The ongoing attempts to build subsea fiber through the Arctic Ocean have reached a new stage. Finland’s Cinia Oy, Alaska’s Far North Digital, and Japan’s ARTERIA Networks have teamed up to form a joint development corporation to drive the project forward. … [visit site to read more]
![Dont-Forget-About-Voice-[LauraKylePhotography]](https://i0.wp.com/blog.bicomsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Dont-Forget-About-Voice-LauraKylePhotography.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1)
As Service Providers, it is important to complete your portfolios and keep them stacked with the latest technology. Now that most individuals are working remotely or are embracing a hybrid lifestyle, the desire for the best technologies is stronger than ever. People are looking for the clearest camera, the best headsets, and the most feature-rich applications to tie it all together. But many forget one thing: voice.
Telephony has been around for decades! Everyone knows how to place and make a phone call, and despite the surge in video conferencing technology, many still struggle with joining virtual meetings. Voice calls have many benefits over other forms like texting or video chat. Benefits like:
The world is quickly becoming more digital, but phone communication remains crucial in enterprise operations. Both external and internal, proper voice communication is not declining, but actually increasing! When you examine your current offering, ensure voice solutions are both available and strong. What do we mean by that? Keep reading to learn three things that your telephony solution should have.
Let’s explore your virtualization platform, starting at the base of your solutions. When you build a house, you should not skip over the foundation. Therefore, don’t skip over your virtual foundation when you create your enterprise. The prioritization of voice starts at the beginning, which means hosting your telephony and unified communications solutions on a virtualization platform dedicated to hosting voice in the cloud.
Did you know that Bicom Systems is the original software manufacturer of SERVERware? And SERVERware is the only virtualization platform tailored to hosting telephony and unified communications in the cloud! Reach out to our sales team to learn more.
VoIPs best friend! Opus Codec is relatively new in the telecommunications industry. Although, this feature has been on Bicom Systems PBXware and gloCOM since version 5.2. Desk phones communicate with different codecs, and Opus is an audio codec for phones. Opus Codec can handle a wide range of audio applications like VoIP and video conferencing.
Opus Codec is extremely smart and adaptive to your internet’s capabilities. Even on your mobile device, it will adjust based on the network, service range, and other factors affecting the connection. It gives you the best possible outcome for what you are capable of!
This automatic adjustment often goes unnoticed or is taken for granted. However, not all providers offer this feature. Ensure you partner with someone who offers Opus Codec to give your customers the best reliable solution.
There are many headsets on the market that offer echo and noise cancellation. However, the softphone software must be equipped with this feature as well. To enhance voice quality, your softphones should have echo cancellation no matter what headset you use.
Ensure your next call is crisp and clear without echo, background noise, or audible dog barks!
Voice disruptions are not ideal in any scenario and can be detrimental if a call drops during a negotiation. When you partner with a UC provider, ensure you don’t get distracted by the shiny features. Voice quality is more important than your customers.
Bicom Systems’ communication solution is a software suite that offers everything your company needs to communicate, collaborate and connect. The software suite is equipped with all the points mentioned above and more. Learn about our products on our website or by connecting with our sales representatives.
Let’s Connect.
📞 +1 (647) 313 1515
📧 sales@bicomsystems.com
💻 www.bicomsystems.com/contact-us
Thai operators AIS and True hailed their efforts and government initiatives to create an ecosystem that supports 5G, which has accelerated the companies to prep for the next stages of the technology such as network slicing and healthcare solutions.
Speaking at Huawei Global Mobile Broadband Forum in Bangkok, AIS head of Mobile and Consumer Products Saran Phaloprakarn (pictured) explained 5G devices were expensive when 5G first launched in the country with the iPhone 12 being the only choice.
Now, more sub-US$200 have been launched from manufacturers such as Samsung and Xiaomi enabling consumers to connect at a mass scale.
The company has also subsidised devices through its device contracts to sell smartphones for as much as US$30 per month which has spurred the ecosystem of 5G devices in Thailand, he claimed.
