Telefónica, Aerial launch Remote Care project pilot The first pilot project regarding “Remote Care” for elders was initiated by Telefónica, the Canadian firm Aerial and the municipality of Luciana. This solution does not require new devices nor wearable equipment, but includes a movement detector interface for the home WiFi, which utilizes existing wireless signals combined with artificial intelligence and contextual analysis to detect presence and motion. The cloud-based AI engine is intended to share data about a senior’s behaviors with their family members. In order to facilitate remote monitoring of elders, this technology also compares the data to normal behavioral patterns. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/4ae6w5j9 T-Mobile experiences data breach In a recent cyber assault on T-Mobile, over 40 million individuals’ information was exposed, including names, birthdays and social security numbers. The business claimed that the stolen files contained data from over 7.8 million current T-Mobile accounts as well as data…
Virgin Media expands its gigabit network Virgin Media has successfully upgraded 1.5 million additional premises to DOCSIS 3.1, allowing users to achieve internet speeds exceeding one gigabit per second. Over half of the 15.5 million subscriber homes in the UK may now get gigabit services thanks to this latest initiative. The network improvements were made at a variety of sites around the United Kingdom, including cities such as Bournemouth, Bristol, Northampton, Southampton, Wolverhampton, Wigan, and York. VMO2 will continue to roll out DOCSIS 3.1 improvements throughout the rest of its network, after earlier stating that they will have updated their whole footprint by the end of 2021. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/hj4emdmf Avature in partnership with DIDWW Avature has teamed up with DIDWW, an international telecom operator that offers high quality VoIP services. By using DIDWW’s two-way SIP services, Avature will be able to maintain continuous communications and worldwide connection across…
Spain’s leading telecommunications group, Telefónica, has announced the sale of a controlling stake in its fiber network in Colombia to a global investment company KKR. With the sale of this majority stake, the telecommunications company expects to reduce its debt by $169 million. As part of the agreement, KKR will hold 60% of the shares in the new Colombian fiber company, and Telefónica will retain the remaining 40% and contribute its existing fiber assets in the country. The new company will start operating with a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, covering 1.2 million locations in 50 cities and municipalities and serving 380,000 customers by the end of the first quarter 2022. In three years, their goal is to reach 4.3 million sites in almost 90 cities. The deal between Telefónica and KKR values the new company at $500 million. This entity will be the first independent Colombian open access wholesale…
Nokia launches iSIM Secure Connect Nokia has released new software to help operators cope with the provisioning of cellular IoT devices and subscription management. The software, called iSIM Secure Connect, relies on embedded SIM (eSIM) and integrated SIM (iSIM) technologies combined with reliable digital identification, allowing telecom service providers to quickly and securely authenticate and manage cellular IoT devices. The software is vendor agnostic and can be installed in a variety of network and cloud environments, providing a myriad of IoT use cases and business models. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/42kf2tu8 Lumen strikes a deal with Microsoft Lumen Technologies has announced that it has entered a long-term partnership with Microsoft to take advantage of the Azure cloud platform. The duo plans to integrate Microsoft’s Azure stack with Lumen’s bare metal edge computing service, allowing customers to run Azure-based applications wherever the edge network can reach. Lumen will also use the cloud…
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…
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…
SoftBank aims at providing connectivity from space SoftBank has announced that it will begin promoting the roll out of Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions that provide connectivity from space and the stratosphere. SoftBank NTN solutions will include the Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) services provided by Skylo Technologies. The two companies recently agreed to cooperate in offering satellite services in Japan. SoftBank’s NTN portfolio of solutions will also include Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications provided by OneWeb, and High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) stratospheric telecommunications platforms provided by SoftBank’s subsidiary HAPSMobile. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/murtvfhr Black Lotus Labs uncovers hacktivist campaign Black Lotus Labs, the Lumen Technologies security threat intelligence division, has presented evidence that hacktivists have recently attacked switches and routers in a minimum of 100 organizations. The hacktivists managed to access those Internet-connected devices because of an incorrect Cisco Systems Smart Install configuration. The Black…
The new UK joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica officially became operational on 1 June, merging the two household names to form Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). This joint venture has committed to providing a unique choice to consumers and has also promised to boost the UK economy. While, at the moment, the company is not changing any of its current services, later this year it plans to offer seamless broadband, entertainment and mobile services all in one place. The Liberty Global-Telefónica merger is devoted to investing at least £10bn in the UK over the next five years. This investment will help businesses further contribute to the UK Government’s goals of connectivity, upgrading infrastructure all around the country, creating stiffer competition and providing a wider variety of choices for customers. The merger instantly makes the new business one of the largest in the UK, with 47 million…
Five of Europe’s leading mobile operators – Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, Telia and Vodafone – have teamed up to update and launch a new industry-wide Eco Rating system and motivate vendors to minimize the impact that their devices have on the environment. The Eco Rating labelling scheme is designed to supply detailed and accurate information to retailers on the effects that manufacturing, usage, transportation and disposal of smartphones have on the environment. This Eco Rating will encourage operators and customers to rate phones more extensively and underline the need for more sustainable electronic devices. From June 2021, mobile operators will start introducing Eco Rating at points of sale in 24 European countries, including the UK. The labeling system will label phones with scores to show how ecological and environment friendly the appliances are in their lifecycle. The score will be from 0 to 100, the higher the score,…
VCC Live partners with DIDWW VCC Live, a provider of innovative cloud-based contact center software for inbound, outbound and cross-channel contact centers, has announced a strategic partnership with global telecommunications operator DIDWW, which provides high quality VoIP and SIP trunking services to businesses and telecommunications operators around the world. As part of the partnership, VCC Live will take advantage of DIDWW’s extensive virtual telephone number coverage, which will allow VCC Lives’s contact center business to grow effectively in all geographic areas. DIDWW’s vast inventory of virtual phone numbers allows VCC Live to continue the rapid growth of their global business. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/xhu9xheb Microsoft collaborates with O2 UK Microsoft and O2 are developing a proof-of-concept investigation to determine the benefits of on-premises Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) inside a private 5G network, focusing on security and low latency. The possible benefits of this proposed architecture are noteworthy, combining secure, high-bandwidth…