Sintetiche riflessioni sulla evoluzione della tecnologia e dell’Industry A cura di CT.TA.STC Numero 11 – 9 maggio 2019 L’Archivio delle Triggering News è a questo link 5G, FutureNet e Tecnologie

• Network Cloud - AT&T Flies 'Airship' to 5G Cloud • 5G Smartphone Modems Cost Nearly 2x as Much as 4G Ones, Claims Latest Figures

- Will Be Costlier to Purchase Future Devices Hereon • Fastweb testa link a 500 Gbps sul Backbone • Qualcomm API su Android per accedere a info di rete 5G: App Revolution on Android • AT&T Pinnacle: come diffondere AI in tutta l'azienda - How AT&T Is Making 'AI

Democracy' a Reality • What we think we know about Apple’s 5G modem development plans • Switzerland's Sunrise Starts Selling Huawei Mate 20X 5G & Xiaomi MIX3 5G Phones • Swisscom flips the switch: Switzerland’s first 5G network is live • South Korea clocks up 260,000 5G subscriptions in first monthc • Data Center: Equinix's revenues rise 12% YOY to $1.363 billion

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• Assistente Vocale di Google diventa così ridotto come CPU e memoria che può lavorare localmente senza connessione di rete al cloud

• Amazon's neighborhood watch app raises discrimination, privacy fears • KT and Samsung to expand public safety LTE network coverage in South Korea • Ofcom names and shames Britain's worst performing telcos and ISPs • Three UK to Cut Two Thirds of Tech Jobs in Digital Makeover/Light Reading • UK broadband speed test results for April 2019 • Reliance Jio to launch the Indian WeChat?

Network Cloud - AT&T Flies 'Airship' to 5G Cloud Qualche sprazzo sullo stato in AT&T

Photo by Mike Mozart.(CC BY 2.0)

AT&T's new, fully cloudified 5G network relies on an open source provisioning tool called "Airship," which hits a milestone Monday with the availability of Version 1, the first production version. "Airship is a declarative software delivery and lifecycle management tool," Amy Wheelus, AT&T's vice president for network cloud, tells Light Reading. Airship automates configuration and lifecycle management of infrastructure software to build a cloud server software stack on bare metal. "It's a tool for lifecycle management of infrastructure software. It can start with bare metal, and build everything up to orchestration," Wheelus says. Airship automates provisioning, compute and storage assets, including the operating system, OpenStack and other containerized software. AT&T uses Airship as a valuable infrastructure component of its Network Cloud, on which it has deployed its 5G packet core to support this year's ambitious 5G rollout schedule. AT&T's Network Cloud will comprise hundreds of locations at the network edge, Wheelus says. Airship is an upgrade to the deployment tool built into OpenStack, which is too slow for 5G requirements, Wheelus says. "Today in AT&T Integrated Cloud" -- AT&T's predecessor to the Network Cloud -- I cannot do an upgrade without impacting my tenants," she says. Software upgrades take a couple of weeks with the AT&T Integrated Cloud, but only 18 hours with Airship. "And we're looking to reduce that time even more," Wheelus adds. AT&T has been able to roll out its 5G architecture and network cloud in less than nine months, with the aid of open source software including Airship, as well as close collaboration between developer and operations teams, Wheelus says. The 5G packet core is the first use case -- Wheelus calls it a "tenant" -- on the network cloud, and AT&T is adding more use cases Tags: 5G

Source: https://www.lightreading.com/cloud/network/atandt-flies-airship-to-5g-cloud/d/d-id/751090?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT

5G, FutureNet e Tecnologie

5G Smartphone Modems Cost Nearly 2x as Much as 4G Ones, Claims Latest Figures - Will Be Costlier to Purchase Future Devices Hereon Significa almeno 100$ per smartphone di extra price all'utente finale

The 5G revolution is upon us, though it’s in its nascent stages and as lots of people are aware, newer technology is likely to remain expensive for the time being. According to the latest report, JP Morgan predicts that 5G smartphone chips will cost twice as much as those used in 4G-ready devices. The report comes from the Seoul-based research firm Institute for Information and Communication Technology Promotion (IICT), which gets its data from the investment bank.

