Most progressive and forward-thinking companies employ advanced technologies when trying to find new ways to strengthen commercial relationships and reinforce their business processes to promote growth. In today’s global digital world, telephony has become much more than just communications – it promotes innovation, efficiency, flexibility and integration. While more and more companies are seeking to adopt modern, cost-effective communication technology such as VoIP (Voice over Internet protocol), the task of communicating with customers and taking care of their needs is often accomplished using advanced and high-tech CRM (customer relationship management) solutions. VoIP-CRM integrations allow cloud VoIP providers to connect their customer’s CRM accounts with the implemented business phone systems, and exchange data between the two platforms. Let’s analyze the benefits of CRM and phone system integration, and the smart communication models for business that offer the combination of VoIP and CRM. The concept of VoIP-CRM integration In general, CRM…
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has launched the first database in the telecommunications industry to track worldwide 5G devices. This new 5G device tracking and reporting facility, which forms part of the GSA Analyser for Mobile Broadband Devices (GAMBoD) database, “represents an important milestone for the 5G ecosystem as it moves from service trials and prototype user equipment to commercially available services and devices”. In its first survey, 5G Device Ecosystem Report, dated March 2019, the GSA identified a total of 23 vendors that have confirmed the upcoming availability of 5G devices, with 33 different devices available, including regional variants. There were 7 publicized 5G device form factors, namely phones, hotspots, indoor CPE, outdoor CPE, modules, Snap-On dongles, adapters and USB terminals. On a per form factor basis, the report identified 12 phones (plus regional variants), 5 hotspots (plus regional variants), 8 CPE devices (indoor and outdoor),…
Europol, the European Union’s police agency, has published a report stating that telecoms fraud is costing over 29 billion Euros every year. The survey on cyber-telecom crime was conducted by Europol’s European cybercrime center (EC3) and cyber security specialist Trend Micro. This report underlines that telecom fraud is becoming a low-risk alternative to traditional financial crime, and due to the reduced cost and increased availability of hacking equipment, this type of fraud is on the rise. According to Europol, the most common methods of telecom fraud are vishing, where people are persuaded to disclose personal details, Wangiri, where people are tricked into calling back to expensive numbers, and international revenue sharing fraud (IRSF) that is claimed to be “the most damaging fraud scheme to date”. Describing IRSF, Europol stated: “It involves transferring monetary value from one carrier to another, based on the inter-carrier trust between telecom operators. Patient fraudsters…
The extensive lineup of desktop SIP phone systems has been supplemented by yet another cordless solution, as Panasonic Systems Solutions Company of North America has announced the release of their new SIP cordless KX-TPA68 communication terminal. The phone was designed “for intuitive use and added flexibility as a member of the KX-TGP600 SIP cordless phone system family”. The Panasonic KX-TPA68 facilitates collaboration among staff members and enables real-time shared call appearance. The communication terminal allows users to pick up calls, retrieve held calls and join calls from lines shared across multiple KX-TPA68 cordless desk phones that are registered to the same base unit. The included features allow users to monitor the status of up to six phone lines on the same screen in real-time, and complete actions with a single touch. The new solution features an enhanced user interface and is equipped with a 3.5-inch color LCD, 18…
The accomplished blockchain technologies company PeerStream, Inc. has joined the partnership of Telefonica’s cybersecurity unit ElevenPaths and decentralized hardware-based cybersecurity leader Rivetz, to work cooperatively on next-generation zero trust architectures, and offer privacy and security protection for business communications. Alex Harrington, CEO of PeerStream, said: “We are excited to collaborate with such esteemed partners to build groundbreaking software that has the potential to deliver real value for a large worldwide client base. We are honored to join ElevenPaths and Rivetz in this common vision.” PeerStream is focusing on privacy and security improvements and the development of enterprise-grade communications software that is being readied to enter the market under the Backchannel brand. Backchannel incorporates a growing suite of software tools created to control secure, real-time data and messaging channels, including support for video streaming. The company’s decentralized network routing technology may operate on either blockchain or traditional distributed architectures. …
Do you want to change your telecommunication service provider, but need to keep your current phone number? This process is called number portability, and defines the mechanism and procedures that allow you to switch from one phone network service provider to another in any Licensed Service Area (LSA), while maintaining your existing number. Number portability offers customers the right to exercise their choice in selecting a service provider and, at the same time, avoid the inconvenience of being allocated a new phone number. This important facility provides the customer with freedom-of-choice and, as a result, generates competition among service providers encouraging lower tariffs, improved services and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) of the networks. It is important to note that the portability feature only concerns the phone number, and is not applicable to services. In this article we focus on the complete porting process from start to finish and, at…
A consortium of nine technology companies – Intel, Cisco, Dell EMC, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Facebook, Google, Alibaba and Huawei – has been formed in order to create and launch a new standard, called Compute Express Link (CXL). This project will accelerate ever-expanding data workloads, such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), rich media services, and cloud applications. Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives at Intel, said in a statement: “CXL is an important milestone for data-centric computing and will be a foundational standard for an open, dynamic accelerator ecosystem. Like USB and PCI Express, which Intel also cofounded, we can look forward to a new wave of industry innovation and customer value delivered through the CXL standard.” The new cluster of tech giants, described as “the biggest group of influencers driving a modern interconnect standard”, also affirmed the CXL Specification 1.0, which enables…
Motorola Solutions has announced the acquisition of Avtec Inc., the top U.S. provider of advanced dispatch products for public safety and commercial customers. Additional details of the transaction, which closed on the 11th of March, were not released. Based in South Carolina, Avtec specializes in voice over internet protocol (VoIP) dispatch services using land mobile radio (LMR) and broadband networks. The company offers solutions and products that enable customers, including airlines, railroads and energy companies, to connect their personnel in operations centers with workers in the field using two-way radios. Motorola Solutions, a global leader in mission-critical communications, has been reselling the Avtec consoles to its MOTOTRBO customers. Accordingly, such an acquisition will provide Motorola with a complete product portfolio for handling the communications that are vital to Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) users. Motorola currently offers its own MCC line of dispatch consoles to its Project 25 (P25)…
Telefonica and Facebook have joined forces to launch an open access wholesale rural mobile infrastructure operator, Internet para Todos (IpT) Peru, together with IDB Invest (Inter-American Investment Corporation) and CAF (Development Bank of Latin America). The project aims to bring faster mobile Internet to rural markets and consequently bridge the digital divide in Latin America. An estimated 20 percent of the Latin American population, which is around 100 million people, lack sufficient access to mobile broadband and therefore are deprived of enjoying the benefits offered by the digital economy. “Our new approach will leverage our network as a service to bridge the digital divide as fast as possible while providing any mobile network operator access to rural markets,” said Teresa Gomes, Managing director of Internet para Todos. “Our goal now is to launch and scale the project in Peru and prove what’s possible to the rest of Latin…
The Mobile World Congress – MWC Barcelona 2019 – is here. More than 100,000 mobile industry insiders, telecom specialists, professionals, analysts, reporters, and admirers of the most advanced devices have gathered to explore the wonders of the latest technology. Tech giants such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Vivo unveiled their innovations just before the show, but here we list some notable smartphones that have been presented at MWC. LG V50 ThinQ South Korea’s LG Electronics has unveiled its first 5G smartphone with a dual screen, the V50 ThinQ. The two screens are independant, enabling users to watch videos on one screen and browse the Internet on the other. Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 855 chipset together with a X50 5G modem will power the V50 model to support high-resolution games and data-rich applications without latency. The phone, with a 6.4-inch OLED full vision display, is equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery and…


