Biden maintains Trump’s Huawei hard line
Clear evidence that President Biden will maintain the hard line on Huawei set by his predecessor has come with extended restrictions on companies supplying items that can be used with 5G devices made by the Chinese vendor.
These changes could disrupt existing contracts with Huawei agreed under earlier licences that have now been amended. Neither side has commented, but the actions bring older licenses more into line with the tougher policies implemented in the waning days of the Trump administration. While Biden may mollify the tone and not impose further restrictions, he seems set on sustaining the constraints imposed by Trump.
Booz Allen Hamilton lands $600m contracts for 5G testing in USA
The US Department of Defense has awarded $600m worth of contracts to Booz Allen Hamilton for integrating 5G into training and networks at five military locations. The firm claimed this to be the “largest full-scale 5G testing done to date for dual-use applications in the world and will help move DoD towards full-scale 5G military deployment”.
The contracts cover two broad projects. One involves creation of “extremely realistic virtual environments” for training soldiers using 5G-based AR/VR with an “open, yet secure architecture that quickly and easily integrates with the latest technologies to provide faster equipment upgrades”. The second project is to ensure that military radar systems can dynamically share spectrum with 5G cellular systems.
Honeywell strengthens smart buildings hand with Fiplex acquisition
Honeywell continues to build its portfolio in smart building communications by acquiring a majority stake in Fiplex Communications, a Miami-based developer of products for continuous and critical radio coverage in challenging RF environments.
“The addition of Fiplex’s products and software allows us to move towards creating the next generation of fire and life safety solutions to keep both building occupants and first responders safer,” said Vimal Kapur, president and CEO of Honeywell Building Technologies.
Reliance doubles stake in futuristic SkyTran
Reliance Strategic Business Ventures (RSBVL), part of Reliance Industries (which also owns Indian operator Jio) has doubled its stake in US-based SkyTran, a “futuristic transportation company”, to 54.46% paying $26.76m.
“Our acquiring majority equity stake in SkyTran reflects our commitment to invest in building futuristic technologies that would transform the world,” said RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.
He added: “We are excited by SkyTran’s potential to achieve an order of magnitude impact on high speed intra- and inter-city connectivity and its ability to provide a high speed, highly efficient and economical ‘transportation-as-a-service’ platform for India and the world.”
Cisco adds three new chips to Silicon One family
Cisco has increased the members of its Silicon One portfolio to 10, with three new launches topped out by the Q100, a webscale switching chip capable of 25.6Tbps of throughput.
Rakesh Chopra, Cisco fellow of common hardware group architecture and platforming, said: “With this new device, customers no longer need to choose between programmability, bandwidth, and efficiency.” Cisco claims the chip will eventually support 1.6Tbps interfaces.
It also launched the Q211 and its L-series switching counterpart, the Q211L. Both are capable of 8Tbps of throughput.
DT completes Germany’s first video call over 5G Standalone
Deutsche Telekom has completed the first video call using 5G Standalone in Germany, using a site in the town of Garching, near Munich., to make a call to nearby Bamberg and then to the city of Bonn. DT said the response time in Garching was 13 milliseconds.
Walter Goldenits, head of technology at Telekom Deutschland, said this was a first step to 5G SA roll-out, though timing would depend on customer requirements and demand. He said more than two-thirds of people in Germany are now covered by the operator’s Non-standalone 5G network.