Infrastructure & Networks

Huawei is facing similar sort of action over Iran from US authorities to that which is threatening the future of Chinese rival ZTE.

Cyxtera Technologies has launched its Cyxtera Extensible Data Center (CXD) platform, a software-defined data centre architecture that enables on-demand service provisioning.

Proximus has signed a fibre-to-the-business wholesale deal with Destiny, the cloud business services provider, in Belgium.

BICS and Italian telecoms operator Fastweb have announced a strategic partnership that will see them offer combined connectivity solutions offering enhanced capacity and customer service.

Globacom, the Nigerian telecommunications services provider, has unveiled its plans to build a new fibre-optic submarine cable in Nigeria.

Interoute's 72,000km fibre network has been selected to support the Vatican Communications Secretariat’s new online site.

Megaport is enhancing hybrid network connections to Google Cloud’s global network with its SDN capability.

Open Fiber and Retelit have signed a commercial agreement to develop ultra-broadband connectivity and services, extending the reach of their networks across Italy.

Equinix has strengthened its partnership with Google by announcing a new service that allows its partners to connect to the Google Cloud platform from anywhere.

ZenFi Networks and Cross River Fiber are merging to create a new infrastructure provider in the New York and New Jersey Metro areas.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled that a new subsea cable linking the Solomon Islands and Papa New Guinea with Australia is set to go live by the end of 2019.

UK-based telecoms firm CityFibre is the subject of a £538 million takeover bid from a consortium of infrastructure funds backed by Goldman Sachs.

Elliott group, the activist shareholders in Telecom Italia (TIM), cannot put forward its own slate of directors until next month – at the company’s second shareholders’ meeting in 10 days.

Neutral tower provider Brazil Tower Company (BTC) has closed on $79 million of a $104 million long-term debt financing, which it plans to use to boost its tower portfolio.

Connexin, the UK-based fixed wireless company, has unveiled plans to build a £5 million data centre in Hull.

Mexico’s High Court has ruled in favour of Telmex, the fixed-line division of Carlos Slim’s America Movil, over its plan to charge for access to its network.

Coriant and InterNexa have successfully completed a field trial featuring disaggregated 100G and 200G transmission over third-party optical infrastructure.

Huawei and China Unicom have entered into a joint innovation agreement to collaborate on 5G network slicing.

Reports over the weekend suggest that a blockbuster deal that would see Vodafone buy Liberty Global’s German and eastern European cable networks is imminent.

Josh Snowhorn, vice president and general manager of interconnection at CyrusOne, has resigned to join new company EdgeMicro.

MainOne has received a C1B licence allowing it to expand national and international connectivity services in Côte D’Ivoire.

The $350 million Hawaiki subsea cable has made its final landing in American Samoa, in partnership with America Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA).

RagingWire Data Centers, part of the NTT Communications group, has added Megaport’s global SDN to its Cloud Connect portfolio of solution partners.

Equinix becomes Australian market leader with 15 IBX data centres nationwide after closing A$1.035 billion Metronode deal.

Swedish telecoms equipment vendor Ericsson’s sales are down 25% quarter-on-quarter, and 9% year-on-year.

Algeria is set to be connected to two new submarine cables by the end of 2018 linking Algeria to the US and Spain.

Vodacom, the South African Vodafone subsidiary, has become the first African mobile network to exceed 80% population coverage on 4G.

ZTE has said that it might take legal action against the US authorities that have banned it from using US hardware and software.

Africa Data Centres, part of pan-African group Liquid Telecom, has expanded facilities at its flagship East Africa Data Centre (EADC) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Evolve IP, the cloud strategy company, is using Oracle Communications to upgrade its European network infrastructure and deliver new services.

Entel, the Chilean operator, has confirmed its plans to extend its fibre-optic connectivity to all 339 municipal capitals by the year 2022.

An increasing number of service providers are turning to Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) the software defined networking (SDN) solution, says the company.

Siemens has extended its contract with Orange Business Services to launch its global Siemens Digitalisation Network (SDN), built on SD-WAN infrastructure.

The Eastern Corridor subsea cable system in Ghana has begun its final phase of development and will be followed by 165km extension linking Accra to Ho.

Hurricane Electric, the world’s largest IPv6-native internet backbone and colocation provider, has announced WTG, a large telecom, internet, wireless and cloud master agents, has joined its channel partner programme.

Tata Communications and Dreamtime Technologies (DTTech) are partnering together to build a cloud-based virtual mobile network to serve African mobile and internet of things (IoT) providers.

CIM Group in partnership with fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547) have begun construction of its data centre campus in San Francisco.

Aqua Comms, the submarine cable operator, has appointed APTelecom as its international sales partner as it develops new client markets in Asia and the US.

Akamai Technologies has made significant enhancements designed to improve website, app, and network security without compromising the performance of digital applications.

It is now illegal for US technology companies such as Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Qualcomm and Symantec to trade with ZTE after a US government ruling.

Orange Jordan is set to roll out advanced 4G+ services in different areas in the south governorates, and the launch of revamped home broadband offers.

Telia Carrier has deployed a new 100G backbone point of presence (PoP) in DigiPlex’s data centre north of Stockholm in Sweden.

Keppel Data Centres has partnered with DE-CIX, which will see Keppel DC Frankfurt 1 (KDC FRA 1) offering DE-CIX premium interconnection services such as peering and dedicated cloud connections.

DNA and Cisco Jasper have partnered together to introduce a new connectivity IoT service that will create global IoT ecosystem opportunities for Finnish companies.

KPN, the Dutch telecoms company, has said that the government needs to release the 3.5GHz spectrum required for 5G services.

Zayo Group will expand its European data centre network by establishing a zColo facility, the company’s first data centre in the London metro area.

