AALTO HAPS, an Airbus subsidiary, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enter a strategic partnership with STC Group, the Saudi digital enabler in the region, that will involve introducing high altitude platform station (HAPS)-based solutions to Saudi Arabia.

AALTO HAPS is an Airbus subsidiary that provides services from its stratospheric Zephyr solar-powered aircraft for mobile connectivity, platform mobility, earth observation, and government applications.

STC Group will have access to AALTO’s solutions when the company rolls out commercial services by the end of 2024. Those solutions will enable STC to expand its geographical coverage to rural and remote areas currently unconnected, improving service quality. In addition, HAPS solutions can serve to augment coverage during critical events and can be deployed quickly and easily in case of natural disasters.

AALTO’s Zephyr HAPS flies in the stratosphere, above conventional air traffic, and provides low latency, direct-to-device 4G/5G services, acting as a tower in the sky with the capability to complement terrestrial networks.

It has a coverage of 7,500 square kilometres which is the equivalent of up to 250 towers on the ground. In areas of lower population densities or difficult terrain, Zephyr integrates seamlessly in the mobile operators’ networks and, says AALTO, becomes the right technical and economic solution to expand the edge of coverage of those mobile networks.

This isn’t the first time HAPS and Saudi Arabia have been in the news. As we reported at the time, earlier this year UK company Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL), a partner of German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom, successfully trialled pioneering technology that provides 5G network coverage from the stratosphere in Saudi Arabia.

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Joshua Feast, CEO and co-founder of Cogito

Between customer complaints and requests for perks, discounts, and upgrades, telecommunications contact centers face unique challenges. Frontline agents often serve as the first point of contact for many customers, making them the face and voice of the company. In such a competitive landscape, where one bad customer service interaction could result in the consumer switching service providers, telecommunications teams must figure out what to do to stay ahead of the rest. … [visit site to read more]

Pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which has a fibre backbone of over 100,000 kilometres across the African continent, has announced a new collaboration to deliver internet access to 20 million underserved people in Africa by the end of 2025, partnering with Microsoft.

Working together through Microsoft’s Airband initiative, the new collaboration will initially target regions that include, but are not limited to, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. Additionally, the partnership will allow for increased proliferation of high-speed connectivity to the farthest parts of Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

The companies say they will empower individuals and businesses in some of the United Nations’ least developed countries to help bridge the digital divide and assist in transitioning more African countries into the digital economy.

The effort will be discussed during a panel discussion at the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) which takes place in Doha, Qatar from 5-9 March.

According to the International Telecommunication Union, roughly 2.7 billion people globally remain unconnected because it’s either unavailable or they can’t afford it. Rural areas around the world are especially disadvantaged, as traditional telecom infrastructure fails to go the final mile in low-density regions.

Microsoft’s Airband Initiative partners with a wide-ranging ecosystem of organisations to design, implement and support programmes that deliver unique connectivity solutions designed for local communities and their challenges. This includes working with broadband providers, local ISPs, energy partners, international organisations and local governments to deliver internet access in unserved or underserved communities worldwide.

In today’s fast-paced world, remote collaboration is more important than ever before. With the pandemic accelerating the need for distributed and remote teams, many organizations must find a way to collaborate effectively across distances. Bicom Systems’ software suite offers the solution. 

Not all telecom business applications are created equal, in fact many have limitations that can hinder remote collaboration. Some applications have useful features for remote collaboration, but users would have to install several other applications for business meetings, disrupting their flow and losing valuable time. Not all applications can be used for in-person and remote teams equally. 

Enter gloCOM with the powerful gloCOM Meeting Module, designed to streamline both remote and in-person team communication. 

What is gloCOM?

gloCOM is a unified communications suite created by Bicom Systems. It is designed to help businesses communicate and collaborate more effectively, with a wide range of features such as voice messages and calls, instant messaging, group chat administration, file sharing, and more. When we say unified communications, we mean it all – desktop, mobile, and web with a seamless design you can use on Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla, Opera, Android, and iOS.. 

You can easily take your business anywhere you go with gloCOM. And this is one of the strongest selling points our partners use when selling to their customers. Get all of details on our latest version of gloCOM in our recent blog post: Product Update: What’s New in gloCOM & gloCOM GO 6.7 [2023].

What is gloCOM Meeting Module?

gloCOM Meeting module is a product module that is integrated seamlessly within gloCOM. It is a powerful tool that allows users to conduct remote meetings and training sessions with ease. The solution is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for users to navigate and use. Along with our unified communications suite, gloCOM Meeting allows users to experience a complete business communications experience.

