Telefonica to offer industrial 5G services in 2022 For the first time, Telefonica will provide a range of industrial 5G services to selected partners starting in January 2022. In recent years, Telefonica has tested approximately 80 use cases across several industries, with a handful of solutions now ready for implementation. Telefonica will market three particular 5G use cases for industry through its Telefonica Tech unit: autonomously guided vehicles (ATGs), remote support solutions and drone solutions. Customers will be able to access all of these services via Telefonica’s public mobile network, as well as a virtual or dedicated private network. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/46x6mcdj Verizon scores a $34.6M contract The US Department of Energy has awarded Verizon Public Sector two Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracts for $34.6 million. Verizon will offer voice and data services to a variety of DOE sites, including the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Under the terms…
Swedish vendor Ericsson has signed an agreement to provide a 5G “core” to Virgin Media O2, a new company established by a merger between Virgin Media and the mobile operator O2. Ericsson will build a VMO2 standalone 5G core, that will incorporate 4G and non-standalone 5G cores, to create dual-mode 5G core, as referred to by Ericsson. The vendor has been a supplier to mobile operator O2 UK for quite some time now. The previous deal between the two companies focused on an ongoing “network modernization program” that was introduced in June 2020. Since the older core used by O2 was also that of Ericsson, it was appropriate to continue with the same technology vendor. Moreover, the new agreement also allows Virgin Media O2 to provide a standalone 5G service. UK operators have based their 5G launches on a “non-standalone” architecture that allows the 5G RAN to revert…
Google Cloud and Ericsson team up to deliver 5G and Edge cloud solutions for telcos The two tech giants – Google Cloud and Ericsson – have come together to jointly develop 5G and edge cloud solutions to help communications service providers (CSPs) digitally transform and unlock new enterprise and consumer use cases. Google Cloud and Ericsson are developing new solutions at Ericsson’s Silicon Valley D15 Labs, a state-of-the-art innovation center where advanced solutions and technologies can be developed and tested on a live, multi-layer 5G platform. Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud, said that organizations have a tremendous opportunity to digitally transform their businesses with 5G, using cloud capabilities like artificial intelligence and machine learning at the edge. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2c5sez86 DIDWW implements the STIR/SHAKEN technology The global telecommunication services provider, DIDWW, has implemented caller ID authentication through the STIR/SHAKEN set of standards. These standards act as the framework…
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…
Deutsche Telekom (DT), in collaboration with its partners Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Xiaomi, has announced the accomplishment of the world’s first ever Voice over 5G New Radio (VoNR) call in an end-to-end multi-vendor environment. During an innovation test in Warsaw, Poland, the partners tested the capabilities of a 5G Standalone (SA) network with voice and 5G data sessions in parallel. The network setup integrated the Ericsson 5G Core and Nokia’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Calls were terminated on commercial terminals from the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G and 5G smartphone form factor tester supplied by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 780G and 888 5G mobile platforms with Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems. By taking advantage of cloud-native 5G SA networks, operators will be able to provide high-quality voice services without relying on LTE as an anchor. Because of the high transmission quality of 5G technology, VoNR incorporation…
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…
The Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company Ericsson has introduced three new radios in its enterprise-level Massive MIMO portfolio, and bolstered their RAN Compute portfolio with six RAN Compute products to accelerate the 5G mid-band release and expand next-generation mobile technology. Ericsson stated that the three new radios and six new RAN Compute products will enable operators to make better use of the full spectrum of mid-band, that is around 3.5 GHz. The products are powered by Ericsson Silicon, the company’s system on a chip (SoC), which provides advanced processing capabilities for the rapid development of energy-efficient, high performance networks and ensures greater security. With the new mid-band spectrum, telecom service providers can leverage their 5G spectrum resources to deploy services quickly and efficiently, thereby delivering higher quality and more responsive experiences to mobile broadband subscribers. Mid-band bridges speed, capacity and coverage gaps between low and high frequency…
UK mobile providers pressured to provide free data during lockdown After the UK decided to close schools again, UK telecoms providers were urged to stop charging for data so that underprivileged children could access remote learning facilities. It is concerning that children in such families lack the technological resources to attend schools from home, where a computer and an Internet connection is required. Although it may be hard to imagine, there are many families that do not have access to the necessary services, especially broadband. The company, Three UK, wasted no time in rushing to announce that it will provide unrestricted data access to disadvantaged children so they could continue their education. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y46zylg2 T-Mobile reaches record connection gains in 2020 T-Mobile US announced that 2020 was the best year in their history for postpaid net additions, showing preliminary results that indicate a major win, despite the Covid-19…
The European Commission (EC) has appointed Nokia, a Finnish international telecommunications, information technology and consumer electronics company, to supervise Hexa-X, a primary 6G research project aimed at boosting the continent’s progress in developing the technology. The two-and-a-half-year Hexa-X initiative was funded by Horizon 2020, the EU’s research, and innovation program, and will start on January 1, 2021. The project is aimed at connecting the physical, digital and human worlds, firmly embedded in future wireless technologies. The project is led by Nokia, which coordinates the efforts, with Ericsson being assigned as the technical manager. The partners in the consortium are from academia and industry, including service providers, network providers and European research institutes. The partners include Orange, TIM, Telefonica, Intel and Siemens. The Finnish service provider said in a statement that it expects 6G to become commercially operational by 2030, following a normal ten-year intergenerational cycle and taking…
Ericsson has once again raised its year-end estimate for global 5G subscriptions to 220 million, while predicting that more than 1 billion people will have access to next-generation coverage over the same period. The company foresees that four out of ten mobile subscribers will be using 5G services by 2026. In their November 2020 Mobility Report, Ericsson predicted real 5G traction, as well as the progress in the deployment of new features in network and device areas, regardless of the concerns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Ericsson believes that 15% of the world’s population, or more than 1 billion people, will live in an area with 5G coverage by the end of 2020. They expect that number to grow to 60% or 3.5 billion consumers by 2026. Ericsson has also added another 30 million to the end-of-year estimate of the number of 5G subscribers, having previously announced the…