Vodafone and Telecom Italia (TIM) are speeding up their virtualisation plans through new vendor deals agreed at Mobile World Congress.

Cisco has launched a suite of 5G products for operators and is spearheading a new initiative to boost adoption of virtualised RAN (vRAN).

Turkcell has integrated a virtual LTE RAN platform into its network in a trial in Istanbul, as it looks to push towards network slicing.

In an industry fond of unusual metaphors – having a throat to choke, chasing the dragon spacecraft and the like - Elisa has found a new one to back the launch of its SON solution; namely eating your own dog food.

Vodafone Ziggo is planning to roll out Ericsson's virtual evolved packet core in the second half of this year as it looks to support growing data traffic.

TIM is planning to explore automation, virtualisation and open interfaces as part of a new project with Juniper Networks.

Orange is aiming to "drastically" speed up delivery of services across its footprint by deploying a Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO).

Telefónica and Huawei have completed lab tests on a new transport software-defined network (T-SDN) offering, which would help the operator to identify risks to its network service and prevent issues.

Vodafone has chosen Huawei to supply Openstack-based equipment for its global virtualisation strategy.

Telefónica has claimed it has completed "the last piece of the puzzle" for end-to-end network slicing after integrating a programmable software defined network into a radio access network.

ONAP, the Linux foundation-led virtualisation organisation, has completed its first project, a unified architecture for end-to-end, closed-loop network automation.

Orange has started working with Red Hat in a bid to boost its network virtualisation efforts.

BT has extended its strategic partnership with Cisco by launching new virtualisation solutions into its network, which it said will cut time for enterprise customers wishing to deploy network functions.

Greenlandic operator TELE-POST has launched a network transformation project aimed at increasing the speed, capacity and coverage of its services.

Telefónica's virtualisation project UNICA has been given the risky business case of ensuring the operator's "survival", delegates at this year's Broadband World Forum have been told.

Three UK is planning to deploy software defined networking and network functions virtualisation across its core network as it looks to meet demand for voice over LTE, HD video and other digital services, as well as improve network performance

A trade body counting Orange and Telefónica as members has joined the Linux Foundation’s Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) project to use open source approaches in virtualisation.

Deutsche Telekom has partnered with Facebook in the Telecoms Infrastructure Project to bring technology out of the Stone Age, its VP for Aggregation, Transport, IP has claimed.

Automation has taken centre stage again at SDN NFV World Congress, with executives from Orange and Vodafone claiming it will be a vital part of successful virtualisation transformation.

The "brutal" automation required to enable "bloody difficult" virtualisation and the ongoing challenge of getting the right skills in place were among the debates during the first day of SDN NFV World Congress.