The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has unveiled new rules cracking down on robocalls, requiring phone companies’ assistance.
The FCC has been working to address robocalls, a growing problem for American consumers. Beyond simply being an annoyance, many robocalls are designed to take advantage of the unsuspecting, scamming them out of private information, money or both. Even legitimate, non-commercial, robocalls can be a nuisance when there are no limits on the volume.
“Americans are sick and tired of unwanted and illegal robocalls, and today’s separate actions are like a one-two punch to ward them off,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today, we are putting much needed limitations on robocalls to our homes, and taking additional steps regarding call blocking that will yield significant improvements for consumers.”
The new rules tackle robocalls normally exempted from existing robocall regulation, such as those from tax-exempt organization, political calls and market research. The FCC will now “limit the number of exempted calls to three calls to any residential phone from any caller within any consecutive 30-day period. Previously, there was no limit on the number of non-telemarketing robocalls that any caller could make to a residence. Callers are also now required to allow consumers to opt out of these calls.”
In addition, the FCC will require telcos to do more to crack down on robocalls on their own networks, and cooperate with the FCC and law enforcement efforts to identify the source of robocalls.
The rules will likely be welcomed by consumers who are sick of being harassed.
The National Security Agency is warning of attacks that target the local network and ultimately compromise organizations’ cloud resources.
As companies migrate to the cloud, improved security is one of the top selling points. While that is generally true, many security processes need to be reworked to account for cloud computing. This is especially true as many cloud systems and platforms are designed to interoperate with each other.
One security measure that has become popular is federated single sign-on (SSO). SSO is a way for an individual to use a single set of credentials to log into any number of authorized applications and services. Federated SSO advances that concept to allow a user to log into services across networks and platforms with the same trusted credentials.
Unfortunately, hackers appear to be using federated SSOs to escalate attacks from compromised local networks to cloud resources.
The NSA has documented two such type of attacks:
In the first TTP, the actors compromise on-premises components of a federated SSO infrastructure and steal the credential or private key that is used to sign Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens (TA00061, T1552, T1552.004). Using the private keys, the actors then forge trusted authentication tokens to access cloud resources. A recent NSA Cybersecurity Advisory warned of actors exploiting a vulnerability in VMware Access®2 and VMware Identity Manager®3 that allowed them to perform this TTP and abuse federated SSO infrastructure. While that example of this TTP may have previously been attributed to nation-state actors, a wealth of actors could be leveraging this TTP for their objectives. This SAML forgery technique has been known and used by cyber actors since at least 2017.
In a variation of the first TTP, if the malicious cyber actors are unable to obtain an on-premises signing key, they would attempt to gain sufficient administrative privileges within the cloud tenant to add a malicious certificate trust relationship for forging SAML tokens.
In the second TTP, the actors leverage a compromised global administrator account to assign credentials to cloud application service principals (identities for cloud applications that allow the applications to be invoked to access other cloud resources). The actors then invoke the application’s credentials for automated access to cloud resources (often email in particular) that would otherwise be difficult for the actors to access or would more easily be noticed as suspicious (T1114, T1114.002).
The NSA’s document contains migration techniques and should be read immediately by all systems admins.
Huawei is preparing to open its first network equipment factory outside of China, as the company works to address security concerns.
Once one of the dominant network equipment providers, Huawei has been under pressure as a result of its close ties to the Chinese government. The US has led a campaign to convince countries to ban the company from participating in their networks, with many doing just that.
The company is taking great pains to prove it can be trusted. Its latest effort is plans to open a factory in France, near the border of Germany, the first of its kind outside of China.
“With this factory built at the crossroads of Europe, Huawei will enrich its already rich presence on the continent with 23 research and development centres, more than 100 partner universities, more than 3,100 suppliers and an effective supply chain,” the company said in a statement, according to International Business Times.
Manufacturing key equipment outside of China may help the company dispel concerns about potential backdoors the Chinese government could exploit.
Elon Musk’s other company, SpaceX, has won $885 million in federal subsidies to help it expand its Starlink internet service.
