Infrastructure and enterprise spending, “from our vantage point,” is “very much holding,” said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q3 ended July 31. Broadcom’s net revenue growth of 25% in the quarter to $8.46 billion was driven by “robust demand” in sales from cloud, wireless service providers and enterprise computing, said Tan. Semiconductor revenue increased 32% year on year to $6.6 billion and infrastructure software revenue grew 5% to $1.8 billion, he said: “We expect ... continued investment by our customers of next generation technologies in data centers, broadband and wireless." Revenue in Broadcom’s broadband sector grew 20% year on year to $1.1 billion, and was 17% of semiconductor sales in the quarter, said Tan. “This steady growth was driven by major service providers continuing to deploy next generation broadband fiber to the home globally, with high attach rates of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E,” he said. Broadcom expects the first Wi-Fi 7 deployments in the second half of 2023 in home gateways, “enterprise access points” and smartphones, he said. Broadcom’s Q3 wireless revenue of $1.6 billion generated a quarter of its semiconductor sales, said Tan. “Sustained demand from North American customers drove wireless revenue up 14% year on year, in line with our guidance,” he said. In Q4, “we expect wireless revenue to be seasonally up 20% sequentially and to grow 10% year on year,” he said.
Demand for in-building networks was increasing before the start of COVID-19, and that trend continues, Volker Jungnickel, Technical University of Berlin engineering professor, said during an IEEE Future Networks webinar Wednesday. Jungnickel highlighted the promise of new technologies like distributed multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) and light fidelity (Li-Fi). The IoT will mostly use in-building networks, he said. There will likely be a “gap” between how 5G turns out and expectations, and “in-building networks can help close that gap,” he said. Wi-Fi connections can be as fast as 10 Gbps with Wi-Fi 6, but access points “are shared among multiple users,” he said: “There can be interference from other access points if it’s not very well coordinated. … All these wireless problems are typically managed through the listen-before-talk protocols and that is not very efficient.” With 5G “the issue is the limited coverage,” he said. 802.11, part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network technical standards, offers a network with “low complexity and low costs” and “increasingly introduces similar features” as those offered on carrier networks, Jungnickel said. Some wireless LANs are being built using a technology known as distributed MIMO, he said. “This architecture is known for provision of seamless mobility; it can do advanced interference control,” he said. “It can provide very reliable links because of the redundancy. It can transmit from multiple sites. The latency is low.” The technology is “really promising,” he said. Jungnickel also sees promise in new Li-Fi networks, which transmit data via LED or infrared light. Unlike Wi-Fi, which uses RF, Li-Fi technology needs only a light source with a chip to transmit an internet signal via light waves. “It provides much higher area capacity in small hot spots,” 100 Mbps per square meter “and easily more,” he said: “Light is quite a clean channel, so you can … guarantee the delivery of data at very low latency. It’s robust against jamming because it doesn’t interfere with radio, and it also provides enhanced privacy.”
WildBrain extends contract of CEO-Vice Chair Eric Ellenbogen for three years, with an option to move him to executive chair in the second half of his term ... Altafiber names Rob Shema, ex-Com Net (CNI), director-government affairs and business development; CNI says a search is underway for his replacement as CEO.
Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).
The FCC’s report to Congress on the future of the USF, released Monday (see 2208150048), contained more questions than answers, industry experts said Tuesday. The 65-page report has few broad conclusions on the future of USF, declining to adopt competition as a separate goal or to set a separate deployment goal targeting mobile broadband. It weighs against assessing a fee based on broadband internet access service (BIAS).
ASPEN, Colo. -- It's "too early to tell" whether NTIA efforts aimed at better spectrum coordination among federal agencies are paying off, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said Sunday at the Technology Policy Institute's annual Aspen Forum. He said improved coordination has White House backing and agencies "want to do better."
President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act into law Tuesday, calling it a “once in a generation” investment that will help address the supply chain shortage, inflation, national security, jobs and climate change. He spoke for about 20 minutes before signing HR-4346 during a ceremony in the Rose Garden with dozens of congressional, administrative and industry attendees (see 2207280060 and 2208030052)
With 90% of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity in Taiwan, mobile carriers need a plan of action if China invades the island nation, Strand Consult said in a Tuesday report. “China is not the same country it was 10 years ago, and Taiwan … has geopolitical significance,” Strand said: “Just as Russia exploits Europe’s dependence on gas, China will exploit the world’s dependence on its information technology industry. Just as Russia threatens to turn off the gas, China can also turn the screws with its IT products and services.”
President Joe Biden will sign the Chips and Science Act into law Tuesday and speak in the Rose Garden, the White House said Wednesday (see 2207280060). “This bill will lower the cost of everyday goods, strengthen American manufacturing and innovation, create good-paying jobs, and bolster our economic and national security,” the White House said.
The nominee for ambassador at large-cyberspace and digital policy told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Wednesday he intends to “try to expand” the number of nations signed on to the Declaration for the Future of the Internet that the U.S., EU and more than 60 other countries signed in April (see 2204280043). Nate Fick said during the committee hearing he supports deploying funding included in the Chips and Science Act (HR-4346) to develop secure 5G technology and believes the U.S. needs to promote open radio access networks and other technologies to ensure telecom infrastructure security. Fick, if confirmed, would also head the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (see 2206070047).