The next steps for the advancement of 5G in Thailand will be tapping into network slicing and low latency, a move that will be enabled when mmWave spectrum is deployed when handsets to support them are launched next year.
“What we need is the deployment of the millimetre wave spectrum. That depends greatly on the availability of handsets [in the market]. Today millimetre wave-enabled handsets are only available in the US.
“We hope that this year or next year there will be millimetre wave devices and that ecosystem of devices is ready for us so that we can deploy the enhanced mobile broadband and unleash the potential of 5G,” said Phaloprakarn.
Meanwhile rival True tipped it will reach 10 million 5G subscribers by the end of this year with 85% coverage. True co-group chief growth officer Tanaphon Manavutiveth compared this figure to the global rate of 5G coverage which is 30%.
Manavutiveth pointed out Thailand is a leading adopter of 5G in the ASEAN region with a rate of 9.2%, behind only the leading nation Singapore which has a rate of 13.9%. He also noted shipments of 5G devices for the operator grew from 5% last year and is on track to triple to 15% this year, this is supported by its retail partners 7-Eleven, Lotus and Metro to name a few totalling around 15,000 sales points.
The executive ended his speech on the need for more collaborations to find more use cases such as healthcare, to propel 5G as the next-generation technology it promises to be.
True is developing autonomous vehicles among many solutions for Thailand’s most prestigious hospital Siriraj, which is tipped to be one of the first smart hospitals in the ASEAN.
This week, Vodafone has announced its latest string of Open RAN partners, further demonstrating the operator’s commitment to Open RAN network architecture.
First and foremost among these announcements is a partnership with Nokia, aiming to create a fully compliant Open RAN solution leveraging Nokia’s ReefShark system on a chip (SoC). The duo say they will create an Open RAN baseband system that can deliver services on par with traditional mobile RAN infrastructure, with live demonstrations using third-party COTS servers to take place early next year.
Nokia’s ReefShark technology is co-developed with Marvell, a chip specialist with whom Vodafone is becoming increasingly entwined. In fact, the company’s second announcement incudes an expansion of the operator’s existing Open RAN partnership with Samsung, inviting Marvell to join the duo’s Open RAN R&D efforts.
“Vodafone and Samsung are combining their technical leadership and embracing open standards with Marvell’s advanced silicon chipset. Together, we can deliver an Open RAN system with features and performance that rivals that of traditional mobile radio networks now, and can better them in future, whilst bringing much needed resilience to the vendor supply chain,” explained Vodafone CTO Johan Wibergh, who is retiring at the end of the year and will be replaced by current chief digital and IT officer Scott Petty.
Earlier this year, the Samsung and Vodafone had collaborated to launch the UK’s first live 5G Open RAN site.
The third deal is also closely related to chipsets, this time with US firm Qualcomm. The new partnership will see Vodafone work with the silicon specialist to develop, test and integrate next-generation 5G distributed units and radio units for use in massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) deployments. These units will make use of Qualcomm’s latest X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card and QRU100 5G RAN Platform, which the company announced back in September.
Lastly, Vodafone has signed a new memorandum of understanding with Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo, pledging to “harmonise mobile operator system integration and test processes”; in short, promising to share their Open RAN-related expertise, technologies, and test results with one another. In particular, the operators’ will reportedly focus on exploring two of Open RAN’s most exciting technical elements: the Service Management Orchestrator and the RAN Intelligent Controller.
“The collective R&D power of Vodafone and DOCOMO will lower the entry barrier for many more companies across Europe and Asia wishing to build Open RAN networks. Rather than fragmenting the industry, Open RAN is bringing us together, across continents, to drive diversification of network equipment vendors and ensure greater systems integration,” said Wibergh.
Alongside this new string of partnerships, Vodafone says it will be taking its Open RAN operations in Germany to the next level, following successful trials in the city of Plauen earlier this year.
A new 5G Open RAN pilot project is being planned to take place in early 2023, seeing the technology deployed in commercial networks in rural areas in Southeast Bavaria and Northeast Lower Saxony.