Starlink is the constellation of satellites SpaceX is using to provide internet access to underserved regions and communities. Unlike existing satellite options, such as HughesNet, Starlink satellites maintain a low-Earth orbit. This gives the service much lower ping and higher speeds than competing services.
Starlink opened up beta access to customers in the latitudes currently covered by the constellation, and the results have been impressive. Customers have reported speeds in excess of 150 Mbps and ping as low as 39 ms.
The company has now won an $885 million grant to extend its service. The Federal Communications Commission published the list of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction winners. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) features prominently on the list.
SpaceX initially plans on sending 12,000 satellites into orbit, with the constellation eventually including as many as 42,000. Given the expense of launching those satellites, the federal subsidies will likely go quickly.
Engineers from Cloudflare, Apple and Fastly have worked together to create an improved DNS protocol that protects user privacy.
DNS is the backbone of the internet, responsible for mapping domain names (such as WebProNews.com) to the IP addresses where the site and its content resides. Unfortunately, because the internet was conceived and designed at a time when security was not a big concern, DNS queries are sent in clear text. This means it is relatively easy to intercept DNS traffic and see what site a person is trying to reach, as well as the IP address of the device they’re using.
There have been attempts to address this security issue, including DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT). Both of these upgrades, however, rely on an ISP, or similar company, responsible for resolving the DNS queries. As a result, there is still a potential trust issue, as the DNS resolving entity can still see the DNS queries.
This is where Cloudflare, Apple and Fastly’s work comes into play. The three companies have announced the creation a new protocol: Oblivious DNS over HTTPS (ODoH). This new protocol is designed to separate the client from the DNS resolver, providing total privacy and anonymity.
“ODoH is a revolutionary new concept designed to keep users’ privacy at the center of everything,” says Michael Glynn, Vice President, Digital Automated Innovation, PCCW Global. “Our ODoH partnership with Cloudflare positions us well in the privacy and ‘Infrastructure of the Internet’ space. As well as the enhanced security and performance of the underlying PCCW Global network, which can be accessed on-demand via Console Connect, the performance of the proxies on our network are now improved by Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 resolvers. This model for the first time completely decouples client proxy from the resolvers. This partnership strengthens our existing focus on privacy as the world moves to a more remote model and privacy becomes an even more critical feature.”
ODoH is an important step forward in privacy and security, and will hopefully see fast and widespread adoption.
Ericsson has released the November 2020 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report and it contains good news for 5G.
The Ericsson Mobility Report provides a snapshot of the mobile industry and can provide valuable insights into current technology and trends. Not surprisingly, recent reports have been dominated by the rollout of 5G. The November 2020 report(PDF) is no different, signaling that 5G rollout is marching on, impacting a number of industries.
According to Ericsson, some 1 billion people — or 15% of the world’s population — will live within 5G coverage by the end of 2020. Equally impressive, some 3.5 billion 5G subscriptions are forecast by the end of 2026. Despite its slow start, in relation to Asian countries, North America is projected to account for 80% of 5G subscriptions in 2026.
The report also demonstrates the impact 5G will have on related industries. For example, while there are currently 7.9 billion mobile subscriptions, Ericsson expects this to increase to 8.8 billion by the end of 2026. Significantly, some 91% of those will be for mobile broadband — not surprising given the speeds promised by 5G.
It’s no secret companies are looking to 5G as the next evolution of broadband, providing fast speed, security and the possibility of high-speed connections in areas where traditional wired connections are prohibitive. According to Ericsson, “fixed wireless access (FWA) connections are forecast to grow more than threefold and reach over 180 million by the end of 2026, accounting for around 25 percent of total mobile network data traffic globally.”
Ericsson emphasizes that 5G is no longer a novelty, and is beginning to live up to the transformational potential it has promised.
“The fundamental need for good connectivity is a cornerstone for this change, clearly visible in this edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report as the demand for capacity and coverage of cellular networks continues to grow. 5G is no longer just a novelty. Instead it is entering the next phase, when many new devices and end-user applications make the most out of the technological benefits it provides, while communications service providers worldwide continue the build-out of 5G.”
