US carriers to address airline safety concerns over C-band spectrum In an open letter, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US and UScellular agreed to take voluntary steps to allay worries about aviation safety and allow these telecom companies to fully utilize their C-band spectrum. According to the letter, the steps are intended to minimize operational impact on C-Band operations and support full-power deployments across the C-Band spectrum. In the past, airlines have resisted the introduction of C-band spectrum for 5G services due to concerns over interference with aircraft altimeters. To assure the secure coexistence of C-band frequencies and radio altimeters, which are more than 220 MHz apart, the FCC has issued licensing and technical standards. Read the full article. Deutsche Telekom now owns a 50.2% stake in T-Mobile US According to CEO Tim Höttges, Deutsche Telekom now owns 50.2% of T-Mobile US, completing a long-term objective initially stated at the company’s 2021…
Vodafone Germany to cut 1,300 jobs in realignment efforts Vodafone Germany has revealed intentions to cut 1,300 positions in management, double functions, and areas with no direct customer interaction as part of a realignment and return to growth effort. In addition, the operator intends to establish 400 new customer-facing positions, resulting in a total loss of 900 positions. The decision comes on the heels of a 1.8% year-on-year decline in fiscal Q3 service income due to client losses in Germany, which is likely to be a special focus of cost-cutting efforts. Telecom companies such as BT and Orange Business have also recently announced layoffs. Read the full article. Five9 launches AI Summary tool for contact centers Five9, a cloud contact center service provider, has released Five9 Agent Assist 2.0 with AI Summary, driven by OpenAI’s language model technology. The solution produces summary highlights of client call recordings in seconds, decreasing…
NTT DoCoMo partners with Ericsson and Keysight on 6G NTT DoCoMo has announced the expansion of its experimental 6G trials, for which it has teamed with Ericsson and Keysight. The collaboration with Ericsson will concentrate on new 6G wireless interfaces for frequencies ranging from 6 to 15 GHz, as well as the sub-TeraHertz band, which encompasses frequencies exceeding 100 GHz. The collaboration with Keysight will put ultra-wideband communications across sub-THz frequencies to the test. DoCoMo has also announced that it is working on a RAN intelligent controller that will be interoperable with base station equipment from several Open RAN manufacturers. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/bdzy6j9f Huawei showcases its commitment to green technology During MWC2023, Huawei sponsored the European Carrier Executives Roundtable, where Zhou Yu, Huawei’s network consulting and system integration domain president, addressed Huawei’s value proposition and innovative techniques in the green target network domain. The observations and remarks emphasized Huawei’s…
Broadvoice recognized as a top UCaaS provider by TrustRadius In its Winter 2023 “Best of” awards, TrustRadius named Broadvoice, a provider of hosted voice and unified communications as a service (UCaaS), as one of the top three products for Best Relationship, Best Value for Price and Best Feature Set in the UCaaS category. The awards are based on key data and unbiased user ratings from July 1 to December 31, 2022. The b-hive unified communications technology from Broadvoice offers virtual contact centers, cloud PBX, UC, collaboration tools and the next-generation b-hive Communicator for employees to use in streamlining communications and collaboration capabilities. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/237r7ms2 Zoho announces their Trident UC platform Trident, a new platform for collaboration, productivity and communication experiences, has been unveiled by Zoho Corporation. Trident provides users with a single platform and lessens tool ambiguity by bringing together mail, messaging, audio/video conversations, calendar, tasks, and more…
Deutsche Telekom named the most valuable brand in Europe The Brand Finance Global 500 has rated Deutsche Telekom (DT) the most valuable brand in Europe, bringing it up six places to 11th overall. The company ranks second amongst worldwide telecoms, trailing only Verizon and ahead of AT&T. Only Samsung, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and TikTok break the US company’s dominance of the top 10 most valuable brands in the world. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/57u59bbw e& increases stake in Vodafone to 12% In recent years, Vodafone has suffered financial setbacks and investors have pushed the corporation to make adjustments and restore its fortunes. e& (previously Etisalat), one of Vodafone’s investors, has purchased a nearly 10% share in the company for £3.3 billion and has since steadily raised its stake to 12%. The transaction will provide e& with considerable exposure to a global leader in connectivity and digital services,…
