Networking
Internet service provider associations USTelecom, NCTA and INCOMPAS, joined by the Technology Channel Sales Professionals trade association, have urged the FCC to exempt sales agents, value-added resellers and dealers from the obligations of an E-Rate consultant. The FCC is seeking comments on its proposed rulemaking for the E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries afford technology services. The agency wants to define a consultant as a non-employee helping an organization participate in E-Rate and is looking for reasons to exclude channel partners. If lumped into the consultant category, agents would face registration, certification and fee restrictions and lose the ability to earn vendor sales commissions. Reply comments are due November 12, and the outcome could determine whether agents keep earning commissions on E-Rate deals.
Two chained vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-83548 and CVE-2026-83549) have been disclosed in SonicWall SMA1000 appliances. The former is a maximum-severity (10.0) server-side request forgery flaw, while the latter is a high-severity (7.8) OS command injection vulnerability. SonicWall has confirmed in-the-wild exploitation, CISA has added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and federal agencies must remediate by Saturday.
Lumen Technologies announced during its Q2 2026 earnings call that it has stopped selling enterprise voice services, but has not set a service termination date or disclosed a partner migration plan. The company's legacy business (including voice and copper services) saw a 15% revenue decline, while strategic business grew by 14%. Executives said they would actively manage the voice business exit but provided no specific timeline.
Logicalis US announced the acquisition of New Mexico security services provider Loial; the transaction amount was not disclosed and does not require shareholder approval. Approximately 70% of Loial's revenue comes from state, local, and education customers, and its founder will lead the New Mexico region.
Coeo Solutions announced on Monday the completion of its acquisition of NetWolves, with a base purchase price of $14.5 million. This acquisition will enhance Coeo's service capabilities across Fortinet and Cisco technology stacks and expand its team size. Vaso Corporation thereby fully exits the IT market.
In its latest forecast released on July 27, Gartner raised global IT spending for 2026 to $6.37 trillion, up 14.2% from 2025 and higher than the $6.31 trillion forecast in April. Demand for AI infrastructure remains strong, but scrutiny from investors and boards over enterprise AI investments is also intensifying.