Key features of the gloCOM Meeting Module

gloCOM Meeting Module comes with a wide range of features that make it a powerful tool for remote collaboration. Some of the key features include:

High-Quality Video and Audio

One of the most important aspects of any video conferencing solution is the quality of the video and audio. The gloCOM Meeting Module delivers high-quality video and audio, ensuring that users can communicate clearly and effectively. The solution also supports HD video, essential for remote teams sharing detailed visuals. (Want to read more about video? Check out What We Learned after a Year of Video Conferencing.

(WebRTC) Screen Sharing + Remote Control

gloCOM Meeting Module allows users to share their screens with others in a meeting. This is particularly useful for presentations, training sessions, or when working on a project that requires collaboration. WebRTC screen sharing allows sharing of visuals with a better frame rate for a clearer image during meetings. Users can easily share their screens and control what is being displayed, allowing them to give more dynamic and engaging presentations. Users can also request remote control during the meeting, saving valuable time for collaboration. 

Recording and Playback

gloCOM Meeting supports meeting recording. This feature is particularly useful for training sessions or those unable to attend a live meeting. Recordings can be played later, allowing users to review the material or catch up on what they missed.

Chat and File Sharing

In addition to video and audio, gloCOM Meeting supports chat and file sharing. Users can easily chat with others in the meeting, and files can be shared and discussed in real time. This feature is particularly useful for remote teams collaborating on documents or files.

3 Reasons Meeting is the most intuitive solution for gloCOM users

1. Ease of access

While using gloCOM, there is no easier access to video conferencing than the Meeting module. Easily start or schedule meetings using gloCOM desktop, web, or mobile with just one click on the Meeting icon. Invite people outside of your organization or network with a unique meeting number. There is no need to install any other software because the combination of the gloCOM UC suite and gloCOM Meeting is a complete communications solution.

Realistically, what is easier – to click on one icon or to open an entirely different video conferencing software? Not to mention that you cannot be sure how the security of third-party video conferencing apps is handled. If you own gloCOM and upgrade to the Meeting module, there is no need for such concerns. 

2. Ease of use

If the Meeting module is the easiest one to access for gloCOM users, it is completely natural that it is also the easiest one to use. Valuable features for streamlined collaboration are so user-oriented that you only need one meeting to adapt. And when you try Meeting as a gloCOM user, it is not very convenient to return to any other video conferencing solution. 

3. One-click-meeting to rule them all

With the joint forces of the gloCOM UC suite + gloCOM Meeting module, you have a complete business communication experience that you can use seamlessly every day. You can easily switch from a softphone to a chat to a video meeting. You can even use your browser to join the meeting, without the hassle of switching applications. And once you try it, you will not even consider any other video conferencing app just for video meetings. You don’t need to download another application, you can just click on an invite link or enter a meeting number, and you are in.

Look no further if you are a gloCOM user because gloCOM Meeting Module will elevate your business meetings. We have some tips that go beyond the technology too – check out Utilizing Body Language to Optimize Conversation in a Virtual Meeting for ideas on how to improve your video calls.

If you are interested in upgrading your gloCOM Edition with the Meeting, please reach out to us directly or through your account manager. We’ll be glad to help you.

High service availability is one of the most important features that any voice service provider must ensure. You want your company protected from the risk of losing subscribers. The solution is a data recovery product with automatic takeover that ensures minimal downtime and high availability of your services.

This article will walk you through the capabilities of SERVERware and geo-redundancy and explain why this combination is the recipe for  success in a high-quality telecommunications business.

VIRTUALIZATION

We must first take a quick dive into virtualization. For those unfamiliar, virtualization is the process of creating and running virtual machines (instances of computers) using a physical host’s resources (computer, server). There are numerous virtualization solutions, each with its own set of benefits, disadvantages, and purposes. (Learn more in our blog post “How to Choose a Virtualization Platform“.)

Virtualization is a hot topic in the telco industry because it allows voice service providers to reduce hardware requirements while increasing system administration capabilities. Virtualization improves performance and uptime by consolidating multiple servers in one physical location.

Virtualization for Next-Gen Communications

Bicom Systems has been in the telecommunications industry for two decades. One contribution we made to this fast-growing market is a platform specifically designed for telecommunications services. 

One thing that sets SERVERware apart from the competition is the fact that our virtualization solution is the only platform designed specifically for hosting VoIP telephony and cloud communications. (Learn more about SERVERware in “SERVERware 4.3: What’s New In The Latest Product Release“.)

In a redundant, highly available, and fault-tolerant manner, it provides a variety of IP services and applications.

It offers thorough control, adaptability, self-healing, and hardware redundancy between the servers with the mirror edition.

SELF-HEALING TECHNOLOGY

SERVERware is a next-generation communication technology solution powered by ZFS, iSCSI, and LXC Containers as the three main underlying technologies.

