Five things to watch December 17: Vodafone completes OpenRAN call, Nokia and Frontier's 25Gb broadband trial, Windstream lights route to Vegas
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Five things to watch December 17: Vodafone completes OpenRAN call, Nokia and Frontier's 25Gb broadband trial, Windstream lights route to Vegas

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

Vodafone and Mavenir complete first call over OpenRAN 

Vodafone has teamed with Mavenir to complete the first data and voice over LTE (VoLTE) call across a containerised 4G small cell OpenRAN solution in a lab. 

Vodafone first started work on the indoor connectivity solution in January 2021 and has completed tests while making use of radio hardware from Sercomm and software from Mavenir. 

Moving forward, Vodafone and Mavenir will focus on finalising the packaging and automation of the solution before beginning the trials with selected customers. 

Andrea Dona, chief network officer at Vodafone UK said: “Open RAN is opening doors to simplified and intuitive connectivity solutions.

“For our wider network deployment strategy, Open RAN is enabling us to work with a wider pool of suppliers and to avoid vendor lock-in scenarios that might prevent us from taking advantage of the latest innovations. The same could be said for enterprise connectivity solutions.

iBASIS eSIM now enabled by Verizon for use 

iBasis has announced that Verizon has made available a local profile, the first via dynamic download, after a successful testing cycle. 

The new addition provides an alternative solution to permanent roaming challenges in the US to help overcome potential technology, commercial, and regulatory challenges to IoT roaming. 

The local profile can be dynamically downloaded over the air and can operate as a local or regional SIM card. 

“eSIM-based interoperability opens the doors for large multinational customers to be able to connect securely on Verizon's massive IoT network,” said Shamik Basu, executive director for IoT at Verizon. 

“iBASIS is one of the first partners to achieve the level of testing that meets our rigorous standards for Local Profile deployment on its eSIM technology.”

Nokia and Frontier complete first 25Gb per second broadband trial

Nokia and Frontier Communications have announced they have completed the US’s first-ever 25Gb per second broadband network. 

The trial was completed over 25G POM broadband technology and the two companies will continue trials on Frontier’s network while planning for commercial deployment in the second half of 2022. 

The 25G PON technology will increase cost efficiency and enable the company to sell capacity to 5G mobile operators. 

Veronica Bloodworth, Frontier’s Chief Network Officer, said: “Successfully completing the first U.S. trial of the country’s fastest fibre broadband is a critical step in offering a competitive advantage for Frontier and our customers. 

“We already have one of the largest XGS-PON networks in the country and this technology will ensure our network will continue to offer the fastest, most technologically advanced broadband service available.”

Vodafone Qatar selects Inseego 5G for enterprise customers

Vodafone Qatar and Inseego have revealed they will be bringing internet access to home and business customers with the launch of the new 5G indoor router FX2000.

The FX2000 can connect up to 30 Wi-Fi devices including laptops, tablets, smartphones and gaming consoles. It is also currently the smallest indoor customer premises (CPE) equipment on the market today.

“Our GigaHome and business customers trust us to provide fast, reliable, secure internet access for a wide range of demanding applications,” said Diego Camberos, COO of Vodafone Qatar. 

“The Inseego FX2000 router lets them enjoy the full power of 5G performance, whether they’re working from home, running a business, streaming movies, using AR/VR headsets, or gaming. We’re very pleased to bring this world-class solution to Qatar.”

Windstream Wholesale lights direct route from LA to Vegas

Windstream Wholesale has announced it has turned up a direct route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas via its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) architecture. 

The new route is a more direct, lower latency path for the Asia PAC subsea cables landing LA to access the growing Las Vegas data centre ecosystem. 

Windstream now has three routes connecting LA to data centres in Las Vegas including Databank, Switch, Cyxtera and Flexential. 

Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale said: “As more subsea cables land into Los Angeles, there is a tremendous need for the kind of diverse, low-latency connections to domestic data centres that Windstream Wholesale’s expanding network is intentionally designed to deliver.

“Windstream is APAC’s gateway to North America and our ICON network is built to meet this burgeoning demand.”

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