By: Thomas Board, Pipeline

2023 has officially wrapped up but the festive season is still brimming with telco news. We’ve seen a plethora of 5G stories and some impressive collaborations in the markets, plus stories about AI helping to make advancements in the cybersecurity space.

This month’s top industry news stories are summarized below. To view current breaking news in real-time, visit Pipeline’s News Center, follow Pipeline on social media, or subscribe to receive our weekly telecom industry news summary.

Network & 5G News

We’ll start 2024’s news roundup on the theme of our current Mobile and Wireless issue. 5G news was abundant in 2023 with no signs of slowing down this year. Ericsson announced that Spain's B2B sector is set to receive a boost with a new 5G private network partnership between Orange Spain and Ericsson, marking a historic milestone in the country’s digital transformation. Their collaboration, the first of its kind in Spain, is set to revolutionize the market by offering B2B customers in Spain the opportunity to deploy their own private 5G networks.

Akoustis Technologies patented XBAW filters have been designed into a new tri-band Wi-Fi 6E consumer access point platform. VIAVI delivered industry-leading benchmarking and validation for RAN Intelligent Controller testing and training for AI-enabled applications at the 2023 O-RAN PlugFest, including energy efficiency, security testing and conformance, and end-to-end testing of new products. The company also improved testing efficiency with real-time analysis and automation. Nokia’s 5G Standalone Core SaaS has been selected by Telia Finland as part of a European Union-funded innovation program to give the operator a fully automated and scalable software model for delivering greater business agility and faster time to value in rolling out and monetizing 5G network services.

Deutsche Telekom, alongside Qualcomm Technologies and cetecom advanced, are preparing mobile networks for the next generation of automatic emergency call systems in vehicles. The Ekinops360 optical transport platform has been selected by Deutsche Glasfaser in a multi-year contract to modernize and unify its optical transport network infrastructure throughout Germany.

Security & Assurance News

In Security & Assurance News, The Council of the European Union’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the proposed legislation regarding cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, which aims to ensure that products such as connected home cameras, fridges, TVs, and toys are safe before they are placed on the market. Arqit, BT Group, and Fortinet have launched a commercially available, integrated product for quantum-safe virtual private network communications using a Symmetric Key Agreement.

CrowdStrike opened a new office in Singapore that will serve as a central hub for the company in Asia. The new office highlights CrowdStrike’s regional investment and will double the capacity of the previous facilities in Singapore. TransUnion’s Telecommunications Consumer Report found that around one-third of consumers experience fraud attempts multiple times per week, if not daily. The most common attacks include social engineering schemes that try to convince consumers to give sensitive information, like phishing, which typically occurs via email; vishing, which happens via phone calls and voice messages; and SMSishing, which occurs over text messages.

Radware is providing application and network security for a Latin American judiciary. Due to shifts in the geo-political landscape and a rise in the volume, complexity, and frequency of cyberattacks, the judiciary turned to Radware to strengthen its cybersecurity posture and mitigate risks on a national basis. The FCC’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force has issued a new warning for mobile phone service providers regarding their obligations to protect consumers against cybercriminals who use scams that commandeer their customers’ cell phone accounts.

AI and Analytics News

AI was one of the hottest topics of 2023 and will definitely continue as such into 2024 and beyond. NVIDIA launched a generative AI microservice that lets enterprises connect custom large language models to enterprise data to deliver highly accurate responses for their AI applications. Fujitsu announced that it successfully equipped its Virtuora Service Management and Orchestration offering for Open RAN with a power-saving application using AI technology developed by Fujitsu. Vodafone Business is now delivering a new SD-LAN managed service built on its leading wired and wireless access solutions. With Juniper Networks as the underlying networking solution for SD-LAN, Vodafone Business’ global customers can leverage the unique benefits of Juniper Mist driven by Mist AI and the cloud.

Kyndryl has formed an agreement with Amazon Web Services to develop and deliver generative artificial intelligence solutions and advanced machine learning capabilities. Ericsson has become a partner in a flagship R&D initiative with Concordia University, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Waterloo in a successful application to the National Cybersecurity Consortium. The NCC leads the Canadian government’s new Cyber Security Innovation Network program that will provide up to $80M in funding to support cybersecurity initiatives across Canada. Ciena announced that in collaboration with KT they have successfully completed the construction of South Korea's first nationwide 600G transmission network. This project by the South Korean telecommunications company is an initiative to proactively address the rapidly increasing data traffic related to AI, cloud, and 5G, as well as to prepare for future services such as 6G.