Despite an Increase in Pricing, the 5G Industry Is Forecasted to Witness Dramatic Growth in the Next Couple of Years More specifically, JP Morgan said in a 2018 report titled ‘Smartphone: The Next Big Thing? 101 for Supply Chain Beneficiaries,’ that on average, chips fueling 5G smartphones would be 1.85 times more expensive than their 4G counterparts. The report predicts the average cost of memory chips for smartphones to be around $85.40. Comparatively, the chips running inside 4G smartphones are expected to cost around $59. It is worth mentioning that 4G handsets are expected to stick around for a while and it could take significantly longer before they are overtaken by 5G smartphones. Apple Hired Lead Intel Engineer for 5G Modem Development Before It Inked a Deal With Qualcomm IICT also said that JP Morgan estimates baseband processors and application processors for 5G handsets to be twice as expensive as those for 4G handsets. The U.S. investment bank speculates the price of 5G baseband processors to be $33.40 and application processors are expected to cost $55.60. This increase in the price of chips as well the gradual increase of 5G handsets in the coming year is expected to boost the profit of the chip industry significantly. IICT also reports that profit is expected to jump from $540 million in 2019 to $5.99 billion in 2020. By 2021, the profit is expected to be around $14.1 billion.

Tags: 5G Source: https://wccftech.com/5g-smartphone-modems-twice-the-price-4g-modems/

Fastweb testa link a 500 Gbps sul Backbone Aumentare la velocità dei link permette di ridurre molto il numero di interfacce e la complessità e consumi della rete. Lo stato dell'arte è 100 Gbps, con alcuni che operano a 200 Gbps

Fastweb tests 500G Single-wavelength Connectivity with Infinera Fastweb, a major Italian telecommunications operator, has demonstrated 500G single-wavelength service connectivity in a production network using Infinera’s configurable technology on the Groove platform. The trial spanned over 180 km on Fastweb’s low-latency long-haul backbone network, between Milan and Turin. Infinera said the 500G single-wavelength trial demonstrated Fastweb’s capability to easily and efficiently scale its infrastructure network to meet the increasing bandwidth demands of its end-user customers. The trial was implemented over Fastweb’s existing optical infrastructure without special amplifiers, tuning, or changes. Infinera’s 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platform, mTera Universal Switching Platform and Groove 600G technology are part of Fastweb’s backbone network spanning over 650 nodes and providing the flexibility and future development and delivery of a range of programmable high-speed end-user services at 400G, 500G, and up to 600G. Infinera’s solution enables Fastweb to scale internet exchange point capacity up to 24 terabits per second, while offering ease of deployment and network investment efficiency. “Providing our customers with resilient, high-quality, and innovative solutions is in Fastweb’s DNA,” said Andrea Lasagna, Chief Technology Officer, Fastweb. “As the market for high-performance long-haul transport continues to grow at an accelerated pace, a scalable and simple network approach is required to satisfy the growing demand for bandwidth. This trial confirms the outstanding performance provided by Infinera’s innovative solution, which enables us to deliver a best-in-class customer experience at the highest transmission speeds.”

“We are pleased to extend our technology partnership with Fastweb to bring the benefits of cutting-edge coherent optical transmission to their customers,” said Glenn Laxdal, Senior Vice President, Product Line Management, Infinera. “Our ability to introduce higher-speed transmission over existing infrastructures is a key part of our mission to help our customers effectively meet their increasing bandwidth needs.” Tags: Backbone Source:

