Mike Robuck

As part of its 2015 merger with DirecTV, the Federal Communications Commission required that AT&T expand its deployment of high-speed, fiber-optic broadband internet service to 12.5 million customer locations, as well as to E-rate eligible schools and libraries, by July 2019. Consider that done, said AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan; AT&T now has a large inventory of fiber-based assets that it can sell to, and that the build-out actually reached 14.5 million customer locations.

While 5G may be the showstopper for Verizon and AT&T, their respective fiber build-outs are the roadies that move and carry the loads. Verizon has been dramatically expanding its fiber equipment in support of 5G technologies, such as C-RAN, and densification for wireless services as well as fiber deep for its wireline access services.

Telefónica took a small bite out of its debt load by selling off two of its operations in Central America to América Móvil for $648 million. América Móvil, which is owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, has competed against Telefónica in Latin America for several decades, but Telefónica has struck a deal to sell its operations in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Telecom operators need to get their artificial intelligence (AI), SDN and cloud ducks in a row or risk becoming a "dumb pipe" for connectivity, according to a report by GlobalData. “Telecom operators are increasingly seeking to move beyond the dumb pipe of simple connectivity and diversify in the cloud, AI and SDN," said Laura Petrone, senior analyst for GlobalData. "This trajectory will bring them into direct competition with technology interlopers that are also actively targeting segments that telecoms operators might once have seen as their own.”

In a bid to shake up its bottom line, Infinera announced a cash and stock deal valued at $430 million to acquire optical competitor Coriant. Infinera said the deal, which is set to close this quarter, would double its annual revenue and expand its customer base to serve nine of the top 10 global network operators, with five new to Infinera, and the top six internet content providers, including three that would be new to Infinera. "It's a pretty straightforward deal," said Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research.

Cisco announced the debut of its cloud-native broadband router, which is a containerized, software reboot of traditional converged cable access platform (CCAP) hardware.  The new cloud-native broadband router is notable on several levels, the first being that it's further proof that Cisco has moved beyond its roots as just a vendor of hardware boxes. With cloud-native, carriers can split disaggregated systems into even smaller, independent microservice functions that can scale up or down as needed.