NETWORK SECURITY
Visionary Broadband | June 07, 2022
Visionary Broadband ("Visionary", or the "Company") has received a strategic investment from funds affiliated with GTCR LLC ("GTCR"), a leading private equity firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The transaction will allow Visionary to continue investing in the construction of new fiber networks throughout Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, and will prepare Visionary for match requirements in upcoming State-led grant programs.
Headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming, Visionary is a pioneering Internet Service Provider ("ISP") serving residential and business subscribers in the Rocky Mountain region. Founded in 1994, Visionary has grown into one of the largest and most geographically diverse ISPs in the Rocky Mountain region, serving customers through the Company's hybrid fiber and wireless network. In partnering with GTCR, Visionary Broadband will accelerate its ongoing network expansion in order to provide fiber-to-the-premise ("FTTP") broadband to rural and underserved communities.
"This investment accelerates our commitment to deliver reliable, state-of-the-art gigabit internet where we live, work and play. We do what we say here at Visionary, and this allows us to do even more for both existing and future Visionary customers, GTCR shares our rural broadband focus, and we are excited to partner with them at this essential time for broadband."
Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary Broadband
"The Visionary management team has built an incredible business with deep roots in the communities they serve," said Stephen Jeschke, Managing Director at GTCR. "We are excited to partner with an experienced and entrepreneurial management team focused on hiring local and bringing multi-gigabit fiber-based internet access to their service areas."
Visionary is actively constructing FTTP projects in several markets in its existing footprint. The initial builds include the Wyoming communities of Casper, Cheyenne, Gillette, Lander, Laramie, and Lusk, and Marble, Gunnison, and Walden in Colorado. Previously, Visionary completed FTTP projects in Dayton, LaGrange, Ranchester, and Yoder in Wyoming, and in Kremmling, Colorado. The Company is deploying XGS-PON, a passive-optic networking technology capable of ten gigabits per second to every home.
Visionary plans new fiber projects in communities that desire a relationship with a broadband provider, are focused on economic development and are engaged on behalf of their citizens.
Q Advisors served as financial advisor to Visionary Broadband with Jennifer McDowell at Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, P.C. serving as legal counsel. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor and PriceWaterhouseCoopers served as accounting advisor to GTCR.
About Visionary Broadband
Founded in December of 1994, Visionary is a pioneering Internet Service Provider based in Wyoming. The company has grown to become one of the largest and most geographically diverse ISP in the Rocky Mountain region, providing customers with broadband Internet over fiber and wireless connections. Visionary is focused on providing quality Internet service for underserved and rural markets. Visionary is a privately owned company, with its leadership residing and accessing connectivity within the company's service area, keeping it in touch with the customer experience.
About GTCR
Founded in 1980, GTCR is a leading private equity firm focused on investing in growth companies in the Business & Consumer Services, Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare and Technology, Media & Telecommunications industries. The Chicago-based firm pioneered The Leaders Strategy™ finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through transformational acquisitions and organic growth. Since its inception, GTCR has invested more than $20 billion in over 250 companies.
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NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
CalChip Connect, | May 10, 2022
CalChip Connect, one of the world's leading decentralized wireless communications hardware distributors, has entered into a distribution partnership with Pollen Mobile, the first privacy-focused mobile network that is owned and operated by its users.
As part of the partnership, CalChip Connect will sell hardware compatible with the Pollen network – including a range of base stations called 'Flowers' – directly to consumers and network entrepreneurs, accelerating the deployment of the anonymous, high-speed wireless network.
To mark the partnership, CalChip will be launching a limited drop of a new type of outdoor Pollen Flower called the 'Elderflower' – essentially a more robust version of Pollen's existing 'Dandelion' model – on Tuesday, May 10 at noon ET / 9am PT via CalChip's online store. Additional Pollen eSIMs will also be made for sale at Pollen's online store.
We've been highly focused on advancing the future of decentralized mobile networks. Partnering with a leader like Pollen will catapult our efforts. Pollen has tremendous potential to revolutionize mobile connectivity, and has built the right infrastructure to support scale."
TJ Rancour, President and Co-Founder of CalChip Connect.
Pollen Mobile's network is open source, powered by blockchain technology, and built for privacy. It provides an anonymous, accessible, and affordable alternative to traditional mobile carriers.
Members of the Pollen Mobile community are rewarded with PollenCoin, a Solana-based cryptocurrency, in return for contributing services to the network, including providing coverage, validating coverage, and transferring data for end users.
"The rapid growth and enthusiasm of the Pollen community since we launched in January has been incredible. We have been selling out of hardware as fast as we can build it," said Anthony Levandowski, Founder and CEO of Pollen Mobile. "CalChip will help us catch up with the community's demand, and we're super excited to work with their team to rapidly bring the future of mobile communications into the present."
About CalChip Connect
CalChip Connect (CCC) is the nation's leading IoT distributor. Its passionate team combines extensive supply chain experience with an intimate understanding of the market for connected devices, to expedite access to the highest performing devices in the market today through a modern eCommerce shopping experience. More than just an eCommerce store, CCC helps manufacturers achieve scalable distribution with global warehousing, high-tech sourcing, supply chain management consulting, and component sourcing.
About Pollen Mobile
Pollen Mobile is catalyzing the development of the world's first decentralized, user owned and operated mobile network designed for privacy and anonymity. By utilizing open source technologies and protocols, a crypto economy built around the PollenCoin token, and working with partners such as CalChip Connect, Pollen is giving its users the power to take back their mobile privacy with an affordable alternative to traditional mobile carriers.
