Technology Analyst and co-founder of 650 Group
The central themes of last week’s Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in Istanbul were that Huawei made a big deal about 5.5G and AI. More specifically, Huawei’s radio team pointed out that its recently improved cellular uplink capabilities will be critical as AI, robots, and automobiles create a surge in cellular… Read More »Huawei MBBF Conference 2024 (Istanbul) – 5.5G Theme
Usually, Telecom and wireless RAN are the main topics for the MWC-Las Vegas show, but at this year’s show, what caught our eye was indoor cellular, satellite, and data center networking. It was surprising that telecom heavyweights like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and Cisco did not attend. But we love going… Read More »MWC Las Vegas Themes: Indoor Cellular, Satellite and Data Center
This week, we attended Cisco’s Packet Optical Networking Conference 2024 (PONC 2024). The conference was mainly for partners and customers, and new products and architectures were the main discussion topics. A year ago, we concluded that Cisco’s Routed Optical Networks (RON) vision, where routers and pluggable coherent modules operate together… Read More »Cisco Packet Optical Networking Conference 2024 – Another Step Forward
Nokia held its annual Fixed Networks Analyst meeting this week, and we were impressed with the company’s progress. While the company explained that the BEAD program has slipped an estimated 6-9 months, it shared that its pipeline of deals remains healthy. The company characterized that BEAD will go through its… Read More »Nokia Broadband Strategy Rapidly Adapting to Changes
On June 27, Nokia announced plans to acquire Optical Transport rival Infinera. The indicative bid was for $2.3B, representing a 37% premium to a six-month volume-weighted price. Additionally, Nokia plans to spin off its Submarine Networks business (which even today uses the historically French-domiciled Alcatel in its name) to a… Read More »Nokia’s Bid To Acquire Infinera May Drive Further Industry Changes
We attended primarily the Atmosphere Track of the Discover partner conference in Las Vegas, where HPE Aruba Networking announced significant new developments. Among the new technology announcements were Private 5G radios, Observability-related integrations, IoT Gateway enhancements, and SASE. Of course, we attended HPE CEO Antonio Neri’s keynote at the Las… Read More »HPE Discover Atmosphere 2024: AI Networking Emerges
Fortinet announced plans to acquire Lacework, a Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) company. For those who have kept up with the cybersecurity industry news, in April of this year, Lacework was an acquisition target by privately held Wiz. However, that deal, reportedly valued between $150-200M, never materialized. Lacework opens up… Read More »Fortinet’s Planned Acquisition of Lacework Expands its Opportunities Significantly
Internet Services and Satellite Services will clash with Telecom Services in the coming years, causing changes to equipment demand. Hyperscalers and Satellite services companies are more vertically integrated (they make more of their own equipment) and, in the future, will deliver more services that compete with Telecom services. Our forecasts,… Read More »Telecom Disruption in Optical and RAN Showing Growing Importance
This week, along with many others, we attended the RSA Conference 2024 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We were surprised at how few companies highlighted XDR marketing campaigns, especially compared to the activity at RSAC 2023. Unsurprisingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the more prominent marketing message. We also… Read More »RSA Conference 2024: More AI, Less XDR
We attended Fortinet’s annual Accelerate conference, joining a record-setting 4,000+ attendees to learn more about the company’s latest advancements. The main message we took from Accelerate was Fortinet’s emphasis on its “platform” capabilities across its broad portfolio. Security Fabric Platform: Fortinet showcased its expansive product line. The company’s platform strategy,… Read More »Fortinet Accelerate 2024 Emphasizes the “Platform”
