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Ujet raises $55 million to expand cloud-based customer support platform Ujet, a leading provider of cloud contact center software, has secured USD 55 million in Series C funding to expand its sales and marketing teams at home and internationally, as well as launch new products and features. The San Francisco-based company already claims to have several high-profile clients, including Google, Instacart, and PayPal’s iZettle. Ujet enables customers to contact support teams through voice, email and messaging, and integrates smartphone cameras so they can easily submit photos and videos documenting problems. With this funding, the company is now well-positioned to capitalize on the increased demand for cloud-based contact center technology. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y8ayek29 UK security officials tell telcos to stock up on Huawei gear – report The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has suggested that UK telecoms operators stockpile critical equipment to ensure the sustainability of telecoms infrastructure, as political…

Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG, the leading mobile operator in the German market, has announced an agreement to sell about 10,100 telecom sites to the group’s majority-owned tower infrastructure arm Telxius Telecom for EUR 1.5 billion. The acquisition deal includes 10,000 rooftop sites and up to 80 tower sites, as well as an obligation to build 2,400 new sites (BTS). This move will ensure the company’s exceptional future growth in Germany, Europe’s largest telecom market, where a robust deployment by operators is expected to improve mobile broadband coverage and secure the future deployment of 5G. Markus Haas, CEO of Telefonica Deutschland, said, “This is one of the largest and most important transactions in the history of Telefonica Deutschland. It represents an important milestone in focusing our business activities. We are pursuing a clear course based on our growth strategy. Within this strategy, we are focusing on further improving the quality of the O2 network for our…

Spanish telecom operator MasMovil agrees $3.3 billion private equity bid KKR, Cinven and Providence have made their Public Acquisition Offer for Spanish telecoms operator MasMovil. The three venture capital funds have proposed to pay EUR 22.5 per share of the telco, which is valued at almost EUR 3 billion. According to the statement, KKR, Cinven and Providence will pay a 20 percent premium on the current MasMovil share price. Meinrad Spenger, MasMovil Chief Executive, said that they have signed an agreement with the bidders on a deal which would be “beneficial for the shareholders and other stakeholders in the company.” Furthermore, the bidders noted that they would maintain continuity in MasMovil’s strategy, staff and executive team. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y754vsc9 Google Cloud signs major UK government deal The technology giant Google Cloud has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to make its cloud solutions…

Hosting and colocation service provider Equinix has announced an agreement to purchase a portfolio of 13 data center sites across Canada from BCE Inc., the massive telecommunications and media conglomerate, and the corporate parent of Bell MTS and Bell Canada. The company expects to close this USD 750 million deal in the second half of 2020. The 13 data center sites that will join California-based Equinix’s portfolio represent 25 individual facilities and are expected to generate annual revenues of approximately USD 105 million. In addition to cementing a stronger foothold in the third-largest economy in the Americas, Equinix will also gain more than 600 customers that are currently operating within the Bell data centers. Equinix is already the world’s largest data center and colocation provider, with a network of more than 210 facilities across 55 metros. The company’s main business is hosting the technology infrastructure of third party organizations. “Canadian businesses…

Telefonica offers IoT, blockchain and AI technology to support start-ups in Spain, Germany and the UK Telefonica has launched its ‘Activation Programme’, a new initiative designed to help start-ups and SMEs in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom to accelerate their business via IoT, blockchain and AI technologies. The global telecom giant said it will provide selected start-ups with access to its proprietary technology platforms free of charge for a period of six months. Irene Gomez, director of Connected Open Innovation at Telefonica, said, “Collaboration is more important than ever, which is why at Connected Open Innovation we want to help start-ups scale by giving them access to our technology platforms through the use of APIs, which are free, agile and simple.” Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y7n5f9cp T-Mobile customers can send RCS messages to Android users worldwide T-Mobile US, one of the largest providers of wireless voice and data communications services…

Facebook, telcos to build a huge subsea cable for Africa and the Middle East Facebook, together with a group of telecom companies, including Vodafone, Orange, STC, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Telecom Egypt, and WIOCC, will build a subsea cable system that is claimed to be one of the largest in the world. The project is called 2Africa and will cover 37,000 km of cables interconnecting Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yahgfe8g Workvivo raises $16 million to reinvent the intranet in the age of Slack and Zoom The Irish startup Workvivo, an employee communications platform, has raised USD 16 million in a Series A…

Liberty Global and Telefonica to merge their U.K. operations creating the leading fixed-mobile provider in the country Virgin Media, Liberty Global’s cable operator, and Telefonica’s mobile carrier O2 have announced an agreement to merge their UK operations in a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. This mega-deal is valued at GBP 31.4 billion, with O2 worth GBP 12.7 billion and Virgin Media valued at GBP 18.7 billion. According to the announcement, this combination will create a stronger fixed and mobile competitor in the UK market, supporting the expansion of Virgin Media’s giga-ready network and O2’s 5G mobile deployment for the benefit of consumers, businesses and the public sector. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2021. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yc42j66f Ericsson ‘talking to advisers’ about selling $1.2bn number portability unit Ericsson’s largest shareholder Cevian Capital has advised the communications equipment supplier to sell its 83.3% stake in the US number portability company Iconectiv, formerly known as Telcordia. For the past several years,…

In its quest to deliver more comprehensive next-generation enterprise networks, the UK-based Colt Technology Services has launched two new features underpinned by its SD-WAN platform, VoIP optimization and support for IPv6. The company is an innovator and pioneer in Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), running its Colt IQ Network that now connects more than 900 data centers across Europe, Asia and North America’s largest business hubs with over 29,000 on-net locations. In a statement, the operator said that these new features address the shift in network demand that businesses around the world are currently experiencing, as many have to adapt to the new standards of mass remote working and having additional devices connecting to their already stretched networks. This coronavirus-induced shift to remote working means that enterprises now have a significantly increased demand for VoIP-enabled networking products. Peter Coppens, Vice President of Product Portfolio…

DIDWW, an Irish-based telecom operator providing global telecommunication services, has enabled free outbound calling to COVID-19 hotlines to help collaboration amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns. The company said that all customers using DIDWW outbound trunks and virtual DID numbers as caller IDs can now access local COVID-19 hotlines at no additional charge in 17 countries. Lina Zaboras, CEO of DIDWW, said, “DIDWW leverages and opens up its global access to local telecommunications infrastructure to facilitate another essential service. While enabling local dialing to emergency and short numbers is quite challenging in the VoIP industry, we are successfully expanding these services with the latest addition of local dialing to COVID-19 hotlines over our global VoIP infrastructure. We encourage our wholesale customers to enable the access and route these calls for their end-users with the mission-critical DIDWW global network, free of charge.” In a statement, DIDWW noted that so far, they…

Verizon buys Zoom rival BlueJeans for less than $500 million Verizon Business has announced a deal to purchase enterprise-grade video conferencing platform BlueJeans, thereby expanding Verizon’s unified communications portfolio and improving its service for business customers. This acquisition shows that the company is also trying to capitalize on the current trend of remote employees making extensive use of online services such as Zoom, Slack and Microsoft during the pandemic. BlueJeans has more than 15,000 customers, including Facebook, IBM-owned Red Hat, ADP, Zillow and LinkedIn. The deal is worth USD 500 million and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yd9qtfhg Apple’s new iPhone SE is surprisingly powerful for $399 Apple is launching iPhone SE 2020, the second generation of its cheapest smartphone in the iPhone lineup, priced at just USD 399. The iPhone SE runs on Apple’s latest A13 Bionic chip that enables great battery…