UK communications regulator, Ofcom has decided not to introduce a restricted dark fibre remedy for the period up to March 2019. The regulator consulted on proposals to introduce a restricted dark fibre remedy for leased line services at and below 1Gb/s until March 2019 last November, following a judgment by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) and Point Topic have partnered to publish a new report: Metrics for the UK altnet sector Scale, coverage, ambitions, concerns. Amongst the key findings, the report reveals that nearly one million UK homes and businesses are now in reach of ultrafast full fibre connectivity via alternative network providers (altnets).

Construction has now officially commenced on the Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) 9,500km undersea fibre optic cable system.

JGA is being co-built by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Nokia and the NEC Corporation. The JGA South (JGA-S) segment between Sydney, Australia and Piti, Guam, is a consortium cable, including AARNet, Google and RTI-C, whilst the JGA North (JGA-N) segment which runs between the Minami-Boso, Japan and Piti, Guam, is a private cable with RTI-C as the sole purchaser.

China Mobile is currently building a new optical transport network that will support improved data centre interconnect, consumer broadband services and 4G backhaul. The operator has chosen Nokia to build the integrated IP/optical transport network, and deployment has already begun. The network will also support the next-generation of network services, especially 5G.

Calix has entered a strategic multi-year partnership with Infosys to accelerate communications service provider adoption of AXOS, its software defined access platform.

Brazil's national service provider, Eletronet, has selected Seaborn Networks’ international submarine fibre-optic cable system, Seabras-1, to provide Tier 1 dedicated internet access in Brazil.

Fibre to the curb (FTTC) access technology has now been rolled out by the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN Co) to more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Coburg, North Melbourne in Victoria and Miranda, South Sydney in New South Wales.

II‐VI Incorporated intends to acquire CoAdna Holdings in a cash transaction valued at approximately $85 million at closing. The business is to be integrated in II-VI’s Photonics segment.

Belgian telecommunications operator, Proximus has chosen the Viavi ONMSi optical network monitoring system to test and monitor its growing fibre to the home (FTTH) network at the build-out stage, in order to help maintain reliability.

Subsea fibre optic solutions provider, Xtera is partnering with ADVA in order to develop the capacity and reach of the open networking solutions supplier’s optical transport products.  ADVA will license Xtera’s Raman technology for use in both unrepeatered and terrestrial environments.