Ericsson, one of the world’s leading providers of technology and services to telecom operators, has completed the first transglobal 5G data call over live commercial 5G networks, showcasing its Spectrum Sharing technology. Through their collaboration with 5G ecosystem industry leaders Qualcomm Technologies, Swisscom and Telstra, and using a 5G smartphone from Chinese manufacturer OPPO, Ericsson continues to demonstrate its drive towards commercial dynamic spectrum sharing. The Swedish tech giant said that the November 29 data call connected Bern, Switzerland and the Gold Coast, Australia using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing deployed on Swisscom’s and Telstra’s commercial 5G networks at the respective sites. The call was achieved using spectrum sharing on a 3GPP Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band and pre-commercial OPPO 5G handsets employing the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System. Moreover, OPPO is the first 5G device manufacturer to implement Ericsson Spectrum Sharing in its smartphones. As part of the…
Telefonica launches Tech and Infra units amid Latam spin-off Spain’s telecom giant Telefonica has announced a major organisational restructuring after a meeting of its board of directors. The company’s chairman and CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete has introduced a new bold strategy to spin off company assets and prepare for industry 4.0. With its 5-point plan, Telefonica aims to generate more than EUR 2 billion a year in additional revenues from 2022, by prioritising its four key markets of Spain, Brazil, the UK and Germany and carrying out an “operational spin-off” of its Latin American business. The company will also set up a subsidiary for its cloud, cybersecurity and IoT businesses called Telefonica Tech and another for its infrastructure assets, Telefonica Infra. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/wjkobwc AT&T and Microsoft launch edge computing network Microsoft and AT&T have integrated 5G with Azure to launch their new Network Edge Compute (NEC) service for…
French operator Bouygues Telecom and US-based TeleSign Corporation, a provider of user verification and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solutions owned by BICS (Belgacom International Carrier Services), have agreed on a new partnership. Under the agreement, Bouygues Telecom will gain access to TeleSign’s mobile identity products to protect its users from online identity theft and fraud activities such as Account Takeover (ATO) through SIM Swap and Synthetic Identity fraud. In the press release announcing the deal, Ravish Patel, Director of Mobile Identity at TeleSign, claimed that Mobile Identity represents a massive opportunity for mobile operators to play an important role in today’s digital disruption. “TeleSign has been working with mobile operators, guiding them on key aspects around the opportunity, use cases and privacy principles,” commented Patel. The announcement also points to breakthrough innovations in the European digital market in recent years, as more and more digital businesses…
Gamma Communications, a rapidly growing provider of communications services to the UK business market, has announced its acquisition of Telsis Communication Services, a UK-based developer of unified communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) products for small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Gamma anticipates that this acquisition will bring the right combination of specialist development skills and engineering expertise, thus helping the company to achieve its strategic goal of becoming a leading UCaaS campaigner. Andrew Taylor, Chief Executive of Gamma, said, “We’re really pleased to announce the acquisition of Telsis. The development skills they have are core to Gamma’s UCaaS strategy and we plan to enhance our existing engineering teams to provide more resource to accelerate our existing roadmap. We look forward to working alongside the Telsis team as we continue to grow Gamma and capitalise on the opportunities ahead.” The transaction, the value of which is estimated between GBP 2 to 3 billion, follows…
Peerless Network, Ribbon Team Up to Help Businesses Mitigate Unwanted Robocalls Ribbon Communications, a global software leader in secure IP-based real-time communications, and Peerless Network have joined forces to provide businesses with advanced protection against unwanted robocalling. Peerless Network, which provides telecommunication services and high-quality voice solutions for enterprise customers worldwide, will leverage Ribbon’s advanced security technology to power its new offering designed to combat robocalling. Peerless CallTrue gives its customers more options to deal with those nuisance calls. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/rzwk7dy Vodafone picks Google Cloud to develop and host its global data platform Vodafone Group, one of the world’s leading telecom and technology services companies, has come into partnership with Google Cloud to host its strategic cloud platform for data analytics, business intelligence and machine learning. According to the announcement, Vodafone’s Neuron big-data analytics platform will leverage Google Cloud to enhance its operations by making Vodafone’s existing software…
