The Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia’s CloudBand-based software products to power its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network. Nokia stated that this network supports more than 110 million customers, making it the largest cloud-based VoLTE network in India and the world’s largest VoLTE service managed by Nokia. According to the Finnish telecom gear maker, the deployment of cloud-based VoLTE will enable Airtel to provide its mobile customers with faster, more reliable and cost-effective call connectivity. Nokia’s solution, which has been deployed to cover all 22 telecom service areas in India, uses commercial, off-the-shelf IT hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Nokia noted that cloud-native VNFs consume far less power and space compared to traditional 2G or 3G circuit-switched legacy cores. With Nokia’s VoLTE platform, Airtel will be able to reduce its 3G network traffic and use the freed-up spectrum to deploy 4G / LTE services for higher speeds…
Salt Security raises $20 million to protect APIs with AI US-based Salt Security, a cybersecurity startup that helps companies protect APIs, has closed a USD 20 million Series A round. The company plans to use the new capital to renew its investments in product development and expand its sales and marketing teams. Salt’s platform aims to prevent cyber attacks with a combination of AI and machine learning techniques. It analyzes a copy of the traffic from web, software-as-a-service, mobile, microservice, and the Internet of Things (IoT) app APIs. Salt uses this process to understand each API and creates the basis for normal behavior tailored to customers and their applications. After that, Salt reveals anomalies that are identified as indicators of an attack during reconnaissance. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y88n2l7r Lenovo delivers world’s first 5G laptop with Verizon, EE, Sunrise and CMCC Lenovo, one of the world’s leading personal technology companies producing innovative PCs and mobile…
The Dublin, Ireland-based company AirSpeed Telecom has partnered with Intellicom, an international business telephony and contact center provider, to integrate new Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions into the telecommunications products and bandwidth services provider’s existing product portfolio. AirSpeed Telecom said that this integration will assist end-users in their quest to achieve superior operational excellence and offer an enhanced customer experience. According to the statement, the new VoIP solutions encompass a full-featured business telephony and contact center system that carries voice and other multimedia traffic across broadband networks. AirSpeed Telecom noted that by leveraging the power of IP networks, businesses can improve customer service, increase workplace mobility and enhance remote working solutions, and also reduce telecommunications costs. “Our customers’ needs are changing and at AirSpeed, we like to think that we’re able to innovate to meet those developing requirements. While best known for high-class connectivity, AirSpeed is increasingly offering business-class…
Contributed by Maor Efrati, CTO at monogoto Working from home: A lot has been said about increased productivity and family time as positively impacted during the COVID-19 quarantine. I am discovering that it’s also good for writing and for analyzing the many conversations that I and my monogoto.io partner Itamar Kunik have regarding cellular, WiFi, and the future of connectivity. @monogoto we are building an OTT cellular network. We are providing a connectivity service to any company that desires to have cellular connectivity as part of the offering or product. Simplifying the backend and network with strong API’s while keeping all the bells and whistles that a cellular network can support over a traditional last mile (RJ45 and WiFi). It will be interesting to see what plays out regarding WiFi vs Cellular as the last-mile provider. Some think cellular technology is the perfect solution for all wireless networks, while others hope…
Liberty Global and Telefonica to merge their U.K. operations creating the leading fixed-mobile provider in the country Virgin Media, Liberty Global’s cable operator, and Telefonica’s mobile carrier O2 have announced an agreement to merge their UK operations in a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. This mega-deal is valued at GBP 31.4 billion, with O2 worth GBP 12.7 billion and Virgin Media valued at GBP 18.7 billion. According to the announcement, this combination will create a stronger fixed and mobile competitor in the UK market, supporting the expansion of Virgin Media’s giga-ready network and O2’s 5G mobile deployment for the benefit of consumers, businesses and the public sector. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2021. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yc42j66f Ericsson ‘talking to advisers’ about selling $1.2bn number portability unit Ericsson’s largest shareholder Cevian Capital has advised the communications equipment supplier to sell its 83.3% stake in the US number portability company Iconectiv, formerly known as Telcordia. For the past several years,…
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), a non-profit industry organization representing mobile industry suppliers worldwide, has expanded its membership by welcoming nine new companies from the global 4G and 5G mobile ecosystem. The GSA said that it has so far accepted Approve-IT as a new ordinary member together with eight new associate members, including the French telecom regulator ARCEP and the Singaporean regulator IMDA. In March 2020, the association also extended its Executive Committee by adding ZTE as an executive member along with Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung. Joe Barrett, the President of the GSA, said, “The global mobile industry is not only highly competitive, it’s also highly collaborative. 5G doesn’t belong to one company or country; there is a whole ecosystem of regulators, vendors and operators who are working together to drive global harmonization of spectrum, innovation in networks and devices, and new use cases for 5G…
Telstra, an Australian telecommunications and technology company that offers a full range of communications services, has officially announced the launch of its My Telstra app. The new and improved application provides an easier way to manage Telstra accounts and services, find information, shop and redeem Telstra Plus points. With My Telstra, customers will gain convenient access to billing and technical support, as well as manage their services and payments, get help, check for outages and track orders from their home. In a statement, Telstra said that its app “has been designed with accessibility at the forefront” and is built to be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. The company plans to update the existing Telstra 24×7 app so users can expect to see it on their phone soon. Customers who have auto-update enabled do not need to take any action – their current Telstra 24×7 app will update to…
The US technology company Ribbon Communications has introduced its new EdgeMarc 300 Series to provide small businesses, home office and branch office customers that currently have analog voice infrastructure, with an easy and cost-effective way to capitalize on IP-based voice services. The cloud solutions provider said that the EdgeMarc 300 is part of the recently launched cloud-based Ribbon Next Generation Intelligent Edge portfolio, which securely connects and enhances enterprise voice and data applications, including Microsoft Teams. This portfolio of edge solutions delivers service assurance, advanced analytics, security, policy and routing functionalities for cloud communications applications. Ribbon’s EdgeMarc 300 is a survivable branch office solution that supports the integration of analog endpoints and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), as well as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) calls. This gateway provides connectivity between analog and SIP devices, enabling branch offices to rapidly migrate analog phones to a SIP-based network and communicate seamlessly with…
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…