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MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE
FS.COM | July 04, 2022
FS.COM, a high-speed communication solution provider for data centers, enterprises, and telecom networks, introduces a series of data center switches with speeds of 10G, 25G, 40G, 100G, and 400G, aiming to target data center networks with different sizes.
With the quick evolution of data center networking over the past years, higher-performance 10/25/100/400G leaf-spine typologies are introduced to solve the volume and velocity of emerging application architectures. On such a basis, FS, one of the leading high-speed communication solution providers, expands a series of data center leaf and spine switches to meet the demand for 10/25/40/100G and 400G switching.
These switch portfolios are high-performance leaf and spine switches designed for enterprise branch, campus, and data center networks. All the switches are equipped with the Broadcom chips and offer advanced features such as EVPN-VXLAN, MLAG, RoCE, and programmability, giving customers a tremendous amount of flexibility when building networks with speeds ranging from 10G all the way up to 400G.
The details of the main switches are as follows:
N9500-32D: offers 32 x 400G QSFP-DD ports that are compatible with multi-speed 25/40/100/200GbE, along with flexible L3 features and wire-speed performance. And it supports the installation of compatible network operating system software, such as SONiC, Open Network Linux (ONL), and Arrcus ArcOS.
N8560 series delivers a flexible combination of 10G/25G/40G/100G ports with rich Layer 3 features and advanced data center functions such as low latency, and zero packet loss performance for data center connectivity. And they support ansible, OpenFlow, NETCONF, etc. configuration and automation tools.
N8550 series brings flexible options of 10G/25G/40G/100Gb speed with advanced data center features such as EVPN-VXLAN, MLAG, and NETCONF. And these switches support various operating systems like SONiC, Open Network Linux (ONL), Pica8 Inc. PicOS™ OS, ideal for high availability data center network build.
NC8200 series are modular switches that offer fixed-configuration line cards with 25G, 40G, and 100G ports. They support rich features for data center connectivity such as VXLAN, MLAG, and EVPN-VXLAN, making them flexible choices for data centers and large enterprise networks.
As the volume of workloads and traffic continues to explode in data centers, it becomes more important for enterprises to build an extensible leaf-spine network capable of delivering terabits of capacity. FS data center switches are introduced to address such demands of users. Users can choose the most suitable switches and build a network any way they need.
About FS.COM
FS.COM is a high-speed communication product and solution provider for connecting and securing global data center, enterprise, and telecom networks. FS is dedicated to fulfilling product systems and tailoring project solutions for IT professionals with immediate services by developing its talents, labs and local service center. Through continuous technology upgrade and brand partnership, FS serves customers across 200 countries – with the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative solution portfolio.
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NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
IP Infusion | December 18, 2021
IP Infusion, a leading provider of network disaggregation solutions for telecom and data communications operators, announced that YouFibre, a U.K.-based Internet Service Provider, has selected IP Infusion’s PRO disaggregated networking solution to help expand their fiber network to reach more subscribers with their Internet data usage and VoIP services.
YouFibre needed a MPLS-based networking solution with flexibility, scalability, and agility to leverage Netomnia’s extensive fiber build-out plans. YouFibre selected IP Infusion PRO solutions, which integrates OcNOS®, a scalable network operating system, with industry leading web-scale open switching platforms from Edgecore Networks. The solution offers advanced routing capabilities and carrier-grade services that enable YouFibre to flexibly deploy its network and interoperate with the fiber infrastructure, data center and the Internet.
IP Infusion’s carrier-grade disaggregated networking solutions allow network operators to create innovative services and accelerate new revenue streams. Its validated network operating system, combined with the choice of best-of-breed hardware, supports a diverse range of networking use cases. With IP Infusion’s advanced support services, network operators can migrate seamlessly to an end-to-end disaggregated networking solution that delivers lower Total Cost of Ownership.
“For YouFibre to deliver ultrafast and affordable Internet to our customers, we require a networking solution that matches our mission of providing the best Internet experience possible. The IP Infusion PRO disaggregated networking solution delivers the latest in networking technology, performance and human-contact support that we needed for fast and agile deployment of our network,”
-Sam Defreiz, Director of Networks at YouFibre.
With IP Infusion PRO, YouFibre is able to benefit from the advantages of network disaggregation quickly and affordably. Without relying on traditional networks, YouFibre can accelerate its delivery of fast and innovative services to their customers, said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion.
Edgecore is excited to work with IP Infusion on this disaggregated networking solution which will help YouFibre to expand its network capacity. The combination of OcNOS and Edgecore disaggregated hardware gives service providers a one-stop shop to address their growing network expansion requirements,”said Heimdall Siao, President, Edgecore Networks.
OcNOS is the industry’s first full-featured modular extensible network OS for white box open networking solutions offering advanced capabilities that include extensive switching and routing support ranging from MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), PTP (Precision Timing Protocol) and APIs/protocols for SDN (Software Defined Networking). OcNOS features hybrid, centralized or distributed network support; scalable, modular high-performance network; and a robust data plane built on merchant silicon.
About IP Infusion
IP Infusion enables disaggregated networking solutions for carriers, service providers and data center operators. We provide network OS solutions for today’s networks to allow network operators to reduce network costs, increase flexibility, and to deploy new features and services quickly. IP Infusion is a solution provider of the OcNOS® and ZebOS® network operating systems to our more than 300 customers and is an integrator and customer service provider for DANOS-Vyatta edition and Commercial SONiC Distribution. IP Infusion is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of ACCESS CO., LTD. Additional information can be found at http://www.ipinfusion.com.
IP Infusion, ZebOS, and OcNOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of IP Infusion. ACCESS is registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. Northforge Innovations is a registered trademark of Northforge Innovations, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
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