US-based Reinvent Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saddleback Communications operating a private-label communications platform as a service (CPaaS), has enhanced the security for its real-time business VoIP, video, unified communications (UC) and collaboration services. The company has now deployed carrier-grade VoIP/SIP security, threat intelligence analytics and fraud-detection technology in cooperation with RedShift Networks, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for communications service providers. Reinvent Telecom provides the ability for its wholesale partners to deliver secure, reliable and high-quality Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), conferencing and collaboration, Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) and SIP trunking services. Bill Bryant, President at Reinvent Telecom, said, “At Reinvent, we understand that today’s VoIP networks are as vulnerable to cyberattacks as data networks. That’s why we’re doubling down on network security to give our partners and their customers the protection – and peace of mind – they deserve.” The wholesale UCaaS provider…
Openreach adopts Nokia’s 10Gbps FTTP broadband kit for the UK The Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia has announced that Openreach will deploy its next-generation fiber solutions. This will help meet Openreach’s target to bring ultra-fast and reliable broadband access to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s. Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said, “This new digital platform will help our economy to bounce back more quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic – enabling people to continue work from home, and millions of businesses to operate seamlessly online for decades to come.” This supplier agreement also marks a shift away from reliance on Huawei equipment for the UK’s largest broadband networks. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yb6cj6jn Google and Apple’s joint COVID-19 contact tracing API now available to health authorities Apple and Google have released the first public version of their jointly developed API for COVID-19 tracing apps. This software will enable public health authorities to…
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…
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), a non-profit industry organization representing mobile industry suppliers worldwide, has expanded its membership by welcoming nine new companies from the global 4G and 5G mobile ecosystem. The GSA said that it has so far accepted Approve-IT as a new ordinary member together with eight new associate members, including the French telecom regulator ARCEP and the Singaporean regulator IMDA. In March 2020, the association also extended its Executive Committee by adding ZTE as an executive member along with Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung. Joe Barrett, the President of the GSA, said, “The global mobile industry is not only highly competitive, it’s also highly collaborative. 5G doesn’t belong to one company or country; there is a whole ecosystem of regulators, vendors and operators who are working together to drive global harmonization of spectrum, innovation in networks and devices, and new use cases for 5G…
BEREC says COVID-19 won’t break the internet The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) has announced that the increase in Internet usage across the continent is more or less stabilizing and that networks have been able to withstand the pressure. BEREC said that national regulatory authorities (NRAs) have reported “a stabilization in the overall traffic, but some NRAs still observe an increase of the overall traffic.” Some operators have expanded their network’s capacity to cope with the steady growth of traffic. According to the organization, “operators, which did not take any such measure, are still closely monitoring their network’s capacity to check if an upgrade is necessary.” Read more at https://tinyurl.com/rxmg53l Vodafone slashes costs of core network functions across Europe using VMware’s telco cloud The UK-based telecoms operator Vodafone has completed the deployment of a single digital network architecture across all of its 21 European business markets, using…
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…
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…
The US technology company Ribbon Communications has introduced its new EdgeMarc 300 Series to provide small businesses, home office and branch office customers that currently have analog voice infrastructure, with an easy and cost-effective way to capitalize on IP-based voice services. The cloud solutions provider said that the EdgeMarc 300 is part of the recently launched cloud-based Ribbon Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio, which securely connects and enhances enterprise voice and data applications, including Microsoft Teams. This portfolio of edge solutions delivers service assurance, advanced analytics, security, policy and routing functionalities for cloud communications applications. Ribbon’s EdgeMarc 300 is a survivable branch office solution that supports the integration of analog endpoints and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), as well as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) calls. This gateway provides connectivity between analog and SIP devices, enabling branch offices to rapidly migrate analog phones to a SIP-based network and communicate seamlessly with…
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…
The next-generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks is steadily gaining traction, with significant implementations under way. All of the major carriers are rolling out their 5G networks, targeting large cities that crave super speeds, virtually lag-free connections, extended coverage and other great benefits that are made available by this advanced technology. 5G has already been launched in many different locations around the world, but it is still considered to be in its initial stages. All of the US carriers have now launched some form of 5G cellular network. But what exactly is 5G, how fast is it compared with 4G, what will it bring to VoIP applications, and what are the benefits and drawbacks of this innovative technology? Let’s take a look at 5G in more detail. What is 5G? 5G stands for fifth-generation cellular wireless and is the next generation of telecom networks that entered the…

