Juniper Research has released a new whitepaper with data predicting Robotic Process Automation (RPA) revenues in banking will reach $1.2 billion by 2023, a growth of over 400 percent in five years. 

This month, the ETSI CIM group released a new full-feature specification for context information exchange to help advance and power the development of Smart Cities and smart city apps.

Customer Experience News

Domestic CX news updates included T-Mobile’s launch of its new Caller Verified technology, its implementation of the STIR and SHAKEN standards. These standards combat illegal caller ID spoofing, which occurs when scammers temporarily hijack a phone number to match the area code and three-digit prefix of the person they are targeting, making the incoming call look familiar. Windstream announced that it is launching WE Connect, a unified services portal and mobile app uniquely designed to elevate the customer experience. WE Connect will deliver services such as SD-WAN, Cloud Security, and OfficeSuite UC Unified Communications as solutions alongside self-service controls on a ‘single pane of glass.’

Juniper Research released research findings on growth in mobile ticketing and the urban mobility revolution. Its findings note that mobile ticketing—for transportation, sports and entertainment, and more—will account for 1.9 billion of the 2.2 billion ticket market by 2023.

Overseas, Telefónica Group has selected Nokia as its Service Operation Center vendor to support the operator’s journey in the UK from a traditional network-centric operation towards a customer-centric operation. Nokia’s evolved Service Operation Center (eSOC) platform will be implemented for Telefónica UK's 32 million customers. In the Middle East, Optiva announced that Ooredoo Palestine has agreed to a software upgrade and multi-year support agreement that will assist Ooredoo in launching new products and enhancing customer experience.

Cloud News

IBM and Vodafone have entered into a new $550 million extension of their existing commercial strategic agreement. The two companies will form a new venture designed to drive adoption of cloud technologies and innovative business applications enabled by 5G, edge and SDN. SDNbucks has chosen Nokia's Nuage Networks to power SciSports' cloud-based data analytics service for professional soccer organizations around the world.

Mergers and Acquisitions News

Merger and acquisition news heated up this month, pointing toward the reshaping and expansion of select markets. In Europe, EdgeConneX has acquired strategic data center assets at Landsberger Strasse 155, Central Munich, Germany—marking its continuing expansion with its ninth European data center. Necessitated by increasing customer demand and lack of well-connected data center space in the region, EdgeConneX’s Munich edge data center will offer a carrier-neutral facility for cloud, content, network and IT providers to deploy their infrastructure in close proximity to their customers in the region, ensuring optimal performance, security, availability and economics for their services. 

In the US, Bluebird Network, a Midwest telecommunications company, will be acquired by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, with the acquisition to be financed by Uniti. An immediate Midwest fiber expansion ensues: Uniti will acquire Bluebird’s fiber network and then lease it back to Bluebird under a long-term lease. As part of the transaction, Bluebird will also acquire Uniti’s Midwestern fiber business and receive a long-term lease over Uniti’s Midwestern fiber network, which consists of approximately 2,500 miles of network predominantly in Illinois. Transaction Network Services (TNS) has acquired Chicago-based market data, connectivity and hosting specialist R2G Services, making TNS a unique full-service managed infrastructure provider that can meet the demanding needs of financial market participants through a single supplier relationship. Guavus has acquired SQLstream, expanding to provide telecom and IIoT customers the power of AI and real-time analytics from the network edge to the network core. AGC Networks Ltd, a global solutions integrator, has significantly expanded its North American presence by completing the acquisition of Black Box Corporation, a leading digital solutions provider.

Kerlink announced it recently acquired a 51 percent stake in Wyres, a French company that specializes in indoor geolocation technology. The acquisition will drive growth in priority IoT markets, including airports, smart cities, asset tracking and manufacturing. Based on LoRa^TM technology, Wyres’ robust indoor geolocation system enables IT, R&D and engineering departments, as well as integrators and software vendors to master the challenging tasks of designing and deploying advanced geo-located, IoT industrial applications.

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