While T-Mobile US came out ahead of Verizon by a hair on LTE availability on a national level in OpenSignal’s most recent round of app-based testing, regional battles have heated up in the past year, according to the company.
Verizon came out in top in two regions and tied with T-Mobile US in three others in OpenSignal’s most recent round of assessments, as noted in an OpenSignal blog entry, which went on to say, “The picture was very different a year ago, when Verizon was the clear winner in LTE availability across all five regions, while T-Mobile was the consistent runner-up.”
OpenSignal also made note of significant improvements in Sprint’s LTE availability over the past year.
“Users on Sprint’s services were the ones who saw the greatest improvement in their 4G reach in the past year. The operator managed to increase its 4G availability score by close to 10 percentage points across all five regions,” OpenSignal said. The company also dinged U.S. carriers on the speeds of their LTE networks.
“Though LTE availability in the world’s largest economy is impressive — placing it among the top 5 in our global rankings — speeds are a different story. In fact, we found that average 4G download speeds in the U.S. across all networks were not able to meet the global average of 16.9 Mbps,” OpenSignal said.
In other test news:
–WIreless Telecom Group reported substantial growth in its revenues during 2017. The company reported fourth-quarter 2017 revenues of $12 million, up 34% year-over-year; but sustained a net loss of $2.5 million for the quarter. For the full year, WTG had net revenues of $46 million, an increase of 47% over the previous year. Full-year results included an overall net loss as well, this one of about $4.5 million. Both the quarterly and full-year losses were wider than the same periods last year, largely due to tax expenses as the company revaluated deferred tax assets under the new tax structure.
–PCTel had fourth quarter revenues of $23.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2017 and $91.4 million for the year; those numbers were down one percent from the fourth quarter of 2016 and up 8% from full-year 2016 revenues. Solutions revenue was up 4% year-over-year, and PCTel’s RF solutions segment revenues were up 19% from 2016.
-Network assurance company Accedian recently acquired Performance Vision, which focuses on network and application performance management. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; Performance Vision Accedian called the purchase a “natural complement” to its portfolio and that it “brings advanced end-user digital experience monitoring capabilities to Accedian … while expanding its addressable market to key enterprise segments including banking, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, and cloud services.”
–EXFO unveiled a new test platform for passive components that leverages its acquisition of Yenista Optics. The new CTP10 Component Test Platform and modules are aimed at component testing in research and development or manufacturing environments.
“When EXFO acquired Yenista, the objective was to leverage their expertise to bring some of the most innovative testing solutions for the optical telecom industry,” said Stéphane Chabot, EXFO’s VP for test and measurement. “EXFO’s CTP10 offers R&D and manufacturing teams working with photonics integrated circuits and next-generation passive optical network components the flexibility, accuracy and speed they need to test thousands of components as required by their customers.”
-Wi-Fi network design company Ekahau launched a channel partner program and new portal for its resellers and distribution partners, starting with 60 signed participating companies. The portal includes marketing and sales resources as well as training and support information.
–Keysight Technologies recently had its second investor day as an independent company. Read the full story here.
-Test company Accuver says it has delivered 5G field testing and data analysis tools to an unnamed Tier 1 U.S. carrier. Its solution includes support for Samsung customer premise equipment and greater than 1 Gbps mobile broadband throughput testing at both sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave bands, as well as information on beamforming.
–Viavi Solutions highlighted its testing solutions for hyperscale data centers at OFC this week.
“The rapid growth in data volume and the shift to the cloud have forced data centers to begin adopting technologies previously reserved for service provider networks, especially high-capacity fiber,” said Oleg Khaykin, Viavi’s president and CEO, in a statement. “In addition, hyperscale data center operators have fairly lean workforces.” Viavi, he added, has “combined our advanced optical network test technologies with workflow automation requirements to produce a unique portfolio of test solutions to meet the needs of hyperscale data operators.”