Qualcomm API su Android per accedere a info di rete 5G: App Revolution on Android Un bell'esempio di nuove API di Android per accedere informazioni sullo stato della rete 5G che permettono di costruire nuovi tipi di applicazion Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), today announced at Google I/O its work with Google to empower applications for 5G by enhancing developer APIs in Android Q. This year, the Android ecosystem is rapidly transitioning to 5G, with virtually all major Android OEMs planning to launch flagship 5G smartphones based on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform. The next release of Android, Android Q, is designed to allow applications to detect the performance of 5G connectivity on Android devices, enabling developers to create new experiences that take advantage of 5G connectivity and its unique capabilities – including multi-gigabit speeds and ultra-low latency. Android developers can unlock transformative experiences in premium 5G devices made with Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G products, including near-instant access to cloud services, multiplayer cloud gaming, shopping and navigation with AR, and real-time video collaboration. Through the exposure of new network performance information such as 5G throughput estimation, developers will be able to utilize 5G performance to re-energize their existing applications with superior quality video, audio and responsiveness, while opening doors to the next wave of breakthrough applications and 5G-enabled experiences. Tags: 5G, Mobile

Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2019/05/07/qualcomm-enables-developers-power-5g-app-revolution-android

AT&T Pinnacle: come diffondere AI in tutta l'azienda - How AT&T Is Making 'AI Democracy' a Reality Un bell'esempio di iniziativa per diffondere l'uso dell'AI in azienda mescolando piattaforme, crowdsoursing di progetti e formazione To bring its data science and AI resources closer to the business users who need it most, Austin's team developed an open platform, called Pinnacle, through which decision-makers can pose questions and solicit answers to their data-related questions. The Pinnacle platform is structured

as a crowdsourcing environment, with data scientists across the enterprise participating in responding to queries as they are posted. Along with participating data scientists, the platform also employs four AI robots to provide solutions that can be provided on an automated basis. The company encourages an ensemble approach to solving problems, in which data scientists team up to develop common solutions. AT&T's data scientists peruse user requests submitted through Pinnacle and provide their contributions, for which there are financial awards. The advantage to this approach, Austin relates, is data models and challenges are brought out of their organizational siloes, and are opened to expertise from across the organization. All results are open for all to review and refinement. "You can see the data, see the algorithms, and how they’ve done it, and you can build on top of it," he says. A recent AI query, for example, was addressed in two weeks' time, garnering 66 submissions. Data scientists appreciate the crowdsourcing model as well – "they can work on different problems, and they can get known," Austin adds. Requests for forecasts are the main type of query moving through the platform, Austin says. "Forecasting is a big theme that is kind of taking off, and were getting very good at that." For AT&T, there's no shortage of data available to address queries. The organization sees about 220 petabytes moving through its systems on a daily basis. Data available for AI and analytics purposes scales into the multi-petabyte range, Austin points out. Once the Pinnacle platform emerges from its current proof of concept stage, Austin's team will be making it widely available as a self-service AI environment to employees, with access tied to personas. To prepare its workforce, AT&T is providing training in data science skills. "Sometimes, you don’t even need to be a data scientist or trained per se, because the AI robots in many cases can do a decent job. If you have a simple forecasting job, you may upload it. We have four of them running simultaneously." Tags: AI, Crowdsourcing Innovation

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2018/12/03/how-att-is-making-ai-democracy-a-reality/#91c408f496da

What we think we know about Apple’s 5G modem development plans Alla fine , sembra che Apple si stia davvero sviluppando in casa il modem 5G, con circa 2000 programmatori dedicati. Se si pensa che in Italia si laureano 7000 ingegneri elettronici all'anno , si capisce perchè certi sforzi in Italia e forse Europa si possono fare solo a livell statale, come avvenne negli anni 50 e 60 Along with the Qualcomm deal, we have seen some significant changes in Apple’s 5G development staffing teams in the last few weeks:

• Apple’s 5G chip development team joined its hardware technology group under the leadership of the company's senior vice president of hardware technologies, Johny Srouji, earlier this year. This reflects the strategic importance of the tech.

• Apple’s previous 5G modem head, Rubén Caballero, left the company around the same time. No reason was given, but this could reflect Apple filling a known need, as Caballero’s departure will have required some notice.

• Apple recently hired Intel’s 5G development leader, Umashankar Thyagarajan. • A Fast Company report claims Apple has up to 2,000 engineers working on

the development of 5G modems.

