By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Breaking: Qorvo & Skyworks merge
Qorvo and Skyworks – both important providers of RF components and silicon for Wi-Fi, ultra-wideband, mobile, and other technologies – announced this week they are merging to form US$22 billion US-based corporation. Qorvo is a long-time WiFi NOW Partner. As a result of the agreement (read all the details here), Qorvo shareholders will own about 37% of the combined company while Skyworks shareholders take the remainder. Qorvo is particularly important within the Wi-Fi world as a provider of FEMs and filters for Wi-Fi access points well as a silicon provider for ultra-wideband solutions. The consolidation is largely viewed as a positive move to strengthen Wi-Fi component markets and increase competition in particular as chipset vendors such as Qualcomm & Broadcom increasingly bundle for example own FEMs into Wi-Fi device reference designs.
Comcast & Deutsche Telekom partnering for Wi-Fi mesh for Europe
This happened a couple of weeks ago but we missed it – so here it comes now: Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) – the solutions arm of cable giant Comcast – has announced a partnership with Deutsche Telekom for the delivery of whole-home Wi-Fi mesh technology. “The CTS Connectivity Platform includes mesh agents for both gateways and extenders, hosted cloud orchestration, and a suite of public APIs that integrate easily with DT’s back-end and customer-facing systems,” CTS says in a press release here. CTS’ platform includes Wi-Fi optimisation featuring band steering, dynamic channel selection, and Cloud-based analytics and controls.
Deutsche Telekom launches Wi-Fi 7 services
Only days after we berated Deutsche Telekom for not having launched Wi-Fi 7 in this story – well, they launched Wi-Fi 7. The three new Wi-Fi 7-based services are called #einfachWLAN (simple WLAN), #besserWLAN (better WLAN) and #nochmehrWLAN (more WLAN). All three packages come with the new Speedport 7 (Wi-Fi 7) gateway, which can be controlled from the MeinMagenta app and supports up to 6.8 Gbps of data rate, Deutsche Telekom says in a release from this week here.
The #besserWLAN includes a Wi-Fi mesh unit plus outage protection via the cellular network, while #nochmehrWLAN further includes an additional (socket-pluggable) mesh unit for more coverage. Credit to Deutsche Telekom for an ambitions and exciting Wi-Fi 7 launch. The Speedport 7 supports both fibre and DSL-based access networks.
Airties launches connectivity experience testing platform
Home broadband QoE experts Airties have launched a new platform that allows ISPs to test the home Wi-Fi quality of experience. It may sound odd – but accurately testing the home QoE has been notoriously difficult for ISPs because of big variations in the installed base of CPEs, frequent software updates, and more. Airties says the new testing platform called Nova “automates their [the ISPs] continuous testing efforts, accelerates time-to-market, increases accuracy and effectiveness, and lowers total costs of managed Wi-Fi deployments and their ongoing operations.” For more details also read here.
Cisco partners with City of Los Angeles and non-profits for free municipal Wi-Fi
Los Angeles is preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – and one initiative includes deployment of a municipal Wi-Fi network along the streets of LA’s historic Crenshaw Corridor. “Los Angeles residents, businesses and visitors can now access free public Wi-Fi along the Crenshaw Corridor, addressing gaps in internet access and furthering opportunities for employment, education and community engagement,” Cisco says in a press release here.
The initiative is called the ‘Crenshaw Community Connectivity Pilot’ and the Wi-Fi not only benefits South LA residents and businesses but supports visitors to the area ahead of major events and celebrations in LA, the statement says. The deployment includes both Cisco Wi-Fi Access Points as well as Cisco’s Ultra-Reliable Backhaul (UWB) technology, Cisco says.
/Claus.
