The FCC on Thursday gave Verizon the OK to move ahead with its acquisition of XO Communications. The decision followed a few delays and resistance from players like Windstream and Dish, but Verizon isn’t home free. It still needs to secure approvals from regulatory officials in Pennsylvania and New York.
“We are pleased that the FCC has approved Verizon’s purchase of XO’s wireline business,” Verizon Senior Vice President of Federal Regulatory Affairs Will Johnson said. “We look forward to quickly putting XO’s fiber to work to better to serve our customers and to aid our deployment of 5G.”
The deal with XO will net Verizon XO’s fiber-based IP and Ethernet networks, and will also see the carrier lease XO’s 28 GHz and 39 GHz wireless spectrum with the option to buy at the end of 2018.
BTIG Analyst Walter Piecyk on Friday raised the firm’s price target for Dish Network from $85 to $90 based on the company’s value as a “strategic asset for wireless operators” due to its spectrum reserves. Piecyk said Dish managed to secure its spectrum assets at discount prices before the surge in wireless data growth, and noted the value of those assets has increased over time. Piecyk noted major U.S. wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will all likely have an interest in Dish’s spectrum.
GSMA on Thursday announced the first release of the Universal Profile for Advanced Messaging, which will upgrade existing operator messaging services and provide users with a single, common, and globally interoperable experience. The Universal Profile Release 1 includes a number of core messaging features that improve the messaging experience of smartphone users around the world such as chat, group chat, audio messaging, file transfer, video share, enriched calling, location share, and live sketching. It also includes a capability discovery feature, which is interoperable between regions, and lets users know which services can be used with their contacts.
Qualcomm said it is teaming up with Samsung Electronics to manufacture its new Snapdragon 835 processor using Samsung’s 10-nanometer FinFET process technology. Compared to its 14nm FinFET predecessors, Samsung’s 10nm technology allows up to a 30 percent increase in area efficiency with 27 percent higher performance or up to 40 percent lower power consumption. Using 10nm FinFET, the Snapdragon 835 processor will offer a smaller chip footprint, giving OEMs more usable space inside upcoming products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs, Qualcomm said.
Xirrus, a provider of cloud-enabled Wi-Fi networks, announced the XA4, the industry’s first four-radio 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi solution that incorporates external antennas to boost coverage and performance in large venues and open-space environments. The XA4 manages up to one thousand simultaneous connections, and is designed to support high-density Wi-Fi in locations such as convention centers, arenas, transportation hubs, and warehouses.