FIX Network has announced a significant achievement towards their goal of securing transactions and private keys on SIM cards. As an innovative joint venture made of leading teams in telecoms, cybersecurity and blockchain, FIX Network will leverage the existing cellular infrastructure by defining and implementing a new blockchain-based security protocol. According to the announcement, the FIX Network Security Protocol will ensure the security and safety of private keys used by applications on mobile devices, and will provide a trusted environment for protecting a customer’s digital identities and digital assets. A significant innovation by the company is the storage of private keys on the subscriber’s SIM card, and the execution of cryptographic operations on that SIM card using applets. FIX Network emphasized that the private keys are never exposed to the mobile device or to a public network, thus enhancing security of the stored Digital Identities and other digital assets such…
Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI hits general availability Google Cloud has announced the general availability of Contact Centre AI, which will enable corporations to deploy virtual agents for basic customer interactions. The service is built using conversational AI engine Dialogflow, the development suite for creating conversational interfaces such as chat bots and interactive voice responses (IVR). Furthermore, Google Cloud has introduced Cloud Run, a service for managing Knative for serverless apps like Kubernetes, and has also launched the Network Intelligence Centre, an AI-driven network management service. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yhn43zb9 Moto Razr 2019 is official: A foldable smartphone with no display crease One of the most iconic and best-selling flip phones is reborn. Motorola has unveiled the Moto Razr folding-screen smartphone with a large OLED display that folds in half. The most interesting thing about the new phone is the hinge design: there is a large empty space around it, so…
New Jersey, US-based Synchronoss Technologies has announced that it is working with a new joint venture formed by the four largest mobile operators in the United States – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon – to speed up the delivery of an advanced mobile messaging service to consumers and businesses in all four mobile networks. The US tech giants have recently launched Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) and will cooperate with cloud, messaging, digital and IoT product specialist Synchronoss to offer a compatible Rich Communications Services (RCS) application to Android devices in 2020. This platform, based on the RCS standard that was developed together with technology partner WIT Software, can create a messaging ecosystem that allows consumer brands to attain a new level of engagement. The solution can also help meet the growing demand for content rich, personalized interactions through messaging communications, Synchronoss said in a press release. The company…
Cisco Enhances Webex Teams as Unified App Cisco is introducing a series of updates to its collaboration solution Webex Teams. At the Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas, the company announced new products and features that include new desktop and room video conferencing systems, as well as more options to integrate calling and third-party PBXes into the Webex platform. These updates are designed to reinforce Cisco’s single platform approach to delivering consistent experience across all types of enterprise communications workloads running on any type of device. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y63uhdqm Microsoft and Nokia accelerate Industry 4.0 Microsoft and Nokia have joined hands to accelerate transformation and innovation across industries with cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). “Bringing together Microsoft’s expertise in intelligent cloud solutions and Nokia’s strength in building business and mission-critical networks will unlock new connectivity and automation scenarios,” said Jason Zander, Executive Vice President at…
Microsoft has announced the launch of a new phone system for business customers, Microsoft 365 Business Voice, which is now available in Canada and the UK. This phone system combines calling, chats, meetings, calendar and e-mail functions. The solution also deploys Microsoft artificial intelligence (AI) technology to automatically transcribe voicemail, translate chat messages, and add captions to meetings in real time. According to the announcement, Microsoft 365 Business Voice is a cloud-based system that has been designed as a complete cooperation package for enterprises with up to 300 users. The phone system integrates with Office 365 and uses Microsoft Teams in order to function across computers, desk phones and smartphones, allowing customers to make calls from anywhere. “Today’s businesses need communication and collaboration tools that are easy to use and designed to work together,” Microsoft stated in a blog post. “That’s why we built Microsoft 365 Business Voice, a…