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Vilija Simkiene

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The Japanese telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT Corporation) has set up a new global technology services provider, NTT Ltd. The new NTT enterprise combines the capabilities of 28 companies, with NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security amongst others, into a single entity worth USD 11 billion. Headquartered in London, NTT Ltd. will have about 40000 employees in offices spread across 70 countries and regions. According to Jun Sawada, President and CEO for NTT Corporation, combining the new capabilities of NTT Ltd. along with NTT Data creates a global technology and business solutions provider outside Japan, with revenues of USD 20 billion. “Going forward, we will accelerate our execution as one NTT in order to contribute to a smarter and better world through digital transformation,” said Sawada. The collaboration of all these companies and the increased investment in innovation and R&D will allow NTT Ltd.…

Telecommunications giant AT&T and Colt Technology Services, a provider of network, voice, data centre and managed cloud services, have successfully completed the integration of MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Sonata Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow business customers to virtually seamlessly order services across multiple carriers. The two companies claim to be the first in the telecom industry to use MEF’s LSO Sonata APIs to automate the ordering of Ethernet services. Roman Pacewicz, Chief product officer, AT&T Business, said, “There’s no doubt this will change how carriers interact and operate in the industry. Our interactions are now more cost-efficient, flexible and error-free. We kicked off interoperability discussions and trials three years ago and gained important insights that will help create and refine industry standards under the guidance of MEF. The transformation of networks to a dynamic, on-demand, software-centric, cloud-based model opens up opportunities for everyone.” The implementation of the…

Ufinet, one of the leading international telecom operators in Latin America and a provider of fibre infrastructure and transmission services, has acquired a majority stake in the Brazilian wholesale carrier Netell Telecom, which offers connectivity services to local and international enterprises, network operators and service providers. With Netell’s network coverage in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo and a broader regional reach, Ufinet will be able to better serve its global customers in Latin America. Inigo Garcia del Cerro Prieto, Chief Executive Office of Ufinet Telecom, said, “This transaction represents an important milestone for our group. Netell has always delivered an impressive service, with great human resources and long experience in the market, which makes it a perfect match for us. This will definitely leverage our growth in Latin America.” The companies signed the agreement during the International Telecommunications Week (ITW), thus allowing Ufinet to enter the Brazilian…

Developers at the Swedish company True Software have added yet another feature to their application Truecaller, that is best known for helping users screen calls from strangers, spammers and robocallers. This feature is called Truecaller Voice and promises “high quality (HD), low latency and quick to connect audio calls” to both Android and iOS users. The Stockholm-based company said the app will also allow its users in emerging markets, such as India, to place free VoIP-powered voice calls using mobile data or Wi-Fi. According to a statement from the company, Truecaller users make 180 million outgoing calls per day using the app’s built-in dialer. Therefore, the Truecaller Voice shortcut has been strategically integrated into relevant touchpoints in the app such as call logs, the SMS Inbox, contact profiles and the aftercall screen, enabling users to seamlessly access the VoIP-based calls anywhere within the Truecaller app without switching to other…

NetNumber, the US-based provider of centralized signaling and routing controller (CSRC) solutions, and Voipfuture, the developer of edge technology for monitoring and analyzing voice quality in IP networks, have announced the launch of a fully-automated and intelligent routing system for voice services. This is the industry’s first intelligent platform to conduct traffic analysis for media and signaling, and transform quality information into routing actions. According to the announcement, the system will provide domestic telecommunications companies and international carriers with the capability to automatically reroute traffic in real-time in case of media quality deterioration. The rerouting and route recovery decisions will be based on the specified policies of the communication service providers (CSP). It is stated that the availability of automatic rerouting capabilities allows CSPs to improve quality by choosing more efficient downstream carriers, thereby attracting additional traffic from customers as well as OTTs and optimizing termination costs. Moreover, valuable traffic can receive…

EllaLink Ireland Ltd (EllaLink) has announced the appointment of the former Sparkle CEO Alessandro Talotta, and Alberto Horcajo, who has held senior positions at Telefonica’s Telxius, to its Board of Directors. EllaLink is a subsea cable project being built with advanced coherent technology and will  initially offer 72 Tbps of capacity over a four fiber-pair system, helping to remedy the congestion currently plaguing North Atlantic traffic. By linking data centers in Madrid, Lisbon, Marseille, Fortaleza and Sao Paulo, EllaLink is expected to provide express subsea connectivity and offer the world’s first direct fiber pair between Europe and Latin America. Michael Dedieu, Chairman of the EllaLink board and managing partner at Marguerite, an infrastructure investment fund that is backing the project, commented, “We are delighted to welcome Alessandro and Alberto as new independent directors to the EllaLink Board. Their skills will greatly complement the current board’s expertise through the on-going construction…

DIDWW, the cloud telephony platform focused on providing virtual phone numbers on a global basis, has recently been assigned a new international shared country code by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). This organization is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, and is responsible for implementing technical standards that ensure the seamless interconnection of networks. In the past, the company highlighted the vulnerabilities and shortfalls of the current number portability procedures and how it was possible that a subscriber could lose their phone number. This problem has become critical due to the fact that phone numbers are increasingly used as a supposedly secure means of identification and authentication in our journey towards full digital transformation. As per DIDWW’s official announcement, the company strongly subscribes to the ITU’s philosophy that the phone number is an asset that must be owned by the end-user, and the company…

The global race for future technologies has accelerated even further, with the South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom announcing that it is joining forces with network hardware providers Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung Electronics to carry out collaborative research and development projects to pave the way for 6G mobile network technologies. The partnership will also help to upgrade the already-advanced 5G technology, and expand  its adoption in other areas, including self-driving cars and in-built solutions. Park Jin-Hyo, Chief technology officer and Head of ICT R&D Center of SK Telecom, said, “Through strengthened cooperation with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom will be able to secure the world’s best 5G quality and lead the way towards 6G mobile network communications.” In accordance with the terms of the signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs), SK Telecom will work closely with each company to promote the advancement of 5G network technologies. They…

The Philippines operator Globe Telecom has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ISOC Infrastructure Inc. and Malaysia-based tower company Edotco Group Sdn. Bhd., to support the common tower initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). By entering this three-party agreement on the set-up of 150 mobile towers across the Philippines, Globe becomes the first telecommunications company to support the DICT initiative. According to Globe, unlike in most other countries, the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure spending in the Philippines has been left solely to the private sector, leading to huge gaps in cell site and wired broadband coverage across the country. For example, Vietnam has 90000 cellular towers compared to 17850 cellular stations in the Philippines. Furthermore, according to the latest data reports from TowerXchange, there are 34300 cellular towers in Pakistan, and 30000 sites in Bangladesh. In a statement, Globe Telecom president and CEO…

The Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo Inc. and a multinational cyber security and defense company Trend Micro Inc. have announced the launch of a service designed to protect Internet of Things (IoT) devices running on Docomo’s mobile network. The new Cloud Platform Network Security Service from Docomo, which uses Trend Micro’s security platform, will enable the “first-of-its-kind protection” for IoT networks. The provided user-friendly security shield will mainly target Docomo’s customers who are building infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments. Akihiko Omikawa, Executive vice president at Trend Micro, said, “The promise and potential of 5G has the world waiting but let me issue a warning for the need for extra protection. Smarter endpoints mean a greater cyber risk to manage. We’re delighted and proud that our technology meets the needs of this global mobile phone leader. Together our joint solution delivers cloud infrastructure capabilities integrated with IoT-ready security customized for modern data centers.”…