What’s up with… Nokia, United Internet, Whale Cloud & Alibaba

• Nokia to cut more than 1,200 jobs in France
• Germany’s United Internet mulls 5G Open RAN build
• Whale Cloud launches OSS/BSS on Alibaba Cloud

Nokia’s move to cut Alcatel-Lucent roles in France and news of Open RAN plans in Germany lead the way in this telecoms industry news roundup.

• Nokia plans to slash 1,233 R&D and central functions jobs in France, effectively axing about a third of the remaining French staff that came on board with the €15.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. In October 2018, Nokia announced a cost-saving programme, an exercise it says is already well underway globally and has now found its way to the sites at Paris-Saclay and Lannion in France. All part of the process, in other words. Nokia says it’s three French affiliate companies – Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), Nokia Bell Labs France (NBLF) and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) – will not be affected by the cuts. Observers were quick to note that Nokia’s undertakings to French regulators in 2016 included a promise to keep jobs and actually expand R&D: Reuters reports that those commitments expired this month. The French unions are furious, of course, with the CFE-CGC union condemning Nokia’s move as “a low cost strategy… contrary to all commitments made,” adding that Nokia “makes fun of everyone,” particularly the French government. The 2016 was analysed and approved by the French government in 2016, including the minister for the economy (and now President) Emmanuel Macron.
• Ralph Dommermuth, the CEO at German operator United Internet, said the company’s mobile unit, 1&1 Drillisch, will take inspiration from Japan’s Rakuten Mobile with its plans to build a 5G network using Open RAN technology. 1&1 Drillisch splashed €1.07 billion on 50 MHz of spectrum in the 3.6 GHz band and 20 MHz in the 2 GHz band in the German auction held last June.
• OSS/BSS vendor Whale Cloud (formerly ZTEsoft, the telecom software unit of ZTE) has launched its cloud-based telecom software suite on the Alibaba Cloud platform. “Moving our telco solution suite to cloud is the future. It allows CSPs to take great leap towards digital business model and provide toolset for tech company-like operation,” said Ben Zhou, CEO of Whale Cloud International. “By working closely with Alibaba Cloud, we offer CSPs with cloud-native, subscription-based solutions and services aligned to market needs.”
• Samsung has unveiled a drone-based antenna configuration measurement solution for 4G and 5G networks. According to Samsung, the “automated solution will offer operators a simplified way to more efficiently manage cell sites, improve employee safety, and ultimately optimize network performance.”
• HPE, in partnership with California-based startup Pensando, is offering an integrated edge computing option on three of its server portfolios and via its Greenlake as-a-service platform. HPE is a major investor in Pensando, which has developed and edge-optimized programmable processor that provides “high-performance scalable networking, security and storage functions, always-on, end-to-end telemetry, guarantees security through centralized policy management”.
• Dell has unveiled two new VxRail systems (developed in partnership with VMware) that aim to take software-defined hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) capabilities to the network edge, including “ruggedized” systems suitable for “the harshest edge environments.” 
• With the sale of its Turkish assets now agreed, Telia is shaking up its top management team as it focuses on its Nordic and Baltic operations. See this announcement for the full details.
• Following approval from the European Commission, Telefónica and Atresmedia have formed Buendía Estudios, which will produce and create multimedia content in Spanish for audiences around the world. 

- The staff, TelecomTV