Displaying items by tag: Germany

Nokia and Deutsche Telekom Group have announced the expansion of their strategic partnership by setting plans to build a 5G-ready IP network.

Deutsche Telekom has selected Nokia's 7750 Service Router (SR) platform to significantly expand capacity across its edge/core routing network as it prepares for next-generation broadband and 5G services. Deployment has already started in Greece, where Nokia is replacing and modernizing the operator’s existing IP network. Rollout in Hungary is expected in Q4 2020.

With networks experiencing unprecedented traffic growth and unpredictable demands, operators want to meet ever-increasing performance requirements while driving down network costs. The scale, feature breadth and versatility of the Nokia 7750 SR-s platform addresses these requirements, enabling operators like Deutsche Telekom Group and its affiliates to build bigger, smarter, automated and secure networks with greater return on investment.

As part of its network modernization, Deutsche Telekom needed to replace an existing IP edge/core network that was reaching its end of service with a new network that can cope with 5G and ultra broadband access requirements. A key principle to achieve this was the consolidation of network layers through the integration of IP aggregation and edge/BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) functions into one converged layer.

Deutsche Telekom selected the Nokia 7750 SR-7s routers as they support the full spectrum of provider edge, gateway and core functions for advanced residential, mobile and enterprise services. Powered by the programmable FP4 network processing silicon, the routers will enable Deutsche Telekom to boost IP network capacity with deterministic performace for a top-quality subscriber experience. As a result, Deutsche Telekom can support 5G interconnectivity and an increasing growth in backbone traffic driven by an increase in mobility applications, video streaming, gaming and other high-capacity demands such as remote working.

The 7750 SR-s is managed by the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP). NSP supports 5G IP transport with automated slicing across IP and optical transport layers with end-to-end orchestration of network resource provisioning and assurance operations. This simplifies operations so that operators can create customer policies/slices with different network performance, quality and routing capabilities to respond quickly to fast-changing subscriber demand.

Bernhard Scholl, Technology Europe VP Access Core & Transport at Deutsche Telekom, said: “Deutsche Telekom Group affiliates need to expand and modernize their IP networks to address stringent 5G IP transport requirements. We continue to see tremendous growth in network traffic and the need to deliver more throughput and higher capacity with strict QoS to our customers is critical. This is particlarly the case as bandwidth intensive applications are shifting to on demand video along with the growing usage of cloud-based services. Building out this backbone with Nokia's IP edge routers will allow us to stay ahead of our customers’ network needs.”

Vassilis Kazatzopoulos, Head of International Sales DT Global Customer Business Team at Nokia, said: “With trends like 5G, IoT and Industry 4.0 now a reality, networks are expected to handle hundreds of new applications and services for millions of users. The Nokia 7750 SR-s series of IP routers takes router performance to the next level by delivering the massive scale, comprehensive feature set and platform versatility needed to stay ahead of evolving demands. Nokia is excited to expand its longstanding relationship with Deutsche Telekom Group to help prepare its affiliates’ networks for the future.”

German operator and domestic operating unit of Deutsche Telekom (DT), Telekom Deutschland (TD), has revealed its plans to upgrade fixed broadband speeds to cater to an additional 280,000 households.

TD has stated that around 32.9 million homes will now be able to access maximum data rates of up to 100Mbps and the number of 250Mbps-enabled lines has reached 24.1 million across the entire country.

In addition to this, the firm has also disclosed that the total number of households connected to its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network has risen by 27,000 last month, amounting to 1.8 million households.

In fact, since the beginning of 2020, TD has upgraded fixed broadband speeds for 2.7 million German households.

The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has announced that it recommends a common RF cluster connector for early 5G deployment.

Telefonica Germany has said that it is currently in talks with Mercedes-Benz for a 5G mobile network which will be used to produce vehicles at the automaker’s Factory 56 plant in Sindelfingen, Germany.

