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BT partners with Hiya to protect customers from spam calls

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As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, prepares revised regulations that will hold telecom companies to a higher standard, the UK operator BT is stepping up its efforts to fight scammers. In order to achieve this goal, Hiya Protect, a network-level monitoring system that can detect and reject suspicious calls, will be used by the company. This technology will be available to both fixed-line and mobile EE subscribers. According to a study done by the Hiya team, 29 percent of all phone calls in the UK are spam. 50 percent of those calls are fraudulent, making the UK the most fraudulent country in Europe. This demonstrates the scope of the problem, which affects a vast number of people in the UK. Naturally, Ofcom is aware of this problem. According to calculations made by the telco regulator, a quarter of UK adults dealt with at least one instance of suspicious…

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Ofcom
Telecom News

Ofcom has introduced new rules for CLI spoofing

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The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has announced new regulations that will force phone companies to take action against fake phone number usage by detecting and, where possible, banning spoofed calls. This action tries to address an issue that has led to 40.8 million people becoming the subject of fraudulent calls and messages throughout the summer of 2022.   Technical steps to combat nuisance calls have already been put in place by the vast majority of the large ISPs, phone companies and mobile network operators, although these measures are not always successful. Furthermore, there are still many operators that could do more, notably smaller providers and some VoIP carriers.   According to the telecom watchdog, preventing such calls without substantial international cooperation and coordination is technically complex and frequently risks intercepting legitimate communications as well.   According to Ofcom, around 700,000 UK residents have fallen victim to spoofed phone calls in…

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cyber security
Telecom News

UK confirms new cyber security rules for telecom networks

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Following a period of public debate, the UK government has decided on new security requirements for telecom providers. It now intends to introduce the Electronic Communications (Security) Measures Regulations 2022 and an accompanying Telecommunications Security Code of Practice to Parliament before the regulations take effect.   The new rules seek to better secure UK telecoms networks from cyberattacks. Once in effect, telecoms businesses will be expected to follow tight standards around network failure or the theft of sensitive data, with the regulatory agency Ofcom receiving additional powers to verify providers are adopting suitable and proportional security measures.   The government declared that the new telecommunications security legislation, designed in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will be among the toughest in the world and will provide the UK with much stronger measures. They will strengthen the UK’s cyber resilience by incorporating strong security practices into providers’ long-term investment…

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Week #23
News Roundup

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #23

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Ofcom has a plan for phone boxes Under new guidelines published by the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, stronger security for public call boxes went into effect. The new guidelines update from Ofcom’s aims to guarantee that strategically located phone boxes are not removed and that they are modified to provide extra services. As a result, phone boxes will be protected against removal if they are still needed by a local community. Millions of UK residents continue to rely on older technologies such as landlines and payphones for connectivity. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mryanv67 TIM to cut 1,200 jobs to minimize costs TIM has reportedly secured an agreement with labor unions that will allow the company to cut up to 1,200 positions, allowing TIM to save significantly on domestic personnel expenses. Cuts will be implemented through a voluntary early retirement program, which will be the first step in the Italian incumbent’s larger…

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Week #21
News Roundup

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #21

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As sanctions bite, Russia’s MTS begins to discount cell phones MTS, Russia’s largest operator, reported a 76.2 % year-on-year drop in Q1 net profit, blaming the results largely on rising interest rates caused by Western sanctions. Russia boosted local interest rates to 20% in the early days of the conflict before lowering them twice, leaving rates around 14% today. MTS has resorted to selling used and discounted smartphones, and is planning to sell its tower assets, in keeping with the current trend of monetizing passive assets located throughout Europe and beyond. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/c65t43kb Verizon warns of record rise in ransomware According to Verizon Business, the number of ransomware attacks on enterprises has increased by 13% year-on-year, resulting in a rise exceeding that of the previous five years combined. Ransomware was involved in some manner in one-quarter of the cases investigated, with desktop-sharing software and email being the two…

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Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #20

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Facebook, telcos to build a huge subsea cable for Africa and the Middle East Facebook, together with a group of telecom companies, including Vodafone, Orange, STC, China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Telecom Egypt, and WIOCC, will build a subsea cable system that is claimed to be one of the largest in the world. The project is called 2Africa and will cover 37,000 km of cables interconnecting Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180 Tbps. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yahgfe8g Workvivo raises $16 million to reinvent the intranet in the age of Slack and Zoom The Irish startup Workvivo, an employee communications platform, has raised USD 16 million in a Series A…

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Telecom News

A quick roundup of the news in Telecoms | Week #44

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Ofcom announces another 5G spectrum auction for the UK in spring 2020 Britain’s telecommunications regulator Ofcom has confirmed that it plans to hold an auction for low and mid band 5G spectrum in the spring of 2020. In a statement, Ofcom said that the auction will include companies bidding for spectrum in two different frequency bands: 80 MHz in the 700 MHz band and 120 MHz in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band. However, the UK telecoms watchdog has not yet confirmed when it will auction the high band, mmWave spectrum that will allow mobile operators to offer the truly transformative speeds of 1Gbps and above. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y6tx6ecz Microsoft furthers $5 billion IoT plan with new Azure features Microsoft launches new functionalities to simplify the customer journey and deliver highly secured IoT products over its Azure platforms. The company said that the expansion of IoT devices is enabling enterprises to bring cloud intelligence to…

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