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Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #41

By Aiste Kryzanovske October 9, 2020

Deutsche Telekom reaches a wholesale deal with Telefónica Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica have reached a wholesale FTTH deal. These telecom rivals extended their partnership that was launched in 2013, which allowed Telefónica to purchase VDSL lines from Deutsche Telekom. The renewed agreement has been extended for 10 more years, and now covers FTTH lines as well. This is a big opportunity for Telefónica Germany, as it is one of the smaller players in the fixed broadband market in the country. By using Deutsche Telekom’s fiber network, Telefónica has set up a clear path for itself to be an important participant in the growing ultra-fast broadband market. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y6985zh9 Telia sells Telia Carrier On Tuesday, the Swedish company Telia announced that it was selling its international carrier business to Swedish pension funds for $1.1 billion. Polhem Infra’s acquisition of Telia Carrier is expected to be completed in 2021, when…

Telecom News

Dialpad raises $100M in Series E funding

By Aiste Kryzanovske October 8, 2020

Dialpad, the US-based business VoIP, video and contact-center service provider has announced $100 million in E Series financing. The funding phase was led by OMERS Growth Equity, Andreessen Horowitz, GV, ICONIQ Capital, Felicis Ventures, Section 32 and Work-Bench. As claimed by the company, its value now exceeds $1.2 billion, based on the $245 million that it has raised up till now. The new funding will focus on Dialpad innovations and support expanded market strategies. The $1.2 billion evaluation comes as no surprise, as the demand in the market is growing. The company says its annual revenue figure now exceeds $100 million. In addition, Dialpad has recently focused on its artificial intelligence solutions. In 2018, the company launched its VoiceAI service and now provides many AI solutions as part of its voice intelligence service. The services include automated note taking, real-time transcription and voice analytics. Moreover, the news…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #39

By Aiste Kryzanovske September 25, 2020

Germany to retire its 3G network Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica Deutschland and Vodafone Germany have announced the dates of their 3G network service withdrawal. Deutsche Telekom announced that it will aim to shut down 3G networks by the summer of 2021, while the Vodafone Germany target date was announced to be a few months earlier. Similarly, Telefonica Deutschland has stated that it would like to switch off its 3G technology by the end of 2021. This means that Germany will be essentially dependent on LTE and 5G in just over a year. Deutsche Telekom says the coverage gaps left after the 3G shutdown will be filled by 4G. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y48ot9p5 Rogers Communications expanding 5G services On September 22, the Canadian communications and media company Rogers Communications announced the launch of 5G technology in five new cities. The Ericsson-powered operator has the largest 5G network in Canada. According to the…

Telecom News

Conn3ct snaps up ICR Speech Solutions and Services

By Vilija Simkiene July 1, 2020

The Apiary Capital portfolio company Conn3ct, a provider of unified communications, contact center and global network service solutions, has acquired ICR Speech Solutions and Services Limited (ICR), a highly specialized speech application development company involved in interactive voice response (IVR) and next-generation speech bot technology. Conn3ct said that this acquisition is a major event in the company’s strategy, and adds important skills and intellectual property to IVR, which is essential for delivering an optimum call center customer experience. According to a statement, this partnership with ICR will enable Conn3ct to offer a fully automated caller experience, where complex queries are quickly identified and routed to a live agent. IVR is a critical contact center technology that provides the initial response to the calling customers before they reach an agent. Substantial advances in technology and the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning have driven IVR from basic call management to…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #23

By Vilija Simkiene June 5, 2020

Spanish telecom operator MasMovil agrees $3.3 billion private equity bid KKR, Cinven and Providence have made their Public Acquisition Offer for Spanish telecoms operator MasMovil. The three venture capital funds have proposed to pay EUR 22.5 per share of the telco, which is valued at almost EUR 3 billion. According to the statement, KKR, Cinven and Providence will pay a 20 percent premium on the current MasMovil share price. Meinrad Spenger, MasMovil Chief Executive, said that they have signed an agreement with the bidders on a deal which would be “beneficial for the shareholders and other stakeholders in the company.” Furthermore, the bidders noted that they would maintain continuity in MasMovil’s strategy, staff and executive team. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y754vsc9 Google Cloud signs major UK government deal The technology giant Google Cloud has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to make its cloud solutions…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #21

