Ericsson, a global networking company, has announced its plan to buy Vonage, a cloud-platform company based in the United States, for $6.2 billion. Ericsson is getting a more contemporary communications strategy with Vonage, which includes a cloud contact center, communications APIs, and a VoIP solution. The move reflects Ericsson’s growing attempts to join the enterprise market, with the goal of enabling these clients to take use of new services in addition to the high speeds enabled by 5G networks. This merger, though, is not about 5G. Ericsson is concentrating on Vonage’s communications APIs, which it hopes will allow it to access a global network of developers working on 4G and 5G technologies. Vonage is a cloud-based communications provider that allows clients to incorporate communications, such as voice, video, and messaging, into apps and products through its Vonage Communications Platform. Ericsson believes that Vonage’s cloud platform, which now serves…
The Italian telecoms operator TIM is evaluating the US investment group’s KKR expression of interest in acquiring the full capital stake of the company, a potential 11 billion euro transaction. The proposal was lodged by the US investment fund at a price of €0.505 per share, a 45.7 percent premium over the share’s closing price on Friday. TIM described KKR’s expression of interest as “friendly,” with the goal of securing approval from TIM’s board and management. Telecom Italia said its board of directors met and addressed the fund’s interest in initiating a prospective public tender, which is subject to a four-week period of due diligence and clearance from the Italian government, that has veto power over the group’s purchase. Although TIM is a private corporation, because it is considered a strategic asset for Italy, the Italian government has the right to decline any purchase that it believes would…
Who knew we would start the new decade with so many conference and video calls with colleagues, friends and family? If you feel tired or burned out after all these virtual calls, meetings or conferences, welcome to the club. So many people are experiencing this phenomenon that it has even been given the name “Zoom Fatigue”. “Zoom fatigue” describes fatigue, anxiety or burnout associated with excessive use of virtual communication platforms. “Zoom fatigue”, like other experiences accompanying the pandemic, is widespread, intense and completely new. So, the question is: what effect does the increased use of virtual communications have on our well-being? How does remote communication affect workers? The amount of virtual meetings have gone through the roof, with hundreds of millions of online encounters taking place every day, as protocols of social isolation have physically kept people apart. It is frustrating when most of our socialization takes place online,…
Consolidated Communications launches new gigabit service Consolidated Communications has introduced Fidium Fiber, a new Gigabit consumer fiber internet brand with an entirely new customer experience. Fidium Fiber internet will first be available in certain locations in Northern New England, providing symmetrical, Gigabit internet to residential consumers with no data limitations. Fidium provides simple, uncomplicated plans and pricing, with a range of high-speed fiber services beginning at $35 per month. Fidium is currently available in communities throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, with new locations being added on a weekly basis throughout Northern New England. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2m53cs8n Nokia introduces SaaS services Nokia announced the launch of several Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications for communication service providers (CSPs), with the objective of providing operators with a more cost-effective, flexible, and customer-centric approach for running existing networks and delivering new services. Nokia’s approach to SaaS for CSPs is to provide new software that…
There has recently been a significant surge in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) assaults all around the world. A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to interrupt regular traffic to a targeted server, service, or network by flooding the target or its surrounding infrastructure with excessive Internet traffic. Cloudflare has reported that it has neutralized a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack that leveraged about 15,000 compromised devices and topped at just under 2 Tbps of bandwidth. The assault was believed to have employed a combination of Mirai-infected Internet of Things devices, which are frequently used to conduct enormous DDoS attacks, and unpatched versions of the GitLab developer tool. The DDoS assault comes only a few weeks after Rapid7 announced a GitLab vulnerability on November 1, 2021, rated a full 10.0 on the CVSS severity scale, that could be leveraged to enable an attacker to remotely run code, and warned that exploitation would…
Airbus and NTT DOCOMO have tested the possibility of supplying future wireless broadband access using the solar-powered Zephyr High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS). The experiment was conducted in August in the United States, when the Zephyr S aircraft flew in the stratosphere for 18 days to assess different capabilities. The Airbus Zephyr S, which is equipped with an onboard radio transmitter, offered a highly flexible data link during its stratospheric flight to mimic future direct-to-device connection. Test data was collected at different altitudes and during various hours of the day and night, with the goal of determining how weather conditions, varied elevation angles and aircraft flight patterns influence connectivity in the stratosphere. Various bandwidths were used in the tests to replicate direct-to-device services from the HAPS to end-users at low, nominal and high capacity. The demonstration proved the practicality and adaptability of the 2GHz spectrum for HAPS-based services,…
BT is opening a robotics research facility BT Labs in Suffolk, England, will open a 5,000-square-foot robotics research laboratory to create robotic solutions for telecom and civil engineering. The lab is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. BT anticipates that academics at the new facility will collaborate with colleges and utilities to create and test technologies that will advance the pace of BT’s fiber rollout as well as the upgrading of the power and water providers’ subterranean and overhead networks. The researchers will concentrate on issues such as installing new fiber infrastructure without digging up roadways and sidewalks, providing trenchless infrastructure utilizing robotic locomotion and excavation techniques, and more. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/dm6ujvnz Cisco powers AT&T managed SASE offering AT&T is adding a new product to its worldwide, managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) portfolio. AT&T SASE with Cisco is an unified network and security management solution…
Viasat, a worldwide communications company, and Inmarsat, a major UK-based supplier of global mobile satellite communications services, have announced the signing of a formal agreement under which Viasat will buy Inmarsat for $7.3 billion. The merger will establish a global communications leader with increased size and breadth to link the globe more economically, safely and securely. The new organization’s complementary assets and resources will allow the launch of innovative new services in both the mobile and fixed segments, giving customers more options in broadband communications and narrowband services, such as IoT. The merged business intends to combine both companies’ spectrum, satellite and terrestrial assets into a worldwide high-capacity hybrid space and terrestrial network able to offer exceptional service in the rapidly developing commercial and government sectors. Together, these businesses will establish a formidable multi-spectrum, multi-orbit powerhouse. With production and people capacity around the world, the new company…
Over the past decade, there have been so many advancements that it is difficult to keep up with all the technological breakthroughs. This journey has been thrilling and every invention delivers new technology at a rapid pace. It is critical to look to the future for clues as to where technology will take the society next. And this decade is shaping up to be one of significant technological leaps, as businesses prepare for the large-scale integration of advanced technologies. Here are the top technological trends that are taking the world by storm. Blockchain A blockchain, in its most basic form, is a shared, digital record that cannot be changed once a transaction has been recorded and confirmed. In other words, blockchain technology makes it nearly impossible to falsify a transaction. When you hear the term blockchain, the first thing that usually springs to mind is cryptocurrency; however, there is more…
IBM to purchase security firm ReaQta IBM intends to buy endpoint security firm ReaQta in order to improve its automated cybersecurity threat detection and response capabilities. The acquisition broadens IBM’s capabilities in the extended detection and response (XDR) sector, consistent with the company’s objective to supply security through an open approach that spans diverse technologies, data and hybrid cloud environments. IBM also introduced QRadar XDR, a new suite of XDR capabilities designed to assist security analysts in breaking down the walls between the industry’s growth of point products and gaining full insight through security tools and data sources, both in the cloud and on-premises. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/ftyj3ds Airtel Africa and UNICEF enter a multi-million-dollar partnership Airtel Africa, an African telecoms service provider, has established a partnership with UNICEF to expedite the roll-out of digital learning by connecting schools to the Internet and assuring free access to educational platforms in…