In his keynote remarks delivered yesterday at the Potsdam Conference on National Cybersecurity in Berlin, Germany, Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Huawei said that in recent days, restrictions, based on ungrounded allegations, have been imposed on Huawei in order to disrupt business operations.

Europe’s largest telecommunications operator Deutsche Telekom has warned that if governments across the continent decide to implement a ban on Chinese vendor Huawei, then the rollout of 5G networks could be delayed by at least two years.

German software behemoth SAP has stunned staff by announcing that it will cut 3,000 jobs as part of a €1bn restructuring plan after profits stagnated in 2018.

However, the upbeat company insists it is still on track to grow revenues and earnings for this year, but that a restructuring of its overall operations and practices are necessary.

SAP’s CFO, Luka Mucic said the company expects a higher number of employees to leave that during its last job cull which occurred in 2015. He said, “We are talking about a completely voluntary program, we expect a number slightly higher than in 2015 of employees to leave.”

In 2015, SAP cut around 2,200 positions in a move that was described at that time as the company’s transition away from traditional software towards cloud computing. SAP plan to spend between 800m and 1bn on restructuring the company in an effort to simplify its structures and processes.

CEO Bill McDermott acknowledged that the job cuts are painful but reiterated that they were necessary in order to pave the way for SAP to make new investments in emerging growth areas within the software ecosystem.

The SAP CEO said, “We are going to move our people and our focus to the areas SAP needs the most, AI (artificial intelligence), blockchain, internet of things, quantum computing.  We currently have 95,000 people in the company, if we talk in a few years it will be more.”

Despite the messaging from SAP that the job cuts are necessary in order to create capital to invest in new areas, it’s clear the stagnation of profits and stunting of growth have heightened the pressure on the German software leader.

SAP announced that its net profits had grown by just 1% last year reaching 4.1bn euros.  In 2018, SAP continued its transformation away from the perception that it’s a traditional one-off sales’ of business software licenses to cloud computing, under which it charges customers a subscription fee to process data on the firm's computers.

Revenue from cloud subscriptions and support grew 32 percent over the year, to almost 3.8 billion euros. Meanwhile software licenses and support revenue shrank one percent, although it remains a far bigger source of income for now at almost 15.8 billion euros.

The Canadian and German government are reportedly both seriously considering excluding Chinese telecommunications behemoth Huawei from its 5G networks due to security concerns.

Chipmaker Qualcomm has won a patent dispute against phone giant Apple.

Following a ruling in the District Court of Munich, Apple will no longer sell iPhone 7 and 8 across German stores and websites.

The court ruled that Apple phones were infringing on Qualcomm’s intellectual property related to power saving technology in two of its older smartphones.

Qualcomm was required to post a $1.34 billion security bond with German courts before it would take effect.

Apple’s German website no longer features the iPhone 7 and 8, listing only the newer models such as the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.  

The court has also ordered Apple to recall infringing iPhones from third party resellers.

Contrary to the ban, Apple assured that “all iPhone models remain available to customers through carriers and resellers in 4,300 locations across Germany,” and has plans to appeal the ruling.

The injunction is the latest development amidst an ongoing feud between Apple and Qualcomm. The California-based phone maker sued Qualcomm in the United States and in China, accusing the company of extortion and anticompetitive conduct in its negotiations over patent licensing.

In December, Qualcomm won a Chinese lawsuit that forced Apple to recall its products due to a copyright infringement. The court ruled that Apple had violated two of Qualcomm’s software patents specifically related to resizing pictures and managing applications.

To lift the ban, Apple released a small update to its iOS version 12.1.2, which contains software changes exclusive to China.

Following the hearing, Apple described the ban as “another desperate move by a company whose illegal practices are under investigation by regulators around the world.”

A German court ruled in favor of US chipmaker Qualcomm in a patent dispute case against Apple, which could lead to a ban on sales of iPhones in Germany. This marks a second major win for Qualcomm in a month after a court in China on December 10 ordered a prohibition on iPhone sales over a separate patent dispute there.