At a time when Americans are relying on internet access more than ever, Comcast Xfinity is rolling out data caps across its market.
Comcast currently serves a 39-state region. While data caps were already in effect in much of its market, the company is now bringing them to the remaining states, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. The specific states are Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The company will cap users at 1.2 TB of monthly data usage beginning January 2021, although the company will offer a couple of months of grace period. Beginning in April, however, Comcast Xfinity customers will be charged $10 per 50 GB over the cap, although the company says overages will be capped at $100 per month. To make matters even worse, there is currently no provision to save up data from lighter months and roll it over to heavier months.
Needless to say, customers have been outraged at the announcement, pointing out that families and individuals are relying on their internet connection more than ever due to the pandemic. Individuals are working remotely, children are learning remotely, and families are relying on videoconferencing for socializing, worship and entertainment. As a result, Comcast’s announcement is being labeled an example of “unlimited greed.”
Rather than rethinking their strategy, Comcast is hitting back, pointing out that the data caps won’t impact 95% of users.
Hi Sean. About 95 percent of our customers use less than 1.2TB and are not impacted by this plan – even with the spike in usage as customers are educating and working from home during COVID-19. (1/2)
Some are already pointing to Comcast’s announcement as the latest example of why critics say internet providers should be regulated like utilities. While internet access may have been a luxury at one time, it has now become an important lifeline for the majority of Americans.
AWS has unveiled the AWS Network Firewall in an effort to help customers protect their cloud-based virtual networks.
AWS is currently the top cloud platform, with 31% of the cloud computing market. One of AWS’ biggest strengths is the breadth and depth of services the platform offers.
The company is building on that with its latest announcement, AWS Network Firewall, “a high availability, managed network firewall service” for virtual private clouds (VPC). The new service complements the other firewall capabilities AWS currently provides, such as “Security Groups to protect Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances, Network ACLs to protect Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) subnets, AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect web applications running on Amazon CloudFront, Application Load Balancer (ALB) or Amazon API Gateway, and AWS Shield to protect against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.”
The AWS Network Firewall can be setup with just a few clicks, and the company touts its ability to scale as needed, eliminating the need to manage additional infrastructure.
“With AWS Network Firewall, you can implement customized rules to prevent your VPCs from accessing unauthorized domains, to block thousands of known-bad IP addresses, or identify malicious activity using signature-based detection,” writes Channy Yun is a Principal Developer Advocate for AWS. “AWS Network Firewall makes firewall activity visible in real-time via CloudWatch metrics and offers increased visibility of network traffic by sending logs to S3, CloudWatch and Kinesis Firehose. Network Firewall is integrated with AWS Firewall Manager, giving customers who use AWS Organizations a single place to enable and monitor firewall activity across all your VPCs and AWS accounts. Network Firewall is interoperable with your existing security ecosystem, including AWS partners such as CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Splunk. You can also import existing rules from community maintained Suricata rulesets.”
The news is a welcome addition to AWS’ cybersecurity services and will help customers keep their VPCs even safer.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to free up spectrum currently reserved for automotive safety to improve WiFi.
The spectrum in question is the 5.9 GHz band. The spectrum was originally intended for vehicles to be able to communicate with each other, as well as to allow emergency vehicles to change traffic lights as needed. Despite the spectrum being reserved for that purpose since 1999, the automotive industry has yet to utilize the spectrum to its full potential.
As a result, the FCC has voted to use a portion of the spectrum to improve WiFi connectivity.
Specifically, the new band plan designates the lower 45 megahertz (5.850-5.895 GHz) for unlicensed uses and the upper 30 megahertz (5.895-5.925 GHz) for enhanced automobile safety using Cellular Vehicle-to- Everything (C-V2X) technology.
In announcing the decision, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai discussed how the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for reliable broadband internet.
