Telecommunications equipment supplier World Telecom Labs (WTL) and a mobile virtual network operator Edpnet, have announced that the first all-VoIP network in Belgium is now live, enabling businesses to benefit from high-quality and cost effective voice services. It is stated that Edpnet has become the first operator in Belgium to make the switch from traditional ISDN to a VoIP platform, thus gaining the ability to easily add more capacity, which will ensure the company’s future growth. For this move, Edpnet has deployed WTL’s VoIP switches for its VoIP links, ensuring high call quality and an always-on network, and optimizing bandwidth capacity. Joachim Slabbaert, COO at Edpnet, said, “WTL is a technologically innovative company whose team really understand what VoIP operators want and need. We buy from them because they do what they say – improve our network and reduce our costs. This migration is a huge milestone for our company and has…
Yet another carrier has joined the ranks of the super-fast 5G service providers. Three UK has launched its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) network, and is now offering high-speed 5G Broadband in central London. The country’s fourth biggest mobile network operator is offering “fibre-like speeds” and a “plug and play” hub to allow next-gen mobile network access throughout the home. In order to get Internet connectivity, the router connects directly to a 5G mobile phone signal, thus eliminating the need for users to pay a landline rental fee. Dave Dyson, CEO at Three UK, said, “Three’s 5G is going to revolutionize the home broadband experience. No more paying for landline rental, no more waiting for engineers, and even a same day delivery option. It really is the straightforward plug and play broadband that customers have been waiting for. We’ve taken a simple approach with one single truly unlimited data…
Angola Cables and rest of Angolan telecoms industry to be privatised Angola’s official journal, the Diario da Republica has announced that under the Privatisation Programme, the Angolan government is to sell stakes in 195 companies. The telecommunication companies that will be included in the Privatisation Programme are Unitel (in which MSTelecom has a 20% stake), MS Telecom itself, Net One, Multitel, Angola Telecom, TV Cabo Angola, Angola Cables, Angolan postal company ENCTA, Angola Comunicacoes e Sistemas (ACS) and telephone directory company ELTA. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5aw5r9y Google Accounts now let Android web users authenticate themselves with their fingerprint Google now allows Android phone users to sign into some of its services without a password. The users will verify their identity with a fingerprint only, which makes authentication more secure and easier. This feature is built by using open authentication standards FIDO2, FIDO CTAP and WebAuthn. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yy272mwn Verizon…
According to the most recent report from Canalys Cloud Channels Analysis, the worldwide spending on cloud infrastructure services has increased by more than one third (37.6%) year-on-year, soaring to USD 26.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019. The ranking of the leading cloud service providers remains unchanged, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominating at 36.1 percent growth, with revenue of over USD 8.3 billion, and a total market share of 31.5 percent. Microsoft Azure comes second with its sales growing by 63.6 percent to just under USD 5 billion, increasing its marketing share to 18.1 percent. In third place is Google Cloud with a 9.5 percent market share, followed by Alibaba Cloud in the fourth position. In total, cloud infrastructure revenue grew by USD 7.2 billion compared to a year ago, and the current expansion marks “the biggest ever quarterly increase in terms of value, highlighting the continued robust…
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the adoption of new rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign robocalls. The new regulations will allow the US federal government to carry out enforcement action against foreign businesses involved in deliberate spoofing, thus closing “a loophole in the law that prevented the agency from pursuing scammers sending spoofed text messages and international fraudsters making spoofed calls to Americans.” According to the announcement, this resolution is the further implementation of amendments to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 that “prohibits anyone from causing a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value.” These rules have been put in place to counteract scammers operating in overseas call centers who often pretend to be calling from reliable companies. They use…
The second Payment Services Directive, or so-called PSD2 requirements will come into force on September 14th, 2019. With this deadline approaching, we have decided to examine this matter from the merchandiser’s perspective. In brief, PSD2 is an initiative from the EU aimed at regulating the e-payment environment where banks and fintechs (Third Party Service Providers – TPSPs) currently operate in a largely disorganized manner. There is no consistent, standardized or regulated framework that defines the cooperation between banks and TPSPs. The bank may refuse access by a TPSP to its client’s bank account, preventing the same client or merchandiser from using the TPSP’s services, which may be more convenient or less costly than banking services. To regulate the e-payment market, PSD2 will force banks to grant third-party access to their clients’ bank accounts. Equally important, TPSPs will be regulated – they will have to obtain a license and…
FIX Network, an innovative technology company from Vilnius, Lithuania, has developed a new two-factor authentication (2FA) SIM card and app for protecting mobile data and digital identities. The ultimate goal of the company is to provide comprehensive blockchain-based solutions for mobile devices, enabling subscribers to secure their digital assets and identities by safekeeping private keys on their SIM cards. However, due to the urgent and immediate requirement of securing phone numbers – which may be considered to be the most valuable digital identities – FIX Network will provide a free-to-use 2FA application, together with newly issued and truly subscriber-owned phone numbers that will serve as secure and global digital identities. These numbers will be fully controlled by the subscriber, preventing unauthorized porting or malicious hijacking of the phone number. This 2FA solution will also include the practical ability to recover access to digital identities through user-defined policies that include…
We live in a world of increasingly complex telecom and VoIP services, with subscribers having access to an abundance of cutting-edge products. The fierce competition in the field of communications demands an excellent customer experience in order to attract and retain customers, and to reduce churn. With so many choices on offer, the power has shifted to customers – if faced with a problem, they have come to expect an immediate resolution. Unfortunately, the surveys of customer experience in the telecommunication world reveal that, in general, consumers have a very low opinion of the telecoms industry and are dissatisfied with the support that they receive from their providers. It seems that the reason for this deficiency may be found in the mindset of telecom operators, who devote most of their time and effort to building and managing their VoIP networks, rather than indulging their customers. Satisfactory customer experience in…
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…


