Innovation

Pervacio—headquartered in the US and operating in 30 countries—works with larger device manufacturers and mobile carriers to provide solutions for enhanced customer service in retail and warehouse operations. To improve service to its rapidly growing market of European customers, Pervacio has established a new UK technology hub. 

In other stateside news, Unified Office, a managed services provider offering reliable hybrid cloud-based Voice/UC communications service to SMBs, announced that the US Patent Office has issued a patent for its Highest Quality Routing Protocol (HQRP), U.S. Design Patent Number 9,929,950, method and apparatus for routing voice calls over VoIP networks.  This is Unified Office’s second patent award.

Netcracker Technology showcased its leadership in enabling successful large-scale digital transformations for service providers at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World in Nice, France, which took place May 14-16.

IoT and Device Revolution

As the IoT market continues to grow and develop, telecom CSPs are pursuing many paths to profitability. A new Ericsson study, Exploring IoT Strategies, provides insights on value chain positioning from 20 leading telecom service providers globally as they engage with and position themselves in the IoT market. It was released this month.

To further the adoption of IoT in the industrial sector, Orange Business Services and Siemens have joined forces. Together they will develop solutions to optimize the supply chain and improve efficiencies, as well as focus on digitally enhanced products to increase customer satisfaction.

May was a fruitful month for Nokia. It expanded its IoT portfolio by acquiring SpaceTime Insight, which also bolsters its IoT analytic capabilities and helps to accelerate its development of new IoT applications for key verticals. Nokia also signed an agreement with OSIsoft to integrate IoT data and connectivity with private LTE.

By 2020, the US mobile worker population is projected to be nearly 106 million—over 70 percent of the total US workforce. Operations outside a controlled office environment make risk management more challenging. To address this issue and bring awareness to growing safety needs, AlertGPS and AT&T joined forces to support World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28. 

Cloud and Transformation

Nokia launched the Nokia AirFrame open edge cloud infrastructure, the industry's first Edge Cloud data center solution to meet the stringent and diverse low-latency data processing demands of Cloud RAN and advanced applications for consumers and industries. Doing so expands the Nokia AirFrame portfolio to optimize performance and operator costs as they evolve their networks and prepare for 5G.

AI

Microsoft dominated AI news this month during Microsoft Build 2018, its annual developer conference. As part of its commitment to trusted, responsible AI products and practices, Microsoft announced AI for Accessibility, a $25 million, five-year program to harness the power of AI to amplify human capabilities for more than 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide. Additionally, Microsoft strengthened its longstanding partnership with Italian telco and ICT Group TIM with the announcement of a new agreement intended to develop new AI-based tools and services. It’s a win-win-win: both companies, as well as TIM customers in Brazil and Italy, will benefit. 

Security and Fraud

To combat voice fraud in international telecoms, nearly 20 carriers have joined together in an industry-led Code of Conduct. The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), a leadership body of the international Carrier industry and i3forum, a non-profit focused on supporting transformation in carrier business, have announced that BTS, Interoute, Sprint, Tele2, Telia Carrier, Telstra, MNF Group including TNZI, and Vodafone have joined 10 other carriers in the effort.  

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