First, there is a pressing need for us to allocate additional spectrum for unlicensed operations.2 The pandemic has underscored that consumers need access and more bandwidth to be able to engage in telework, remote learning, telehealth, and other broadband-related services. And we have proof—not a concept, but actual evidence—that 5.9 GHz spectrum can help quickly address this need.
Pai also emphasized how the automotive industry has shifted its focus. While the 5.9 GHz spectrum was originally reserved for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) services and designated Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC), the industry has recently moved toward C-V2X technology.
Second, the automotive industry has pivoted from DSRC to Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology. C-V2X is more reliable and resilient than DSRC and can take advantage of cellular- based connectivity to offload non-safety-of-life communications. C-V2X has momentum both domestically and internationally, with automakers such as Ford, Audi, Daimler, BMW, and Jaguar Land Rover pursuing deployment of C-V2X equipment.
The decision has already been met with criticism, although it remains to be seen if there will be any serious challenges to it.
Cisco has announced its quarterly results, beating analyst estimates thanks to strong services and security.
Cisco reported revenue of $11.9 billion, with net income coming in at $2.2 billion. The company’s $0.76 earnings per share was higher than consensus forecasts of $0.70.
“Cisco is off to a solid start in fiscal 2021 and we are encouraged by the signs of improvement in our business as we continue to navigate the pandemic and other macro uncertainties,” said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. “Our focus is on winning with a differentiated innovative portfolio, long-term growth and being a trusted technology partner offering choice and flexibility to our customers. We see many great opportunities ahead as every company in every industry is accelerating its digital-first strategy.”
In particular, the company has been working to transform its business to more of a service-oriented approach, thereby insulating it from pandemic-like situations. Service revenue was up 2%, while Security was up 6%, leading Product revenue.
“Our Q1 results reflect good execution with strong margins in a challenging environment,” said Kelly Kramer, CFO of Cisco. “We continued to transform our business through more software offerings and subscriptions, driving 10% year over year growth in remaining performance obligations. We delivered strong growth in operating cash flow and returned $2.3 billion to shareholders.”
The FBI has warned that hackers have been accessing proprietary source code from government agencies and businesses by exploiting SonarQube.
SonarQube is a code inspection platform that currently supports 27 programming languages and helps developers write cleaner, more secure, bug-free code. SonarQube integrates with a number of third-party services and platforms, including GitHub, GitLab, LDAP, Active Directory, BitBucket, Azure DevOps and more.
Unfortunately, according to the FBI (PDF), it appears a number of organizations using SonarQube left the default parameters in place, opening themselves up to security issues and code theft.
In August 2020, unknownthreat actors leaked internal data from two organizations through a public lifecycle repositorytool. The stolen data was sourced from SonarQube instances that used default port settings and admin credentials running on the affected organizations’ networks. This activity is similar toa previous data leak in July 2020, in which an identified cyber actor exfiltrated proprietary source code from enterprises throughpoorly secured SonarQube instances and published the exfiltrated source codeon a self-hosted public repository.
During the initial attack phase, cyber actorsscan theinternetfor SonarQube instances exposed to the open Internet using the default port (9000) and a publicly accessible IP address. Cyber actors then use default administrator credentials (username: admin, password: admin) to attempt to access SonarQube instances.
The FBI recommends following basic security protocols that, quite frankly, organizations should have implemented from the beginning. This includes, changing the default admin username and password, the default port through which SonarQube is accessed, putting SonarQube behind a login screen, checking for unauthorized users and keeping the platform behind the company firewall.
The 5G rollout is actually faster than the 4G rollout if you just look at the number of networks launching in the first year and a half to two years of the launch. Also, just look at the degree to which the new technology is existing in the portfolios of handset manufacturers and how deep they go in terms of the price tiers. The other thing that is really important is that the handset market has actually already made the switch to that technology even before you start to see the deployment.
When we look at it with the eyes of seeing many of these transitions we’re quite pleased with the way the 5G rollout is occurring.
