INWIT, an Italian infrastructure business, has announced the deployment of its first wooden mobile telecommunications tower, made entirely of sustainable materials, as part of a two-year environmental strategy. The tower is located northeast of Milan, next to a large park and a major motorway. The mobile tower’s construction is composed of glued laminated wood, entirely sustainable and circular material, an alternative to steel. The tower is 40 meters tall and has four walkways to position the antennas and radio connections of the hosting operators. The tower is located next to the Est delle Cave Park and will provide cellular network coverage in the region, as well as emergency telephone services, which are especially important for highway traffic on Milan’s A51 Tangenziale Est ring road, close to the tower. INWIT hopes to leverage the project to assist in restoring the park by applying the finest environmental and landscape…
AT&T has established a Connected Climate Initiative (CCI), which aims to bring together partners and academics to further cut carbon emissions. The firm has set an industry-leading goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 1 billion metric tons by 2035. A gigaton is equivalent to roughly 15% of US greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 3% of worldwide energy-related emissions, or 1.6 billion flights from Los Angeles to New York. The company intends to convene the brightest minds from leading technology companies, AT&T Business customers, universities, and nonprofits through the newly formed Connected Climate Initiative to identify best practices, develop innovative new products and use cases, and scale the innovations of startup partners building future’s 5G- and other broadband-enabled climate solutions. At the heart of this initiative is a push to persuade business IT firms to use more renewable energy sources, as well as to move more application…
Nokia has announced a scholarship program to increase opportunities for underrepresented groups in the technology industry. Nokia will provide over 300 scholarships in collaboration with the online learning and talent transformation platform Udacity and Blacks In Technology (BIT) Foundation, with an emphasis on enabling students and career changers from underrepresented groups. According to the BIT Foundation, people of color are significantly underrepresented in the tech industry, accounting for only 3% of employees in the top 75 Silicon Valley tech businesses compared to 24% of the entire US workforce. The corporation intends to bridge this gap and promote more inclusiveness in the tech industry. The fully financed scholarships cover several fundamental technology disciplines, from cloud computing and programming to artificial intelligence and data science, and are offered at several levels from beginner to advanced. Candidates who pass an initial exam will be able to choose from courses in AI…
In recent years, 5G technology has been deployed around the world at a staggering pace, and the rollout is predicted to continue in the upcoming years. Despite the fact that 5G technology is still in its early stages, the telecom industry is already envisioning and trying to define what the next generation of mobile technology, 6G, will look like. The 5G Infrastructure Association (5GIA) has published a white paper with the title “European Vision for the 6G Network Ecosystem”, which covers key areas of 6G research from technical, societal, policy and business perspectives. As stated in this white paper, 6G will participate in making headway towards achieving more united digital, physical and personal worlds. The key features of the next-gen technology include intelligent connected management and control functions, programmability, integrated sensing and communication, energy footprint reduction, reliable infrastructure, scalability and affordability. 5GIA says that 6G will usher…
Vodafone Germany to build new base stations and 5G Vodafone Germany has announced that it will undertake more than 7,000 mobile infrastructure construction projects including 3,000 5G projects, which it estimates will support 9,000 5G antennas. The projects will take place in the current financial year, which began in April. The company says it has exceeded its 5G coverage targets by expanding the network to 25 million subscribers, and estimates that it will soon cover 30 million consumers with 5G. In addition, Vodafone has also announced that it is swapping the L3G spectrum for LTE by switching 18,000 3G sites to 4G ones this summer. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/a5a7txbf Virgin Media shares its sustainability results Virgin Media released its latest sustainability report this week, which examines the ways that the company has supported its employees and customers during the pandemic and how it continues to deal with the climate crisis.…
Five of Europe’s leading mobile operators – Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, Telia and Vodafone – have teamed up to update and launch a new industry-wide Eco Rating system and motivate vendors to minimize the impact that their devices have on the environment. The Eco Rating labelling scheme is designed to supply detailed and accurate information to retailers on the effects that manufacturing, usage, transportation and disposal of smartphones have on the environment. This Eco Rating will encourage operators and customers to rate phones more extensively and underline the need for more sustainable electronic devices. From June 2021, mobile operators will start introducing Eco Rating at points of sale in 24 European countries, including the UK. The labeling system will label phones with scores to show how ecological and environment friendly the appliances are in their lifecycle. The score will be from 0 to 100, the higher the score,…
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…
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…
Facebook, telcos to build a huge subsea cable for Africa and the Middle East Facebook, together with a group of telecom companies, including Vodafone, Orange, STC, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Telecom Egypt, and WIOCC, will build a subsea cable system that is claimed to be one of the largest in the world. The project is called 2Africa and will cover 37,000 km of cables interconnecting Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yahgfe8g Workvivo raises $16 million to reinvent the intranet in the age of Slack and Zoom The Irish startup Workvivo, an employee communications platform, has raised USD 16 million in a Series A…
Apple now owns Intel’s mobile modem business Intel, a leader in the semiconductor industry, has completed the sale of the majority of its smartphone modem business to Apple. The company said this transaction enables it to focus on developing 5G network technology while maintaining the ability to create modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and autonomous vehicles. Apple now uses Qualcomm for 4G LTE and 5G modems for iPhones. With this acquisition, Apple is planning to develop its own modems for smartphones in 2021. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/rqmu724 Orange unveils new five-year grand plan Orange, a French multinational telecommunications corporation, has introduced “Engage 2025”, its new strategy that follows on from the Essentials 2020 plan launched in 2015. The corporation has revealed its goals for the coming years, emphasizing that its business model will be guided by social and environmental responsibility. Considering the operator’s business…