WOW! partners with Reach Mobile Wide Open West (WOW!) has teamed up with the MVNO aggregator Reach Mobile to launch a wireless service. WOW! mobile, powered by Reach, will be accessible in a few markets this spring, and the business is currently working on determining the initial launch sites. It is intended that the mobile product should be expanded to all of WOW! markets shortly after the launch. WOW! will be able to bring a mobile product to market rapidly by relying on their operational efficiency, a full-featured platform, and a fantastic customer experience in a lower-cost operating model by employing Reach Next. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2smnm38n Audi taps Verizon for 5G vehicles Audi of America and Verizon have launched a new cooperative venture, with the goal of utilizing Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband connection within Audi automobiles. Their offering will encompass augmented mobile services and new driving-assistance technologies, paving the…
Verizon drives towards its goal of net zero carbon emissions Verizon has used the proceeds from its most recent $1 billion green bond to sign a number of renewable energy purchase agreements (REPAs) in an effort to make its operations more ecologically friendly. These REPAs encompass around 910 megawatts of new renewable energy producing capacity throughout seven states in the USA, with wind turbines accounting for around 51% and solar panels for the remaining 49%. By 2025, the operator claims it will have sourced or generated renewable energy equal to 50% of its annual electricity use. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/4fzb629n Broadvoice to officially launch GoContact BPO offering At the Call & Contact Center Expo US, Broadvoice, a supplier of hosted voice, unified communications (UC) and SIP Trunking services for businesses, will demonstrate its new contact center solution for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. This new offering is the result…
Given all of the major cellular carriers’ full-scale adoption of 5G network resources, it’s likely no surprise that data consumption totals during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles set records for both Verizon and AT&T. Verizon invested $119 million on its network in the SoFi Stadium area, while AT&T expanded its fiber network. Customers on Verizon’s cellular networks “in and around” the stadium utilized a total of 30.4 terabytes of data on Sunday, surpassing Verizon’s highest recorded record of 21.5 TB of data used at Super Bowl LIV in Miami in 2020. According to the operator, 60% of guests at the SoFi Stadium in California used its service during the game on February 13th, compared to 56% for the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami. Verizon added 169 small cells, four macro cell sites, and 24 in-building systems as part of this investment. According to Verizon,…
TIA releases supply chain security standard The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has compiled the SCS 9001 specification, which it claims is the world’s first supply chain security standard designed particularly for the ICT industry. The SCS 9001 standard applies to all ICT sector goods, including software, hardware and services that are linked to the association’s global networks. SCS 9001’s goal is to validate end-to-end cyber and physical security throughout ICT network infrastructure. The new standard is based on a Quality Management System (QMS) that operationalizes industry best practices and recommendations such as ISO 27001, the Prague Proposals, applicable NIST standards, and the CSIS Criteria for Security and Trust. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8hzdru Metro by T-Mobile US now part of the Affordable Connectivity Program Metro by T-Mobile has joined the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). All eligible Metro by T-Mobile customers, new and old, will be able to obtain free…
Verizon and AT&T delay 5G rollouts After initially refusing to postpone the launch of their new 5G service which had been set for January 5, 2022, AT&T and Verizon have decided to delay the rollout by two weeks. According to airline industry representatives, a last-minute draft agreement was first negotiated with AT&T and subsequently with Verizon. Aviation officials are concerned that the new technology will interfere with flight altitude-measuring equipment. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8sbzc7 Amazon, Cisco and Lockheed Martin collaborate on a space mission Callisto, a tech demonstration payload, will be deployed onboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft during its unmanned Artemis I trip around the Moon, thanks to a collaboration between Cisco, Amazon and Lockheed Martin. The goal is to determine if voice and video communication technology can assist astronauts and increase their mission efficiency and situational awareness. The Callisto payload has bespoke hardware and software created by the three companies…
The Federal Communications Commission got a settlement from four firms in relation to emergency calling standards that were not delivered in 2020. The federal prosecution focused on the four corporations involved in the 911 calls, namely Verizon, AT&T, Intrado, and Lumen Technologies, and their inability to fulfill 911 call delivery commitments. Verizon has agreed to pay $274,000 to settle an inquiry into an outage that occurred on May 7, 2020. The other inquiries were all centered around outages on September 28, 2020. With its $460,000 payment, AT&T will resolve two investigations, while Lumen and Intrado will pay $3.8 million and $1.75 million, respectively. The massive payout demonstrates the corporations’ willingness to accept responsibility for their failure to effectively accommodate emergency calls. Each firm has also promised to put in place a compliance strategy. Within 90 days of the consent decree’s effective date, each carrier must examine and adjust…
Verizon and Google Cloud have launched a new collaboration initiative. The corporations will join to deliver the power of the cloud closer to mobile and connected devices operating at the edge of Verizon’s network. With this new agreement, Verizon now interoperates with all three main cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Verizon intends to deliver Google’s computing and storage capabilities to the edge of the local network by combining Verizon 5G Edge with Google Distributed Cloud Edge. This will provide real-time corporate applications such as autonomous mobile robots, intelligent logistics and industrial automation with the bandwidth and low latency that they require. Verizon’s private On Site 5G and private 5G Edge, combined with Google Distributed Cloud Edge, are expected to enable enterprises in industries ranging from retail to manufacturing to harness the power of 5G and mobile edge computing, while also gaining operational…
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…
Verizon gets approval for TracFone purchase Verizon stated in September 2020 that it will attempt to acquire TracFone Wireless, a pre-paid mobile phone operator, for $6.25 billion. The FCC approved the transaction last week, attaching restrictions that would safeguard TracFone customers in a variety of ways, including ensuring inexpensive 5G handsets and avoiding price rises, all of which will be evaluated on a regular basis by an independent agency. Verizon is also required to participate in the Lifeline program, which provides subsidies to low-income subscribers. TracFone is now one of the major carriers supporting the Lifeline program, with 1.7 million low-income subscribers participating across the country. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/jxrh6p5v Tata Communications launches GlobalRapide Tata Communications, a worldwide digital ecosystem facilitator, has announced Tata Communications GlobalRapide, an end-to-end managed UCaaS that enables organizations to provide workers with technologically enhanced, sophisticated and intelligent collaboration experiences. With this new solution, Tata Communications…
VMware announces RAN intelligent controller This week, VMware released several of their initiatives aimed at bolstering and solidifying the company’s telco cloud plans. The debut of the RAN intelligent controller is one of the recent announcements (RIC). The VMware RIC will be accessible in two deployment models: centralized and distributed, and will be capable of abstracting the underlying RAN architecture and providing RAN programmability via xApps and rApps. Wireless operators, according to VMware, are ready to transition from relatively inflexible conventional RAN infrastructures to more heterogeneous, multi-vendor virtualized RANs. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2nxkde8x Verizon teams up with Project Kuiper Verizon and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, have established a collaborative partnership to provide broadband solutions for unserved and underserved populations. Project Kuiper and Verizon have begun to establish technical specifications and define early business strategies for a variety of connection offerings for US consumers and…