5G Handsets Grew 150% Year-Over-Year
5G handsets grew by 150% year-over-year. What gives us confidence is if you look this year the real question was how would the market react to the COVID pandemic? Obviously, a couple of quarters ago, there was a lot of concern about how different industries would react. What’s happened in the handset industry is it’s probably come back a little stronger than people expected. One of the reasons that we had such a good print this quarter was because the handset market in total was a little stronger than we thought.
We thought it might be down about 15% due to COVID but it ended up being about 5% down. We’ve used that as an assumption moving forward. So we have a lot of confidence actually in our 5G forecast and the handset forecast overall. I think our visibility into the way that the market is performing even in this pandemic environment has increased over the last several quarters.
Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf: 5G Rollout Faster Than 4G
Verizon and Nokia are working on private 5G networks, aimed at replacing WiFi networks for businesses.
There are a number of advantages to 5G over traditional networks. The fastest variety of 5G, mmWave, offers speeds measured in gigabits. In addition, latency is often measured in single digits, or very low double digits. Verizon is also touting the security benefits, as a private 5G network eliminates the need to transmit data through public networks.
“Today, we’ve announced the next phase of Verizon’s global 5G vision with the launch of private 5G for our international customers,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that there’s never been a more critical time for mobility, broadband and cloud products and services. Private 5G networks will be a transformative technology that will drive the new era of disruption and innovation for enterprises around the world.”
The joint effort will initially target enterprises in Europe and Asia-Pacific, although it wouldn’t be surprising if it expands to the US once 5G gains more ground. The two companies clearly see 5G as a transformational technology, with implications far beyond the basic cellphone.
“Private wireless connectivity has become central to many industries in realizing their long-term digital transformation goals. By delivering private 5G together with Verizon, we’re paving the way to accelerate digitalization for the most demanding industries who crave reliable wireless connectivity,” said Brian R. Fitzgerald, SVP Global Solutions at Nokia.
T-Mobile President Neville Ray says that Verizon’s speeds on 5G and LTE are about to hit a massive speed bump.He adds, “You can’t enjoy 5G if you can’t get 5G.” Ouch!
In a snarky blog post, T-Mobile says that new data released today from Ookla proves that T-Mobile customers get a 5G signal more often than anyone else. T-Mobile says that Verizon customers only connected to 5G a paltry 0.6% of the time.
“You can’t enjoy 5G if you can’t get 5G. I can’t believe I have to say this, but apparently, some providers think 5G you can’t find is perfectly OK. T-Mobile has America’s largest 5G network, and Ookla’s report shows T-Mobile customers get the benefits of 5G more often,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “We’re building 5G for All on dedicated airwaves to deliver both coverage and speed … while Verizon and AT&T force 5G and LTE customers to share already-crowded bandwidth.”
The Un-carrier’s 5G network is the largest by far, covering 260 million people in more than 7,500 cities and towns. And thanks to the merger with Sprint, T-Mobile is rolling out the best spectrum for 5G — mid-band 2.5 GHz 5G — across the country. It’s already live today in 210 cities and towns and will be in thousands of cities and towns by the end of the year. Where mid-band is deployed, it can deliver average download speeds around 300 Mbps — that’s 7.5x faster than our LTE today — with peak speeds up to 1 Gbps. Verizon’s “Ultra Wideband” can only deliver fast speeds outdoors on specific street corners near base stations. T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G is the sweet spot, it can give customers fast speeds across broad geographies.
T-Mobile has dedicated spectrum for 5G across low, mid and high bands. And that’s important because 5G devices will use a lot of capacity. Verizon and AT&T are stealing LTE spectrum from their existing customers to broaden their 5G coverage. Using Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), Verizon and AT&T force 5G and LTE customers to share bandwidth, splitting up the capacity so each technology only gets part of it. DSS is an important network feature and should be used in limited scenarios — not to provide an entire nationwide footprint. So, what’s the problem with Verizon’s broad use of DSS? Well, they are already spectrum-constrained and have limited sub-6 GHz spectrum. And now, they’re forced to share that limited resource with their 5G customers too. More traffic, same roads – sounds like a slowdown ahead.
