VvAA Groep B.V to transform service experience and performance with Vonage’s NewVoiceMedia solution Vonage’s NewVoiceMedia contact centre platform has been chosen by Dutch insurance provider VvAA to enhance its members’ customer experience. After conducting a market evaluation, the company implemented Vonage’s NVM solution for its Salesforce integration and rich functionality. VvAA Groep’s advisors will have immediate access to entire history of customers interactions, also, inbound calls will be dynamically managed and routed, improving handling time and customer satisfaction. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5l2maho Telenor completes acquisition of majority stake in DNA Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor Group has completed the acquisition of Finland’s third-largest mobile operator DNA. Telenor has acquired 54 percent of the shares in DNA for EUR 20.90 each in cash, or a total of EUR 1.5 billion after the deal approval by DNA shareholders, Finda Telecoms and PHP Holding, and Finland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Helsinki-based…
Telecommunications equipment supplier World Telecom Labs (WTL) and a mobile virtual network operator Edpnet, have announced that the first all-VoIP network in Belgium is now live, enabling businesses to benefit from high-quality and cost effective voice services. It is stated that Edpnet has become the first operator in Belgium to make the switch from traditional ISDN to a VoIP platform, thus gaining the ability to easily add more capacity, which will ensure the company’s future growth. For this move, Edpnet has deployed WTL’s VoIP switches for its VoIP links, ensuring high call quality and an always-on network, and optimizing bandwidth capacity. Joachim Slabbaert, COO at Edpnet, said, “WTL is a technologically innovative company whose team really understand what VoIP operators want and need. We buy from them because they do what they say – improve our network and reduce our costs. This migration is a huge milestone for our company and has…
Uniphore Software Systems Pvt, a global conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology startup based in Chennai, India and Palo Alto, California, has announced that it has raised USD 51 million in Series C funding led by March Capital Partners. The latest round was reinforced by Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), Sistema Asia, CXO Fund, ITP, Iron Pillar and Patni Family, amongst others. Uniphore’s new round is their largest funding so far, and marks “one of the most substantial funding rounds in the conversational AI sector.” This Indian startup promotes the use of the AI in call centers to bridge the gap between people and machines through voice, and aims to substantially innovate customer service, a market that is valued at USD 350 billion. According to the statement, the funds will be used to accelerate Uniphore’s go-to-market in North America, invest in research and development for the next wave of improvements…
Angola Cables and rest of Angolan telecoms industry to be privatised Angola’s official journal, the Diario da Republica has announced that under the Privatisation Programme, the Angolan government is to sell stakes in 195 companies. The telecommunication companies that will be included in the Privatisation Programme are Unitel (in which MSTelecom has a 20% stake), MS Telecom itself, Net One, Multitel, Angola Telecom, TV Cabo Angola, Angola Cables, Angolan postal company ENCTA, Angola Comunicacoes e Sistemas (ACS) and telephone directory company ELTA. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5aw5r9y Google Accounts now let Android web users authenticate themselves with their fingerprint Google now allows Android phone users to sign into some of its services without a password. The users will verify their identity with a fingerprint only, which makes authentication more secure and easier. This feature is built by using open authentication standards FIDO2, FIDO CTAP and WebAuthn. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yy272mwn Verizon…
According to the most recent report from Canalys Cloud Channels Analysis, the worldwide spending on cloud infrastructure services has increased by more than one third (37.6%) year-on-year, soaring to USD 26.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019. The ranking of the leading cloud service providers remains unchanged, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominating at 36.1 percent growth, with revenue of over USD 8.3 billion, and a total market share of 31.5 percent. Microsoft Azure comes second with its sales growing by 63.6 percent to just under USD 5 billion, increasing its marketing share to 18.1 percent. In third place is Google Cloud with a 9.5 percent market share, followed by Alibaba Cloud in the fourth position. In total, cloud infrastructure revenue grew by USD 7.2 billion compared to a year ago, and the current expansion marks “the biggest ever quarterly increase in terms of value, highlighting the continued robust…