It is worth observing Apple’s decision to bring development under the control of its hardware technology teams and away from its sourcing management group strongly suggests the company remains committed to developing its own modems for its smartphones. Tags: 5G

Source: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3391412/what-we-think-we-know-about-apples-5g-modem-development-plans.html

Switzerland's Sunrise Starts Selling Huawei Mate 20X 5G & Xiaomi MIX3 5G Phones Prezzi tutto sommato accettabli

Today Switzerland’s Sunrise has premiered the new Xiaomi MIX3 5G as well as the Huawei Mate 20 X (5G) as its launch 5G devices, and has started selling them in its carrier shops. In terms of frequency ranges, Sunrise’s 5G network operates in the sub-6 range as this represents the backbone for first global 5G deployments, with the US being the exception and focusing on mmWave first. Sunrise has the second largest share of frequency allocation, and 5G will operate on 2x5MHz of 700MHz with an additional 10MHz of 700MHz SDL (Supplemental download link), 15MHz of 1400MHz SDL, and a large 100MHz chunk of 3.5GHz in TDD, which represents the main sub-6 frequency block which enables higher 5G speeds. Sunrise is the first Swiss carrier to launch a 5G network and also claims to be the first worldwide carrier to launch the MIX3 5G, while also being the first Swiss (and European?) carrier to offer the Mate 20X 5G. The MIX3 5G is Xiaomi’s first 5G device and we covered the launch at MWC a couple of months ago. The phone is a hardware upgrade over last year’s MIX3, with the most important distinctions being that the new phone comes with the Snapdragon 855 and the new X50 modem. One thing to be noted about the MIX3 5G, while this initial 5G deployment by Sunrise is NSA (Non-standalone), it won’t support future SA (Standalone) 5G deployments. Also because Sunrise operates 5G on a 100MHz 3.5GHz band, unless the MIX3 5G already has Qualcomm’s new QET6100

envelope tracker which was announced along with the new X55 modem, there will be battery life compromises with the new phone.

Source: Zing Gadget The Huawei Mate 20 X (5G) also makes the debut on the network. The new phone is a variation of the Mate 20 X launched last October, but has the important distinction of now adding HiSilicon’s new Balong 5000 5G modem to the device. The modem is compatible with future SA 5G networks. We don’t have information on HiSilicon’s envelope tracker chipset employed, but believe it should have the higher required upload bandwidth for better battery efficiency. Sunrise sells the MIX3 5G for CHF 847 (745€, US$830), and the Mate 20 X (5G) for CHF 997 (877€, US$977). The 5G service costs an extra CHF 10 on top of current subscriptions (An unlimited data plan for example being CHF 75 total (66€, $73)). Tags: 5G, Smartphone

Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14293/switzerlands-sunrise-starts-selling-huawei-mate-20x-5g-xiaomi-mix3-5g-phones

Swisscom flips the switch: Switzerland’s first 5G network is live Obiettivi di copertura molto ambiziosi e rapidi da parte di Swisscom

Swisscom flipped the switch last night at the stroke of midnight to become the first mobile provider in Switzerland to go live with its 5G network across 102 locations in the first 54 towns – including Basel, Bern, Chur, Davos, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich. Swisscom is installing the necessary infrastructure in the major cities, tourist areas and across the countryside to ensure 5G coverage across Switzerland from Aadorf to Zwischbergen by the end of the year.

State-awarded concession both a mandate and an obligation The concession awarded by the Federal Communications Commission (ComCom) gives Swisscom the right to use the new frequencies 17 April 2019 for fifteen years. Most importantly, this comes with a state expectation of 50% coverage of the Swiss population by 2024. Under Swisscom's plans, more than 90 percent of the population will be covered by the end of 2019. Tags: 5G Source: https://www.swisscom.ch/en/about/news/2019/04/17-erstes-5g-netz-live.html

