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Telecom News

Airtel and Nokia to deploy the largest cloud-based VoLTE network in India

By Vilija Simkiene July 15, 2020

The Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia’s CloudBand-based software products to power its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network. Nokia stated that this network supports more than 110 million customers, making it the largest cloud-based VoLTE network in India and the world’s largest VoLTE service managed by Nokia. According to the Finnish telecom gear maker, the deployment of cloud-based VoLTE will enable Airtel to provide its mobile customers with faster, more reliable and cost-effective call connectivity. Nokia’s solution, which has been deployed to cover all 22 telecom service areas in India, uses commercial, off-the-shelf IT hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Nokia noted that cloud-native VNFs consume far less power and space compared to traditional 2G or 3G circuit-switched legacy cores. With Nokia’s VoLTE platform, Airtel will be able to reduce its 3G network traffic and use the freed-up spectrum to deploy 4G / LTE services for higher speeds…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #28

By Vilija Simkiene July 10, 2020

European telcos: We’re ready to “lift the continent out of this recession” The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) has released a joint statement calling on EU institutions and national governments to support 5G and fiber rollout, stimulate the uptake of technology, fight misinformation, and focus on digital skills and education. According to ETNO, a new approach is needed to ensure that spectrum auctions are timely and conditions for spectrum assignment support network deployment. Sharing agreements for Radio Access Network (RAN) should be supported and incentivized, as well as all fiber investment models should be adequately encouraged. Moreover, future EU initiatives should dramatically reduce roll-out costs for both mobile and fixed networks. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yadrfxfg Microsoft’s new Teams features fight video conferencing fatigue Microsoft Team’s brand seeks to fight “Zoom fatigue” and exhaustion of physical isolation with its new updates and features. The news includes a shared background to make participants…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #26

By Vilija Simkiene June 26, 2020

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…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #24

By Vilija Simkiene June 12, 2020

Ireland’s GoMo goes for more as it hits 200,000 customers Virtual network operator GoMo, the budget mobile brand of Irish telco Eir, has reached 200,000 customers, since launching only eight months ago. The company exists entirely as a digital brand, requiring customers to sign up online to be mailed a SIM card. This “digital-first” approach even extends to customer service, which is available only through online chat, without accessible call centers. GoMo uses Eir’s network and offers 99 percent population coverage and over 97 percent 4G coverage. Since its launch, GoMo has gradually increased its customer base, with figures from the Irish regulator suggesting that the majority are migrating from rivals Three and Vodafone. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y7uwytwt JSonar raises $50 million for AI-powered database security products Database security startup jSonar has secured USD 50 million, which it plans to put toward R&D and go-to-market efforts. The company said that its AI-powered solutions help users…

Telecom News

Private LTE, 5G, WiFi 6, and an interesting advantage regarding WiFi vs Cellular

By Vilija Simkiene June 9, 2020

Contributed by Maor Efrati, CTO at monogoto Working from home: A lot has been said about increased productivity and family time as positively impacted during the COVID-19 quarantine. I am discovering that it’s also good for writing and for analyzing the many conversations that I and my monogoto.io partner Itamar Kunik have regarding cellular, WiFi, and the future of connectivity. @monogoto we are building an OTT cellular network. We are providing a connectivity service to any company that desires to have cellular connectivity as part of the offering or product. Simplifying the backend and network with strong API’s while keeping all the bells and whistles that a cellular network can support over a traditional last mile (RJ45 and WiFi). It will be interesting to see what plays out regarding WiFi vs Cellular as the last-mile provider. Some think cellular technology is the perfect solution for all wireless networks, while others hope…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #22

By Vilija Simkiene May 29, 2020

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…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #21

By Vilija Simkiene May 22, 2020

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…

Telecom News

DIDWW initiates cost-free calling to the COVID-19 hotlines globally

By Vilija Simkiene April 29, 2020

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…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #14

By Vilija Simkiene April 3, 2020

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…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #11

By Vilija Simkiene March 12, 2020

Twilio rival MessageBird launches Inbox, an AI-powered contact center MessageBird, a telecommunications service provider in Amsterdam, Netherlands, has unveiled a new all-in-one, AI-powered contact center as it enters the competitive billion-dollar customer service software market. The new solution, dubbed Inbox and pitched as the “Slack for external communications,” enables customers to communicate with businesses and accept inbound messages from WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, Apple Business Chat, RCS, Line, Telegram, email, SMS, voice, and more. Additionally, companies can connect MessageBird’s Inbox to other internal tools as part of their preferred workflows, including Salesforce, Google Calendar, Shopify, HubSpot, Jira, and Slack. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/qvsqh9l CenturyLink adds IBM Cloud to its Cloud Connect portfolio US-based CenturyLink has added IBM Cloud to its growing Cloud Connect Dynamic Connections portfolio, which also includes Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle. The company said that through IBM Cloud Direct Link services, businesses can now access…