Robocalls are not only annoying, they are potentially dangerous and are progressively becoming an even bigger problem. Sadly, it does not look like the situation will improve in 2021, as there were 22.8 billion total robocalls recorded at the midway point of 2020. Robocalls are phone calls made by an automatic dialer that transmits pre-recorded messages. While this may not seem like an issue, it can be. Some robotic calls may be from legitimate sources, but they may also be scams designed to deceive or bully people to provide personal information.
TIM, Telefonica and Claro take over Brazil’s Oi mobile assets in $3.2 billion bid On Monday, TIM Participacoes, Telefonica Brasil SA and America Movil SAB de CV’s Claro won an auction to acquire the mobile operations of Brazil’s Oi SA with a joint bid of $3.23 billion. According to the announcement, TIM will be taking over 40% of Oi’s customers (around 14.5 million people), more than half of the company’s spectrum allocation (49 MHz), and 49% of its mobile sites (around 7,200 locations). As a result, it paid the largest portion of the bid, around $1.44 billion. For $1.08 billion, Telefonica is gaining 10.5 million customers, 43 MHz of spectrum, and 2,700 mobile sites. Claro’s $710 million gained the company around 11.6 million customers and 4,700 mobile sites, but no spectrum. TIM, Telefonica and Claro have also offered Oi a long-term contract to rent its telecom infrastructure. Read more at…
Robocalls calls have become a plague. It is estimated that Americans alone received more than 58.5 billion robocalls in 2019. While some robotic calls may be from legitimate sources, they can also be scams seeking to deceive or bully people to provide personal information.
Early on, robocalls were easy to detect and ignore because the calls came from an area code you did not recognize. However, the scam has become much more sophisticated with the increase in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) dialing, which makes it relatively easy to “spoof” a phone number so that the caller ID shows a different number than the one actually calling.
Pac-12 has announced a new partnership with the leading cloud communications company Nextiva. Nextiva, also recently named the Best Overall Business Phone Service by the U.S. News & World Report, has become the Conference’s Official Communications Partner at a time when cloud communications are taking the business world by storm. Nextiva joins the conference at a critical time for remote communications as businesses, educational institutions, governments and nonprofits across the United States adapt to a new “work from anywhere” model. Nextiva has decided to partner with the Pac-12 because of its strong traditions, and excellence and innovation across academia and athletics. Pac-12 graduates have attracted the world’s most innovative companies, including Google, Nike, Costco, Netflix (Nextiva’s customer) and many more. Pac-12’s sporting achievements earned them the title of “Conference of Champions.” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott commented: “There is no time more important than now for the Pac-12…
Telefónica, a multinational telecommunications company and one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world, has introduced a new unit that integrates their global wholesale, roaming and international customer divisions into a new single identity: Telefónica Global Solutions. Telefónica Global Solutions was established as part of the company’s transformation plan, which was announced last year. As stated by the group, this move will improve connections between people and businesses. In the current environment of extensive change and new challenges, the Telefónica Group continues to move forward to improve its service to global customers. The three businesses are now banding together to increase their capacity and continue to support their partners and customers. With a single goal, they have their sights set on providing consistent and comprehensive services, and specifically to offer leading-edge global solutions to Telefónica’s customers around the world. At present, Telefónica…
Deutsche Telekom will move 18 million users to the cloud Deutsche Telekom has announced that 18 million of its fixed voice customers will soon have their services moved to a new cloud-based telephony platform. The company currently has a next-generation IP multimedia subsystem (NIMS) deployed in telco’s data centers throughout Germany. The platform promises to deliver services faster and more efficiently by automatically allocating voice capacity on the network as needed. The deployment of cloud telephony is a logical next step in Deutsche Telekom’s all-IP strategy, which the company has been pursuing for years. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y3oxa9wq ClearlyIP releases a new mobile softphone Telecommunications company ClearlyIP has released “Clearly Anywhere”, a mobile softphone that provides easy mobile integration into FreePBX-based systems. This application is designed for Android and iOS devices, allowing system administrators to quickly set up, configure, and deploy cross functional software that clients closely incorporate with an…
Pentagon will allow telecoms to use military airwaves for 5G networks On Monday, the Pentagon and the White House announced plans to issue a permit for telecommunication service providers to use air waves that were previously reserved for military radar, to build new high speed 5G networks. This initiative is in response to wireless service providers, who say they need more airwaves to support growing demand for 5G signals. Sales of the 3450-3550 megahertz bands are scheduled to begin in December of 2021. According to Dana Deasy, chief information officer for the Department of Defense, the Pentagon will continue to use this bandwidth for military purposes. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yy4k4nhb HMD gets $230 million funding from Google, Qualcomm and Nokia HMD Global, Nokia’s brand marketing agency, announced to have secured a $230 million investment from Google, Qualcomm, Nokia and other undisclosed investors. As stated by HMD Global, the funds will…
Deutsche Telekom hits 50% 5G population coverage Deutsche Telekom, the largest German telecommunications company, has expanded its 5G connectivity to 3,000 towns across all German states. A total of 18,000 antennas, out of the 30,000 already installed, have been upgraded to support 5G services in the last 5 weeks, and as a result, 50% of Germany‘s population now has 5G coverage. Walter Goldenits, Head of Technology, commented: “The 50 percent is no reason for us to rest on our laurels. The 5G rollout continues with the same intensity. Two thirds of the population are our next target. And we want to achieve this too this year.” Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y4z6fd2m Google Cloud and Orange announce their collaboration Google Cloud and Orange announced that they are partnering up for data, AI and edge computing development. The two companies plan on transforming Orange’s IT infrastructure, developing future cloud services, improving operational efficiency…
Contributed by Maor Efrati, CTO at monogoto My generation grew up in the early days of the internet and global connectivity. The only truly global network was the phone network. Any content or other service was provided by a local operator. We saw the internet as a global network but mostly as a way to share and access information. A huge revolution parallel to the WWW was the OTT ‘over the top’. It’s not an information revolution but a brand new business model for a whole new set of companies to become a service provider without a physical connection to the consumer. OTT has revolutionized the way many businesses operate. In the early 2000s, operators and service providers generated most of their income from all kinds of content: TV, Voice, SMS, Ringtones, Stickers, etc. The internet brought a new wave of companies, technically new service providers, companies that…
Qualcomm invests $97 million in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms Qualcomm has become the latest high ranking sponsor of the four-year-old Indian company, Reliance Jio Platforms. On Sunday evening, Qualcomm Ventures revealed their plans to invest $97 million in Reliance Jio Platforms and to assist that company launch advanced 5G infrastructure and services for their local customers. Furthermore, Reliance Jio Platforms has introduced cut-rate voice and data plans into the Indian telecommunications market, attracting almost 400 million subscribers. This rapid growth has resulted in the company becoming the most successful operator in the world’s second largest market in less than four years since its establishment. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/y9hponyd Deutsche Telekom explores quantum tech with OPENQKD The German operator Deutsche Telekom, in partnership with the OPENQKD (Open European Quantum Key Distribution) consortium, are preparing to research quantum key distribution (QKD) technologies in order to develop quantum-safe data transmission. In spite of the…

