Comcast says voice and video calls have skyrocketed 212 percent during widespread self-isolation
Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company, has announced that voice and video calls have more than tripled on its network since people across the US started working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the company, traffic in this category has increased by 212 percent in total, while overall peak traffic on its network has grown by 32 percent. Tony Werner, Comcast’s tech leader, said that the additional traffic is “well within the capabilities of the network,” and despite the increases in usage, the company’s network is working just fine.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/skncjow
Zoom freezes feature development to fix security and privacy issues
Over the past few weeks, the Zoom video conferencing app has been widely used for personal and business online meetings during the coronavirus lockdowns around the world. According to the Zoom Video Communications company, the number of participants in daily meetings jumped from 10 million in December to 200 million in March. The company’s CEO Eric S. Yuan has written a blog post addressing some security and privacy issues. For the next 90 days, Zoom is enacting a feature freeze, which means that the company is not going to launch any new features until it fixes the current set of functions. In addition, Zoom will work with third-party experts and prepare a transparency report.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/utfydw6
UK ISPs lift data caps during coronavirus pandemic
BT, Vodafone, Virgin Media, Openreach, Sky, TalkTalk, O2, Three, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, and Kcom are lifting their limits on fixed-line broadband services to protect vulnerable people from having to pay additional and unexpected charges for exceeding these data limits. Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said that this package will help people to stay connected whilst they remain at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Major UK broadband providers have previously advertised some deals as “unlimited”, although in reality, a high data allowance was subject to some hidden restrictions.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/r8w834c
Signicat acquires Connectis to create stronger digital identity platform
Norwegian company Signicat has acquired the digital identity specialist Connectis to substantially increase its share of the identity verification market in Europe. More than 14 million Connectis customers in the public sector, health care, insurance and financial services have been identified using its software and eRecognition tokens. Connectis allows customers to connect to online services using DigiD, eHerkenning, Facebook, Google, eIDAS, iDIN and many other digital identity methods. Signicat hopes that this acquisition will enable them to help businesses reduce fraud, meet regulatory requirements for digital identification, and have secure authentication to guarantee reliable transactions.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/szlkz8d
HPE, Intel and Linux Foundation team up for open source software for 5G core
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) has announced a partnership with Intel and the Linux Foundation to work on a new open-source software project. The new partnership, called the Open Distributed Infrastructure Management, will help automate the deployment of 5G across multiple sites. Other partners for this open-source project include AMI, Apstra, IBM’s Red Hat, Tech Mahindra, and World Wide Technology. Moreover, HPE will also introduce an enterprise offering, the HPE Open Distributed Infrastructure Management Resource Aggregator that is aligned with the initiative.
Read more at https://tinyurl.com/vofh2mf