PLDT Enterprises is partnering with Zenlayer to offer software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technologies to its customers in the region.

O2 and Arqiva, the UK communications infrastructure company, are partnering to deploy up to 300 small cells in London.

The former CEO of Alaska fibre company Quintillion has been charged with $250 million fraud by pretending it had wholesale contracts worth $1 billion.

Nokia, Telia and Intel have successfully carried out an industrial trial using 5G to improve the time sensitive applications and enhance productions in manufacturing.

Sabey Data Centers is partnering with Telia Carrier to leverage its 100G-enabled IP backbone to provide scalable capacity and connectivity to the Seattle metro area.

Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, a subsidiary of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, has just launched a data centre in Hong Kong.

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) hosting provider 3W Infra has added the Asteroid Internet Exchange Point (IXP) to its ecosystem of network infrastructure providers as part of a cooperation agreement.

AT&T and Crown Castle have entered into a new agreement to expand their existing leasing deal for wireless network infrastructure.

OTEGLOBE has recently announced a 15% increase in EBITDA as part of its 2017 financial results, COO George Nikoloudis explains to Capacity how the carrier has reached €333.5 million in revenues and 2.9 billion total traffic billed minutes.

The Italian telecoms and media regulator has won a significant victory in its battle with Vivendi by forcing the French media group to offload shares in Mediaset.

Coriant has collaborated with the MEF to develop two new specifications that advance the orchestration of MEF 3.0 connectivity services across various technologies.

CIM Group and fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547) have acquired 340 Progress Circle in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Atlantic Metro has partnered with PacketLight Networks to upgrade its existing dense division wavelength multiplexing (DWDM) network routes to 200G capacity.

Colt Technology Services has announced its second point of presence in Interxion’s Marseille campus.

FiberLight, the fibre connectivity solutions provider, has appointed Mike Kopp as its new vice president of channel.

Kazakhstan’s Transtelecom has launched a new terrestrial network from the Chinese border towards Europe.

Russian operator Rostelecom is to upgrade its transcontinental Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) Cable System linking Europe with China and Japan.

Imperva, the US-based cyber security company, has doubled its presence in Russia at IXcellerate’s Moscow One data centre.

Nestlé, the food and beverages company, is to outsource its business operations in Russia to IXcellerate, Russia’s leading international data centre campus.

Tele2 Russia has commissioned a LTE network in Orenburg region of Russia, expanding its existing 4G services in the country.

Liquid Telecom has named Reshaad Sha as CEO of Liquid Telecom South Africa, effective as of 1 June 2018.

Xavier Niel’s personal investment company has officially taken control of Ireland’s incumbent operator Eir.

Viasat, the global satellite company, will now offer a satellite-enabled Wifi hotspot service called Community Wifi to most of Mexico.

Russian industrial group Sistema appears to be losing interest in the international subsea cables business of Mumbai-based Reliance Communications.

NTT Communications has partnered with global technology solutions and services provider Dimension Data to bring together their cloud infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities.

Ekinops, a provider of optical transport solutions, is deploying its PM 200FRS02 FlexRate line module in a greenfield network built by Epsilon.

Telia Company’s group CEO Johan Dennelind has taken over running the Swedish operation following the resignation of Hélène Barnekow.

Temasek, the Singapore-based investment company, has invested a reported $244.5 million in shares to become the top shareholder of CenturyLink.

Microsoft says that it is investing approximately $5 billion in the Internet of Things (IoT) over the next four years.

Zayo Group has added another data centre to its portfolio with the acquisition of a 62,000 total sq ft facility in McLean, Virginia.

The business fibre gap in the US has dropped below 50% for the first time with more buildings lit with fibre in 2017 than in any prior year.

Datacenter.com, the European colocation data centre provider, has added Cogent Communications to its portfolio of carrier networks in Amsterdam.

The head of Australia’s wholesale broadband network, NBN, has said he will step down from the role by the end of 2018.

Eletronet, Brazil’s national service provider, has chosen Seaborn Network’s Seabras-1 submarine cable system to offer Tier 1 Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) in Brazil.

Alessandro Talotta has left Sparkle, where he had been chairman and CEO for more than three years, following his nomination as a director of rival Italian carrier Retelit.

365 Data Centers has named Robert Allison as its new director of business development based in the company’s Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida offices.

Equinix has appointed Brenden Rawle, the former principal solution architect at Equinix EMEA, as its new director of interconnection in EMEA.

Juniper Networks has unveiled a number of enhancements to its unified cybersecurity platform enabling its customers to run their businesses across various locations and clouds.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has partnered with Ticon, a developer and provider of industrial properties in Thailand.

Telecoms and pay-TV services are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2% between 2017 and 2022, says GlobalData.

Construction of a 9,500km subsea cable linking Japan to Australia via Guam and backed by the likes of Google has begun.

Openreach has launched its high-bandwidth managed service that allows communications providers (CPs) to operate private data connections using virtual dark fibre.

India’s data usage grew five times over the last year, with its networks carrying an average of 2.1 exabytes of data per month.

Consolidation in the Indian telecoms industry went up more than fivefold last year, largely thanks to the impact of Reliance Jio’s entry to the market in 2016.

Vodafone has completed the sale of its Indian tower unit to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited (ATC) in a deal worth INR 38.5 billion (€478 million).

Digital Realty has achieved five nines of uptime for the 11th consecutive year, surpassing 99.999% availability throughout 2017.

Sparkle says it is expanding its European backbone with a new point of presence (PoP) in Rome, Italy.

Paris-based systems and infrastructure integrator Interdata has selected Zayo Group as the provider of its dark fibre infrastructure in France, adding around 50km of new fibre to its existing network.

Windstream Holdings has completed its $37.5 million acquisition of Mass Communications, the New York-based telecommunications network management company, in an all cash deal.

