EuroWire November 2019

Transatlantic cable

† And a proposed acquisition appears to be nearing a conclusion. The FCC seems poised to approve the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The move was expected to be formally passed at the commission’s September meeting. FCC chairman Ajit Pai circulated a draft order recommending the deal be approved. “After one of the most exhaustive merger reviews in commission history, the evidence conclusively demonstrates that this transaction will bring fast 5G wireless service to many more Americans and help close the digital divide in rural areas,” Mr Pai said in a statement. “Moreover, with the conditions included in this draft order, the merger will promote robust competition in mobile broadband, put critical mid-band spectrum to use, and bring new competition to the xed broadband market. I thank our transaction team for the thorough and careful analysis re ected in this draft order and hope that my colleagues will vote to approve it.” † EdgeConneX has opened its rst edge data centre in South America in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The facility can scale to 10MW of power, providing a local solution to service and content providers. On its website, EdgeConneX indicates that its next targets in Latin America are Bogota, Colombia, and Lima in Peru. † To support the 2020 US census, CenturyLink will be providing secure cloud connectivity to the US Census Bureau. The CenturyLink solution includes Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services (MTIPS) at speeds of at least 40Gbps. † MTIPS is a development by the US General Services Administration that enables federal agencies to physically connect to the public Internet and other external connections in compliance with the O ce of Management and Budget’s Trusted Internet Connection Initiative. † Global Cloud Xchange has called in quotes for the construction of its proposed 20Tbps Eagle submarine cable between Marseille, France, and Singapore, but is unlikely to start work on the project until the company’s future is settled. Its parent company, Reliance Communications, is currently involved in a dispute with the Indian bankruptcy system. It’s likely that Global Cloud Xchange will eventually be o ered for sale. † Australia’s NBN has completed 85 per cent of its access network, and expects to nish on schedule in June 2020. Originally planned for FTTH, the network now features DSL and other options. However, the Australian government’s independent infrastructure advisor has warned of the possible consequences to the multi-technology model. The advisor’s report stated: “The technology mix for the NBN has diversi ed, meaning di erent users will receive di erent types of connections. This change will deliver varied outcomes for users, and some may shoulder higher costs or receive lower-quality services.” † Frontier Communications Corporation has launched its Managed Wireless LAN for medium businesses and large enterprises, combining hosted and managed technology with network installation, management, maintenance and analytics. Combined with Frontier’s Ethernet connectivity capabilities, the scalable solution allows a company’s employees, contractors, customers and guests to work and interact virtually anywhere within a network. Gill Watson Features Editor

At the time, T-Mobile and Sprint were arguing with regulators that permitting their proposed merger would allow them to expedite the rollout of 5G. [The T-Mobile and Sprint amalgamation looks likely to have been resolved by late September.] Short and shorter † Vonage has acquired the assets of Over.ai, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based Voice and Conversational AI provider for enterprise communications. Vonage bought Over.ai’s intellectual property from i.am+, an AI technology platform co-founded and co-owned by the American rapper will.i.am. Over.ai’s Voice and Conversational AI technology platform provides intelligent virtual assistant functionality via APIs, enabling businesses to handle complex interactions with real-time human-like interactions over phone lines. AI-driven capabilities can provide businesses with a balance between automation and human support. Vonage will incorporate the “Voice over AI” technology, including its proprietary speech to text and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) algorithms, to accelerate the company’s capabilities for applications including the Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) uni ed communications solution and the NewVoiceMedia contact centre solutions. “With the Over.ai talent and technology on board, we intend to make every conversation smarter,” said Omar Javaid, president of Vonage’s API Platform Group. † Verizon has led a lawsuit against excessive charges for deploying its 5G network infrastructure in the City of Rochester, in upstate New York. Verizon is claiming that the fees charged by the city are higher than those permitted by federal law. The FCC imposed a maximum limit of $270 per site for small cell deployment, but Verizon claims to be facing charges of over $1,500 per site. In its court ling, Verizon stated that it would need to deploy an estimated 300,000 small cell cites across the USA as it rolls out 5G and expands its 4G coverage. The excessive charges incurred by such a large-scale deployment of network architecture would seriously inhibit the rollout of next generation mobile networks across the USA. “This signi cant increase in wireless network infrastructure will magnify per-facility fees charged to providers, making such fees more likely to materially inhibit service when they exceed the actual and objectively reasonable costs incurred by the local government,” the ling said. Verizon also objects to other associated fees charged by the City of Rochester, including charges associated with laying bre cabling which, Verizon warns, “could set a dangerous precedent” for its national buildout plans. † Hargray has agreed to acquire the cable and Internet company Kings Bay Communications in Kingsland, Georgia, USA. Hargray will integrate the network and billing systems, and plans further investment in Kingsland Cable’s network. † Another acquisition: this time the cloud voice, network services and uni ed communications provider Momentum Telecom has completed its transaction to acquire DCT Telecom Group. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, DCT develops and supplies cloud voice and network solutions. “We’re happy to welcome DCT into the Momentum family, and we’re looking forward to combining e orts to further our white-glove experience and enterprise customer knowledge,” said Todd Zittrouer, Momentum Telecom CEO.

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November 2019