When the MVNO model first appeared, it was predicted that a wave of non-telecom B2C brands would seize the opportunity to diversify into mobile. With a few high-profile exceptions, the wave never came. The challenges were significant, not least  dependency on an often-inflexible relationship host network, and the complexity involved in building and managing the systems needed to make the service work.

A few weeks ago at MWC19 Barcelona, telecoms software provider Optiva announced that its BSS-focused Optiva Revenue Management Suite was available on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It is a move which could have ramifications for how telcos approach the public cloud.

The concept of...

Ericsson and Intel have started a multi-year collaboration to align ongoing development efforts in software-defined infrastructure (SDI), distributed cloud, and 5G.

The platform will aim to deliver ‘a new level of cloudlike agility, transparency and efficiency required for Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV), distributed cloud, and 5G’. This hardware management platform, which extends the agility of the cloud to...

Across the globe, savvy CIOs and CTOs are deploying a wide variety of new technologies to enable their digital strategies. A hybrid IT infrastructure is the norm, where on-premises systems coexist with public cloud service offerings. Together, these ICT platforms create the foundation for an evolving suite of software applications and associated digital business processes.

Worldwide spending on the technologies and services that enable the digital transformation (DX) of business practices, products, and...

Industrial IoT solutions provider Wind River has joined forces with British multinational telecom firm BT to demonstrate edge cloud compute applications.

The announcement, made at the SDN NFV World Congress in the Netherlands, also showcases Wind River’s Titanium Cloud, its deployment-ready virtualisation software platform.

5G applications will need to locate compute power and...

This article was originally published on ETSI OSM blog. I am re-publishing it here.

NFV was introduced in 2012 and had various stated benefits, especially for the telecom domain. But there were challenges associated with its actual implementation.

Mainly, it was associated with the management and orchestration (MANO) layer. After a few years, solution vendors who decided to offer NFV...

Communications service providers (CSPs) need to get their acts together, according to analyst firm Gartner, as opportunities will ramp up in utilising 5G for autonomous vehicle connectivity.

CSPs can ‘secure future market opportunities’ with autonomous vehicle manufacturers, Gartner added, in areas such as driver safety and data processing and management.

There will be a huge amount of data at play here. By 2025, autonomous vehicles will upload more than 1 terabyte of vehicle and sensor data to...

In today’s era, enterprises have started focusing on the network much more than before due to the evolvement of cloud computing in business operations. To migrate to cloud, a massive amount of changes in the design of the network, as well as an emphasis on security aspects related to network and data, is required.

As the utilisation of these new technologies is increasing, new challenges will arise that will demand a highly automated and secure network.

Savvy communication service provider CIOs and CTOs have abandoned the past - where they would align their new technology infrastructure investments with traditional IT and networking equipment vendors. In hindsight, the status-quo disruption was somewhat inevitable.

Today, 77 percent of all telecom service providers will now require some level of digital transformation over the next three years, to meet the changing market needs in their franchise area and to remain competitive, according to the latest...

We are all aware of the fact that the world is moving towards intelligence-based automation. Emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine leaning, will be playing a key role in making network more intelligent. The journey towards a ‘zero touch’ network is started with a need by telecom service providers to couple with digital innovation and incorporate their efforts in the upcoming fifth generation (5G).

But automating deployment and managing operations in largely distributed...

It’s telco cloud, Jim, but not as we know it. Telefonica has announced it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help organisations in their journeys to the cloud.

Customers are ‘asking for support in their cloud adoption processes’, as the Spanish operator puts it – and rather than go their own way, as the market has seen with less than impressive results, it’s better to go with a hyperscaler.

The partnership includes a variety of initiatives. Telefonica will include...

Telco cloud: two words that can strike fear into many in the industry. Yet a couple of new initiatives from Nokia and Ericsson will aim to help operators in their projects.

Nokia has officially opened its Cloud Collaboration Hub in Singapore. The hub ‘enables operators to visualise, develop and execute cloud offerings’, in the company’s words, and joins the facilities already available in Texas and the UK.

The hub will aim to resolve the dreaded cloud skills gap, cited by Nokia as a key reason why...

There's been a significant increase in enterprise investment on technologies that analyse, organise, access, and provide advisory services that are based on use cases for unstructured data. In fact, worldwide spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) systems will reach $19.1 billion in 2018 - that's an increase of 54.2 percent over the amount spent in 2017.

With industries investing aggressively in projects that utilise cognitive and AI software capabilities, International Data...

MYCOM OSI has announced a collaboration with open source solutions provider Red Hat with the aim of assuring and managing telco clouds.

When MYCOM OSI’s cloud-native Experience Assurance and Analytics (EAA) solution, which provides real time and automated assurance for end-to-end hybrid telco cloud networks, is deployed on Red Hat’s OpenStack Platform and OpenShift Container Platform, its capacity will not just be limited to dynamically discovering, monitoring and correlating vertical layers in...

Today, telecommunications companies are forced to reckon with the changes that have taken place in the market: the emergence of new competitors; competition with wireless networks; VoIP; cable companies; IPTV; the influence of the Internet and OTT, and so forth. In response, network operators accelerated the transition to digital formats based on IP technologies, low latency, better standardisation and now even on virtualisation of network functions (NFV). So it’s...

IT investment within the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is on track to further growth.  IT spending in EMEA is forecast to reach $1 trillion in 2018 - an increase of 4.9 percent from 2017, according to the latest market study by by Gartner.

In 2017, however, all categories of traditional IT spending in EMEA under-performed the global averages. According to the Gartner assessment, currency effects played a significant part in the weakness during 2017, and will also contribute to the...

Red Hat and Orange have teamed up as part of a joint engineering programme with the aim of bringing in new technology innovation in network virtualisation.

The motive of the joint engineering programme is deliver additional features supporting network functions virtualisation (NFV) into OpenStack and other open source communities and also to meet the explicit requirements of communications service providers and their networks when formulating technologies.

The recent integration of the OpenStack BGP VPN...

Cisco has announced that it will acquire cloud calling and contact centre solutions provider BroadSoft for $1.9 billion (£1.43bn) net of cash.

The acquisition of BroadSoft will not only augment Cisco’s commitment to unified communications but also intensify its capacity to address the large number of old TDM (time division multiplexing) lines poised to transition to IP technology and cloud native solutions in the future.

Rowan Trollope, SVP and general manager of the Cisco applications business...

The OpenFog Consortium and ETSI will be joining hands to develop fog-enabled mobile edge applications and technologies, as the two have signed a MoU with an intent to benefit organisations working to develop 5G, mission-critical and data-dense applications through fog computing and networking and thus reduce technical overlap across the multitude of domains.

The Consortium will be working with the ETSI Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Industry Specification Group (ISG) wherein both organisations will...

Mobilitie, a company based in Newport Beach, California, has installed a new cellular wireless system at Avaya Stadium in San Jose. The new system is expected to provide fans with access to an advanced cellular voice and data communications network that includes over 150 small, digital antennas, remote unit and other network components.

The neutral-host distributed antenna system (DAS) installed by Mobilitie is a flexible, small antennae and radio solution. With the new system, attendees at the stadium would...