Comcast Build Targets Business

Comcast Business recently announced plans to invest $25 million to expand its fiber-based network in Boston and Cambridge. That, the company said, will enable it to reach more than 3,000 businesses directly and reach tens of thousands more with 100 gigabit per second capacity. The build will entail the deployment of more than 40 miles of new fiber optic cable in the Back Bay, the Financial District and parts of Cambridge.

Metaswitch Buys OpenCloud (News - Alert)

In a move that will enable it to provide carriers with a pure-play software VoLTE solution, Metaswitch has acquired mobile service enablement company OpenCloud. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sixty operators around the world already use solutions from OpenCloud, whose Rhino Telecom Application Server outfits network operators and other developers with application programming interfaces and software development kits they can use to develop and extend carrier services. That allows for faster time to market and more flexibility in introducing and tweaking services. Metaswitch plans to combine OpenCloud’s Rhino Telecom Application Server with its own Clearwater IMS Core and Perimeta SBC offerings.

Ericsson (News - Alert) Helps Verizon Deliver Self Service

Verizon Enterprise Solutions will use solutions from Ericsson to help power its virtualized global managed network services, including SD-WAN. As a result, the companies announced, Verizon (News - Alert) customers will be able to order and configure their own services. Those services will include data center load balancing, security offers, and WAN optimization capabilities. Making these services available to customers on demand is possible due to Ericsson’s end-to-end dynamic orchestration, closed-loop service assurance, and virtual network function onboarding and testing. Some of the specific solutions that will enable this are Ericsson Cloud Manager and Ericsson Order Care.

VeloCloud Raises $35M, Partners with NetFoundry

VeloCloud Networks Inc. recently served up a double dip of news. That included announcements that it has raised $35 million in a Series D round and, separately, that it has forged a partnership with NetFoundry. The new money, which brings the company’s total funding to $84 million, was led by private equity firm Hermes Growth Partners. This round also included new investors Telstra Ventures and Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia. Existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Venrock, March Capital Partners, Cisco (News - Alert) Investments, and others also participated. VeloCloud plans to use the investments to do more marketing and sales, and to expand its business so it can better serve customers with larger rollouts. VeloCloud has also become partners with NetFoundry, a new venture of Tata Communications (News - Alert). The companies will deliver interoperable solutions that leverage the SD-WAN technology from VeloCloud and the secure packet routing software of NetFoundry.

New Platform Targets Carriers

Riverbed has spent most of its life creating network solutions for enterprise customers. And it works with service provider partners to bring those products to market. But late last year the company established a service provider business unit to build solutions for the carriers as well. And in February the company unveiled the first fruits of those labors. The new Riverbed Service Delivery Platform was designed to enable service providers to deliver their traditional services more easily and allow them to expand into new areas such as edge compute and the Internet of Things, Irina Farooq, Riverbed’s vice president of product management, explained.

Portabella 2000i Employs Bonding

Mushroom Networks has launched the Portabella 2000i That is a hardened, portable internet aggregation device combining two 3G/4G/LTE embedded modems to deliver a bonded and thus faster internet connection. It was designed to allow for primary or failover connectivity for branch offices, trailers, kiosks, or specialty vehicles.

SD-WAN Supplier Supports IPv4 & IPv6

Versa Networks is providing support for both IPv4 and IPv6 based SD-WANs. That, it says, will become increasingly important as more Internet of Things devices are turned up. By supporting both IPv4 and IPv6, Versa gives its customers the flexibility to design their WAN under IPv4 today and protect it from obsolescence as organizations switch over to IPv6, the company added.

Bot Assists Telecom Engineers 

Nokia has created a customized digital assistant that aims to help telecom operators engineers get the information they need more quickly. This solution, named MIKA, uses augmented intelligence and automated learning to provide access to an extensive range of tools, documents, and data sources.