South Korea clocks up 260,000 5G subscriptions in first monthc

KT, SK Telecom and LG U+ all launched commercial 5G services in April 2019 Over 260,000 South Koreans have signed up for 5G services, since the country launched its next generation mobile networks last month. South Korea became the first nation in the world to launch at-scale 5G, when it rolled out commercial services across the country on April the 3rd. US telecoms giant, Verizon, also launched 5G services in the US on the same day but missed out on claiming the first-for-5G crown by just 2 hours. South Korea's big three mobile network operators have so far deployed 54,202 base stations to densify their fledgling 5G networks. Networks are being rapidly expanded, as the country looks to increase coverage and reliability. Last week, a total of 3,690 base stations were added, across the three networks. KT has secured over 100,000 5G subscribers in its first month of operations, making it South Korea's biggest telco for 5G. KT has enticed a huge number of subscribers by offering unlimited data tariffs on its 5G networks. KT's unlimited packages offer unlimited 5G data, with international roaming in 185 countries, according to a report by ZDNet. Tags: 5G

Source: https://www.totaltele.com/502794/South-Korea-clocks-up-260000-5G-subscriptions-in-first-month

Data Center: Equinix's revenues rise 12% YOY to $1.363 billion Equinix è uno dei leader globali "fuori dei big four" e ha comprato i Dat Center di AT&T. Si ricava che ogni data center "rende" circa 60 mni anno di fatturato

Equinix reported quarterly revenue of $1.363 billion, a 4% increase over the previous quarter and up 12% over the same period last year. Net income amounted to $118 million, a 7% increase over the previous quarter. "Equinix had a strong start to the year, delivering our best ever Q1 operating results including our largest ever quarter-over-quarter revenue step-up and our second-highest net bookings. Our bookings spanned more than 3,000 customers, with cross-border bookings up substantially year-over-year. We processed over 4,000 deals in the quarter, highlighting the diversity and high-volume nature of the Equinix retail colocation business," stated Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix. Some highlights:

• Key customer wins and expansions included Hutchison 3G UK Limited, SpaceX and Tencent Holdings

• Interconnection revenues continued to outpace colocation revenues in Q1 with total interconnections increasing to greater than 341,000

• Raised $1,242 million in equity and S&P credit rating upgraded to investment grade (BBB-)

Tags: Cloud Data Center

Assistente Vocale di Google diventa così ridotto come CPU e memoria che può lavorare localmente senza connessione di rete al cloud Il nuovo Assistente vocale è diventato cosi' compatto che può essere eseguito localmente e non in cloud , quindi funziona anche senza connenssione internet ed è più rapido a rispondere In pochi anni Assistente Google è diventato centrale nell’esperienza d’uso di centinaia di milioni di utenti, che utilizzano smartphone Android e i servizi di Google sul computer e tramite gli assistenti per la casa. Google ha annunciato di avere raggiunto un notevole progresso che di fatto slega buona parte delle attività di Assistente Google da Internet. Finora, infatti, non era possibile utilizzarne parte delle funzionalità senza una connessione, perché il sistema richiedeva grandi capacità di memoria e calcolo, che dovevano quindi essere affidate ai server di Google: a seconda della connessione disponibile, i tempi di risposta potevano essere lunghi e si aveva un certo ritardo nelle reazioni. Ora Google è riuscito a ridurre enormemente le dimensioni di Assistente Google, che può quindi essere installato su smartphone e altri dispositivi, senza la necessità di collegarsi costantemente a Internet per svolgere funzioni base come aprire e gestire le app. In una dimostrazione molto efficace, Google ha mostrato come sia possibile interagire in modo molto più naturale con l’Assistente, senza pause e tempi di attesa, o la necessità di ripetere ogni volta “OK Google”. Tags: AI Source: https://www.ilpost.it/2019/05/08/google-pixel-3a-assistente-google-duplex/

Amazon's neighborhood watch app raises discrimination, privacy fears Un bell'esempio di rischi di discriminazione basata su AI

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

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Advocates and experts are worried that an Amazon-owned mobile app, used by owners of its Ring security cameras to upload videos for neighbors to see, could entrench racial discrimination and violate people's privacy. Why it matters: The app, called Neighbors, is striking deals to partner with police departments across the country. Driving the news: Last week, journalists on Twitter noticed Ring was hiring an editor — prompting concerns that Amazon was stoking community fears to sell security systems. (Amazon bought the company last year.) How it works: People with and without Ring cameras can download the Neighbors app. It features a feed where users can post videos and photos from their cameras, file reports of activity they think is suspicious and read crime reports from the app's “News Team.”

