News

If given the green light, the deal would be the largest acquisition in Alphabet’s history 

Google’s parent company Alphabet is in late-stage talks to acquire cybersecurity company Wiz for $23 billion, according to a report published on Sunday from The Wall Street Journal. 

If it is completed, the deal would be the group’s largest ever deal, surpassing its previous record purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2012 for $12.5 billion.  

Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the deal is still “weeks away from completion”, with some details still needing to be worked out.  

Only founded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Wiz is a cloud security platform that provides a suite of solutions for securing cloud environments. It has quickly gained prominence in the cybersecurity landscape, with huge name customers such as Salesforce, BMW, and Mars. In May, the company had a valuation of $12 billion. 

If a deal is ultimately agreed, it would face immense scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who have been cracking down on large tech companies buying startups. 

This is not the first cyber security purchase that Google has made in recent years. In 2022, it acquired notably cyber defence company Mandiant for $5.4 billion.  

“Cyber security is a mission, and we believe it’s one of the most important of our generation,” said Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia in March 2022. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said at the time that the deal would “make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.” 

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Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
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Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

When it comes to data center development projects, question number one is usually about energy.  With AI now driving accelerating demand across the sector, that question is looming larger than ever.  Mission Critical Group (MCG) is a relatively young entrant into this space, focusing on design and implementation of the power infrastructure needed to run the sort of high density computing that the industry is now building out at a record pace.  With us today to talk about their approach is CEO Jeff Drees. … [visit site to read more]

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News

The breach, which occurred in 2022, could affect tens of millions of customers

Today, a regulatory filing from AT&T has revealed a major data breach that occurred in 2022, with hackers able to access call and text message records of “nearly all” of the operator’s wireless customers.

The data was reportedly compromised between April 14 and April 25, 2022, as well as a single day in January 2023.

The breach exposed call and text records, though AT&T says this does not include the content of those calls or texts.

Personal information, such as names or social security numbers, was not accessible by the hackers.

“At this time, we do not believe that the data is publicly available,” AT&T said in a statement. “We sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care.”

According to AT&T, the breach impacted “nearly all” of the company’s roughly 100 million wireless customers, as well as those of mobile virtual network operators that provide services to customers using AT&T’s network. A number of AT&T’s landline customers who interacted with affected mobile numbers between May and October 2022 may also have been impacted.

Investigations into the breaches began on April 19, when AT&T says a “threat actor claimed to have unlawfully accessed and copied AT&T call logs.”

AT&T says its delay in informing customers of the data breach relates to instructions from the US Department of Justice, who told the operator in May and June that a delay in public disclosure was “warranted”. No further information was given about the delay.

Exactly how the breach occurred remains unclear, though AT&T reportedly told CNN that customer data was illegally downloaded from its workspace on Snowflake, a third-party cloud platform.

Snowflake rejects this claim, with the company’s chief information and security officer saying no evidence has been found that the breach was caused by a vulnerability, misconfiguration or breach of Snowflake’s platform”.

AT&T is working with police to find those responsible for the breach, with one person reportedly apprehended in connection to the investigation.

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Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

Press Release

Vodafone, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Xiaomi continued their innovative streak with the successful test in Germany and Spain of a new 5G technology capable of download speeds close to 1.8 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) using a new smartphone.

Specifically, they tested enhanced technology which improves the way data and video is transmitted from the radio network over 5G to a customer’s mobile device. Called 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), it is a step up from today’s system (256 QAM) since it packs together more data into each transmission, leading to faster download speeds.

This increase in speed and data throughout will ultimately lead to greater network capacity, freeing up additional bandwidth at mobile sites to improve the overall experience for customers.

1.8 Gbps Peak Speed

Using Xiaomi’s smartphone, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, equipped with its latest Snapdragon® X75 5G Modem-RF System, Vodafone engineers recorded excellent results. In Germany, the team measured a throughput improvement on the commercial network of around 20% over a distance of up to 600 meters, and at its 5G test centre in Ciudad Real, Spain, they achieved peak 5G download speed of nearly 1.8 Gbps. Theoretically, 1.8 Gbps could provide a capacity gain of up to 25% in ideal conditions.

The technology, which Vodafone expects to become more widely available during 2025, is suited to supporting multiple customers close to a mobile site in busy areas such as a shopping centre or high street.

Wave of Innovation

Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer of Vodafone, said: “Vodafone is at the forefront of the next wave of innovation in 5G. Our customers will benefit from a head start when the next generation smartphones become more widely available, and we can offer our technical expertise to partners and other providers through our new commercial model.”

Dino Flore, Vice President, Technology of Qualcomm Europe, Inc. added: “The successful trials conducted in Germany and Spain with Vodafone and Xiaomi are proof that we are continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible with 5G technology.”

Guoquan Zhang, General Manager of Xiaomi Software Department, said: “We are honored to have collaborated with Vodafone and Qualcomm on this achievement. It demonstrates how Xiaomi is actively driving and showing innovation in the 5G space.”

This latest technological breakthrough follows news earlier this year that the same three companies achieved upload speeds of up to 273 megabits-per-second (Mbps) using another innovative technology. This is more than double the average uplink speed of today’s smartphones and home broadband services.

Efficiency Gains

Industry body 3GPP has defined the 1024 QAM technology, helping operators make further efficiency gains using existing spectrum whilst providing greater speeds for customers even among bandwidth-hungry digital services.