We’ve integrated ZFS into the system to give SERVERware disk redundancy, fault tolerance, and self-healing capabilities. ZFS is a hybrid file system and logical volume management that offers logical raid configurations, large storage support, effective data compression, and data corruption protection.

Let’s say you have a SERVERware Mirror edition, both servers with 4TB drives. ZFS will combine those two drives creating a mirror and a single storage pool by using the drives from both servers. If one of those disks fails, the other disk contains the exact copy of the data of the other disk, which offers additional redundancy in protecting data and services.

GEO-REDUNDANCY FOR VOIP PROVIDERS

Now that we have covered virtualization and some highly functional features, let’s explain geo-redundancy and how VoIP providers can use it to safeguard their business.

Geo-redundancy is the distribution of critical data and services over multiple data centers located in geographically separated sites. This method aims to provide redundancy in the event of power outages, fires, natural disasters, or scheduled maintenance by data centers. Find out “Why you need Geo-Redundancy” in our previous blog post.

It is important to note that geo-redundancy differs from a backup, as they have different purposes. You can learn more about it by reading one of our earlier articles about geo-redundancy (here).

How is Geo-Redundancy Implemented in SERVERware?

Geo-redundancy is implemented through replications.

Replication is the process of sending a snapshot of a VPS from one SERVERware to another SERVERware site that acts as a GR Server. Therefore, for this to work, your company must own two SERVERwares sites. Each SERVERware has a NETSTOR storage pool formed, and a piece of that NETSTOR storage pool is reserved for the GR pool, which will be storing the replications of the VPSes from the primary site.

For this example, we’ll call them SW1 and SW2. SW1 and SW2 are physically separated and located in two geographically separate sites (e.g., London and Chicago).

Each SERVERware has a NETSTOR storage pool formed, and a piece of that NETSTOR storage pool is reserved for the GR pool, which will be storing the replications of the VPSes from the primary site

During the replication, a snapshot is created of the current state of the VPS, and that data is sent to the GR pool dataset on the SW2. If SW1 fails for any reason, the user can perform a takeover. The takeover process means another snapshot will be created of the one already stored in the GR pool, and a VPS will be created in the NETSTOR, where it will keep running.

A takeover is done in just a few clicks because all the necessary data is already located on that physical SERVERware (SW2). However, that will primarily depend on how frequent data replication is between sites. Users can schedule replication every minute, every 5 minutes, and the maximum time is every 24 hours.

Only the first initial replication transfers the entire VPS (e.g., 50Gb), and each subsequent one makes incremental replications, e.g., 300Mb, so there is no extensive data transfer that could lead to a network overload.

Does Geo-Redundancy Allow For An Automatic Takeover?

By default, the takeover in SERVERware is manual, but administrators don’t have to worry because there is also an option for the automatic takeover.

Administrators can create templates using SERVERware’s site monitoring feature. Site monitoring enables the SERVERware administrator to set up monitoring of remote sites by creating a set of tests that will report whether the monitored site is available or not. 

For example, SW2 pings the SW1 site and initiates the automatic takeover if it doesn’t get a return ping. Simple, effective, and much faster than backup.

DIFFICULTIES AND RISKS OF GEO-REDUNDANCY

There are no reasons not to implement geo-redundancy. There are no dangers other than poor planning since GR’s goal is clear.

Users implementing the GR need to keep in mind the resource usage of the primary site in order to have enough hardware and processing resources on the GR site to run their instances in case of a takeover, and this is a factor that might come with some difficulties in the implementation itself. Given that the virtual instances are using a specific amount of storage resources and RAM memory, they are generating calls and similar. If a takeover is done, the GR site must have a sufficient amount of those resources to run these virtual instances.

Thankfully, our team is here to support all of our partners, as they have done for a very long time, and as a result, the risk issue is eliminated.

How To Enable GR in your SERVERware?

Every SERVERware edition supports GR, but a separate license must be purchased to activate GR (per SERVERware).

Users who opt to implement the GR site will be working with our team of engineers, who will inspect their primary site and, based on the current resource usage and other important factors, provide suggestions for the number of hardware resources, hardware components, and similar for their GR site. This is called a staging process, which is completed before the actual implementation of the geo-redundancy to ensure the user will have enough resources for replications, takeover, or in other words, implementation of geo-redundancy.

The advantage of having two SERVERware sites is that the second one does more than simply wait to serve as a GR server (GRS). You can utilize the second SERVERware for PBXware and new VPSs just as the first one.

FIND OUT MORE

To learn more about SERVERware, please check out our wiki page and our YouTube Channel. Also, do not hesitate to contact us for any additional information you may have. geo