• The application partners with law enforcement, allowing them to post alerts to solicit possible video evidence useful to their investigations through a platform described by The Intercept earlier this year. (The company says that when "using Neighbors Portal, law enforcement see the same interface that all users see.")

• An agreement obtained by the open-records site MuckRock between the Richmond, Va. police department and Ring said it was up to the agency to maintain “appropriate access controls for RPD personnel to use the Ring Neighborhood Police portal.”

• Part of the agreement was that for every "qualifying download" of the app that came from the Richmond program, the city would get a $10 credit towards donated cameras.

Details: The Neighbors app highlights multiple concerns about what happens when you build digital platforms for neighborhoods, particularly those that aim to spotlight crime, said multiple advocates and experts.

• Neighborhood message boards are already famously rife with racism, and Motherboard reported earlier this year it had found frequent racist comments on Ring's app as well. “I think having the videos oftentimes makes things even worse than they would be in just a text-based neighborhood message board format,” said Harlan Yu, executive director of the research group Upturn.

• The ubiquitous nature of Ring cameras runs the risk of capturing behavior unrelated to the crimes they are supposed to deter. "This is sort of supercharging the surveillance of people’s private lives and potentially constitutionally protected activity,” said Shankar Narayan, director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the Washington state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

What they’re saying: The burdens of increased video surveillance and fears stoked by the apps will fall on people of color, who are already more likely to face police discrimination.

• “The bottom line is that this app is going to end up simply stoking people’s fears, especially people’s racist fears, and it’s also going to bring law enforcement to act on people's racial biases,” said Yu.

• “Amazon needs to recognize that law enforcement itself in this country has a long and documented history of racial discrimination," Yu added.

• Ring has also filed patents related to facial recognition, technology that can notoriously reflect racial bias.

Ring's response: "We realize that there are many intricacies involved in fighting crime and facilitating community discussions and are always looking at ways to further develop and enhance our services," the company said in a statement.

• The company said it encourages "neighbors to report racial profiling using our in-app flagging tool" and that its users "have full control of who views their Ring footage."

• It also denied using facial recognition. Digitizing the neighborhood watch has raised discrimination concerns before.

• In 2015, the Business Improvement District in Washington, D.C.'s wealthy Georgetown neighborhood found that almost 70 percent of the "suspicious" people discussed on a GroupMe chat between shops and police were black.

• Nextdoor, the popular message board app for neighborhoods, has struggled with racism on its platform as well.

The Neighbors app is already being linked to arrests, according to reports from local news outlets around the country.

• In February, police in Shawnee, Kansas weren’t able to find a man who had been allegedly trying to cash stolen checks.

• They used Ring’s app, asking residents to "Check your video. Check out your windows," Shawnee Police Department Sgt. Craig Herrmann told a local television station.

• “We were able to have people basically continuing to watch, to look for him after we left,” he said.

The bottom line: The number of data-hungry devices — from wearables to connected appliances to security cameras — keeps growing, raising increasingly urgent questions about how they shape society and perpetuate biases. Tags: AI

Source: https://www.axios.com/amazons-neighborhood-watch-app-raises-discrimination-privacy-fears-ce765490-748a-4759-8627-4067ffd040c8.html

