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A multibillion-dollar merger between Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications Inc., two of the biggest telecommunications businesses in Canada, was officially rejected by the federal industry minister.   “Today, I officially denied that request. My decision formally closes that chapter of the original proposed transaction,” said Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.   The US$19 billion merger between the two businesses was revealed in March, but it was met with opposition because it may limit consumer choice and drive up mobile costs. Shaw’s wireless spectrum licenses would have been completely transferred to Rogers as a result of the acquisition.   Shaw’s ownership of Freedom Mobile has been largely viewed as the biggest impediment to the deal’s ratification. Videotron, located in Montreal, agreed to purchase it for $2.1 billion earlier this year. Champagne stated that he wanted two specific commitments before approving the Videotron merger. Videotron would have to agree to maintain the…

The SHEFA-2 underwater cable, which connects the Faroe Islands to Scotland’s mainland through the Shetland and Orkney Islands, suffered damage in two separate instances last week, rendering much of the island without Internet access.   In separate events, three critical subsea cables linking Marseille to Lyon, Milan and Barcelona were deliberately severed in the south of France, according to the cable’s operator, affecting internet service for consumers in Europe, Asia and the United States. Cloud service providers worked quickly to repair the backbone infrastructure.   According to a report by the cloud security company Zscaler, the unanticipated cable damage caused packet loss and increased latency for websites and apps transiting the damaged pathways.   While the French authorities believe sabotage occurred, their Scottish colleagues are still unsure of what actually severed the wires.   “We expect it will be fishing vessels that damaged the cable but it is very rare…

In order to help carriers and service providers become fully compliant with the Microsoft and Zoom Ecosystems, SIPPIO, a global provider of corporate phone services, has launched its Fast Track Accelerator program.   Carriers and service providers who participate in this program become completely compliant with the architecture and automation processes needed for wholesale certification within the Microsoft Operator Connect and Zoom Provider Exchange ecosystems. The program provides resellers with a rapid path to start selling retail voice subscriptions. The cloud-based services from Microsoft and Zoom that are covered by this program include Zoom Peering, Microsoft Direct Routing, Microsoft Operator Connect and Zoom Provider Exchange.   With a completely customized, white-labeled platform that offers pre configured infrastructure and services for full implementation, the Fast Track program enables network operators and carriers to become Microsoft and Zoom providers. Through the accelerator program, which covers 74+ countries, service providers and carriers may…

In an agreement with Altice Europe, Vodafone Group will roll out Fiber-to-the-Home in Germany as part of a €7 billion investment in its largest market. This collaboration complements Vodafone’s well-defined objectives for upgrading its current hybrid fiber cable network.   According to a statement released by the two corporations on Monday, FibreCo, a 50/50 fiber partnership between Vodafone and Altice, will deploy fiber optic lines to as many as 7 million residences in Germany. Approximately 70% of the cost will be covered by debt raised by the new company. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2023.   The transaction is thought to yield Vodafone up to €1.2 billion in cash proceeds from Altice, which is projected to exceed Vodafone’s portion of stock commitments. The profits include €120 million upon closure, up to €487 million in deferred payments as additional homes are connected, and another…

In order to streamline the deployment of cloud telephony services across UCaaS and CCaaS platforms, Callroute, a supplier of cloud voice solutions, has teamed up with Coolwave Communications, a global provider of voice and messaging solutions. Through this collaboration, partners and clients will gain access to secure and excellent voice quality with regionalized points of presence when using Coolwave’s cloud-based, self-service and white-label Cool Operator platform, which streamlines international telephony. Also, end users may use Callroute’s Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) feature to quickly connect Coolwave’s worldwide SIP network to UCaaS services like Microsoft Teams. This new agreement also benefits Callroute’s existing partners, opening up previously restricted  markets and prospects. Partners will be able to capitalize on this collaboration by providing a quick and easy go-to-market solution, allowing these industry participants to attract new business. Voxnube, a global provider of distributor voice services and solutions to Callroute…

Nokia has launched an app store geared towards mobile network operators in need of automation, as well as those who can provide such services. This initiative is intended to provide the industry with flexibility as networks grow, creating an excellent method for third-party developers to get in front of operators at a time when software-defined networking capabilities are scarce.   The Altiplano Application Marketplace, which will provide both Nokia and third-party applications, is named after Nokia’s groundbreaking broadband network controller suite. Seven apps were initially made accessible at launch, but it’s anticipated that this number will increase during the next year as more developers join the platform.   The systems are set up according to the Network Support, Network Insights and Network Automation categories.   Network Support applications will be used by operators to maintain, troubleshoot and secure fixed networks through proactive monitoring, performance analysis and issue management.   Network…

 DIDWW, a global provider of premium quality cloud communication services, has announced the expansion of its two-way SIP trunking solution by adding Georgia, Turkey and Slovenia to its local call termination coverage. Serving as an efficient replacement for traditional telephony, this solution offers virtually unlimited call capacity, flexible SIP trunk settings, truly local dialing and premium voice quality. The DIDWW SIP trunking service is delivered over a private, global IP network, which ensures the highest level of security and reliability. In addition, DIDWW has built its SIP trunking solution to address the needs of telco operators and businesses of all sizes and help to effortlessly expand their voice communications all around the world.   With the recent additions of Georgia, Turkey and Slovenia to their local dialing coverage, the DIDWW local termination service is now available in 41 countries. Tadas Urbietis, Carrier Relations Manager at DIDWW, added, “We…

Vodafone and CK Hutchison are in negotiations to merge their companies in the United Kingdom in order to establish a market-leading mobile network that may advance the roll-out of 5G services and boost Internet accessibility.   Combining Vodafone UK with Hutchison’s Three, Britain’s third and fourth largest networks, would result in a company with around 27 million mobile subscribers. Vodafone stated that CK Hutchison would hold 49% of the business and Vodafone would own 51%, an arrangement that would be accomplished by altering debt ownership rather than by trading cash. Reports of a possible partnership between the two companies surfaced earlier this year.   The global corporation CK Hutchison stated that no legally binding agreement for such a merger has been entered into, but the proposed acquisition is expected to require that both businesses would integrate their UK companies. CK Hutchison further said that there is no guarantee that any…

According to an update from Optus, 2.1 million of the 9.8 million current and past customers whose data was exposed had at least one portion of an identification document, such as a license or passport number, accessed. In addition to personal data such as name, address, and date of birth, a current and legitimate form of identification was compromised for around 1.2 million people.  For the remaining 900,000 users, the breach compromised an out-of-date ID. Optus stated that it has contacted all of the affected individuals and instructed them on the steps to take so as to minimize the damage done by this hack. Optus has also promised to reimburse victims the cost of passport replacement.   The company has encouraged the remaining 7.7 million consumers to be cautious. Even though their identification documents were not stolen, the breach disclosed information such as email addresses, birth dates and phone…

NTT DOCOMO and NEC Corporation have completed a test to evaluate the energy efficiency and performance of AWS Graviton2 processors across major parts of the 5G core network (5GC).   The testing indicated a 72% decrease in power usage when compared to existing x86 processors while utilizing NEC’s 5GC software running on AWS Graviton2. The study examined performance in a 5GC hybrid cloud environment using AWS Graviton2 and the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) infrastructure installed locally by DOCOMO..   These findings promote the creation of a hybrid cloud environment for telecommunication networks in the future, allowing mobile carriers to offer their users better networks that are disaster-resistant.   Following the end of this first phase, the companies will perform a second phase experiment on DOCOMO’s premises to verify the 5GC network operation on AWS Outposts equipped with Graviton2 processors.   Naoki Tani, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Executive General…