In other news out of the US, the FCC proposed a $5,323,322 fine against Tele Circuit Network Corporation for slamming and cramming. The Georgia-based phone company is alleged to have switched consumers from their preferred carrier to Tele Circuit without their permission, misled consumers into believing that telemarketing calls were from the consumer’s current carrier, provided fabricated verification recordings of consumer consent to the FCC, added unauthorized charges to bills, and failed to fully respond to a Commission inquiry.

In Europe, ADVA announced that Chaos Computer Club utilized the ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect to provide the continent’s largest conference of digital experts—12,000 conference attendees in all—with ultra-fast broadband. To bring 4G to rural communities in Scotland, EE has built its 90^th new site in the country within the last 12 months. As a result, 4G is now available for the very first time in some locations, and coverage extends over more than 75 percent of the country.

News on global entertainment also dominated May updates. One of the fastest-growing international sports, Esports features ESL tournaments taking place in arenas around the globe as players and teams battle in front of a live audience and millions of online fans. ESL has selected Vodafone as its Premium Partner. Vodafone will sponsor ESL’s flagship event series, Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL Pro League. In other global entertainment news, Orange, Vivendi, and CanalOlympia have joined forces to bring the big-screen cinematic experience to central and western Africa. CanalOlympia is the leading network of cinemas and performance venues deployed by Vivendi in the region. As part of this partnership, Orange will offer its “Cinédays” programme in CanalOlympia cinemas in eight countries. In Canada, TELUS launched 4K HDR TV to offer live and on-demand 4K content for Optik TV customers.

In Asia, Telstra expanded its world-first “Always On” service to provide more bandwidth options and lower latency on some of Asia's busiest subsea cable routes—Hong Kong to Singapore and Japan to Hong Kong. The service will use Telstra’s cable network in the Asia Pacific region to reroute traffic to another path, even in the event of a cable cut or damage due to a natural disaster. 

Telefonica International Wholesale Services went live with service automation across its physical and virtual networks. The automation and simplification of its operations includes some of its most in-demand services, including IP/VPN, DIA/Broadband, Ethernet (E-Line & E-LAN), Colocation, IPX, NGN Voice, Satellite and WAN2Cloud services, among others. NETSCOUT announced that Telefonica has certified its virtualized solutions vSCOUT and vSTREAM for deployment with their UNICA Lab architecture that supports future networks based on network function virtualization and software-defined networking (NFV/SDN) technologies.

Mobile & Wireless

To counter robocalls—from the merely irritating to the overtly malicious, Verizon has introduced a new Caller ID tool, Spam Alerts, to help protect landline phone customers. Spam Alerts will now show “SPAM?” before a caller’s name on the Caller ID display if the calling number matches Verizon’s spam criteria.

Just in time for Memorial Day, T-Mobile introduced T-Mobile ONE Military, an expansive, companywide initiative to thank America’s military members, veterans, and their families. T-Mobile ONE Military offers a 50 percent discount for family lines—the biggest military discount in wireless—as well as commitments to hire 10,000 military members over five years, expand LTE coverage and capacity, and bring 5G to US military communities.

Sprint launched Sprint Smart UC, a robust and affordable “work anywhere” solution. The as-a-service voice and Unified Communications productivity suite is powered by BroadSoft and designed to improve both CX and employee collaboration.

Overseas, Nokia and KDDI have successfully demonstrated the use of LTE in Japan to deliver cost-efficient, low-latency connectivity for vehicles. These proof-of-concept trials evaluated the role of cellular technology in enabling safe, cost-efficient, low-latency car connectivity. The trials were the world’s first use of LTE broadcast for vehicle-to-network-to-vehicle connectivity and network Real-Time Kinematic for location awareness and accurate navigation.