KT and Samsung to expand public safety LTE network coverage in South Korea Si stanno muovendo su R13 4G (l’unico standard disponibile), per togliere di mezzo il 2G … Samsung Electronics announced that it has signed an expansion contract with KT Corporation to provide public safety network solutions based on 3GPP standard Release 13 for 10 major metropolitan regions in South Korea including Seoul by 2020. In addition, the two companies will be delivering the world’s first Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) service through the PS-LTE network. This marks the third project in which KT and Samsung’s Networks Business unit have partnered on PS-LTE network deployments. The two previous projects were the world’s first PS-LTE network throughout Gangwon (Pyeongchang) province of South Korea using 700MHz based on the 3GPP standard in 2016 (Link), and the 2017 delivery of LTE-Railway service on a high-speed train traveling at up to 250 km/hour (155 mph) using MCPTT solutions for the first time (Link). The two companies are now aiming to expand PS-LTE network further into the metropolitan areas around the country, including Seoul, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Jeolla, Gyeongbuk and Chungnam provinces. In addition to LTE radio base stations that support 700MHz, Samsung is providing KT with virtualized core and the latest features of PS-LTE based on the 3GPP standard. Some of the key features include MCPTT solutions, RAN Sharing, evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service, Public Network IoT based on NB-IoT, Isolated eUTRAN Operation for Public Safety (IOPS), and device to device (D2D) network solutions. D2D and NB-IoT play crucial roles in creating public safety network by ensuring stable, seamless, and reliable network in unfavorable environments. For instance, D2D allows direct and undisrupted communications between any two devices without traversing radio base stations or core network even in areas where bases stations are not provided. For the first time, NB-IoT is applied to the public safety network to help prevent natural disasters like fires as hundreds of IoT sensors are deployed to sense even the smallest size of embers or people that have been stranded in remote areas of mountains that are hard to spot in general. Tags: Public Safety, Reailway Source: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/may

Ofcom names and shames Britain's worst performing telcos and ISPs

Ofcom's annual customer service report highlights the UK's most complained about telecoms firms The UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has revealed the country's most complained about telcos and internet service providers, in its annual report. The report tracks customer satisfaction levels across the UK's mobile network operators and internet service providers (ISPs). TalkTalk received the lowest customer satisfaction rating out of the country's ISPs, scoring just 79 per cent, whilst Tesco Mobile was the worst performing MNO, scoring 90 per cent. “Shabby service can be more than just frustrating; it can have a big impact on people and small businesses who rely on being connected," said Lindsey Fussell, director of Ofcom’s Consumer Group. “When you’re shopping around for a phone or broadband service, quality can be just as important as price. This information can help buyers make the right decision.” There was also a dishonourable mention for BT owned Plusnet, who saw the number of complaints it received double in Q4 2018 to 43 per 100,000 customers. The company attributed the rise in complaints it received to the launch of a new billing system. Overall, UK telcos and ISPs performed better this year than they have done in previous years. "Complaints to Ofcom about broadband firms fell by 23% last year, from 75 complaints per 100,000 customers on average in 2017, to 58 in 2018. Most companies ended 2018 better than (or broadly the same as) they started the year," the Ofcom report said. Tags: Quality

Source:

https://www.totaltele.com/502782/Ofcom-names-and-shames-Britains-worst-performing-telcos-and-ISPs?utm_campaign=364200%20-%20Total%20Telecom%20Newsletter%2030042019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&evtuEID=0.0000&evtuID=CTRHD000002476697&elqTrackId=92ac2

Three UK to Cut Two Thirds of Tech Jobs in Digital Makeover/Light Reading

Dave Dyson, Three UK's CEO, updates analysts and reporters on the company's IT transformation program at a venue in central London earlier today.

Three UK is to axe most jobs in its technology and operations departments as part of an ambitious digital makeover that will give Microsoft Azure responsibility for looking after IT systems currently managed in-house. The plans, announced at a briefing in London earlier today, will claim between 700 and 800 jobs, leaving Three, the smallest of the UK's mobile network operators, with a technology and operations workforce of between 400 and 500 employees. Including staff on the retail side, Three currently employs around 5,400 people in the UK, implying there will be a headcount reduction of up to 15% under the plans revealed today. While the focus of the latest update was on technology and operations, Dave Dyson, Three's CEO, acknowledged that digital transformation might also claim roles in other parts of the business. "Across the broader organization there will be opportunities for automation and outsourcing and we are going through a process to see what capabilities we'll need to differentiate ourselves and what we don't need," he told analysts and reporters. Facing tough competition from BT (EE), O2, Vodafone and a host of mobile virtual network operators that rely on their networks, Three is trying to reinvent itself as a much sleeker and more digital business, using the Silicon Valley tech giants as a blueprint. The operator is partway through a swap-out of IT systems that will eventually cut IT costs by one third, said Dyson. He estimates that IT currently accounts for about one tenth of Three's total cost base. Last year, Three reported total operating expenses of £574 million ($747 million) and spent £462 million ($602 million) in capital expenditure, excluding the cost of spectrum licenses. Its revenues came in at roughly £2.4 billion ($3.1 billion).