Interxion has launched direct access to IBM Cloud Services at its data centres across Europe through its cloud interconnection platform.

Orange International Carriers has strengthened its US positioning by converting two of its IP PoPs into IPX points to improve its quality of service.

Vocus Communications has begun laying the Australia-Singapore Cable which will link Perth to Singapore via Jakarta and Christmas Island.

Mosaic NetworX, the SD-WAN as-a-service company, is partnering with Connected2Fiber to utilise its software as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

REANNZ, New Zealand’s research and education network operator, has picked Chorus and Vodafone to provide fibre backhaul services to connect its backbone network to the Hawaiki Cable landing station at Mangawhai Heads in Northland.

Hurricane Electric has chosen Aqua Comms for new high-speed connectivity between New York and Dublin.

The former Telecom Italia has officially started work on separating out its wholesale access network into a new legal entity.

The Chilean government has awarded Huawei Marine the contract to build a subsea cable connecting with the country’s far south.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai has unveiled new rules that would bar US telecoms companies from buying equipment using a government subsidy program if the kit is bought from a “company that poses a national security threat”.

Amdocs has announced that it is working with Microsoft to implement its Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Libyan Post, Telecommunication and information technology Company (LPTIC), the state-owned Libyan telco, has announced a $1.75 billion plan to reunify telecoms in the country.

Russian industrial group Sistema is believed to be the leading bidder for India’s Reliance Communications and its international subsea cable business.

TE Subcom, a provider of undersea communications technology, has announced that it will begin construction on its LA cable landing station in five days’ time.

Moroccan companies backed by Etisalat and Zain are fighting a regulatory battle in Morocco over wholesale access to infrastructure.

Asian carrier Superloop has hired former Telstra, Airtel and T-Mobile US executive Drew Kelton as CEO, in place of Bevan Slattery, who becomes executive director.

Orange Business has come in at first place in the 2017 global provider Ethernet leaderboard by Vertical Systems Group.

Battle has started over the future of Telecom Italia between two of its biggest shareholders.

NEC Corporation will provision a 10 Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (10G-EPON) system to support KDDI Corporation's fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service.

Telstra has expanded its business in Europe with the opening of a new office in Paris that will serve as Telstra’s hub for Continental Europe.

Successful trials of blockchain for wholesale settlement by two leading companies should help all carriers, says CMO

The former Orange Switzerland – now called Salt Mobile – is offering 10Gbps fixed-line fibre services in association with a wholesale carrier.

India’s Reliance Communications has come a step closer to selling off its mobile business to rival operator Reliance Jio following a bondholders’ vote.

iBasis has entered into a multi-service agreement with LG Uplus, the South Korean operator, to connect is IPX network for signaling and data connectivity enabling LTE roaming services.

CenturyLink and Spectrum Enterprise have come top of the 2017 US incumbent carrier Ethernet and the 2017 US cable MSO Ethernet leaderboards respectively.

One of London’s biggest boroughs has signed a pair of deals to bring gigabit-speed fibre to the homes of most of its 290,000 residents.

The Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (ETECSA), Cuba’s national telecommunications operator, has partnered with SES Networks for satellite services to enhance its connectivity.

Globenet’s data centre in Barranquilla, Columbia has been awarded the International Computer Room Experts Association (ICREA) Green Seal certification for sustainability.

Grupo Gtd, the Chilean telecoms operator, has acquired a data centre in Santiago de Chile owned by department store chain Falabella.

South East Asia and Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement (SEAIOCMA) has extended its cable maintenance agreement with Global Marine Group for another four years.

Kosc Télécom has confirmed that its B2B wholesale fibre offering, Fibre Professionnelle, will start taking orders from 9 April 2018.

Interoute has been recognised with the highest use case score for a high-performance network as part of Gartner’s March 2018 Critical Capabilities for Network Services Pan –European report.

The US telecoms regulator has asked for applications for a rural broadband auction – but has given prospective applicants only 11 days to submit proposals.

Eletronet, Brazil’s national service provider, has chosen Telia Carrier’s global fibre backbone to provide dedicated internet access to its Brazilian customers.

The Argentine Internet Chamber - Cabase is proposing the development of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) network by interconnecting its current IXP’s in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia.

CenturyLink has recently activated its fibre optic route linking Colombia in the city of Cali and Quito in Ecuador.

Connexin Limited, the fixed wireless company, has pulled out of the UK 5G spectrum auction just days before it is due to take place.

The US government’s trial against AT&T and Time Warner to attempt to stop their $85 billion merger is due to start in New York today.

iBasis has successfully migrated its GRX and LTE data services enabling America Movil’s Central American operators, under the Claro brand, to enhance its data roaming services using iBasis’ IPX.

Xtera founder and CSO Robert Richardson and CTO Tony Frisch talk the company's latest innovations and the condition of the industry from the perspective of a supplier

The creator of the Three group of mobile operators and the wholesale carrier formerly called Hutchison Global Communications is to retire at 89.

Etisalat has deployed Netcracker’s network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution as part of its residential virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) rollout – the first in the Middle East and Africa.

A global webscale customer has selected Zayo for dark fibre services on its 600-route mile Reno to Umatilla route, which is currently under development.

UK cities could benefit from up to £6 billion of savings from 5G implementation, according to a report from O2, with the UK government announcing additional investments in telecoms infrastructure.

Vivendi, the biggest shareholder in TIM, has condemned a move by an activist investor to replace six directors with its own nominees.

Niagara Regional Broadband Network (NRBN) has established a new point of presence (PoP) in 365 Data Centers’ Buffalo location.

Datacom is set to deliver data centre services from AirTrunk’s new hyperscale facilities in Sydney and Melbourne.

Verizon and Colt have successfully demonstrated two-way inter-carrier software-defined network (SDN) orchestration during a live trial demonstration in London.

