SK Telecom, the top mobile operator in South Korea, has teamed up with its security subsidiary ADT Caps Co. and local video management solutions company Innodep Inc. to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to meet the growing demand for efficient and advanced video analysis services. Under the agreement, the trio will develop services to effectively manage video surveillance systems in the private and public sectors of the growing local market. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to create real-time security services for the public and industry, while addressing existing defects in the video analysis systems, such as false alarms. As the deployment of CCTV in the public and private sectors is expanding rather swiftly to enhance safety and security, SKT said the solution will increase cost-effectiveness and accuracy by optimizing its AI chip and algorithms. This solution will be linked to Innodep’s intelligent management platform and…
Google Cloud has announced a new 10-year strategic partnership with the Canadian telecommunications company Telus. The two companies plan to work together on developing new services and products for several key industries, including healthcare, agriculture, security and connected homes. Through this partnership, Telus will accelerate the adoption of its public cloud on the Google Cloud enterprise platform to ensure greater interoperability across its IT backbone and network infrastructure. Google Cloud will also become one of Telus’ partners in providing 5G services and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), which uses the Google Cloud-powered application platform Anthos. Telus and Google Cloud will prioritize collaboration to improve their Canadian customers’ social, economic, environmental and health performance, and at the same time, work to reduce their carbon footprint. Telus will also use Google Cloud Contact Center AI to improve customer interaction and reduce costs. One of the main areas of focus of…
Vodafone and Nokia test 100G PON tech Nokia’s new technology has been tested for the first time by Vodafone in Germany. The prototype used a single 25G laser and DSP technology developed at Nokia Bell Labs to create the single wavelength 100G PON transmission. Gavin Young, Head of Vodafone’s Fixed Access Center of Excellence, said the 100G PON is 40 times the capacity of today’s GPON networks and 10 times the capacity of the XGS-GPON. The 100G PON enables flexible tariffs and operates by grouping modems using a methodology similar to that already used in cable networks, suggesting that this cable network experience can help to better evaluate and take advantage of the new PON technology. Read more: https://tinyurl.com/xpai96uz Spectrum Enterprise leverages Cisco Meraki’s cloud platform Spectrum Enterprise is leveraging a new managed network solution based on Cisco’s Meraki cloud platform. Spectrum Enterprise’s Managed Network Edge (MNE) was designed to…
Verizon Business announces a new bundle Verizon Business has announced a new bundle offer for small businesses covering security, broadband and LTE services. As more small businesses are moving to virtual settings, Verizon Business now offers the Complete Business Bundle. With this new offering, small businesses receive a 15% discount on monthly service fees with a 50 Mbps tier. LTE Business Internet, which includes a router as part of the package, is giving businesses the ability to connect to 4G LTE using a plug-and-play installation. The Complete Business Bundle also includes One Talk desk phones with more than 50 business-class features and dedicated 24/7 technical support. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y4xy7nyw DT and Samsung succeed in standalone 5G Deutsche Telekom and Samsung have successfully completed the SA 5G test in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Together the companies have tested the efficiency of Samsung’s MU-MIMO technology on Deutsche Telekom’s network and recorded excellent…
Telecommunications giant Telefónica has expanded its long-standing technology partnership with IBM and announced the release of Cloud Garden 2.0, the next step in Telefonica’s cloud services platform to accelerate application modernization. Cloud Garden 2.0 is supported on IBM Cloud Pak and Red Hat OpenShift. The first iteration of Cloud Garden, launched in 2019, was originally based on IBM Cloud Private technology. However, Cloud Garden 2.0 switched to the hybrid Red Hat OpenShift cloud Kubernetes platform and the IBM Cloud Pak for Application. Telefónica customers can now run their applications on containers on premises or in the cloud environment of their choice, along with the simplification and speeding up when launching new solutions. Cloud Garden 2.0 is hosted through Telefonica’s Virtual Data Center in Spain, helping its customers experience low latency and better uptime for managing their applications. Andrés López Hedoire, de Enterprise Product Marketing Director, Telefónica España, commented:…
Cisco, a global giant and provider of IT, networking and cybersecurity solutions, has announced that it has received the final regulatory approval for a $4.5 billion agreement to purchase Acacia. The merger was reportedly approved by the Chinese government’s State Market Regulatory Administration (SAMR) on Tuesday. The consent from SAMR was the last hurdle to clear for Cisco to complete the deal. Cisco’s plans to acquire Acacia Communications were first announced in July of 2019. The deal was on a fully diluted basis to buy the company for $70 per share in cash for a total of $2.6 billion. Cisco had then received the regulatory go-ahead from the United States, Germany and Austria. Cisco has received the approval under certain conditions. According to SAMR, the deal could progress as long as Cisco and Acacia continue to fulfill existing contracts in China, as well as supply Chinese companies in…
The international telecommunications company, Colt Technology Services Group, has announced that it is releasing its Cloud Session Border Controller (SBC) in partnership with AudioCodes. This cloud-based voice solution provides Direct Routing as a Service to quickly enable PSTN calls for Microsoft Teams. The Colt Cloud SBC provides an important step towards speeding up and simplifying the implementation of PSTN calling in Teams. With Direct Routing as-a-service, provided by the cloud-based voice solution, users do not require on-premises hardware or hardware in a data center. According to the company, the new service provided more efficiency for both large and small businesses, as onboarding was completed in less than a week. Developed in collaboration with AudioCodes, a leading provider of smart voice networks, this new offering is an extension of Colt’s Intelligent Communications offering that was launched in 2019. The power of Microsoft 365 and Teams, along with Colt’s voice and…
Robocalls are not only annoying, they are potentially dangerous and are progressively becoming an even bigger problem. Sadly, it does not look like the situation will improve in 2021, as there were 22.8 billion total robocalls recorded at the midway point of 2020. Robocalls are phone calls made by an automatic dialer that transmits pre-recorded messages. While this may not seem like an issue, it can be. Some robotic calls may be from legitimate sources, but they may also be scams designed to deceive or bully people to provide personal information.
T-Mobile, the third-largest carrier in the United States, that has recently completed a $26 billion merger with Sprint, announced that it had experienced a second data breach in December, 2020. The security breach may have revealed call-related information and phone numbers of some of its customers. According to the company, it recently discovered illegal access to some customer account information, including data that T-Mobile collects on its customers when considering the provision of mobile services. However, the company reported that the information affected by the violation did not include the customer’s account names, physical or email addresses, financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, tax IDs, passwords or PINs. The information accessed by hackers is known as Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). This data can include call records, such as when the call was made, how long it lasted, the caller’s phone number and destination phone numbers,…
The European Commission (EC) has appointed Nokia, a Finnish international telecommunications, information technology and consumer electronics company, to supervise Hexa-X, a primary 6G research project aimed at boosting the continent’s progress in developing the technology. The two-and-a-half-year Hexa-X initiative was funded by Horizon 2020, the EU’s research, and innovation program, and will start on January 1, 2021. The project is aimed at connecting the physical, digital and human worlds, firmly embedded in future wireless technologies. The project is led by Nokia, which coordinates the efforts, with Ericsson being assigned as the technical manager. The partners in the consortium are from academia and industry, including service providers, network providers and European research institutes. The partners include Orange, TIM, Telefonica, Intel and Siemens. The Finnish service provider said in a statement that it expects 6G to become commercially operational by 2030, following a normal ten-year intergenerational cycle and taking…