For Vodafone, this deployment will mark the beginning of a wider German rollout over the next two to three years; in total, Vodafone aims to have 30% of its mobile sites in Europe equipped with Open RAN tech by 2030.
“This will be the first Open RAN system in Germany that not only uses open interfaces but is built on both hardware and software from multiple vendors that is fully interchangeable and interoperable based on the choice of the operator,” explained Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture for Vodafone. “It brings timely resilience to the supply chain, allowing us to work with a greater number and more diverse pool of suppliers. Greater competition also encourages innovation, leading to a better mobile experience for our customers.”
It is still very much early days for Open RAN technology, which has yet to prove itself at scale in live networks. Nonetheless, Vodafone’s increasing commitment to the nascent technology is setting the operator apart from its rivals.
Will Open RAN ultimately disrupt the telecoms vendor ecosystem or is it hot air? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress
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IHS Towers, one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world by tower count, has announced what it calls its Carbon Reduction Roadmap, with an emphasis on its African markets in particular.
The Carbon Reduction Roadmap, says IHS, provides a comprehensive strategy for decreasing IHS Towers’ emissions, including a goal to reduce the Scope 1 and Scope 2 kilowatt-hour emissions intensity of its tower portfolio by 50% by 2030, using 2021 emissions data as the baseline.
According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a global standard framework for measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions, Scope 1 emissions include direct emissions from a company’s owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions include indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased or acquired energy.
Under Project Green, the next significant step of its Carbon Reduction Roadmap, IHS expects to spend $214 million in capex towards these efforts between 2022 and 2024, and to deliver annual recurring levered free cash flow (RLFCF) savings of $77 million in 2025. This, in turn, is expected to generate an implied return on investment of 30%.
Savings will be achieved by connecting more sites to the electricity grid and via the deployment and integration of battery storage and solar panel solutions.
In scope for Project Green are IHS Towers’ African operations in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia, along with Kuwait; all of these markets have traditionally had a strong reliance on diesel generators.
IHS Towers says it has also taken this opportunity to revise its corporate values and incorporate a sustainability value that focuses on health and safety, security, and the environment, to ensure that these topics are further embedded throughout the business. “These values,” it says, “are our guiding principles that help foster teamwork and ensure we achieve our shared business goals.”
The Carbon Reduction Roadmap is available to download via the IHS Towers website.
Since the invention of the copper wire telephone network in 1876 – otherwise known as the public switch telephone network (PSTN) – the way in which we communicate has changed drastically.
Over time, our expectations around the speed and quality of communications have continued to increase. Today, limiting connectivity to locations where physical wiring is present is no longer adequate.
The increase in demand for Internet Protocol-enabled (IP) services and the improvement in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is also making PSTN less and less relevant, while the concept of supporting two sets of infrastructure – IP and PSTN – is simply commercially unviable.
The great PSTN switch-off
In the UK, the telecoms industry has already recognised that PSTN is becoming obsolete and has set a deadline, backed by the UK government, to switch off the old copper network at the end of 2025. The same ‘switch off’ is occurring around the world more broadly, although the specified end date varies across countries.
Ultimately, everyone using PSTN-based services – businesses and public services alike – will need to switch network at some point in the not-too-distant future to maintain operational capability.
Put simply, PSTN will soon be unable to meet our basic needs, so it is more important than ever that we start to embrace the future of connectivity.
Post-PSTN reality – a hybrid future?
Research conducted by Zen Internet reveals that 72% of businesses are reliant on traditional telephony, especially larger enterprises.
With PSTN shutting down, companies are increasingly moving across to IP networks, however, there are concerns that terrestrial solutions alone may struggle to deliver the high level of service required by businesses. For instance, in July 2022, a quarter of Canada was cut off from the Internet, as well as landline and cellular services, for nearly a day because one of Canada’s major telecoms providers – Rogers – suffered an outage.
Complete reliance on terrestrial IP networks, such as IP over fibre or Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks, present a more significant risk to users whose infrastructure spans remote regions of the globe. Such solutions risk connectivity gaps along the grid, damage from extreme weather conditions and, ultimately, do not offer the same level of reliability as PSTN at present.