BT has appointed a chief strategy and transformation officer as part of a series of changes in top management by CEO Gavin Patterson.

Singtel is building a new submarine cable system linking Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Korea and Japan.

Juniper Networks has unveiled its new strategy for simplifying service delivery in complex metro networks.

Xtera, a provider of innovative subsea fibre-optic technology, has claimed the successful demonstration of transmitting 120Tbps over a single repeatered fibre.

LeoSat Enterprises has signed a strategic agreement with Phasor to provide enterprise network markets with ultra-high throughput, low-latency network infrastructure.

Equinix announced the launch of SmartKey, its global key management and encryption software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that simplifies data protection across the cloud.

Telefónica Brasil has unveiled plans to spend £5.2 billion in capital expenditure over the next three years as it looks to boost fibre penetration in the country.

DataGryd, the Manhattan data centre specialists, has named Thomas Brown as its new president and chief executive officer.

mu Space is partnering with SES Networks and Hughes Network Systems to deploy satellite-based broadband services to rural communities in Thailand.

Telia and Coriant have successfully completed a live field trial of technology optimised for real-time optical performance awareness and dynamic provisioning of fibre-optic capacity.

Infinera has announced what it calls the first optical device to work at 2.4Tbps, promising improved performance for cloud and deep fibre networks.

Nokia has launched a new cloud-native enterprise session border controller (eSBC) that provides secure, ultra-high-quality IP voice and video services to its enterprise customers.

Coriant has launched a new coherent multiservice sled for its Coriant Groove G30 that enhances the capabilities of the network disaggregation platform.

Surveys have started for a new subsea cable that will improve southern Chile’s connections to the internet.

Cormac Whelan, CEO of Nokia UK & Ireland, opens up about Nokia's plan for 5G & IoT and explains how the UK and Ireland is a "microcosm of Nokia’s global strategy".

Nokia and Orange Middle East and Africa (MEA) are deploying a single radio access network and network management technology across seven African countries.

Kevin Coyne, a member of FiberLight’s founding team, has been promoted to its new chief operating officer.

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks hit its peak this month with the two biggest recorded attacks to date.

Telkom Kenya is planning a €75 million network expansion to boost mobile coverage and to improve its mobile money network.

Zeetta Networks and Ixia have partnered together to provide new network capabilities for network operators.

DE-CIX is to go live with its platform at its point of presence (PoP) at the 1025Connect Meet-Me Room in Long Island.

Belgian operator Proximus – the former Belgacom – has borrowed €400 million to fund further fibre in its residential and business networks.

datamena has revealed that OSN is to start trials of Microsoft Azure Expressroute in partnership with the du company, an announcement made at Capacity Middle East 2018.

Converged communication provider Turkcell Superonline has joined the NetIX exchange platform, the two firms announced at Capacity Middle East.

Hurricane Electric has expanded its network to Telehouse America’s New York Teleport data centre in Staten Island.

The board of directors of TIM – formerly Telecom Italia – has approved a plan to create a separate legal entity that will own its fixed network.

Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has proposed a $954 million plan to restore and expand communications networks in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.

Viavi Solutions is partnering with Microsemi, a provider of semiconductor solutions to develop flexible optical networking technologies for 5G.

Cataleya has announced the launch of its new wholesale business platform as a service (PaaS) which integrates switching, rating, routing and billing cloud solutions, enabling wholesalers to start operating within a matter of days.

Telefónica Business Solutions has included Microsoft Azure services to its cloud services portfolio.

Former Colt CEO Rakesh Bhasin is to become chairman of African and Middle East carrier CMC Networks.

Nokia has appointed Sanjay Goel as the new president of global services and as a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team (GLT).

UAE’s du has today announced at Capacity Middle East 2018 that it has extended its existing partnership with Epsilon to offer end-to-end connectivity between the UAE and major data centres in the US, Europe and Asia.

Telstra is set to boost its Middle East business by announcing the expansion of its Programmable Network to a new point of presence (PoP) in Dubai.

Nokia is claiming that it will be able to push subsea fibre speeds up to 600Gbps with the release of a new optical chipset that gets close to the limits of physics.

Omantel Wholesale has struck a partnership with German internet exchange DE-CIX, becoming its first partner in the Gulf to provide direct access to seven DE-CIX Exchanges across Europe and the US.

Retelit has announced an expansion of its network at Capacity Middle East unveiling 160 Gbps of new capacity in Asia and in Europe.

BCE Nexxia, the wholly owned Bell Canada subsidiary, has expanded its network capabilities with the launch of a new point of presence (PoP) in London.

PCCW Global has agreed to build a new submarine cable for Mauritius Telecom linking the Indian Ocean islands of Rodrigues and Mauritius.

Etisalat says that it will partner with a consortium of technology leaders to create cloud telecom infrastructure platform to host emerging technologies and services

GTT president and CEO Rick Calder says that Interoute will be the company's last large-scale M&A for a while.

Zayo Group has completed its $127 million acquisition of Spread Networks whilst also announcing an extension of its fibre network in Texas.

BSO, the global network provider, has enhanced its low-latency route between Singapore (SGX) and Hong Kong (HKEX) Exchanges.

Grant Walker has stepped down as chairman of CMC Networks, just over a year after the largest private equity company in the world bought control.

UAE-based du has announced a partnership with Cisco to build a future-proof IP core network in order to meet rising demand for bandwidth.

The capital expenditure (capex) of hyperscale operators totalled $22 billion in Q4 of 2017, according to data from Synergy Research Group.

Etisalat and Idemia have partnered together to provide SIM provisioning that allows consumers to store multiple user profiles on a single device and switch between them remotely.

ZTE and MTN have entered into an agreement on the development of 5G network architectures in the Middle East & Africa (MEA).