By Vilija Simkiene May 22, 2020

Openreach adopts Nokia’s 10Gbps FTTP broadband kit for the UK The Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia has announced that Openreach will deploy its next-generation fiber solutions. This will help meet Openreach’s target to bring ultra-fast and reliable broadband access to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s. Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said, “This new digital platform will help our economy to bounce back more quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic – enabling people to continue work from home, and millions of businesses to operate seamlessly online for decades to come.” This supplier agreement also marks a shift away from reliance on Huawei equipment for the UK’s largest broadband networks. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yb6cj6jn Google and Apple’s joint COVID-19 contact tracing API now available to health authorities Apple and Google have released the first public version of their jointly developed API for COVID-19 tracing apps. This software will enable public health authorities to…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #10

By Vilija Simkiene March 6, 2020

Hailo raises $60 million to accelerate the launch of its AI edge chip Israeli startup Hailo has raised further USD 60 million in series B funding for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, bringing its total financing to date to USD 88 million. This round, led by existing investors, was joined by strategic investors including ABB Technology Ventures, NEC Corporation, and London-based Latitude Ventures. Hailo said the new funding will help to roll out its Hailo-8 Deep Learning chip and to reach new markets and industries worldwide. The Hailo-8 could give edge devices far more processing power than before, allowing them to perform AI tasks without having to connect to the cloud. The company was founded in 2017, and its technology is designed for the automotive market, smart cameras, smartphones, drones and AR/VR platforms. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/tbwyjnb Ericsson starts manufacturing of 5G base station in Texas Sweden’s Ericsson, one of the…

5G next-gen network: key points to consider

By Vilija Simkiene March 4, 2020

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…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #9

By Vilija Simkiene February 28, 2020

A towering success: Cellnex revenue tops €1bn Cellnex Telecom’s revenue for 2019 exceeded EUR 1 billion with 67.5 percent of total income coming from infrastructure services it provides to operators. The Spanish wireless infrastructure operator currently owns 36,471 operative sites in eight European countries and plans to add 28,000 more as a result of ongoing acquisition deals pending completion. Cellnex has also announced a partnership with Bouygues Telecom to help them deploy their 5G network. The two companies have agreed to create a joint venture (51 percent Cellnex and 49 percent Bouygues Telecom) that will deploy and operate a fiber network connecting infrastructure equipment across France. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/s6fmz4h Google plans to invest $10 billion in US offices and data centers in 2020 Google has unveiled its plans to invest more than USD 10 billion in offices and data centers across the United States in 2020. Google and Alphabet…

Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #51

By Vilija Simkiene December 20, 2019

Google Cloud partners with Fortinet, McAfee, Palo Alto and other vendors to bolster its security Google has announced new strategic partnerships with security vendors Fortinet, McAfee and Palo Alto Networks. Together with Fortinet, Google Cloud will provide a new reference architecture to connect facilities to Google Cloud with secure SD-WAN solutions, which makes Fortinet’s FortiWeb Cloud WAF available as-a-service on the platform. MacAfee will integrate its MVISION container security software on Google Cloud. The jointly developed Palo Alto Networks and Google solutions will help secure customers’ multi-cloud environments and will enhance threat detection capabilities. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/rx68bt5 UK plans to ban sales of locked mobile phones Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, has announced plans to ban the sale of locked mobile handsets to make it easier for consumers to switch networks. Virgin Mobile, O2, Sky, Three and some smaller carriers already offer unlocked phones, but the regulator wants other companies, including…