Source: https://www.lightreading.com/automation/three-uk-to-cut-two-thirds-of-tech-jobs-in-digital-makeover/d/d-id/751136?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT

UK broadband speed test results for April 2019 Speedtest in UK, utile confronto con Italia (notare che i dati sono presentati con la mediana oltre alla media e superano i 300 Mbps in Down su fibra) Now that all the Easter Eggs are gone and thoughts turn to getting the BBQ ready for summer it is time to reveal which providers and services did best and worst for observed speeds during April 2019 from people running our speed test or the various versions on partner sites. The Virgin Media upgrade to 35 Mbps upload speeds on the VIVID 350 service while it happened fairly late in April does feature with the top 20% and top 10% upload speeds reflecting the change and after a full month of data collection it is likely we will see the median reflect the upgrade. We are keeping an eye out for customers on the new VIVID 500 tier and once we've seen a few tests will add a VIVID 500 entry. The fastest test during April was a Community Fibre connection recording 951 Mbps down and 588 Mbps up is close to the ideal result for a Gigabit based broadband connection. A common question on the speed test results is based around the ratio of customers seen and in terms of tests for each provider in decreasing order of popularity it is BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Plusnet, Vodafone Broadband and EE, this follows the expected pattern apart from EE and Vodafone who need to swap around based on the number of customers they declare in their financials. There is a reason we believe for why Vodafone may have a higher than expected volume and this is people running tests to find out why streaming performance is behaving poorly - we will report on that aspect of the speed test results later in the month as usual. Looking at actual product popularity the BT Superfast 1 FTTC 55/10 service is the most popular, followed by Sky Fibre FTTC 40/10, Sky ADSL2+, BT Superfast 2 FTTC 80/20, TalkTalk Fibre FTTC 40/10, Virgin Media VIVID 100, TalkTalk ADSL2+, Sky FIbre Max FTTC 80/20, Plusnet Fibre FTTC 40/10, Virgin Media VIVID 50, Vodafone Superfast FTTC 40/10, Plusnet ADSL/ADSL2+ and Virgin Media VIVID 100. If looking at the UK or other regional average speeds on our stats site, remembering that it is invariably not the fastest service that people buy but the one that meets their own personal speed/budget equation (assumming of course they have a choice of services). Tags: UBB

Source: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8389-uk-broadband-speed-test-results-for-april-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=newsrss

Reliance Jio to launch the Indian WeChat?

Reliance Jio is currently India's third largest telco but is still experiencing exponential growth in terms of 4G subscribers India's disruptive telecoms operator, Reliance Jio, is said to be working on a super-app that will offer users over 100 online services, according to reports in the Indian Press. The super app, dubbed the Indian WeChat, would offer a range of services, from online chat services, to banking and even online dating. A report in the Economic Times of India claims that the Mukesh Ambani owned telco was looking to develop the app as a way of catapulting it to the top of the pecking order of Indian telcos. Jio has attained around 300 million subscribers since it launched a little over two years ago, but still lags behind rivals Bharti Airtel and the newly merged Vodafone Idea in terms of number of subscribers. "The ubiquitousness of Jio devices puts Reliance in a powerful position. It can connect its vast ecosystem of its users with a multi-layered fabric, offering a rich array of services, connecting online-to-offline, through a one-stop, super app," Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, told journalists from the Economic Times of India. Jio has helped to fast track India's digital revolution by providing ultra-low-cost data tariffs and handsets on its superfast 4G mobile networks. As a result, profit margins in India's telecoms sector have plummeted, making the sub-continent one of the world's most competitive telecoms marketplaces.

That’s all Folks!