• Acacia scraps sale to Cisco
• Red Hat buys Kubernetes security specialist
• India preps for spectrum auction 

Turmoil surrounding the long-time $2.6 billion purchase of optical components specialist Acacia by Cisco and a security acquisition by Red Hat are at the front of this long line of news snippets. 

• Almost 18 months after it was first announced, optical components specialist Acacia has terminated the $2.6 billion acquisition deal it struck with Cisco Systems, saying that the required regulatory approvals were not completed within the agreed timeframe. Cisco is disputing that interpretation of events and Acacia’s right to scrap the deal, but Acacia says it will defend its position. Acacia’s share price has gained more than 17% to $84.99, giving it a market valuation of almost $3.6 billion. Cisco’s share price is relatively unchanged at $45.13. 
• Red Hat has agreed to acquire StackRox, a developer of “Kubernetes-native” security technology. Once the deal is closed, Red Hat says it will “focus on transforming how cloud-native workloads are secured by expanding and refining Kubernetes’ native controls, as well as shifting security left into the container build and CI/CD phase, to provide a cohesive solution for enhanced security up and down the entire IT stack and throughout the lifecycle.” For further details, see this press release. 
• Samsung has given a heads up on its fourth quarter financials, and while its revenues and operating profit are set to be better than the same period a year earlier, at $55.8 billion and $8.2 billion respectively, the earnings are slightly lower than expected, most likely due to the success of Apple’s 5G-enabled iPhone 12 launch late last year, which will have impacted Samsung smartphone sales, reports CNET.
• India is set to embark on its first spectrum auction for four years on 1 March when it offers up 2,250 MHz of spectrum across seven bands ranging from 700 MHz to 2.5 GHz. But the appetite to spend big is unlikely to be healthy, reports The Economic Times. 
• Still in India… The country is opening up a can of worms by limiting a new 4G network equipment tender from state-owned network operator BSNL to domestic suppliers only, when it’s debatable that domestic suppliers are capable alone of providing the best possible resulting network.
• BT’s consumer services chief Marc Allera claims the UK government’s Education Department turned down an offer of cheap and free broadband services, including vouchers for free Wi-Fi access, for disadvantaged families last year, a claim the Education Department denies. The claim came as BT announced its Lockdown Learning support scheme, by which unlimited free mobile data will be made available to those EE and BT Mobile customers eligible for the Department for Education’s Get Help with Technology programme. BT is also offering free BT WiFi vouchers to schools and charity partners to pass on to parents and carers of children lacking the connectivity they need to access home schooling digital resources.
• 5G madness (the South African variant). Many of those who attacked and invaded the US Capitol this week are signed-up members to the conspiracy theory that 5G equipment and RF radiation causes Covid-19, changes human DNA and turns people into zombies controlled by unknown forces whose purpose is to enslave humanity. 5G comms towers and infrastructure have been vandalised, burned and put out commission in the US, the UK and elsewhere and now South Africa, a country that can ill afford arson and the wanton destruction of comms infrastructure, is suffering the same irrational trashing. 5G towers belonging to MTN and Vodacom have been destroyed by fire this week in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa's Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, urging the police to find and prosecute those responsible "for this anarchy" said, "It is regrettable that the much-needed network infrastructure is being destroyed... mobile telephony is actually crucial in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic." Both operators have been deploying 5G infrastructure across South Africa in anticipation of spectrum allocations due to be announced on 31 March, making it all the more ironic then that the masts and other equipment destroyed were not and nor could have been carrying any 5G traffic.
• The Wi-Fi Alliance has started Wi-Fi 6e certification to help deliver interoperability between devices operating in the 6 GHz spectrum range.
• Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) technology is to be deployed at the Port of Seattle, Terminal 5. The deployment, which includes 4G/5G private wireless networking capabilities, “will deliver major increases in efficiency, worker safety and terminal handling performance by reducing the complexity of port flow,” stated the vendor in this release.
• Huawei has appealed against a court decision that allowed Sweden’s 5G spectrum auctions to resume while the Chinese vendor is excluded from being selected as a vendor supplier for any 5G rollouts in the country, reports Reuters.
• The news comes as Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm reportedly tried to intervene on Huawei’s behalf to get the exclusion overturned, fearing that a reciprocal measure by the Chinese authorities might exclude Ericsson from business in China, where it generates billions of dollars in revenues each year and is currently involved in the provision of its 5G gear to the country’s main network operators. 
• Ofcom has confirmed that BT’s EE mobile division, Telefónica UK (O2), Three (Hutchison 3G UK) and Vodafone have all been accepted as bidders in the upcoming auction of 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz spectrum licenses.
• Just a day after T-Mobile US boasted of its 2020 customer and 5G rollout success, Verizon has provided details of its 5G network and service expansion.
• Globe Fintech Innovations (aka Mynt), the Fintech arm of Globe Telecom and operator of the GCash mobile wallet in the Philippines, has raised $175 million in a new multi-tranche round of funding from investment firm Bow Wave Capital Management. GCash is used by 33 million Filipinos.  
• ETSI has launched its MEC Sandbox “to allow application developers to experience and interact with an implementation of ETSI MEC APIs and test out their applications.” The Sandbox is available at https://try-mec.etsi.org/. See this announcement for further details.
• Now that Donald Trump has conceded the US Presidency and much of the world is still agog at the shocking scenes from Washington DC earlier this week, some parties now feel it’s time to get tough and impose some limitations on his actions: One such is Facebook, which after years of adopting a hands-off approach has now decided that Mr Trump is no longer welcome to communicate via its Facebook and Instagram platforms for the indefinite future and at least for the next two weeks while he is still resident in the White House. Such lily-livered actions are not likely to save it from any actions the incoming Biden administration deems necessary to curb the power and excess of the social media giants. Twitter, meanwhile, has allowed President Trump to use his Twitter account again after a short suspension, and he is active once again (as this article was being written at least). 
• You couldn't make it up Part 97,674, 320. It's official: Leave.UK, the organisation that campaigned so tirelessly to do just that, has quietly folded its Union Jack tent, upped-sticks and departed from "this scepter'd isle, this other Eden, demi-Paradise, this fortress built by Nature for herself against infection and the hand of war" (ha, ha, ha, ho, ho and a resounding har-de-har!) having acquired an EU domain name. The Irish Times has taken considerable delight in reporting that Leave.eu is now registered under the moniker of one Sean Power, the CEO of BSG of Waterford in the Irish Republic. "Business Services Group" specialises in "Company Law, Company Formations, Corporate Governance Consultancy, Company Secretarial, Corporate Compliance." Blighty's loss is Sweet Erin's gain. Ireland is a committed and enthusiastic member of the EU and Leave.eu is now fully legally protected by the very European laws the organisation railed against for years on end. Interestingly the British newspaper 'The Guardian' contacted Mr Power to ask him why he is now the registered owner of Leave.eu and he said he was not and had not been involved in any campaign or organisation dedicated to Brexit and will be "looking into" how and why his name is on the domain registration papers. Meanwhile, Neale Richmond, the spokesman on European Affairs for Ireland's Fine Gael political party, commented “Leave.eu is an odious campaign group that’s spread fear and disinformation throughout the Brexit referendum and subsequent negotiation process.” He warned that the Irish Republic is in danger of becoming "brass plate of convenience." 

- The staff, TelecomTV