Southwest Airlines picks Viasat for in-flight WiFi

Southwest Airlines has announced that it will use connectivity from satellite firm Viasat for in-flight WiFi services.

The airline says that all new aircraft deliveries from this fall will be fitted with Viasat’s next-generation Ka-band satellite in-flight connectivity (IFC) system.

Viasat’s next-generation system will provide speeds that are typically greater than 20Mbps. With those speeds, customers will be able to stream content, watch live television, access...

13 May 2022 | Networks

Web 3.0 is on the horizon and Dish aims to embrace it

During an analyst event, a Dish executive hinted at the company embracing Web 3.0 trends for its wireless services.

Dish is currently building its own network to replace Sprint, which is being purchased by T-Mobile. It’s taking a unique approach by using Open RAN (Open Radio Access Network) equipment which promises to be cheaper and more flexible while avoiding the “vendor lock-in” of the past.

As part of the conditions of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, the latter...

11 May 2022 | Operators

South Korea, Canada, and Luxembourg join NATO cyber defence centre

The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) held a flag-raising ceremony to welcome its latest members.

CCDCOE raised the flags of South Korea, Canada, and Luxembourg this week to mark the momentous occasion.

Colonel Jaak Tarien, Head of the CCDCOE, said:

“It is a great honour to have Canada, Republic of Korea and Luxembourg in our growing and diverse family of like-minded nations.

Each member of the CCDCOE plays an important role...

6 May 2022 | Security

Report highlights audio-video experiences that will be ‘only on 5G’

A report from InterDigital and Futuresource highlights audio-video experiences that will only be available using 5G networks.

“Significant engineering and innovation has shaped the emergence of 5G and we are beginning to realise the benefits of this enhanced wireless ecosystem, particularly for video and video-enabled experiences,” said Henry Tirri, Chief Technology Officer, InterDigital.

“This report in partnership with Futuresource Consulting highlights myriad...

3 May 2022 | 5G

Request to Pay: how telecoms providers can better protect against fraud

Security against fraud

In the first half of last year, more than £750 million was stolen in UK fraud cases, a 30% increase over the same period in 2020. Last summer alone, 45 million people in the UK were targeted by scam phone calls and text messages, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom.

The cost to consumers who fall victim to these scams can be devastating, and yet the effects on the organisations being impersonated can also have long-term impacts. The outcome can be a significant loss of customer...

3 May 2022 | Operators

Cloudflare mitigated a 15M requests-per-second DDoS

cloudflare cybersecurity cyber security ddos https

Cloudflare says that it successfully mitigated a huge 15.3 million requests-per-second DDoS attack.

The incident was the largest HTTPS attack that Cloudflare has seen. HTTPS attacks, Cloudflare notes, are “more expensive in terms of required computational resources because of the higher cost of establishing a secure TLS encrypted connection.”

Such attacks cost an attacker more to launch, and more for a victim to mitigate.

The target was a Cloudflare...

28 April 2022 | Networks

Prodapt to invest £100m in UK connectivity industry

UK & India

Global consulting and tech services provider Prodapt, part of India’s 120-year-old Jhaver Group, is doubling its investment in the UK market to £100 million.

The increased commitment comes following UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s April visit to India to discuss trade and national security with the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Prodapt plans to invest the amount over a number of years and anticipates creating more than 500 jobs. Earlier this year, the...

26 April 2022 | Digital Transformation

CityFibre’s full-fibre to deliver over £40B of direct economic benefits

New research suggests that economic benefits worth over £40 billion will be reaped by CityFibre’s full-fibre rollout.

The research – conducted by consultancy firm Hatch – covers a 15-year period and examines the rollout across 285 cities, towns, and villages in England and Scotland.

Boosts to productivity and innovation account for £22 billion of the economic benefits; with poor connectivity no longer posing a barrier.

As more people transition to...

26 April 2022 | Broadband

Five Eyes warn of Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure

A joint cybersecurity advisory issued by members of the Five Eyes alliance warns of increased attacks on critical infrastructure from Russia.

The Five Eyes alliance consists of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Members cooperate in signals intelligence.

Canadian academic Srdjan Vucetic believes the Five Eyes’ originated from Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in 1946, in which the British PM warned of open conflict with the Soviet Union unless the...

21 April 2022 | Legislation & Government

How 5G URLLC and edge computing can make smart factories smarter

5G has brought a lot of hopes and dreams to the telecommunications industry, promising communication and digital service providers a way to open up new revenue streams and monetization models. Yet, for most CSPs, this hasn’t come to fruition.

Now, this can change. Thanks to 5G URLLC and edge computing, telecoms can become the main enablers for manufacturing automation based on 5G networks with the use of intent-driven orchestration, realizing the smart factory...

20 April 2022 | 5G