Six global carriers form a group for MEC, 5G interoperability Verizon, Vodafone, America Movil, KT Corporation, Rogers Communications, and Telstra have joined forces to form the first-of-its-kind cooperation, the 5G Future Forum. The world’s leading telecoms and technology service providers will work together to develop interoperable 5G specifications and mobile edge computing across key geographic regions, including the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. According to the statement from the carriers, they will “develop public and private marketplaces to enhance developer and customer access to 5G, and will share global best practices in technology deployment.” Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/u3vdooh Google acquires no-code app development platform AppSheet Google has announced the acquisition of AppSheet, a no-code enterprise app development platform that allows developers without extensive programming knowledge to collect rich data, fill up apps with AI, or automatically move data. This works by extracting data from a spreadsheet, database or form, and using the…
Samsung Electronics has completed an agreement to acquire network services provider TeleWorld Solutions (TWS). Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, TWS provides network design, testing and optimization services to mobile service and cable operators, equipment OEMs and other companies in the United States. This acquisition is expected to help Samsung address the need for end-to-end support in delivering network solutions aimed at upgrading the 5G and 4G LTE networks, and providing connectivity service advancements in the US. Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “The acquisition of TWS will enable us to meet mobile carriers’ growing needs for improving their 4G and 5G networks, and eventually create new opportunities to enhance our service capabilities to our customers. Samsung will continue to drive innovation in communications technology, while providing optimization services for network deployments that accelerate US 5G network expansion.” Under the agreement,…
Telefonica piloting blockchain across 8,000 companies Telecoms multinational Telefonica has teamed up with the Association of Science and Technology Parks (APTE) to provide approximately 8,000 companies in Spain with access to a secure, decentralised blockchain network. Telefonica plans to launch a three-month pilot project that will encourage companies to develop their own decentralised applications on the blockchain at no extra cost, and will also allow them to experiment with their own digital tokens. Blockchain is being widely adopted in a variety of industries, especially in the field of IoT, where 75 percent of IoT technology users in the US already use blockchain or plan to do so by the end of 2020. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/t8z8p9d Samsung Galaxy Fold sales figures revealed, and they’re worse than earlier reports Samsung Electronics sold close to half a million of its Galaxy Fold smartphones last year. Speaking to the Yonhap News Agency at CES 2020,…
Spanish wireless infrastructure giant Cellnex Telecom has acquired the Portuguese telecommunications tower and site operator OMTEL, owned by Altice Europe and Belmont Infra Holding. This agreement is worth around EUR 800 million, and the acquisition includes the projected deployment of 400 new mobile cell sites in the next four years, adding to the 3,000 sites that OMTEL currently operates in Portugal. Cellnex said that to facilitate the upcoming 5G roll-out in Portugal, the company has been rapidly expanding, and its build-to-suit (BTS) program could involve constructing a further 350 sites for third parties by 2027. The estimated investment for this BTS plan is expected to be EUR 140 million. The Spanish towerco anticipates that this acquisition will increase the company’s sales backlog by EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 38.5 billion. Tobias Martinez, CEO of Cellnex, said, “With OMTEL, we are not only integrating one of the leading independent…
The US tech company Ribbon Communications, a global software leader providing IP-based real-time communications security and software solutions, has extended its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable the simplified forwarding of VoIP audio streams to Amazon Chime Voice Connector by using SIP-based Media Recording (SIPREC). Ribbon’s Session Border Controllers (SBCs) with SIPREC capabilities can forward audio streams to AWS for real-time, automated call analytics and recording. Ribbon is a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), whose SBC Software Edition (SWe) is available in the AWS Marketplace and as an AWS Quick Start. In March 2019, Ribbon reported that its SBC SWe was successfully tested with the Amazon Chime Voice Connector, to help customers move their SIP trunking workloads to AWS. The company said that IT professionals can use the Connector for low-cost SIP trunking with on-premises or cloud-based phone systems. Sid Rao, General Manager at Amazon…
The non-profit industry group i3forum, which focuses on transformation in the network carrier business, has announced the addition of three new members – Clear, Digicel and Lanck Telecom. Clear specializes in blockchain-based settlement and clearing networks, Digicel provides total communications and home entertainment services in 33 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and the Asia Pacific regions, and Lanck Telecom offers voice and data transfer services to carriers and retail operators in more than 190 countries worldwide. “New members bring new perspectives and insight to our discussions, workgroups and initiatives. We are excited to have Clear, Digicel and Lanck Telecom join us and share their expertise across a variety of topics. Unique voices and opinions support our vision for open and inclusive collaboration,” said Philippe Millet, Chairman at i3forum. “It is a very exciting time for i3forum as we get new initiatives off the ground and take our organization to new places. I’d…
Apple now owns Intel’s mobile modem business Intel, a leader in the semiconductor industry, has completed the sale of the majority of its smartphone modem business to Apple. The company said this transaction enables it to focus on developing 5G network technology while maintaining the ability to create modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and autonomous vehicles. Apple now uses Qualcomm for 4G LTE and 5G modems for iPhones. With this acquisition, Apple is planning to develop its own modems for smartphones in 2021. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/rqmu724 Orange unveils new five-year grand plan Orange, a French multinational telecommunications corporation, has introduced “Engage 2025”, its new strategy that follows on from the Essentials 2020 plan launched in 2015. The corporation has revealed its goals for the coming years, emphasizing that its business model will be guided by social and environmental responsibility. Considering the operator’s business…
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…
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…

