Work from home: Can the telecoms industry take the strain? Many businesses opt for remote working due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and this has led to a dramatic increase in the use of online services. The additional pressure is proving problematic for the telecoms industry in Spain, which has reported a 40 percent increase in data consumption and a 50 percent increase in mobile phone usage. Movistar (Telefonica), Orange, Vodafone, Masmovil, and Euskaltel have issued a joint statement in anticipation of the national lockdown, urging customers to take “intelligent and responsible use of the network and the resources it provides us.” Meanwhile, BT, the UK’s largest telecom provider, said that its network can handle it. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/sm8bms7 Vodafone unveils five-point plan to combat COVID-19 Vodafone has put forward a five-point plan to maintain network services and assist governments across Europe in controlling the outbreak of coronavirus. The five…
Tel Q Global, a telecom hub for voice and SMS services, has selected Singapore operator Cataleya for its global voice network virtualization. With its superior technology, innovative commercial models and a world-wide footprint, Cataleya will completely virtualize Tel Q Global’s international voice network, resulting in significant cost savings and operational simplicity. According to a statement, Tel Q Global required a switching and BSS service in three global regions to be able to launch their new virtual number services in the shortest possible time. These new solutions include mobile and two-way SMS numbers, and are a highly anticipated addition to the company’s existing portfolio of DID and toll-free numbers. Moreover, the nodes also need to be used as geographic backup sites for each other, should a major disruption occur in any of the hosting centers. Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Tel Q Global, said, “Before we moved to Cataleya, we…
The next-generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks is steadily gaining traction, with significant implementations under way. All of the major carriers are rolling out their 5G networks, targeting large cities that crave super speeds, virtually lag-free connections, extended coverage and other great benefits that are made available by this advanced technology. 5G has already been launched in many different locations around the world, but it is still considered to be in its initial stages. All of the US carriers have now launched some form of 5G cellular network. But what exactly is 5G, how fast is it compared with 4G, what will it bring to VoIP applications, and what are the benefits and drawbacks of this innovative technology? Let’s take a look at 5G in more detail. What is 5G? 5G stands for fifth-generation cellular wireless and is the next generation of telecom networks that entered the…
The leading VoIP and unified communications (UC) services provider Vonage and a cloud-native UC integration management company Qunifi have joined forces to provide a fully integrated Microsoft Teams calling feature for Vonage Business Communications customers. Based in the UK, Qunifi operates the Call2Teams Microsoft Office 365 voice integration service that connects Microsoft Teams to any PBX or SIP trunk within minutes, enabling businesses to make and receive calls on any device using the Microsoft Teams application. Mark Herbert, Qunifi co-founder and CEO, said, “Customers are excited about using Microsoft Teams as a unified collaboration environment, but up to now, adding the Teams phone calling feature has been perceived as disruptive or costly. We have worked with Vonage to create a simple, per-user add-on to the Vonage Business Communications service, allowing customers to get all the benefits of Microsoft Teams while using the Vonage services they already have.” “Call2Teams is…
EU’s new digital strategy targets data-hoarding tech firms The European Commission has proposed its new European digital strategy “Europe Fit for the Digital Age” that puts a target on all the biggest US tech players. It states that a large part of the world’s data is currently owned by a small number of Big Tech firms, which “could reduce the incentives for data-driven businesses to emerge, grow and innovate in the EU today, but numerous opportunities lie ahead.” The new proposals indicate the need to provide “an attractive policy environment”, which means that data can flow throughout the EU while applying data protection values established under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read more at https://tinyurl.com/wdb9hee Dell targets telco edge deployments with new server, micro data centre Dell Technologies has introduced new products for telecom operators that are building out edge network deployments. A compact high-performance server, a modular micro…
The highly anticipated DIDWW telephony museum is now open to the general public in the Northern European city of Siauliai, Lithuania. The region’s premiere telephony museum is located in a restored cultural heritage building, a former treasury house (built in 1907-1908), and the project was made possible with the generous support of Lina Zaboras, CEO of DIDWW. Being passionate about telephone communications and guided by a strong vision to present the history of telephony to the general public, DIDWW has cherished the idea of a museum for many years, and this goal has finally come to fruition. Having assembled an extensive collection of exhibits and other artifacts related to the history of telephony in Lithuania and the world, DIDWW has opened this unique museum, featuring innovative, educational and historical exhibits. The museum’s collection is comprised of more than 200 pieces, reflecting over 200 years of telephony history. The…
Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Orange test blockchain technology Deutsche Telecom is testing a blockchain solution that can be used to generate and sign secure inter-operator roaming discount agreements. T-Mobile US, Telefonica, Orange and the GSMA are collaborating to test the software that will reduce the complexity of the current process, which usually involves drafting, signing and manually implementing the contracts. Deutsche Telecom said that this is the first time operators are able to jointly test blockchain as a solution that also incorporates a corresponding legal framework, governance model, and integration into corporate IT infrastructures. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/rpwsegx The world’s biggest phone show has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns The GSM Association (GSMA) has canceled the world’s largest mobile phone show, Mobile World Congress (MWC), in Barcelona due to concerns related to the growing coronavirus pandemic. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide uniting more than 1,200…
Copenhagen, Denmark-based Dixa has raised USD 36 million in Series B funding for its customer engagement solution, dubbed the “customer friendship” platform. This global customer service tech startup aims to create friendships between brands and their customers and will use this newly injected capital to accelerate the development of its product, expand innovations in data processing and enhance integration with third-party software. This Series B funding round was led by Notion Capital, with the support of existing investors Project A Ventures and SEED Capital. Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital, stated, “Customer service is one of the largest software categories out there. And yet the market is still operating in transactional silos and not reflecting the world we live in. We think Dixa has what it takes to upend the industry with a platform that works across any channel and brings real-time intelligence to every conversation. We couldn’t…
Apple unifies its app stores by extending the universal purchase option to Mac apps Apple has added the ability for its app developers to sell their cross-platform apps as one universal purchase, including apps that run on macOS. Consumers will just pay once for an app that works across devices such as iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and/or Mac. Developers can choose to create a new app for these platforms using a single app record in the App Store Connect or add platforms to their existing app record. In preparation for the changes, the App Store categories will be unified across the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, to make the apps more discoverable. Apple said that support for universal purchase will launch in March 2020. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/txqz6al Israeli B2B blockchain startup Clear banks $13m in series A funding Blockchain settlement startup Clear has raised USD 13 million in a Series A round.…
Ribbon launches Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio to accelerate enterprise migration to cloud services The US technology company Ribbon Communications has introduced its Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio that includes the new EdgeMarc 6000, the latest iteration of Ribbon’s modular platform for voice and data functions. The cloud solutions provider said that its products portfolio securely connects and enhances enterprise voice and data applications, including Microsoft Teams, while delivering service assurance, advanced analytics, security, policy and routing capabilities for cloud communications applications. Ribbon’s Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio delivers a comprehensive enterprise edge offering to service providers and enterprises. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/uz95gdj Early 5G smartphone market all about Samsung and Huawei According to the latest Strategy Analytics (SA) report, the demand for 5G smartphones turned out to be much higher than expected and reached 19 million units sold in 2019. Almost three-quarters of such deliveries were made by Huawei and…


