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Telefonica Deutschland has comprehensive plans for a sweeping shut down of its 3G network starting in July, making it the last operator in Germany to phase out legacy technologies in favor of 4G and 5G. Approximately 16,000 3G sites are scheduled to be shut down by the company.   The resources that were needed for 3G will now be repurposed for the 4G network by the end of the year. According to the operator, 4G will use the frequencies of current 3G transmitters at 2,100 MHz. This upgrade from 3G to 4G will benefit Telefónica Deutschland’s customers, as well as customers of its other brands, providing a better and faster network.   A full upgrade of the first 500 3G sites will begin on July 1st. An additional 1000 sites will be repurposed two weeks later. The regions where the upgrade will begin are Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western…

Call center software firm Aircall receives $120 million funding Aircall, a provider of cloud-based phone and contact center systems, has completed a $120 million Series D funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The startup develops a cloud-based phone system for call centers, support lines and sales teams, and offers integration with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, Intercom and other popular CRM, support and communication systems. This funding will help the company to develop new products for integration with third-party tools, and in particular, industry-specific integrations. Aircall plans new offices in London and Berlin, as well as new hires in the company’s existing offices based in New York, Paris, Sydney and Madrid. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/ruc4n8u5 Telenor and Axiata seal $15 Billion deal to merge Malaysian telecoms units Malaysian telecoms company Axiata Group Bhd. and Norway’s Telenor ASA have signed a definitive agreement to combine their mobile operations in Malaysia,…

Ericsson has announced the launch of its Private 5G, which will reshape on-site connectivity by providing secure and simple 4G LTE and 5G Standalone Connectivity (SA), targeting the manufacturing, mining and process industries, offshore and power companies, as well as ports and airports.   Ericsson Private 5G enhances and makes business operations using cloud network management easier, keeping sensitive data on-site without downtime, and guarantees high performance under Service-Level Agreements (SLAs).   The Ericsson 5G Private network is based on a 4G/5G radio and dual-mode core technology for extensive indoor and outdoor environment use cases, that include tracking assets and real-time automation, a digital twin to help optimize production operations, effective quality checks using augmented reality, and smart surveillance drones. This technology seamlessly merges with a variety of business projects, devices, and applications to increase productivity, deliver new offerings, boost customer engagement, and improve the overall work environment.   The…

New security features for Google Workspace and Google Drive Google has unveiled new security tools that include client-side encryption for Workspace and several enhanced data protection features in the platform’s Drive service. The tech giant said there will be new trust rules and labels for Drive to classify files and apply controls based on their sensitivity levels. These added security features are the result of several factors, including Google’s “security first” philosophy, the rapid increase in remote work environments due to the pandemic, and the company’s experience with its BeyondCorp zero trust security model. In addition, Google is also increasing phishing and malware protection in Workspace. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/ygc7yhw7 Facebook partners with Internet service providers D-VoiS and Netplus Facebook has announced new partnerships in India with Internet service providers (ISPs) D-VoiS and Netplus. These ISPs will use Facebook Connectivity’s Express Wi-Fi platform to provide public Wi-Fi hotspots in various…

Telecommunications company Liberty Global and Digital Colony, a global digital infrastructure investment firm, have announced plans to launch a European Edge data center joint venture, called AtlasEdge Data Center. The Joint Venture (JV) will manage more than 100 edge data centers in Europe, combining the edge assets in the Digital Colony and Liberty Global real estate portfolios. AtlasEdge Data Centers will be directed by Josh Joshi, the former CFO of Interxion. In the new business, Liberty Global will devote its digital infrastructure assets, including technical real estate portfolios, as well as strategic and operational business support. The Digital Colony will contribute operational expertise, strategic direction and capital to provide a foundation for the growth and merger of edge co-location service capabilities across Europe.   AtlasEdge will provide services through a wide network of devices close to the consumers and enterprise end users. The company’s goal is to meet the…

Two Japanese companies, Rakuten Mobile and NEC Corporation, have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote Open RAN in mobile telecommunications markets worldwide. The MoU is based on Rakuten’s current partnership with NEC, where NEC supplies 5G radio equipment to the operator. The pair is also jointly working on developing a Rakuten standalone 5G core.   Under the Memorandum of Understanding, Rakuten Mobile and NEC will continue to expand their local collaboration to provide 5G and 4G radios and engineering services for Open RAN systems that are compliant with O-RAN specifications. These services will be applicable to  markets worldwide and will boost the global development of the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP). RCP is Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized and containerized cloud-based mobile network platform, enabling telecom businesses to station virtual networks rapidly and inexpensively.   Tareq Amin, executive vice president and CTO at Rakuten Mobile, said: “Rakuten…

Vodafone launches standalone 5G services in Germany Vodafone has announced the launch of its standalone 5G services in Germany. Vodafone Germany, working with Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Oppo, has upgraded around 1000 mobile sites in the 3.5 GHz range, switching them to an independent 5G core network that no longer relies on 4G. Vodafone claims that “latency times of 10 to 15 milliseconds are possible – that’s as fast as the human nervous system.” This initiative will deliver the SA 5G experience to 170 cities and municipalities, including major cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/5dvhudhr Nokia to supply China Mobile with software-defined networking technology Nokia gained a major cloud win when China Mobile chose the vendor to supply software-defined network (SDN) technology for its public cloud service expansion. As part of  the transaction, Nokia will provide its Nuage Networks Virtualized Cloud Services, that include…

Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions, has announced a partnership with NEC Corporation to deliver 5G solutions built on Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform. With this partnership, NEC will be able to deliver its next-generation suite of core capabilities to the OpenShift platform.   The NEC 5G core network solutions operating on Red Hat OpenShift will allow organizations to leverage 5G in many applications, including the 5G core, 5G radio access networks (RANs), edge computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more, creating new income opportunities.   This cloud-native network function (CNF) infrastructure will offer service providers a common telecommunications cloud infrastructure for a variety of use cases, helping to reduce management and operational costs. Service providers will also be able to reap the benefits of using an open, horizontal platform that can reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) by 30%, according to an ACG…

Singtel, a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, and its Australian subsidiary Optus have expanded their 5G ecosystems by adding Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outposts to their portfolio of hybrid cloud technologies from hyperscale cloud providers in their respective multi-access edge compute (MEC) platforms.    With Amazon Web Services Outpost, MEC will power 5G solutions such as robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence to function with very little latency, and closer to end-users. Companies can access MECs with AWS Outposts from the nearest Singtel site, allowing them to seamlessly manage their applications that utilize AWS tools and benefit from extremely low latency data processing.   Furthermore, Singtel may optionally install the MEC with AWS Outposts at the customer’s site for testing, in the case where the customer wishes to keep confidential data on its premises.   Bill Chang, CEO of group enterprise at Singtel said its partnership with AWS will increase the…

Telefonica announces creation of a new Brazilian fibre company Telefonica has announced the establishment of a new Brazilian fiber company called FiBrasil. The company will be a joint venture between the operator and the Canadian Pension Fund CDPQ (Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec). Telefonica’s 50% stake will be divided equally between Telefonica Brasil (Vevo) and the Group’s infrastructure division Telefónica Infra. FiBrasil will initially install and operate fiber optic networks in several medium-sized cities throughout Brazil outside São Paulo. Telefonica itself will be the key manager of the company. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/53vt7s3k Samsung beats 5G speed record again  Korean technology giant Samsung claims to have set a new 5G speed record. During the test, 5.23 Gbps was achieved on a single device, with the testing being performed under laboratory conditions using commercial equipment. These details are crucial when it comes to the 5G speed record, as Samsung…