Greek authorities to investigate telecoms operators The Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) in Greece is about to launch an investigation into telecommunications companies for improper monitoring demands made by the Greek secret services. This probe follows a controversy last year in which the government reportedly spied on journalists and politicians using Predator malware. The Greek government has acknowledged some of the monitoring activities, but insists that they were carried out legitimately and that it did not purchase the malware. ADAE will form a team to supervise the probe and will analyze private data using powers given by the Greek Constitution. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mwwms58e PBX-Change is now KUDUCOM™ KUDUCOM, a Tampa Bay, Florida-based communications company, has rebranded itself and introduced a new name, brand, vision and mission. For almost two decades, the company, originally known as PBX-Change, has offered organizations voice, internet and cloud-based communication services. The…
Google and Oracle experience data center outages due to UK heatwave Following a record-breaking heat wave that blasted Britain on Tuesday, data centers used by Google and Oracle Corp. have both failed. Both businesses attributed the disruptions to “cooling systems” issues. Both Google and Oracle have shut down equipment, causing interruptions to their cloud services, in order to prevent irreparable damage to physical components and thereby creating a lengthy outage. On Tuesday, when the outages started to spread through London, temperatures in the UK reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/3t2xm2a5 FBI and Verizon Network enter $400 million contract Verizon and the FBI have signed a new $400 million deal, with the telecoms giant assisting to increase the data bandwidth for the law enforcement organization. New features include a worldwide Virtual Private Network and faster data transmission rates using 4G and 5G wireless connectivity within the…
BT putting its digital voice service rollout on halt Last year, BT began rolling out Digital Voice, which is a VoIP solution that works over the company’s broadband network rather than the old analogue network, as the name implies. This service is an essential improvement, as BT points out, to replace analogue technology, which is rapidly becoming outmoded. The operator is, however, delaying the Digital Voice switchover for consumers who do not wish to switch right away. BT did not specify how long the halt will occur, nonetheless, it is confident that the switchover will take place soon. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mt23py8u DigitalBridge enters into mobile infrastructure deal with Telenet Telenet has agreed to sell all of its mobile telecommunications towers in Belgium to DigitalBridge, a US-based real estate investment trust and a subsidiary of the DigitalBridge Group. The investment firm has agreed to pay $820 million for Telenet’s 3,322…
Telecom firms in Europe are coming together to assist Ukrainians in staying connected, and they are using a variety of steps that differ from company to company and from country to country, depending on the markets in which they operate. Here are some of the steps that telecommunications firms are taking. Deutsche Telekom has started providing free calls and text messages to Ukraine. This initiative affects both individual and commercial clients making calls from landlines and mobile phones, as well as roaming in Ukraine. T-Mobile Polska and T-Mobile US, the operator’s Polish and US subsidiaries, both launched comparable deals. Verizon has waived costs for consumer and corporate users traveling to and from Ukraine. Customers with foreign coverage bolt-ons will not lose any minutes from their subscription, and voice and text roaming costs have been waived. Virgin Media O2 has lifted costs for calls to and from Ukraine,…
WOW! partners with Reach Mobile Wide Open West (WOW!) has teamed up with the MVNO aggregator Reach Mobile to launch a wireless service. WOW! mobile, powered by Reach, will be accessible in a few markets this spring, and the business is currently working on determining the initial launch sites. It is intended that the mobile product should be expanded to all of WOW! markets shortly after the launch. WOW! will be able to bring a mobile product to market rapidly by relying on their operational efficiency, a full-featured platform, and a fantastic customer experience in a lower-cost operating model by employing Reach Next. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2smnm38n Audi taps Verizon for 5G vehicles Audi of America and Verizon have launched a new cooperative venture, with the goal of utilizing Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband connection within Audi automobiles. Their offering will encompass augmented mobile services and new driving-assistance technologies, paving the…


