Five things to watch October 28: Ribbon selected by Dakota Central, Juniper reveals further partnerships, NTT DoCoMo expands Open RAN ecosystem
News

Five things to watch October 28: Ribbon selected by Dakota Central, Juniper reveals further partnerships, NTT DoCoMo expands Open RAN ecosystem

NEWS generic .jpg

Capacity shares five key stories from around the world making headlines today!

Ribbon’s IP Optical solutions selected by Dakota Central for faster broadband speeds 

Dakota Central has deployed Ribbon’s IP Optical portfolio to increase its network capacity and improve broadband speeds.

The Apollo and Neptune solutions will allow Dakota Central to significantly upgrade its communications network to offer new revenue-generating services such as 5G backhaul.

Alongside this, Ribbon’s solutions will allow Dakota Central to accommodate future network growth.

“Dakota Central has been a longtime Ribbon customer having deployed our Call Control and Session Border Controller products, so we are delighted that they have entrusted us to upgrade their broadband network with our IP Optical portfolio,” said Elizabeth Page, U.S. rural market director for Ribbon.

“After a very competitive process, they saw the numerous benefits Ribbon offered over the competition such as the ability to quickly turn up new services, enhanced traffic management capabilities and improved network monitoring and fault management of the IP transport and optical layers through a single pane of glass.”

Intel, Juniper Networks and Rakuten Symphony collaborate to simplify O-RAN deployments 

Intel, Juniper Networks and Rakuten Symphony will partner to develop a “pioneering, carrier-grade” Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) for mobile network operators.

The aim is to modernise radio cell sites by leveraging cloud-native architecture and the solution will provide operators with the flexibility to densify their network.

Alongside this, mobile operators will benefit from greater agility, enable smarter security, and empower them with new levels of automation.

Raj Yavatkar, Juniper’s CTO, stated “Removing the obstacles of deploying O-RAN in disaggregated production networks is critical for 5G growth.

“Integrated routing and O-RAN in a single platform delivers cost and operational benefits for network operators. Combined with industry-leading Intel technology and Rakuten’s DU software, Juniper’s disaggregated and state of the art routing stack offers operators a unique solution for delivering differentiated 5G services, including network slicing.

DE-CIX Dallas exceeds 100 network connections

DE-CIX Dallas has revealed it has exceeded 100 network connections and ranks among the top 15 IXs in the US. 

The achievement was accomplished in under five years of entering the market and is only the second competitive IX launched to reach 100 networks in a market formerly controlled by a single incumbent. 

DE-CIX New York was the first IX to exceed 100 connections and it now offers access to over 250 networks and is the leading IX in the market. 

“The success of DE-CIX Dallas has dramatically changed interconnection throughout the greater Dallas region. Together with our partners, we have transformed connectivity, improving network performance and enabling access to public peering for more network operators, at a particularly important time,” said Ed d’Agostino, VP and general manager of DE-CIX North America.

NTT DoCoMo expands 5G Open RAN ecosystem 

NTT DoCoMo has announced that Hewlett Packard Japan has joined its 5G Open RAN ecosystem.

The company has been promoting its Open RAN ecosystem and now counts 13 partner companies as part of the programme to help expand Open RAN worldwide.

Compared to the current vRAN, the ecosystem hopes to triple transmission speeds and the number of operable base-station cells, while more than halving power consumption.

Hewlett Packard Japan will also support NTT DoCoMo’s Open Ran with its infrastructure solutions which aim to help the ecosystem to respond more flexibly to the needs of overseas telecom carriers.

NTT DoCoMo plans to establish a lab at its R&D centre in Yokosuka, Japan for the dual purposes of verifying vRAN and serving as a testing site that is available remotely and freely to overseas carriers by the end of March 2022.

Babble completes two more acquisitions in the North-East and Scotland 

Babble has announced the acquisitions of Digital Communications Systems (DCS) and Halo Communications as it looks to continue its expansion. 

The mobile solutions provider has completed nine acquisitions in the last 12 months and now has a presence across the South Coast, the North-West, North-East and Scotland in addition to the Midlands and London. 

DCS, based in Newcastle, has delivered managed networked services to its customers since 1992 and Halo Communications offers voice, data and IT services to small and medium businesses across the UK from its office in Kilmarnock. 

Matthew Parker, Chief Executive of Babble, said: “In recent months we’ve focused our growth toward the North of England and Scotland.

“There is outstanding technology talent in these regions, and in Halo Communications and DCS we’ve acquired two businesses that align perfectly with our goals and ambitions. We’re looking forward to the road ahead, delivering transformational change to even more highly valued customers.”

Gift this article