Also in today's roundup: AT&T's big network pledge, Arista's new 400G routers, SES demos 8K video and the US government moves more paper around.
AT&T will deploy a nationwide "true, high-speed Internet network" within the next three to five years, using a mix of fiber and 5G, CEO Randall Stephenson told an investment conference today. These comments marked an evolution of Stephenson's thoughts from January 2019, when he said during an earnings call that 5G would be a "true replacement opportunity" for fixed broadband services, wrote Light Reading's Mike Dano. (See AT&T Taking Broadband Nationwide in 3-5 Years via Fiber & 5G.)
The Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. said Disney will immediately take operational control over Hulu and will pay at least $5.8 billion to NBCUniversal for its 33% share in the video-streaming service by January 2024 or beyond. This "put/call" agreement means either party -- Comcast or Disney -- can require NBCUniversal to make the sale to Disney for "fair market value," which will be assessed by independent experts. Disney has, however, guaranteed a sale price for Comcast that represents a "minimum total equity value of Hulu at that time of $27.5 billion," the company said in its press release. This deal gives operational control to Disney and also ensures that Hulu will continue to have access to NBCU content for a few years. (See Disney Takes Full Operational Control of Hulu .)
Disney & Comcast: Long-Term Partners
The House of Mouse and Comcast's sprawling conglomerate, including NBCUniversal, have a deal that crosses years and divisions.
The US House of Representatives unanimously passed "Access Broadband," new legislation designed to increase access to broadband services, would establish the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. This office would simplify access for small and midsize businesses and communities, potentially offering educational seminars and other resources. The legislation itself, written by Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., and Rep. Paul Tonko, D-NY, is designed to help underserved areas get broadband and make it simpler for small businesses and local economic developers to get federal broadband resources -- such as those available from FCC and USDA.
Arista is unveiling second-generation 400G routers, and these are designed to meet the increased bandwidth needs of emerging technologies including 5G, edge, network functions virtualization and IoT, the company said. Instead of requiring service providers to deploy separate devices for networking, telemetry and security, operators can run everything on one router. (See Arista Ships Smarter 400G Routers.)
Streaming in High-Def From Far Away
Samsung, Spin Digital and SES partnered to deliver 8K content via satellite.
SES kicked off its annual two-dayIndustry Days event in Luxembourg by demonstrating an 8K signal broadcast to a flat-screen TV with a built-in satellite receiver. The 8K content is broadcast via SES' ASTRA 28.2 degrees east orbital slot; Spin Digital encoded the high-quality 8K signals, SES provided the bandwidth to broadcast the signal and Samsung developed the 8K flat screen that directly received and decoded the signal. The TV soon will be available in Europe.
TI Sparkle has named Alessandro Pansa its new chairman. TI Sparkle, the international services arm of Telecom Italia, thinks Pansa's experience in the public sector will help the company address Italy's "golden power" legislation. This law allows the Italian government to exercise special powers in matters deemed to have a bearing on national security" and how it relates to issues such as 5G. And, one would imagine, fiber. (See Eurobites: Vodafone UK Names the 5G Day.)
Democratic lawmakers in the House Energy & Commerce committee are pressing the likes of Comcast, Altice USA, Charter, Cox and T-Mobile to detail their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vendor says low-cost coax testing device enables customers to verify a coax outlet before calling tech support and should help operators reduce unnecessary truck rolls and service calls.
As the Senior Digital Experience Strategist at Canadian operator Rogers Communications, Lindsey Omelon build on her years of marketing experience to approach her strategy with a hybrid ...
There's certainly no shortage of hype around the use of AI in the telecoms sector, but fewer instances of real-world deployments. South Korean national operator KT is one of those ...
Do a Google search of 'artificial intelligence broadband' and you'll get more than 9 million results in less than a second: The sheer volume of content out there shouldn't surprise anyone ...
Comcast, like any other major communications service provider, is undergoing significant changes in the way it grows its business, how it runs its business and the technologies it uses to ...
Today’s access network architecture is under mounting pressure due to a continued surge in the number of connected devices, a proliferation of bandwidth-intensive customer applications and dramatic shifts in usage patterns related to the pandemic, such as work-from-home and e-learning.
Learn why now is the right time for cable operators to build greenfield networks or expand their existing networks with 10G PON, arming customers with high-speed symmetrical broadband. Gain a clear understanding of the drivers impacting the access network and the various approaches being considered to deliver higher speed services. Plus, find out the best practices that operators are employing as they leverage the latest in passive optical technology to future-proof their networks.
Topics to be covered include:
Node + 0 (Fiber Deep)
DOCSIS 3.1, DOCSIS 4.0 (FDX/ESD)
FTTP and 10G PON
XGS-PON, NG-PON2
Provisioning 10G PON within a DOCSIS B/OSS environment
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