Mumbai-IX, powered by DE-CIX, will make services available at STT’s carrier hotel in Mumbai (formerly known as TATA LVSB) facility, starting in March 2018.

A third AMS-IX India point of presence (PoP) has been launched in GPX’s Mumbai data centre.

Hurricane Electric has established a new point of presence (PoP) in Sitel’s Bratislava data centre in Slovakia.

du, the UAE-based telecommunications service provider, has chosen Affirmed Networks network functions virtualisation (NFV) narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) solution.

Africa’s Liquid Telecom has signed an agreement with Sudatel to build new fibre networks across Sudan.

The Satellite Applications Catapult has selected Juniper Networks to build a secure, end-to-end network infrastructure to support Juniper’s 5G testbed.

Coriant has teamed up with Affirmed Networks to expand the former’s 5G customer offerings.

Deutsche Telekom may be interested in bidding for BT when the embargo on buying or selling shares runs out in two years’ time.

GTT Communications has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Interoute, one of Europe’s largest independent fibre network operators, for $2.3 billion.

Ofcom, the UK regulator, has released a draft outline of its rules for full-fibre deployment in the UK.

Liberty Global has chosen Benu Networks’ IPv6 Dual-Stack (DS-Lite) solution to allow it to transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

CenturyLink has captured the number one spot on Vertical Systems Group’s latest leaderboard of US Ethernet market-leaders.

Work has started to survey a subsea cable route in the north of Canada that will link a number of communities in the Nunavik region.

GI Partners, the private investment firm, has acquired 492 River Road in Nutley, New Jersey.

Italy’s markets regulator is extends its enquiry into whether TIM has harmed rival carrier Open Fiber’s entry into wholesale markets.

Telefónica has announced separate deals with Orange in Spain and Vodafone in Germany to share fibre infrastructure.

Colt Technology Services is expanding its 100Gbps connectivity solutions in Japan to better serve the needs of its customers.

AT&T has failed in a court attempt to bring President Donald Trump into its $85 billion battle to buy the media company Time Warner.

Cobham Wireless launches its distributed antenna system network in Berlin, supporting a number of indoor and outdoor smart city and IoT applications.

The Uptime Institute has unveiled its new Hybrid Resiliency Assessment service, which is designed to reduce the risks associated with business service delivery for multiple data centres, co-location sites and the cloud.

The Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) says that once properly managed, licensing the use of spectrum could generate millions of dollars for Caribbean Governments.

Phoenix Tower International (PTI) has completed its transaction with Digicel Antilles Francaises Guyane (Digicel) for the purchase of 215 wireless communication tower sites.

Sumicity, a Brazilian telecommunications services provider, is expanding coverage of its DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) networks in Southeast Brazil leveraging Padtec technologies.

FiberLight confirms completion of its Texas Connector, a fibre network that connects the western portion of the company’s network with its Dallas-Austin-San Antonio-Houston (DASH) fibre footprint.

Capacity speaks to TE SubCom about some of the biggest issues facing the submarine cable industry, how the industry is combating this and its thoughts on OTTs and cable landing stations.

ZTE announces that it has won a 70% share of the first stage of the access network modernisation project with Russian operator Rostelecom.

Carolan Lennon, the managing director of Eir’s wholesale operations in Ireland, is to become CEO of the group.

Mycom OSI has launched its next-gen, cloud native platform as part of its enhanced Experience Assurance and Analytics (EAA) suite of applications.

China Mobile's Research Institute, in partnership with ZTE, has successfully completed tests for single-carrier 400G optical transport networking (OTN).

Megaport has continued its expansion plans in Europe with a new partnership with Finnish service provider Cinia.

Telehouse America has struck a partnership with Extreme Networks to upgrade the New York International Internet Exchange (NYIIX) Centillion platform in order to meet demand for more 100G ports.

Wind Hellas is deploying its own fibre-optic network, enhancing its existing retail and wholesale services in several areas throughout Greece, amid €500 million plans.

Equinix has named a former Palo Alto Networks executive as the new head of its Europe, Middle East and Africa channel partner programme.

Xtera, a provider of subsea fibre optic solutions, has successfully completed its interoperability testing with Infinera.

Reliance Communications’ (RCom) shareholders have green-lit an asset monetisation plan that sees the company sell off spectrum, tower, fibre and telecom infrastructure.

Telefónica’s International Wholesale Services has deployed seven new Network Functions Hubs to boost adoption of virtualisation.

Angola Cable's CCO Artur Mendes talks to Capacity about the company’s South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), its data centre in Fortaleza, Brazil and becoming a Microsoft ExpressRoute partner.

Deutsche Telekom has set up an edge computing lab in the US, in collaboration with tower and fibre provider Crown Castle

MyTel and Amara Communications, the newest entrants to the Myanmar telecoms market, have announced their plans for the deployment of 4G.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission to build a satellite-based internet network.

Equinix has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Infomart Dallas, including its operations and tenants, from ASB Real Estate Investments, in an $800 million debt and cash transaction.

eStruxture Data Centers has acquired Québec-based data centre operator Kolotek from Gaz Métro Plus, further solidifying eStruxture’s leadership position in the Montreal market.

Globe Telecom has opened discussions with an unnamed company about plans to outsource the building of its cell towers.

Vodafone Netherlands has lost its appeal in the Dutch Corporate Appeals Court (CBb) against KPN’s €610 million acquisition of Reggefiber.

Inmarsat and Intellian have entered into an agreement to enhance Inmarsat’s FleetBroaband service over the next 10 years.

Pilot is leveraging Telia Carrier’s global IP backbone to deliver guaranteed broadband 200 times faster than traditional ISPs.

Transatel and Pure Cloud Solutions have partnered together to launch a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution for MVNOs.