For the test, Vodafone engineers used 1024 QAM with a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) spectrum band – a way to send and receive data within pre-determined time slots on the same frequency (3.5 GHz in this instance). 3.5 GHz spectrum can benefit from 1024 GAM because it has been widely assigned for 5G and associated mobile broadband applications. Vodafone will continue to test drive 1024 QAM-compatible networking equipment and devices ahead of their commercial deployment later.

Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany conference live in Munich

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
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Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

News

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said earlier this year that AI will be SoftBank’s ‘next big bet’ when it comes to technology

This week, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the acquisition of struggling UK-based AI chipmaker Graphcore.

Official financial details have not been disclosed, but anonymous sources speaking to the Financial Times valued the deal at $600 million.

Graphcore creates specialised AI chips, known as intelligence processing units, which can be used to train and operator AI large language models.

This is the same type of chip technology that has seen rival chip company Nvidia soar to around $3 trillion earlier this year.

Unlike Nvidia, however, Graphcore has struggled significantly to commercialise its technology. Valued at $2.8 billion back in 2020, Graphcore has since failed to sell its products at scale, noting “lower hardware sales to key strategic customers”. In 2022, the company recorded just $2.7 million in sales, 46% lower than in 2021, and booking a pre-tax loss for the year of $205 million.

As a result, 2023 saw Graphcore undertake cost cutting measures, cutting 20% of its workforce and closing its operations in Norway, Japan, and South Korea. At the time, the company said there was ‘material uncertainty’ over the company’s survival and called for fresh funding.

Now, as part of SoftBank, Graphcore will reportedly have all the resources it needs to return to full force.

“Demand for AI compute is vast and continues to grow,” said Graphcore’s co-founder and chief executive, Nigel Toon. “There remains much to do to improve efficiency, resilience, and computational power to unlock the full potential of AI. In SoftBank, we have a partner that can enable the Graphcore team to redefine the landscape for AI technology.”

SoftBank itself has been stepping up its focus on AI for over a year now, with Son saying earlier this year that “realising ASI (Artificial Superintelligence)” was “his only focus”. He has also said the company is ready to invest roughly $9 billion a year in AI and is prepared for largescale dealmaking in the future.

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Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by David Cottingham, CTO at IQGeo

As the fiber broadband industry evolves, operators face increasing pressure to adopt emerging technologies to stay competitive. McKinsey’s report, “The AI-native telco: Radical transformation to thrive in turbulent times,” underscores the potential of AI and Machine Learning (ML) to drive growth and disruption within the telecom sector. AI promises substantial benefits, including infrastructure that self-heals, touchless customer service, hyper-personalization, and automated marketing. However, its successful implementation hinges on the quality of underlying fiber network data. … [visit site to read more]

A telecoms lobby group in Zambia has warned that lengthy power blackouts caused by load shedding over the past year is taking its toll on the quality of mobile services across the country.

According to a statement released earlier this week, the Global System for Mobile Association of Zambia (GSMAZ) – which comprises MTN Zambia, Airtel Zambia and Zamtel – load shedding blackouts initiated by state-owned power utility ZESCO now last as long as 14 hours a day.

That’s having an unsustainable impact on the over 3,500 mobile towers connected to the ZESCO grid, as the towers are equipped with only four hours of backup power, which is causing “a huge cost variance not only for the fuel and generator maintenance but also for the associated fuel delivery logistics” for mobile operators, the GSMAZ said.

« Though backup power is available at these sites through generators, instances when there is electricity downtime, and extended load shedding hours, our provision of quality of service is compromised as the generators now require constant refueling and more frequent servicing cycles, » the group added.

The blackouts are largely a side-effect of severe climate change in Zambia, which has caused Lake Kariba – formed by the Kariba Dam, which generates electricity for Zambia and Zimbabwe – to lose 98% of its water, according to a January 2023 report from LifeGate Daily.

Early last year, ZESCO – which supplies energy to over 80% of Zambia – responded by increasing the length of power blackouts from six hours to 12 hours to keep the power grid from failing completely, the report said.

The GSMAZ said it recognised that climate change is having a major and unprecedented impact on all levels of life in Zambia, but added that the telecoms sector “is one of Zambia’s key economic enablers for sustained business growth and social development.”

The GSAMAZ statement added that mobile operators are working with tower providers, regulators and other stakeholders to find sustainable solutions to the problem, to include solar-powered backup solutions in the medium to long term. The group also apologized for the inconvenience to customers.

Load shedding is a common practice across much of the African continent as national power grids struggle to keep up with growing demand for electricity. It’s also a perennial headache for mobile operators who have been forced to invest and innovate to find ways around the problem.

In South Africa, where rolling blackouts are so common that state power utility Eskom recorded a record 280 days of blackouts last year, MTN said in March 2023 it would invest US$84.3 million to install solar power, batteries and generators at base stations (as well as investing in extra security to keep people from stealing them) to reduce reliance on Eskom.

Earlier this year, MTN said it would invest another US$101.3 million by the middle of the year in generators, batteries and renewable energy to counter the effect of Eskom load shedding.

In August last year, Vodacom signed a deal with Eskom to enable “virtual wheeling”, which would essentially allow Vodacom to secure energy from independent power producers using Eskom’s infrastructure without all the complexity that usually involves.

Vodacom said at the time it aims to source all of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2025.

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