The Epicenter of Digital Transformation

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

Digital transformation is changing the world. It’s connecting us in new ways, providing new entertainment and gaming experiences, redefining the workplace environment, revolutionizing manufacturing, reinventing commerce, changing the customer experience, advancing healthcare, and allowing us to experience new, virtual realities. Service providers find themselves at the center of this global, social and industrial revolution. They are on the front lines of technical innovation, helping their customers transform while also providing the backbone for transformation to virtually every vertical industry…

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Turning a Stumble Into a Run: Pay TV Lifelines for CSPs

By: Tim Young

There’s an old Ellen Degeneres stand-up bit that cracks me up. It’s from her 2003 HBO special Here and Now. I’d link to a YouTube clip of it, but OTT nonsense is how we got into this mess in the first place, isn’t it? I'm kidding. I’ll leave the jokes to Ellen. Anyway, she’s talking about the relatable sensation of walking down the street, feeling good on a high self-esteem day. “You’re happy with your outfit, happy with your hair, feeling really good about yourself.” “It just takes one tiny trip to suck the coolness right out of you…

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Bridging the Digital Rift with Federos

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

When was the last time you went to a mall? Or went into a bank to withdraw money or even make a deposit? How long has it been since you got your daily news from an actual newspaper? How many years has it been since you used a pay phone or even a landline? Better yet, when was the last time your kids untethered themselves from their devices to go outside and play?  I’m willing to bet that, like for me, it’s been a while. Digital transformation isn’t changing the world, it has changed the world…

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Vodafone Q&A: IoT Transformation

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

Pipeline recently had an opportunity to explore the topic of digital transformation with the Head of IoT at Vodafone Americas, Ludovico Fassati. We discussed ways companies are achieving their digital transformation initiatives, distilled some advice for CIOs, and examined how IoT is changing the game. He also shared key insights from the latest Vodafone IoT Barometer Report. Highlights from our discussion appear below.Pipeline: How have you seen IoT impacting digital transformation initiatives?Fassati: IoT is making a huge impact on digital transformation initiatives…

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Protecting IP Communications - and Your Customer's Experience

By: Bryan Davies

Digital transformation and the customer experience The term “digital transformation” has been hot for the past few years, appearing frequently in blogs and articles, but it’s not always defined the same way. Its true meaning is making business changes to take full advantage of new technologies – the web, mobility, the cloud, and more. These technologies offer enormous opportunities to improve customer experience, business agility, and operational efficiency for most enterprises. Notice that the customer experience tops that list…

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Leading CSPs Digital Transformation Initiatives are Driven by a Motivation to Improve Market Valuation

By: John Abraham , Larry Goldman

Nearly every CSP worldwide is pursing some sort of digital transformation. Although the term digital transformation is widely accepted, there is no consensus on what digital transformation really is, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to transforming the underlying infrastructure and each CSP takes a unique path. For instance, in our research covering 34 CSPs, we found that may CSPs in emerging markets favor a high-impact end-to-end approach to transformations, while most in developed regions prefer a more conservative, phased approach…

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Texting Turns 25 but Security Concerns are Spoiling the Celebration

By: Travis Russell

One of the world’s most popular forms of mobile communications, SMS, the technical underpinning of “text messaging,” has reached a major milestone: its 25th birthday. But don’t celebrate too loudly. For all it has brought to our personal and professional lives, and despite its ubiquitous role in managing dialog between Internet of Things devices, SMS isn’t entirely safe. Security researchers have known this for years, and the telecommunications industry is now waking up to this undeniable fact…

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Best Practices for Developing an AI Strategy

By: Priyank Mohan

Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more focused on performing a single task very smartly rather than providing a comprehensive solution covering many areas that require intelligence. Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2020, AI will be pervasive in almost every new software product and service and that it will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 percent of CIOs. Today’s AI in the communications service provider (CSP) space is primarily focused on machine learning—a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on the development of intelligent computer programs with the capacity to predict…

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Identity Fraudsters Stole over $16 Billion from US Consumers in 2017. How can CSPs Reduce the Risks?

By: Bernardo Lucas

While we have emerged from the first quarter of 2018, consumers are still feeling the hangover effects of 2017. Sobering statistics and stories of how consumers around the world are being targeted by fraudsters continue to surface. A new study by Javelin Strategy and Research found that in the U.S. alone, identity fraud victims increased by 8%, resulting in $16.8 billion being stolen from 16.7 million U.S. consumers in just one year. The survey found that e-commerce shoppers experienced the highest prevalence of fraud, and consumers who are digitally connected were exposed to a 30% higher risk of fraud than those who are not…

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Telecom Industry News - April 2018

By: Scott St. John - Pipeline

This month, 5G updates from around the world continued to roll in, including completed 5G spectrum tests in the UK, field trial results stateside, and the vision for a path to 5G in Vietnam. New AI-enabled customer experience tools hit the market. Additionally, Nokia and STK have partnered to improve public safety technology in South Korea, and new studies from Juniper Research lift the curtain on mobile wallet spending and Mixed Reality gaming. The top stories from the month are summarized below…

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Letter from the Editor - April 2018

By: Tim Young

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall hoping to transform it into a door.”-Coco Chanel It’s tough to talk about the future and technological progress without someone wryly noting that, while technology has improved, they thought they’d have flying cars by now. Or jetpacks. Or some other sci-fi staple. “Where’s my flying car?” they say. Flying cars? Have you seen how people drive regular cars? And you want to improve the situation by making them airborne? I’d settle for a society in which we’d really cracked the code on how to use turn signals…

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