Spain’s leading telecommunications group, Telefónica, has announced the sale of a controlling stake in its fiber network in Colombia to a global investment company KKR. With the sale of this majority stake, the telecommunications company expects to reduce its debt by $169 million. As part of the agreement, KKR will hold 60% of the shares in the new Colombian fiber company, and Telefónica will retain the remaining 40% and contribute its existing fiber assets in the country. The new company will start operating with a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, covering 1.2 million locations in 50 cities and municipalities and serving 380,000 customers by the end of the first quarter 2022. In three years, their goal is to reach 4.3 million sites in almost 90 cities. The deal between Telefónica and KKR values the new company at $500 million. This entity will be the first independent Colombian open access wholesale…
Nokia launches iSIM Secure Connect Nokia has released new software to help operators cope with the provisioning of cellular IoT devices and subscription management. The software, called iSIM Secure Connect, relies on embedded SIM (eSIM) and integrated SIM (iSIM) technologies combined with reliable digital identification, allowing telecom service providers to quickly and securely authenticate and manage cellular IoT devices. The software is vendor agnostic and can be installed in a variety of network and cloud environments, providing a myriad of IoT use cases and business models. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/42kf2tu8 Lumen strikes a deal with Microsoft Lumen Technologies has announced that it has entered a long-term partnership with Microsoft to take advantage of the Azure cloud platform. The duo plans to integrate Microsoft’s Azure stack with Lumen’s bare metal edge computing service, allowing customers to run Azure-based applications wherever the edge network can reach. Lumen will also use the cloud…
SoftBank aims at providing connectivity from space SoftBank has announced that it will begin promoting the roll out of Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions that provide connectivity from space and the stratosphere. SoftBank NTN solutions will include the Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) services provided by Skylo Technologies. The two companies recently agreed to cooperate in offering satellite services in Japan. SoftBank’s NTN portfolio of solutions will also include Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications provided by OneWeb, and High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) stratospheric telecommunications platforms provided by SoftBank’s subsidiary HAPSMobile. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/murtvfhr Black Lotus Labs uncovers hacktivist campaign Black Lotus Labs, the Lumen Technologies security threat intelligence division, has presented evidence that hacktivists have recently attacked switches and routers in a minimum of 100 organizations. The hacktivists managed to access those Internet-connected devices because of an incorrect Cisco Systems Smart Install configuration. The Black…
Telefonica reveals a new rebrand Telefonica has announced its new rebrand at the company’s annual general meeting. The company also reelected its Chairman and CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete to its board for a further four-year term with increased backing from shareholders. The newly refurbished design will be used in the company’s brands under the Telefonica name, but will not replace the Telefonica-owned consumer-facing identities O2 and Movistar. According to the company, the new logo reflects extensive restructuring efforts started in 2019 and is reminiscent of the 1984 logo that also resembled the letter T made-up of small circles. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/34hwm3ve AT&T gifts boost in fiber speed to its customers AT&T has announced that it is giving its customers a free increase in fiber speeds. The company is increasing its access speeds from 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps, and 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps respectively. The company will continue…
European Commission proposes new AI regulations The European Commission is proposing new rules that would allow it to ban any type or deployment of AI that it considers high-risk. The organization also proposes much stricter rules and limitations on the use of biometric data, such as law enforcement using face recognition. Violation of the rules may result in fines of up to 6% of the offending company’s total global turnover. For the biggest tech companies, that sum could reach billions. The commission’s digital chief, Margrethe Vestager, said: “On artificial intelligence, trust is a must, not a nice-to-have.” Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/5e8wcufu Cisco to invest $100 million to combat climate change Cisco has unveiled plans to invest $100 million over the next 10 years to help fight climate change, using the fund in its name for initiatives aimed at reducing emissions and educating communities. Cisco’s efforts will be global, and funding…
Spain approves entry for MWC participants The organizers of the Mobile World Congress 2021, which will take place in Barcelona this summer, have received much-needed good news from the Spanish government. Spain currently bans “non-essential” travel to and from non-EU/Schengen countries. But the GCMA, which manages the MWC, has announced that people who have registered for the event will be classified as “highly skilled workers” and therefore will be excused from this restriction. The GSMA intends to provide the Spanish authorities with details of all registrants and registrants will also be provided with a confirmation of participation. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/35z7nub5 Lumen signs a deal with T-Mobile US Lumen Technologies has taken a major step in expanding its latest edge computing service with a new deal with T-Mobile US. This agreement will allow Lumen to receive access to the operator’s 5G network to reach more of the company’s customers. The…
Black Lotus Labs, a division specializing in threat intelligence at Lumen Technologies that focuses on identifying malware and cyber security threats, has announced the discovery of a group of compromised websites that have been used in watering hole attacks in the past. All visitors who browse one of the sites would be unknowingly infected and vulnerable to the attacker stealing a copy of their Windows authentication credentials that could be used to impersonate them. The activity was only recently brought to light and was discovered on several Ukrainian and one Canadian website. These attacks target websites by inserting a malicious function into the website’s code, which is then executed by the victim’s machine. This type of attack has been used for many years, including the high-level compromise that was traced to the San Francisco International Airport website in April 2020. When analyzing the attacks in Ukraine and Canada,…
Zoom and Lumen advance their partnership The telecommunications company Lumen is already a partner of Zoom, but Lumen has recently announced that it has advanced the partnership further to introduce Zoom delivered by Lumen. Zoom delivered by Lumen combines the embedded network security capabilities of Lumen with Zoom’s integrated security features to actively protect businesses using their combined services. Shaun Andrews, CMO at Lumen, said: “We’re happy to take this partnership a step further by combining our platforms and our strengths to create Zoom delivered by Lumen. Together, we will help keep families, businesses, schools and hospitals securely connected to the world, and thriving in the fourth industrial revolution.” Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y4luab48 BT to deploy their global network cloud next year BT has been working on their BT Network Cloud for some time now, since deciding to focus on this cloud-native platform. BT has Network Cloud nodes in the…
Vodafone UK going big on OpenRAN Vodafone UK has announced that they are deploying OpenRAN technology in rural base stations, as a key part of Huawei’s switching strategy. Approximately 2,600 sites in rural Wales and the south-west of England will be converted to OpenRAN by a deadline established by the government. This process will start in 2022 and, as yet, Vodafone has not identified any vendors to assist it in this initiative. The operator wants to be seen as an example of OpenRAN, which increasingly appears to be the most likely source of diversity for telecom providers since Huawei was blacklisted. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yybbqu45 Deutsche Telekom partners with Zoom Deutsche Telekom has become the latest service provider to partner with Zoom Video Communications. Deutsche Telekom is now the official reseller of Zoom in Germany. The company offers personalized solutions and contracts to customers of different sizes, and is able…
Apple reveals 5G iPhones Apple waited a little longer than other manufacturers to introduce 5G phones, probably because they wanted to be certain their first 5G iPhones are top class. The company unveiled its new iPhone 12 phones on Tuesday. All new iPhones are built around the fast Apple A14 Bionic chip, they support 5G wireless connectivity, and are protected by a ceramic shield to make the phones more damage resistant. Bringing 5G to the iPhone is a huge step forward for the company, as it will provide a new level of performance for downloads and uploads, video streaming, games, real-time interactivity and more. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y6mum7wh Masergy launches Work From Anywhere solutions Masergy, a software-defined network and cloud platform for the digital enterprise, announced two new SD-WAN Work From Anywhere solutions. Masergy’s SD-WAN Secure Home is a lightweight Fortinet Secure SD-WAN device for fast connection via the residential…


