Wednesday Bytes: Nuage, Ciena, Cisco, Frontier

Time for a quick look around the sector’s news from the first half of the week.  Here are three items from vendors, and one from BK court:

Nokia’s Nuage Networks is taking its SD-WAN all the way to the device level. This morning they announced a new solution built off of SD Edge technology from Asayie to extend the reach of SD-WAN to desktop, mobile, and IoT devices. The allows enterprise IT managers to improve secure connectivity to its mobile users without making them mess with a VPN client, a step that can be a weak point in today’s networks.

Ciena is adding some more muscle to its top management team. They have brought in Mary Yang as Chief Strategy Officer and SVP, reporting directly to CEO Gary B. Smith. She will be helping shape the company’s path forward as network technology continues to rapidly evolve. Yang moves over from her role as SVP of corporate and business development at the smart vehicle developer NIO.

Cisco has been busy over in Japan with Rakuten Mobile. They announced a successful launch of an inter-network roaming service between Rakuten’s and KDDI’s mobile networks. The LTE roaming service is based on the S10 signaling interface standard and exists within Cisco’s Virtual Ultra Packet Core. The idea is simply to improve the user experience in cases where data crosses between carriers.

And Frontier Communications has gained approval for a debt reduction plan as part of its restructuring in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The agreement with holders of 75% of $11B in unsecured bonds will see debt reduced by more than $10B and gain commitments for $460M in DIP financing. Additionally, Frontier will be proceeding with the sale of its WA/OR/ID/MT footprint to Northwest Fiber for $1.352B in cash later this month. 

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Categories: Financials · ILECs, PTTs · Jobs · SDN · Telecom Equipment