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As revenue per bit falls and demand rises, mobile network operators (MNOs) are looking for ways to increase network capacity and reduce cost.  Trends for accomplishing this include densification, e.g., small cells, cloudification for resource “elasticity”, and centralization of the …

  For anyone who owns a smartphone, it will come as little surprise that robocalling activity is up 15% year to date. The jump follows an increase in robocall complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 3.4 million robocalls …

It’s well accepted that quality of service (QoS) is essential in a network environment, allowing network managers to “provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow,” …

This month, Verizon flipped the switch on the first commercial 5G network in the world. Verizon’s 5G Home network, now live in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento, serves as an example of the remarkable progress that can …

Editor’s note: Keith Radousky, president of RadVisory 5G, shares his personal recollection of the first commercial cellular call, in October 1983 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.  This past weekend marked the 35th anniversary of the first commercial cellular phone call …

The future of telecommunications is just as important today as it was when the telephone revolutionized the world. The industry is undergoing a drastic transformation as continued trends toward cloud adoption, mobile communication and big data analytics are driving demand …

Industries are turning to chatbots to deal with customer care interaction. It’s no wonder why — they can easily deliver answers and solutions via a simple user interface any time of the day. In this article, Olivier Engel of Sicap, …

  Some of the most significant media disruptions have come from using a physical device to create friendlier and more frictionless access to media. Think of the Tivo, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Echo and Fire Stick, even the Apple Watch. …

The use of mobile network ‘big data’ can play a key role in tackling infectious disease, disasters and environmental crises, but the privacy of individuals remains paramount, says Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA. The ways in which our …

As a new school year begins, internet usage continues to transform K-12 education. The majority of today’s teachers routinely make homework assignments with the expectation that students will go online to complete the work. But students don’t have equal access to …

The time is now for telecommunications, media and entertainment (TME) companies to start preparing for new 5G-enabled business opportunities and competitive threats that will arrive with the new, speedier wireless technology. For TME marketers, preparedness and changing the way you …

The wireless access point (AP) will ultimately do more than simply offer users a Wi-Fi connection. As the age of wireless IoT convergence approaches, the AP can be expected to deliver a wide range of wireless services from Wi-Fi to …

Editor’s note: Click here for part 1 and here for part 2 of this three-part series on blockchain technology in the telecom industry. The first six telecom applications of blockchain are covered in part 2.  Blockchain applications in the telecom industry 7. …

Since the first text message was sent in 1992, messaging as a method of communication has exploded in popularity. Free unlimited texting was incorporated into the majority of mobile operator packages in the 2000s, and by 2008 the number of texts being sent in a month passed the number of phone calls in …

Editor’s note: Click here for part 1of this three-part series on blockchain technology in the telecom industry. Blockchain applications in the telecom industry `1. Blockchain in fraud management Revenue leakages and frauds are the results of the porosity of the …

The ideas around Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), each in their own right, have been around in the industry for many years. They have garnered significant interest in the marketplace as methods to break the vertical market …

Blockchain for telecom: Operational systems and business applications 1. Introduction to blockchain   It started with a Hash function… then the data blocks…then the chained/permissioned data blocks and mining … then distributed Hyperledger and smart contracts completed the picture to provide management …

When we hear 5G, we automatically tend to think of incredibly fast connections with extraordinarily low latency for our mobile broadband experience. However, the 5G experience is more than just mobile broadband. 5G is a transformation that enables a multitude …

FANG – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google – is taking a bite out of traditional service providers’ business. By competing with telecommunication service providers (telcos) to create and optimize the next generation of networks – including the highly anticipated 5G …

To quote the famous Rolling Stones song, “You can’t always get what you want, but you can get what you need.” That’s wisdom for communications service providers (CSPs) and the large, global enterprises, who own networks that rival the size, …

Most often, we read of differences between the United States and Canada, but in one area, the people of both nations agree: neither country can get enough of mobile wireless services. Consumers devour more mobile wireless data each year, and …

Today, critical communications between first responders – such as police officers, paramedics and firefighters – is compromised by unreliable, ineffective, non-interoperable radio communications systems. To address this, in March 2017 AT&T was selected to build LTE-based FirstNet (First Responder Network …

As the global network infrastructure is tasked with maintaining pace with voracious bandwidth demands that continue to rise exponentially, fiber optic wireline networks are often looked at as the silver bullet that can keep up with ever-changing end-user behavior. These …

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to adopt the long-awaited “One-Touch Make-Ready” (OTMR) regulatory framework today that will allow new entrants in the telecommunication industry to seamlessly attach new equipment to utility poles seamlessly. In the past, an onerous process …

The right mobile broadband infrastructure could deliver big productivity gains to U.S. farmers as the internet of things lets them analyze data about crops, weather, and soil conditions more effectively. But recent policy initiatives, including a rulemaking proposed by the Federal …