What’s up with… Verizon, CityFibre, Mavenir

• Verizon pumps its 5G capex
• CityFibre seeks additional backer, continues expansion
• Mavenir adds to its AI toolbox

Verizon’s updated 5G network plans and CityFibre’s ongoing expansion are at the front of today’s news queue.

• Verizon is committing an additional $10 billion in capital expenditure during the next three years to accelerate the build of its 5G network and take advantage of the spectrum it acquired in the recent C-band auction. For full details of Verizon’s plan and its expectations for the 5G market, see this extensive announcement.
• CityFibre is seeking an additional investor to help fund its £4 billion fibre network rollout plans, according to Sky News. The report comes as CityFibre announces the start of network construction in Glasgow and a £30 million network investment in Cheltenham.
• Open RAN flag-waver Mavenir has extended its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics portfolio to “enable closed-loop automation and drive digital transformation.” See this announcement for further details. 
• Nokia is conducting a 5G business-to-business digital platform trial with South Korean operator LG U-Plus with the aim of accelerating the launch of new enterprise services. See this press release for further details. 
• Nokia has also has struck a video patent licensing agreement with Samsung that will see the giant Korean vendor pay royalties to the Finnish company: Financial terms were not shared.  
• Following the departure of its CTO Brendan O’Reilly earlier this year, Telefónica UK (O2) has split that role, bringing in Omar Calvo as Director of Radio Engineering to work alongside Head of Core and IT Infrastructure Jorge Ribeiro, reports Light Reading. 
• The old opt-in or opt-out issue over data privacy has reared its head in the US. T-Mobile US says it’s changed its approach to customer data privacy and intends to sell web browsing and device usage data to advertisers by default unless the relevant subscriber explicitly opts out of data sharing. You can see what T-Mobile is proposing and how customers can block data sharing on its web site privacy notice. To ease customers’ fears on privacy, T-Mobile says the data it makes available will be anonymised by being tied to ‘advertising IDs rather than named subscribers. This is despite a widespread understanding within the industry that anonymity cannot be secured by such manoeuvres since it’s ALWAYS possible (easy, even) to link a body of personal data back to its owner.
• Facebook is continuing to signal that it intends to fight to the death over any moves that threaten to dismember its empire. Yesterday it says it filed motions to dismiss antitrust lawsuits brought by the FTC and State Attorneys General. “Antitrust laws are intended to promote competition and protect consumers. These complaints do not credibly claim that our conduct harmed either. Relying on a market definition that doesn’t make sense, these cases attempt a do-over – challenging acquisitions cleared by the FTC years ago, after enormous investment by Facebook to make them into the apps people enjoy today,” thunders a Facebook blog from December. Yeah, yeah. We’ve heard it all before. You achieved a dominant position by simply being better than your competitors and giving your users what they want. But maybe it’s time just being a dominant player is seen as illegal in its own right? Dangerous driving is still a crime even when no deaths are caused.
• DSPs looking to provide streaming services for video games, augmented reality, eSports and so on, might be well advised to take note of what, with hindsight, might be the least surprising lifestyle change brought about by Covid and lockdown.  According to Limelight Networks’ latest ‘State of Online Gaming 2021’ report, almost one third of UK females started playing video games through the lockdown. In fact UK females (at 30%) overtook UK males (at 21%). And it’s not just a girl/boy thing. The same research also found that there had been a boom in ‘grey gamers’. The over 60s have flocked to the screens also due to lockdown boredom and a desire to make new friends online.