The second Payment Services Directive, or so-called PSD2 requirements will come into force on September 14th, 2019. With this deadline approaching, we have decided to examine this matter from the merchandiser’s perspective. In brief, PSD2 is an initiative from the EU aimed at regulating the e-payment environment where banks and fintechs (Third Party Service Providers – TPSPs) currently operate in a largely disorganized manner. There is no consistent, standardized or regulated framework that defines the cooperation between banks and TPSPs. The bank may refuse access by a TPSP to its client’s bank account, preventing the same client or merchandiser from using the TPSP’s services, which may be more convenient or less costly than banking services. To regulate the e-payment market, PSD2 will force banks to grant third-party access to their clients’ bank accounts. Equally important, TPSPs will be regulated – they will have to obtain a license and…
Trinity Cyber, a Bowie, Maryland-based cybersecurity services and solutions startup, has announced the completion of a $23 million funding round led by Intel Capital and other top institutional investors. The company claims that it is taking an entirely new approach to cybersecurity and, with the help of its new technology known as Proactive Threat Interference, is able to “proactively intercept and control cyberattacks” before they even reach the target’s network, thus “reducing risk and increasing cost to adversaries.” Steve Ryan, CEO of Trinity Cyber, said, “This investment by Intel Capital and other strategic backers is significant. I co-founded Trinity Cyber to transform the way the world addresses the cyber problem. No one is doing what Trinity Cyber is doing. No one else can. We make the adversary fail, and we feel this strategic support validates the elegance of our solution.” “As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, technology to counter…
FIX Network, an innovative technology company from Vilnius, Lithuania, has developed a new two-factor authentication (2FA) SIM card and app for protecting mobile data and digital identities. The ultimate goal of the company is to provide comprehensive blockchain-based solutions for mobile devices, enabling subscribers to secure their digital assets and identities by safekeeping private keys on their SIM cards. However, due to the urgent and immediate requirement of securing phone numbers – which may be considered to be the most valuable digital identities – FIX Network will provide a free-to-use 2FA application, together with newly issued and truly subscriber-owned phone numbers that will serve as secure and global digital identities. These numbers will be fully controlled by the subscriber, preventing unauthorized porting or malicious hijacking of the phone number. This 2FA solution will also include the practical ability to recover access to digital identities through user-defined policies that include…
We live in a world of increasingly complex telecom and VoIP services, with subscribers having access to an abundance of cutting-edge products. The fierce competition in the field of communications demands an excellent customer experience in order to attract and retain customers, and to reduce churn. With so many choices on offer, the power has shifted to customers – if faced with a problem, they have come to expect an immediate resolution. Unfortunately, the surveys of customer experience in the telecommunication world reveal that, in general, consumers have a very low opinion of the telecoms industry and are dissatisfied with the support that they receive from their providers. It seems that the reason for this deficiency may be found in the mindset of telecom operators, who devote most of their time and effort to building and managing their VoIP networks, rather than indulging their customers. Satisfactory customer experience in…
Telecommunications giant AT&T and Colt Technology Services, a provider of network, voice, data centre and managed cloud services, have successfully completed the integration of MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Sonata Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow business customers to virtually seamlessly order services across multiple carriers. The two companies claim to be the first in the telecom industry to use MEF’s LSO Sonata APIs to automate the ordering of Ethernet services. Roman Pacewicz, Chief product officer, AT&T Business, said, “There’s no doubt this will change how carriers interact and operate in the industry. Our interactions are now more cost-efficient, flexible and error-free. We kicked off interoperability discussions and trials three years ago and gained important insights that will help create and refine industry standards under the guidance of MEF. The transformation of networks to a dynamic, on-demand, software-centric, cloud-based model opens up opportunities for everyone.” The implementation of the…