NTT Communications has released its financial results for the nine months ended 31 December 2017.

Oracle has unveiled plans to launch 12 new data centre regions, expanding its new enterprise cloud platform to Asia.

Liberty Latin America is to acquire an 80% stake in Cabletica, the Costa Rican cable operator, which has been valued at $250 million.

Italian wholesale provider Open Fiber has started a commercial trial of a 200Gbps connection between Rome and Florence as part of its Zion backbone network.

Millicom’sTigo El Salvador has signed an agreement to sell up to 800 wireless communications towers to a subsidiary of SBA Communications Corporation (SBA) for $145 million.

Viavi Solutions will provide hardware technologies to China Mobile to support the deployment of 5G services in China by the end of 2019.

Blue Danube Systems has launched its second generation 5G-ready Massive MIMO system called the BeamCraft 600 series.

Coriant and New H3C Group (HP Enterprise & Unigroup), a leader of ICT services in China, has entered into an agreement together to drive digital transformation in China.

BT-owned mobile operator EE is trying out a rural 4G network that will compete in speed with fibre.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) would like to attract $100 billion of investment in the country’s communication sector by 2022, it has revealed amongst its National Telecom Policy 2018 proposals.

Sprint is to reinvest its market efforts with a portfolio of solutions for the federal and public market.

KDDI Group’s Telehouse has teamed up with Seattle-based Sabey Data Centers which will see respective businesses extend their data centre and connectivity ecosystem footprints.

Ethernity Networks, the provider of data processing technology, has appointed Rob O’Hara as its new vice president of worldwide sales.

Aamir Hussain, chief technology officer (CTO) of CenturyLink has been appointed to the board of directors at the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF).

Viettel, the Vietnamese mobile operator, has connected to iBasis’ IPX network to offer 3G and 4G roaming services.

Agility, the wholesale internet service provider, has become Avaya’s first wholesale partner in Ireland adding Avaya products and services to its existing portfolio.

China is reinforcing its claim to disputed islands in the South China Sea by telling the country’s three operators to build 4G networks.

GPX Global Systems has today announced the expansion of its presence in Mumbai with the addition of its Tier 4 16MW GPX Mumbai 2 facility.

Cisco's 7th annual Global Cloud Index (2016-2021) claims that data centre traffic will reach 95% by 2021, up 7% from 2016.

Telecom Argentina has pledged to invest $5 billion to boost infrastructure in Argentina following the loosening of local regulations.

Deutsche Telekom and satellite communications company Inmarsat have announced their joint European Aviation Network (EAN) is ready for service.

Telecom Egypt has signed a three-year transmission and infrastructure agreement with Vodafone Egypt, valued at more than EGP 2 billion ($133m).

Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) has entered into two agreements with Shatel and HiWeb, the local internet service providers, to share its networks with them

Nokia and China Unicom have partnered together to roll-out a cloud-native core network in seven Chinese provinces.

McAllen Data Center (MDC) has completed its purchase of a Verizon data centre in the city of El Paso, Texas.

Cloudscene has released its global data centre operator rankings for Q4 2017 and has listed the top 50 emerging colocation markets in 2018.

TE SubCom is to build a depot in Samoa as a maintenance centre to service 20 Pacific subsea cable systems.

Capacity talks with president of C&W Networks Paul Scott on the presence of OTTs in the subsea cable market, the death of the cable landing station and the company roadmap for 2018.

Verizon has been awarded $70.7 million in funding as part of the third phase of the New NY Broadband Program.

Root Data Center announces that GTT Communications has launched a point of presence in its MTL-R2, Montreal Data Center.

Skywire Networks, the New York-based Ethernet provider, says that it has significantly scaled its wholesale and channel partner activities.

Openreach has announced that it is accelerating its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) build programme to enhance the UK’s digital infrastructure.

Africa Data Centres, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, has launched newly-expanded carrier-grade data centres facilities in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

Peter van Burgel has been appointed as new CEO of the world’s largest internet exchange AMS-IX with immediate effect.

Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), Germany’s national telecoms regulator, has unveiled its draft proposal for its 5G spectrum auction.

Sparkle has struck a partnership with France-IX that will see the Italian carrier offer its tier-1 transit service Seabone to France-IX members.

Telia Carrier is working with Swedish hosting and data centre services company, GleSYS, to provide improved capacity and support its future growth plans.

Hurricane Electric has boosted its high-speed internet services in the north eastern United States by establishing a new point of presence (PoP) at the Maine Fiber Company (MFC).

Interoute is expanding its global footprint by launching new services in São Paulo, Brazil.

The National Telecommunications Commission has prevented incumbent telcos, PLDT and Globe Telecom, from buying out the Philippines third telco in the future.

Conterra is to acquire two Louisiana-based fibre network operators in a transaction announced on the first day of Metro Connect in Miami Beach.

If you’re a carrier, prepare to hear some home truths at Metro Connect in Miami this week – from Frank Rey of Microsoft, potentially one of your fastest growing customers.

DE-CIX has expanded its partnership with DNS recursive resolver firm Quad9 at its internet exchange facility in Frankfurt, Germany.

Mycom OSI and Red Hat are to develop a telco cloud assurance solution reducing system deployment time and operations by over 75%

The backers of Canadian company Crosslake Fibre are planning to announce two new non-repeatered subsea cable projects, one in North America and one to follow the Ireland-France project.

FiberLight is set to sell part of its Texas network to Logix Fiber Networks and use the money to expand in Virginia and overbuild other parts of its Texas operation.

Globalinx Data Centers has unveiled plans to launch a new, three-phased data centre campus in close proximity to Telxius’ cable landing station in Virginia Beach.

1547 Critical Systems Realty’s AlohaNap announced at PTC that it was expanding cabinet capacity at its Hawaii-based facility by nearly 70%.

