What’s up with… Deutsche Telekom, Parallel Wireless & Millicom, DriveNets

• Deutsche Telekom gets 2021 off to a flyer
• Millicom deploys Open RAN with Parallel Wireless
• DriveNets pumps up its virtual routing proposition

DT’s “flying start” and some Open RAN action in Latin America kick off today’s news roundup.

Deutsche Telekom says it made a “flying start to the new financial year” with a 32.3% year-on-year increase in first quarter revenues to €26.4 billion. “We are sustaining momentum and continuing our successful growth story,” said CFO Christian Illek. “Our customer numbers and key financial metrics are on track on both sides of the Atlantic.” Read more.

Network operator Millicom is to deploy Open RAN technology from Parallel Wireless to build out 4G networks in Colombia using its 700 MHz spectrum. "For us at Millicom, delivering O-RAN based Open RAN technology is an important milestone,” notes Xavier Rocoplan, EVP Chief Technology and Information Officer at Millicom. “It not only means connecting more people in rural areas, starting with Colombia, but it's also an innovative approach to reducing cost, increasing flexibility and efficiency by diversifying our supplier base. We hope to bring this technology to more sites across our Latin American markets, as we fulfill our purpose to build digital highways that connect people, improve lives, and help develop our communities." Read more.

Virtual routing specialist DriveNets says its Network Cloud is the “first high-scale routing solution to run on Broadcom’s Jericho 2c+ (J2C+) ASIC using a new white box, the NCP-36CD-S.” The potential availability of a 691 Tbit/s cluster of these new white boxes “makes DriveNets Network Cloud the largest scale routing solution in the world with a smaller footprint and lowest power consumption.” And to hammer home the message, it adds that this “demonstrates the superior agility and time to market of the distributed disaggregated Network Cloud model vs. a traditional monolithic router.” Read more.

In addition to deploying fibre access broadband technology, Belgian national operator Proximus is “also improving its existing VDSL infrastructure,” to show there’s still some life left in its copper plant. “Nokia and Proximus engineers have teamed up to develop 2MX6 technology, which allows the servicing of twice as many customers in a single street cabinet, while doubling the speed of broadband Internet and reducing energy consumption,” says the operator. Read more.

A group of influential technology companies has formed the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC) to urge US congressional leaders to allocate $50 billion in funding to the CHIPS for America Act that was enacted earlier this year, but which did not assign funding to the initiative, which aims to boost the US semiconductor research and production sector. In addition to chip companies such as Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom and Texas Instruments (among many others), SIAC members include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apple, AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Microsoft and Verizon. Read more.

Samsung is the latest company to decide not to have a physical presence at the MWC21 show in Barcelona, reports CNET. 

- The staff, TelecomTV