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Telenor and Axiata work towards merging Asian operations

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Norwegian telco Telenor Group and Malaysia-based Axiata Group have announced their discussions regarding a prospective non-cash merger of their telecom and infrastructure assets in Asia, in which Telenor would take a majority stake. Telenor and Axiata’s jointly owned telecommunications giant MergeCo would combine the two companies’ operations in South and Southeast Asia, and in its headquarters in Malaysia would serve almost 300 million customers using approximately 60,000 communication towers located across Asia. Gunn Wærsted, Chair of Telenor Group, said: “Today we announce that Telenor and Axiata are in discussions on joining forces in Asia, one of the most dynamic and innovative regions in the world. Together, we aim to create a leading and well-diversified pan-Asian telecom and infrastructure company with substantial synergy potential and strong regional operations. It is Telenor’s strategy to develop and create value from our core telco assets in the Nordic and Asian region. This potential merger…

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Global tech giants partner for high-speed interconnect

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A consortium of nine technology companies – Intel, Cisco, Dell EMC, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Facebook, Google, Alibaba and Huawei – has been formed in order to create and launch a new standard, called Compute Express Link (CXL). This project will accelerate ever-expanding data workloads, such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), rich media services, and cloud applications. Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives at Intel, said in a statement: “CXL is an important milestone for data-centric computing and will be a foundational standard for an open, dynamic accelerator ecosystem. Like USB and PCI Express, which Intel also cofounded, we can look forward to a new wave of industry innovation and customer value delivered through the CXL standard.” The new cluster of tech giants, described as “the biggest group of influencers driving a modern interconnect standard”, also affirmed the CXL Specification 1.0, which enables…

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MWC Barcelona 2019 – the latest smartphone industry trends

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The Mobile World Congress – MWC Barcelona 2019 – is here. More than 100,000 mobile industry insiders, telecom specialists, professionals, analysts, reporters, and admirers of the most advanced devices have gathered to explore the wonders of the latest technology. Tech giants such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Vivo unveiled their innovations just before the show, but here we list some notable smartphones that have been presented at MWC. LG V50 ThinQ South Korea’s LG Electronics has unveiled its first 5G smartphone with a dual screen, the V50 ThinQ. The two screens are independant, enabling users to watch videos on one screen and browse the Internet on the other. Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 855 chipset together with a X50 5G modem will power the V50 model to support high-resolution games and data-rich applications without latency. The phone, with a 6.4-inch OLED full vision display, is equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery and…

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Predictions for VoIP services and technologies in 2019

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VoIP has become an integral part of the day-to-day lives of many people throughout the world, offering a plethora of technological advancements and options, simplifying many communication processes and making interactions more convenient and consumer friendly. VoIP is one of the most talked-about technologies, and its prevalence is anticipated to grow in the upcoming years. Over the last twenty years, VoIP has provided businesses around the world with the convenience of increased mobility, due to constant development and emerging cutting-edge technologies. The usage of VoIP as a service has grown rapidly – between 1998 and 2002, VoIP carried only 1-3% of all voice calls worldwide, but in 2005, VoIP was responsible for more than 200 billion call minutes. With 2019 already underway, let’s have a look at what the future holds for the VoIP communications industry. In particular, we examine the insights and predictions regarding the trends and technologies that will…

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Skype adds a new “blurred background” feature

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Microsoft has announced that the latest version of Skype for desktops and laptops now offers the option of blurring the background during video calls. This feature works to distinguish and isolate the subject from the surrounding background, and places the focus on the person as the most important component of the scene. This will provide a distraction-free space, and help eliminate any embarrassing moments during video conferencing. This option was first introduced in another Microsoft messaging application, Teams. Last September the company announced their support for the background blur in this collaboration app, introducing new features for the workplace chat platform and Office 365. The blur feature has put Artificial Intelligence (AI) to use, as this advanced technology has been trained to recognize the human form. It is not just the speaker’s face that is in focus, but also their hair, hands and arms, thus creating a smooth…

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Verizon’s successful 5G edge computing test to facilitate low-latency apps

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Verizon has announced a successful edge computing trial on a live 5G network, conducted using their newly formed 5G test bed in Houston. The company’s engineers used Multi-Access Edge Compute (MEC) equipment and MEC platform software, incorporated in a network facility closer to the network edge, and managed to decrease network latency by half. The test results are important for next generation networks, enabling 5G to support low-latency applications such as Virtual Reality (VR). Low latency refers to minimizing the round-trip time taken by data packets. This is an essential yet enormously challenging attribute for a 5G network, and its high performance requirements. At present, many mobile applications depend on cloud-based processing that is handled in centralized data centers, and the physical distances involved increase latency. According to Verizon, locating the computing power nearer to the users at the network edge significantly decreases the time to deliver services. …

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Vodafone – the first in telecoms to launch a Digital Human

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Vodafone New Zealand recently announced it will be the first telecommunications company to launch an Intelligent Digital Human in cooperation with a Kiwi company, FaceMe. While the identity of the Digital Human should be revealed within the next two months, it is already clear that the AI-based assistant will be of great benefit in improving the self-service experience for Vodafone’s customers, and allow staff to devote time working with more complex customer demands. “Great customer experience happens through meaningful conversations.  FaceMe has evolved AI technology to create Intelligent Digital Humans that are human-like in their appearance and interaction. Thanks to machine learning, they are capable of continuously learning how to anticipate our customers’ needs and better serve them,” explained Vodafone’s director of Customer Operations, Helen van Orton. Orton emphasized that this initiative is not a replacement for front-line customer service, but will rather aid in maximizing staff…

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IP Expo Europe
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AI and Security Steal The Show at IP EXPO Europe 2017

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The 2017 IP EXPO Europe was the greatest IT conference of the year for CIOs, heads of IT, security specialists, heads of insight, tech experts and organizations looking to innovate and evolve through technology. Focusing on six IT themes, the event’s 12th edition brought together more than 300 exhibitors from different parts of the technology sector and 300 free seminar sessions at ExCel in London on 4 and 5 of October. Across both days, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the main topic of discussion, with Stuart Russell, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkley and AI-pioneer providing powerful insights on the reality of AI and whether or not we, as humans, should be concerned about its evolution. “It seems very likely that at some point we will have machines that are more intelligent than human beings,” said Professor Russell in one of his presentations. However, AI wasn’t the…

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