Four O3b medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites will be placed in orbit nearly 8,000km from Earth, four times closer to the planet than geostationary satellites.

Deutsche Telekom (DT) is leading the charge with the deployment of NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) technology in Europe and North America.

The first cable connecting southern Africa to South America should reach the coast of Brazil in early February, according to Angola Cables.

Silknet, the fixed-line operator in the republic of Georgia, is to buy mobile operator Geocell from Telia and Turkcell for $153 million.

Unitas Global, the hybrid cloud solutions provider, is partnering with Connected2Fiber to implement The Connected World SaaS platform.

Switch Datacenters, the provider of tailor built data centres, has announces the launch of its wholesale data centre-as-a-service programme.

Russian internet exchange company MSK-IX has started a programme to build up its peering infrastructure and improve high-speed performance.

Telstra has partnered with Ericsson and Ciena to demonstrate speeds of up to 400Gbps using Telstra’s transmission network in Melbourne.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), has partnered with Epsilon to provide service providers with access to the LINX NoVA Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in the Northern Virginia and Washington DC area.

Tampnet, the provider of data networks for the offshore community, has selected GTT as its connectivity partner.

Superloop has unveiled plans to fully integrate the INDIGO subsea cable - which will connect Australia, Singapore and Indonesia – into a number of its metropolitan fibre networks.

Xtera has been named supplier for Seaborn Network's ARBR submarine cable linking Argentina to Brazil.

Larry Schwartz, chairman & chief executive officer of Seaborn Networks, says that the company is platform player and therefore perfectly positioned to meet the needs of OTTs

Colt Technology Services has named former Level 3 SVP Andrew Edison as vice president - wholesale in order to accelerate partnerships and global networking solutions for the wholesale segment.

Digital Realty has announced that it will offer dedicated and private access to Oracle Cloud in 14 major metropolitan areas.

Colt Technology Services has unveiled plans to bolster its software-defined networking offering by expanding into both Hong Kong and Singapore.

PacketFabric announces the availability of PacketCOR, its cloud on-ramp product enabling direct connectivity to cloud products anywhere on PacketFabric’s private network.

Epsilon has announced that it is expanding its connectivity platform in the US by establishing new interconnect locations in New York and New Jersey.

XSite Modular, the design-builder of modular cable landing stations, has won the contract to build a cable landing station for the Hawaiki submarine cable, in Oahu, Hawaii.

Facebook and four carriers have become the main consortium members supporting a new 13,000km cable that will link Hong Kong to Hermosa Beach in California.

Sabey Data Centers has announced that it is partnering with Repeater Communications Group, on its Intergate.Manhattan Sabey’s 560ft tower in Lower Manhattan.

Zayo has spent $24.9 million buying Canadian fibre company Optic Zoo, which has 103 route miles in the Vancouver area.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has announced that its Singapore data centre facility is to become Vocus Communications' point of presence (PoP) in Singapore for its Australia Singapore Cable (ASC).

A1 Telekom Austria is the latest telecoms operator to join the Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance (ngena), which looks at how to build a truly global SD-WAN.

Hurricane Electric has deployed Coriant Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform in a Data Center Interconnect (DCI) application.

PacketFabric has secured a $25 million investment in series B funding from lead investor NantCapital.

Different telecoms operators could share capacity on a single fibre serving an apartment block or even a single home, thanks to a development by Vodafone and Huawei.

The Oregon-to-Hawaii segment of the Hawaiki transpacific cable system has now been completed by TE Subcom, meaning the cable is on track to go fully live in June 2018.

Epsilon launches its global channel partner programme giving its managed service partners access to a suite of cloud-centric network services.

Apple unveils that it is going to invest a total of $30 billion in capital expenditure in the US over the next five years.

Verizon has expanded its Edgecast content network to France, Mexico and South Africa and has tripled network capacity.

Residents of the city of Milton Keynes in the English Midlands are to get direct gigabit fibre connections in a project by Vodafone and the independent carrier CityFibre.

GTT Communications has elected NBA basketball legend Julius Erving to its board of directors.

Informart Data Centers has appointed former director of Digital Realty Trust, Dan Ephraim as its new vice president of sales.

EdgeConneX has expanded its network into South America with the launch of its first Edge Data Centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

TE SubCom has been awarded the contract to build Google’s Curie subsea cable system, which will connect the US to Chile and includes a branching unit for future connectivity to Panama.

FirstLight, the fibre-optics infrastructure provider, announces that Finger Lakes Technologies Group (FLTG) has now rebranded under the FirstLight name.

CenturyLink has announced the completion of another metro fibre loop expansion along the US east coast, this time in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Pan-African telecommunications service provider, Internet Solutions, announces that Cloud Connect, its colocation connectivity solution, has been integrated into Microsoft’s Azure ExpressRoute network.

Google’s cloud division has unveiled its participation in three new subsea cables that will service five new regions as part of a $30 billion investment into its infrastructure.

Huawei Marine has started marine survey work for a new subsea cable that will link Pakistan with Kenya and Djibouti.

Tata Communications’ video delivery network (VDN) has been selected by streaming platform Ultracast to support it plans to expand its 360° video and virtual reality platforms.

MTN Uganda is in a dispute with its rivals to secure the renewal of its licence which expires this year, says The Independent.

Aqua Comms will market, sell capacity services and raw spectrum on its portion of the HAVFRUE cable system after its appointment as system operator and landing party.

International network service provider RETN has today announced the completion of its acquisition of OPTRON SIA, a fibre-based metro network service provider in Riga, Latvia.

Talia has purchased a Newtec Dialog platform to provide Ka-band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) services to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Vocus Group has announced an organisational restructure while will see it split the enterprise and wholesale divisions of its Australian arm into separate operating units.

