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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…

ITU platform to protect networks during Covid-19 The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has introduced the Global Network Resiliency Platform to help global networks remain “safer, stronger and more connected” in the face of increasing strain and growing demand during the coronavirus crisis. ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said, “The new platform will assist governments and the private sector in ensuring that networks are kept resilient and telecommunication services are available to all.” Also, this platform will collect relevant information and expertise on actions that telecommunication policymakers and others in the regulatory community can use to ensure that their telecom networks serve the needs of their country. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/vam4enm Remote working triggers demand for chips, laptops, and network goods As more and more employees switch to remote work during the outbreak of coronavirus disease, the demand for laptops, networking goods and supply chain components has increased substantially. Therefore, electronics retailers and…

Work from home: Can the telecoms industry take the strain? Many businesses opt for remote working due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and this has led to a dramatic increase in the use of online services. The additional pressure is proving problematic for the telecoms industry in Spain, which has reported a 40 percent increase in data consumption and a 50 percent increase in mobile phone usage. Movistar (Telefonica), Orange, Vodafone, Masmovil, and Euskaltel have issued a joint statement in anticipation of the national lockdown, urging customers to take “intelligent and responsible use of the network and the resources it provides us.” Meanwhile, BT, the UK’s largest telecom provider, said that its network can handle it. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/sm8bms7 Vodafone unveils five-point plan to combat COVID-19 Vodafone has put forward a five-point plan to maintain network services and assist governments across Europe in controlling the outbreak of coronavirus. The five…

Twilio rival MessageBird launches Inbox, an AI-powered contact center MessageBird, a telecommunications service provider in Amsterdam, Netherlands, has unveiled a new all-in-one, AI-powered contact center as it enters the competitive billion-dollar customer service software market. The new solution, dubbed Inbox and pitched as the “Slack for external communications,” enables customers to communicate with businesses and accept inbound messages from WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, Apple Business Chat, RCS, Line, Telegram, email, SMS, voice, and more. Additionally, companies can connect MessageBird’s Inbox to other internal tools as part of their preferred workflows, including Salesforce, Google Calendar, Shopify, HubSpot, Jira, and Slack. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/qvsqh9l CenturyLink adds IBM Cloud to its Cloud Connect portfolio US-based CenturyLink has added IBM Cloud to its growing Cloud Connect Dynamic Connections portfolio, which also includes Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle. The company said that through IBM Cloud Direct Link services, businesses can now access…

Hailo raises $60 million to accelerate the launch of its AI edge chip Israeli startup Hailo has raised further USD 60 million in series B funding for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, bringing its total financing to date to USD 88 million. This round, led by existing investors, was joined by strategic investors including ABB Technology Ventures, NEC Corporation, and London-based Latitude Ventures. Hailo said the new funding will help to roll out its Hailo-8 Deep Learning chip and to reach new markets and industries worldwide. The Hailo-8 could give edge devices far more processing power than before, allowing them to perform AI tasks without having to connect to the cloud. The company was founded in 2017, and its technology is designed for the automotive market, smart cameras, smartphones, drones and AR/VR platforms. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/tbwyjnb Ericsson starts manufacturing of 5G base station in Texas Sweden’s Ericsson, one of the…

A towering success: Cellnex revenue tops €1bn Cellnex Telecom’s revenue for 2019 exceeded EUR 1 billion with 67.5 percent of total income coming from infrastructure services it provides to operators. The Spanish wireless infrastructure operator currently owns 36,471 operative sites in eight European countries and plans to add 28,000 more as a result of ongoing acquisition deals pending completion. Cellnex has also announced a partnership with Bouygues Telecom to help them deploy their 5G network. The two companies have agreed to create a joint venture (51 percent Cellnex and 49 percent Bouygues Telecom) that will deploy and operate a fiber network connecting infrastructure equipment across France. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/s6fmz4h Google plans to invest $10 billion in US offices and data centers in 2020 Google has unveiled its plans to invest more than USD 10 billion in offices and data centers across the United States in 2020. Google and Alphabet…

EU’s new digital strategy targets data-hoarding tech firms The European Commission has proposed its new European digital strategy “Europe Fit for the Digital Age” that puts a target on all the biggest US tech players. It states that a large part of the world’s data is currently owned by a small number of Big Tech firms, which “could reduce the incentives for data-driven businesses to emerge, grow and innovate in the EU today, but numerous opportunities lie ahead.” The new proposals indicate the need to provide “an attractive policy environment”, which means that data can flow throughout the EU while applying data protection values established under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read more at https://tinyurl.com/wdb9hee Dell targets telco edge deployments with new server, micro data centre Dell Technologies has introduced new products for telecom operators that are building out edge network deployments. A compact high-performance server, a modular micro…

Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Orange test blockchain technology Deutsche Telecom is testing a blockchain solution that can be used to generate and sign secure inter-operator roaming discount agreements. T-Mobile US, Telefonica, Orange and the GSMA are collaborating to test the software that will reduce the complexity of the current process, which usually involves drafting, signing and manually implementing the contracts. Deutsche Telecom said that this is the first time operators are able to jointly test blockchain as a solution that also incorporates a corresponding legal framework, governance model, and integration into corporate IT infrastructures. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/rpwsegx The world’s biggest phone show has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns The GSM Association (GSMA) has canceled the world’s largest mobile phone show, Mobile World Congress (MWC), in Barcelona due to concerns related to the growing coronavirus pandemic. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide uniting more than 1,200…

Apple unifies its app stores by extending the universal purchase option to Mac apps Apple has added the ability for its app developers to sell their cross-platform apps as one universal purchase, including apps that run on macOS. Consumers will just pay once for an app that works across devices such as iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and/or Mac. Developers can choose to create a new app for these platforms using a single app record in the App Store Connect or add platforms to their existing app record. In preparation for the changes, the App Store categories will be unified across the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, to make the apps more discoverable. Apple said that support for universal purchase will launch in March 2020. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/txqz6al Israeli B2B blockchain startup Clear banks $13m in series A funding Blockchain settlement startup Clear has raised USD 13 million in a Series A round.…

Ribbon launches Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio to accelerate enterprise migration to cloud services The US technology company Ribbon Communications has introduced its Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio that includes the new EdgeMarc 6000, the latest iteration of Ribbon’s modular platform for voice and data functions. The cloud solutions provider said that its products portfolio securely connects and enhances enterprise voice and data applications, including Microsoft Teams, while delivering service assurance, advanced analytics, security, policy and routing capabilities for cloud communications applications. Ribbon’s Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio delivers a comprehensive enterprise edge offering to service providers and enterprises. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/uz95gdj Early 5G smartphone market all about Samsung and Huawei According to the latest Strategy Analytics (SA) report, the demand for 5G smartphones turned out to be much higher than expected and reached 19 million units sold in 2019. Almost three-quarters of such deliveries were made by Huawei and…