That said, even with PSTN itself boasting an overall availability of 99.999% – a rate unmatched by any other terrestrial network meaning the system should experience no more than five minutes of downtime per year – there is always a risk when relying on a single network for your connectivity needs.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean last December is a prime example of how reliance upon on a single network can be risky.
Despite the dependability of PSTN under normal circumstances, the eruption triggered a tsunami which resulted in the destruction of 80km of phone and internet cables in the Polynesian country of Tonga, making the island’s 105,000 residents almost entirely unreachable until the cable was restored more than five weeks later.
It is no surprise then that mission critical industries currently utilising PSTN are exploring a mix of alternative solutions to provide universal availability, high reliability and low operating costs post-switch-off. This is where satellite connectivity comes in.
The role of satellite connectivity
Satellite connectivity comes in many shapes and sizes from operators with varying experience and capability, so it is important to choose the right one to meet your needs. Considering size, weight and power requirements are significant factors in selecting an appropriate terminal, while reliability, weather resilience and network coverage are key in choosing the right satellite network.
Secure, dependable satellite connectivity is particularly essential to the effective running of remote operations, powering Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to help businesses optimise the uptime of critical infrastructure, increase operational transparency, monitor real-time operations, and ensure the safety of employees, to name but a few of its benefits.
This is where businesses such as Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, come in to provide high-level connectivity in the remotest of locations and through the most adverse weather conditions. Many companies are already reaping these rewards, with Inmarsat’s ELERA network offering ultra-secure, highly reliable and cost-efficient satellite connectivity to companies across the globe.
For instance, Inmarsat partnered with OnixSat in 2017 to provide the Brazilian utilities giant, Cemig with improved connectivity to manage operations across its electric grid in the state of Minas Gerais. By deploying Inmarsat’s BGAN terminal technology powered by the ELERA network, Cemig was able to enhance its remote recloser monitoring and control capabilities, helping to restore power supply more quickly than before and, ultimately, improving the service it provides customers.
Inmarsat has gone on to provide similar services for numerous energy and utilities companies around the world, including across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia.
Life after PSTN
As we move closer to the great PSTN switch-off, a combination of satellite connectivity paired with terrestrial solutions will likely provide the optimal solution for business’ connectivity needs. With each of these networks sitting within the broader family of IP solutions, it is likely that there will be a high level of compatibility between them, providing a straight-forward, combined solution for companies.
By leveraging a mix of these networks, mission critical businesses around the world will be able to maintain extremely high levels of reliability, providing a seamless changeover for them in addition to opening up a whole new world of IoT-powered opportunities in a post-PSTN world.
How is the rise of satellite communications disrupting the mobile ecosystem? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s live Total Telecom Congress event
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Starry was formed back in 2016, aiming to use fixed wireless access (FWA) technology to deliver home internet to customers in various parts of the US. Since then, the company has gone from strength the strength, leading the company to make an initial public offering (IPO) via a special acquisition company (SPAC) earlier this year; the move raised around $176 million, with the business being valued at $1.7 billion.
Now, just six months later, Starry has announced that it is taking drastic cost cutting measures to secure the business’s future.
In a statement, company CEO Chet Kanojia said that the “extremely difficult economic climate and capital environment” had led the company to pause its network expansion and lay off half of its employees, roughly 500 people.
The company says it will instead focus on increasing penetration in its existing footprint.
“We, like so many others, are making the difficult calls now and taking steps that will allow us to be laser-focused on financing the business over the long-term and continue serving our markets,” said Kanojia.
The extent of the company’s financial troubles is for now unclear, with additional financial results expected to be reported on the 2nd of November.
It would appear, however, that a major pain point for the company has been the uptake of its services; despite Starry’s services being available to just shy of 6 million homes across the US, the company says it has just 91,000 customers.
It is also worth noting that Starry will no longer be fulfilling its obligations as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, through which it had won $269 million in grants to deliver rural connectivity.
How is the global economic climate impacting the US telecoms sector? Join the industry in discussion at the inaugural Connected America conference
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