Sparkle has announced a partnership with global video services provider Aldea Solutions to launch a new solution targeting media companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners has completed its acquisition of a majority stake in bandwidth infrastructure firm euNetworks.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has fined Safaricom, Airtel and Telekom Kenya a combined sum of $3 million (Sh 311 million) for failure to meet the quality of service standards for the 2015/2016 financial year.

59% of global revenues comes from just 20 Metro areas, according to findings by Synergy Research Group.

Data centre owner and operator T5 Data Centers signs second pre-lease at T5@Chicago facility.

The $23 billion merger of Vodafone India with Idea Cellular has taken a major step forward after India’s National Company Law Tribunal gave its approval to the deal.

Michael Wheeler, EVP of the NTT Communications Global IP Network at NTT America, spoke to Jason McGee-Abe to discuss how automation is the final piece of the puzzle for its DDoS Protection Services (DPS) offering

Hurricane Electric, the provider of the world’s largest IPv6-native Internet backbone, has deployed its third point of presence (PoP) in Amsterdam, located in Interxion’s AMS8 data centre.

Telenor has selected Nokia to replace and upgrade its optical network in Norway and Sweden, opening the door for future software-defined networking technology (SDN) upgrades.

Italian telecoms minister Carlo Calenda is calling for TIM to separate into two companies and says TIM is already talking to regulator about a split.

Telefónica and Huawei have successfully completed laboratory tests on Huawei's T-SDN (Transport Software-Defined Network) solution and have now moved onto the network development stage.

China Telecom’s American unit has partnered with technology services distributor Intelisys in order to expand its service offerings.

Mumbai-IX powered by DE-CIX has deployed a point of presence (PoP) in Netmagic's DC5 data centre facility expanding its footprint in the region.

TE SubCom, a supplier of submarine cable technology, has been chosen as the system supplier of the North Atlantic HAVFRUE submarine cable system.

RETN, the international service provider, has expanded its global footprint by deploying two new points of presence (PoPs) in Seoul, South Korea.

Eniig has signed a three-year contract with Cerillion to develop a new wholesale platform based on its Enterprise BSS/OSS suite.

Altice owner Patrick Drahi has reversed several years of transatlantic takeovers by deciding to separate out the US operation into a new company.

Interxion announces new expansion projects in seven cities across Europe in response to customer demand.

DE-CIX has established a strategic partnership with BCIX, a leading Berlin Internet exchange, which will see the two firms directly connected and able to offer products in locations in both Berlin and Frankfurt.

Norwegian fibre and data centre company Bulk Infrastructure has turned to Epsilon to provide access to cloud services around the world.

GTT Communications has continued its acquisition spree by agreeing a deal to buy Amsterdam-headquartered high-speed network connectivity provider Custom Connect for an undisclosed fee.

GDS has entered into a non-binding agreement with China Unicom, China Telecom and SDIC to jointly develop data centres in selected upcoming markets in China.

Millicom's Tigo unit, America Móvil’s Claro and Personal’s Nucleo were the mobile operator winners in Paraguay’s 700MHz spectrum auction, which raised around $84 million.

As the SEA-ME-WE 5 subsea cable hits its first anniversary, the consortium reflects on how its flexible approach has helped open up the telecommunications market

Across a range of cloud market segments, 2017 growth rates averaged 24% and annual revenues reached $180 billion, finds Synergy Research Group.

The Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) has elected Vassilis Seferidis, CEO of Zeetta Networks, to its Board.

Malaysian wireless carrier Axiata Group is looking to offload its tower unit Edotco through an initial public offering, according to reports.

A private-equity investor you’ve probably never heard of now owns HGC. Alan Burkitt-Gray asks CEO Andrew Kwok about the changes and the opportunities this brings

CyrusOne’s definitive agreement to acquire hyperscale data centre provider Zenium Data Centers for $442 million provides first critical step in its European expansion strategy.

LOGIX Communications has closed its acquisition of Texas-based network provider Alpheus Communications from private equity owners The Gores Group and Scott Widham, creating one of the largest independent metro fibre providers in the US state.

PCCW Global has bought Console Connect. CEO Marc Halbfinger talks to James Pearce about the acquisition

The Samoa Submarine Cable Company (SSCC) and Alcatel Submarine Network (ASN) have completed the marine installation of the Tui-Samoa subsea cable system.

GlobeNet has set up a new internet interconnection point for Brazil at Fortaleza, the increasingly important landing point for cables to North America and Africa.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has started constructing what it says is “the largest network operations centre in MENA”, at the King Abdulaziz Telecom Complex in the Al-Mursalat district, Riyadh.

The total value of significant data centre-orientated M&A deals that closed in 2017 surged to $20 billion, almost doubling the figure from 2016, according to new data from Synergy Research Group.

Deutsche Telekom has made its second European acquisition in a few weeks by buying Liberty Global’s Austrian operation for €1.9 billion.

Xtera has launched legal action against both Nokia and NEC Corporation, claiming both firms and their subsidiaries have infringed on its patents.

Cloud and IoT-based DDoS attacks are unmatched in their scale, sophistication, and in the damage they cause. A new generation of multi-dimensional analytics and router silicon is being recruited to eradicate this threat.

A cable from China to Europe and new investments in Mumbai are among GCX’s plans to set it apart from the troubled Indian mobile business. Alan Burkitt-Gray interviews GCX CEO Bill Barney

Windstream Communications is set to acquire New York-based Mass Communications (MassComm) in an all-cash transaction, according to an FCC filing.

CenturyLink has continued to overhaul its management team by appointing two new senior executives, with both set to report to chief operating officer Jeff Storey.

China Mobile has announced plans to use Huawei’s CloudFabric solution in order to develop a software-defined networking data centre resource pool.