power conversion, configurable mixed-signal (CMIC), LED drivers, custom mixed-signal ICs (ASICs), and automotive power management ICs (PMICs), wireless charging technology, and more. Dialog also offers broad and differentiated BLE, WiFi and audio system-on-chips (SoCs) that deliver advanced connectivity for a wide range of applications; from smart home/building automation, wearables, to connected medical. All these systems complement and expand Renesas’ leadership portfolio in delivering comprehensive solutions to improve performance and efficiency in high-computing electronic systems. Dialog was founded in 1981 and has 2,300 employees.

“The transaction we announced today represents our next important step in catapulting Renesas’ growth plan to achieve substantial strategic and financial benefits, following our previous acquisitions,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, President and CEO of Renesas. “Dialog has a strong culture of innovation along with excellent customer relationships and serves fast growing areas including IoT, industrial and automotive. By bringing Dialog’s talented team and expertise into Renesas, together, we will accelerate innovation for customers and create sustainable value for our shareholders.”

“For several years, we have successfully executed on a diversification strategy that positions Dialog for high-growth,” said Dr. Jalal Bagherli, CEO of Dialog. “We have built a strong foundation of high-performance analog and power efficient mixed-signal expertise, extended our product portfolio and applied our technologies into markets including 5G, wearables, automotive, smart home, connected medical and industrial IoT. This compelling platform – combined with Renesas’ leading embedded compute, analog and power portfolio – creates even greater growth opportunities in today’s increasingly connected world. The Dialog team is excited to join forces with Renesas. The combined company will be in an even stronger position to provide innovative products for these markets, building on Renesas’ extensive sales, distribution and customer support capabilities.”

https://www.renesas.com/br/en/document/ppt/renesas-and-dialog-zoom-webinar-presentation-material

Renesas to acquire Integrated Device Technology for $6.7 billion

Tuesday, September 11, 2018  IDT, Japan, Mergers And Acquisitions, Renesa, Silicon Valley  

Renesas Electronics Corporation of Japan has agreed to acquire Integrated Device Technology (IDT, NASDAQ: IDTI) for approximately US$6.7 billion (approximately 733.0 billion yen at an exchange rate of 110 yen to the dollar), combing two recognized leaders in embedded processors and analog mixed-signal semiconductors. IDT shares are to be acquired at a price of US$49.00 per share. IDT, which is based in San Jose, California, is a leading supplier...

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Renesas to Acquire Intersil for $3.2 Billion

Monday, September 12, 2016  Mergers And Acquisitions, Silicon  

Renesas Electronics Corporation agreed to acquire Intersil for US$22.50 per share in cash, representing an aggregate equity value of approximately US$3.2 billion (approximately 321.9 billion yen at an exchange rate of 100 yen to the dollar). Renesas supplies microcontroller (MCU) and system-on-chip (SoC) products and technologies.  Intersil specializes in power management and precision analog capabilities. The acquisition is also expected...

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