As operators build heterogeneous networks to expand coverage and capacity, they want best-in-breed solutions and are ready to work with multiple vendors. Vodafone has shown that equipment from more than one vendor can interoperate within a single location by integrating Alcatel-Lucent's small cells with...
This Understanding Guide gives an overview of the Carrier Aggregation evolution in HSPA and LTE networks, discusses implication on the architecture and the User Equipment. A special focus will be made on the testing method to troubleshoot and evaluate the performance of carrier aggregation...
Bay Area launches free Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi
Silicon Valley residents and visitors are taking advantage of free public Wi-Fi thanks to a partnership created by Ruckus Wireless, the City and County of San Francisco, the City of San Jose and Global Reach Technology. The group...
Venture capital-backed Zayo Group, which has been ambitiously building an international fiber network through acquisitions, now has plans to go public.
The Colorado-based company recently filed its S1 form for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The number of shares and...
There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for contractors who have been forced to cut workers due to AT&T's infrastructure spending slow down. Analysts and contractors are saying that they expect the nation's second largest carrier to pick up the...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
Tragedy in Kentucky
It was supposed to be a quiet, easy holiday week. A short work week. But, unfortunately those dreams of a quiet week without incident...
Qualcomm has bought Wilocity, an Israeli developer of 60 GHz Wi-Fi chipsets that has worked with Qualcomm for some time. Wilocity chipsets are based on the IEEE 802.11ad (WiGig) standard, and 60 GHz Wi-Fi is said to be three-times faster than the fastest Wi-Fi...
Nokia Networks announces two acquisitions
Nokia Networks said today that it will buy Nice Systems' 3D geolocation business to enhance the planning and optimization of mobile networks. "The evolution of small cells and LTE necessitates more accurate 3-D geolocation capabilities," Nokia said.
Israel will be the...
Deutsche Telekom's operating companies in Romania and Slovakia have deployed rich communications services branded as Joyn.
Cloud company Jibe Mobile developed the white-label services, which are being delivered via Jibe's IP communication cloud for DT's Cosmote Romania and Slovak Telekom.
Joyn is the GSMA's consumer brand for...
Peter Nas, senior solutions architect for F5 Networks, spoke with RCR Wireless News on diameter signaling at the LTE World Summit 2014.
Nas said that as next-generation networks become a reality, new challenges appear that were not obvious from the specifications in terms of interoperability and...
Verizon Wireless and Ericsson both issued responses Tuesday to an earlier report that claimed Ericsson was in talks with the two largest U.S. carriers about managing their network infrastructure. The Bloomberg news story quoted an Ericsson executive who said that Ericsson was talking to...
Swirl Networks and Motorola Solutions said they will work together on products, sales and services for IBeacon roll-outs in large-scale retailers.
This follows Motorola's recent collaboration with Swirl and three other companies for the launch of its MPact Platform for Mobile Marketing, an indoor location...
Last week I attended the joint shows of LTE World Summit and Connected Cars 2014 and there was a lot to talk about. Hopefully you’ve seen our coverage, but just to highlight a few topics we mentioned in more detail and a few new...
Numericable Group to buy Virgin Mobile in France
French cable company Numericable has agreed to buy Virgin Mobile in France for roughly $450 million. Numericable, which has a significant fiber footprint, also bought French wireless carrier SFR this year for $23 billion.
Virgin Mobile France is...
Daniel Dribinski, founder and CTO of Cellwize, spoke with RCR Wireless News on the company's transition from 2G/3G to more of a focus on machine-to-machine and the "Internet of Things."
Dribinski said that 2G has become a so-called "garbage collector" for network traffic, and mM2M...
Each time we use our mobile devices we can generate multiple signaling events within the mobile core. As a result, signaling traffic has risen at a faster clip than traditional mobile network traffic.
"The volume of signaling traffic is high, certainly, but it's nothing that...
A new survey by network control company Infoblox concludes that while businesses are eager for the opportunities presented by the "Internet of Things," networks don't yet have sufficient capacity for the expected growth in IoT applications.
"As it stands today, there may not be enough...
Wi-Fi at the World Cup
Wi-Fi offload is a big part of the game plan for Brazil's mobile operators during the World Cup. TIM Brasil and OI SA are both working with Aptilo Networks to offload mobile data traffic without losing control of their subscribers....
Amdocs showcased its offering for small cell network planning that leverages recent acquisitions, including Actix and Celcite, at the recent LTE World Summit.
Neil Coleman, director of marketing at Amdocs, discussed the Smart Cell Placement solution with RCR Wireless News. Smart Cell Placement identifies experience...
Welcome to this week’s edition of cell tower industry news, created by Jarad Matula and brought to you by Towercrews.net.
AT&T infrastructure investment slows, contractor layoffs
It's been a rough week for some tower crews working primarily on AT&T towers this week. RCR's own Martha DeGrasse reported...
Kuwaiti operator Zain said it completed that country’s first voice over LTE call with network partner Nokia Networks and using Zain’s commercial LTE network.
The call included the use of both high-definition voice and video capabilities using Nokia Networks’ VoLTE platform. The call showed simultaneous...
What goes up must come down ... and may go back up again. That's the message AT&T wants its contractors to hear as some of them struggle with a sudden drop in AT&T's wireless infrastructure spending.
"Any changes in spending activity with our vendors are...
As we watch the story unfold related to connected cars and consider how operators will play in this scenario, it’s also interesting to watch the telecom equipment vendor movements in this space. This week I met with Ericsson to better understand their strategy in...
Today end users purchase a wireless solution that has separate categories for voice and data usage. And depending on where you are in the world SMS and MMS packages. Avvasi believes the time has come for a separate video usage package and I think...