“The physics are simple. When you force more devices to share crowded airwaves, speeds decrease. I predict Verizon’s speeds on 5G and LTE are about to hit a massive speed bump,” added Ray.
“By contrast,” says Ray, T-Mobile is building 5G on free and clear dedicated spectrum in all bands with its “layer cake” multi-band strategy. With all three major bands dedicated to 5G, only T-Mobile has wide open freeways ready to take on massive amounts of 5G traffic. And with more low and mid-band spectrum than anyone else, T-Mobile is building an even wider and faster freeway.”
SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday morning.
“You are watching a live webcast of our 14th Starlink mission,” said Andy Tran, a production supervisor at SpaceX. “It’s also our 18th mission this year. To date, we’ve launched more than 750 Starlink satellites to orbit. Starlink is a constellation of satellites that can provide high-speed low-latency internet all over the globe, particularly in remote areas where connectivity is limited or completely unavailable. Today we will be performing two second-stage burns and deploying our 60 Starlink satellites at approximately one hour into the mission. The two burns allow us to deploy our satellites into a circular orbit which in turn helps them get to their final orbit much quicker.”
Starlink Deploys 60 Satellites To Orbit
“Our first stage is going to make its way back to Earth to attempt landing for the sixth time on our droneship in the Atlantic Ocean,” says Tran. “Right down the middle, Falcon 9 has landed. This particular booster has landed for the sixth time. This marks our 62nd successful recovery of a Falcon 9 first stage and the 32nd time we’ve landed on this particular droneship, ‘Of Course, I Still Love You.’ A great way to start off a Sunday.
Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported Crew Dragon’s first demonstration mission to the International Space Station, launch of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, and three Starlink missions this year. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Falcon 9’s fairing halves each previously supported two missions. The Starlink satellites deployed approximately 1 hour and 3 minutes after liftoff.
“As our Starlink network is still in its early stages, the Starlink team continues to test the system, collecting latency data and performing speed tests of the service,” says the SpaceX team in a blog post. “The team also recently installed Starlinks on the Administrative Center building and about 20 private homes on the Hoh Tribe Reservation, located in a remote area of western Washington State where internet access is limited or completely unavailable.”
T-Mobile has used new radio carrier aggregation to boost 5G performance, combining mid-band downloads with low-band uploads.
T-Mobile was one of the first companies to popularize the multi-frequency approach, using low-band, mid-band and high-band mmWave to build a full 5G network. Each of these types of 5G has their own advantages.
Low-band is only marginally faster than 4G LTE, but offers excellent range and building penetration since it’s in the 600 MHz spectrum. Mid-band is widely believed to be the sweet spot, offering over 1 Gbps speed, combined with decent range. T-Mobile is using the 2.6 Ghz spectrum it acquired in the Sprint merge for its mid-band. mmWave, on the other hand, is the fastest type of 5G and is over 6 Ghz. Unfortunately, its range is only a couple hundred meters and it has abysmal penetration.
T-Mobile has been experimenting with combining mid-band spectrum for downloads, while using low-band for uploads. The end result has been increased speeds overall, while at the same expanding the carrier’s 5G footprint.
“When it comes to our network and what we deliver to customers, we never rest on our laurels,” saidx Abdul Saad, Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile. “We have the first and largest nationwide 5G network, covering over 250 million people across 1.3 million square miles, and we’ll never stop working with industry leaders to develop and refine new technologies like this so we can deliver #5GforAll.”
AT&T has announced it is shuttering its DSL service, in a move that may leave hundreds of thousands without reliable internet access.
AT&T has been increasingly moving away from DSL toward faster fiber connections. Unfortunately, according to a report, less than 30 percent of households in its market area are covered by the company’s fiber service. To make matters worse, according to Ars Technica, the company has previously said its fiber rollout is largely done, leaving little hope the remaining 70 percent of customers will receive the upgrade.
As a result of the current situation, DSL remains an important type of broadband connection for millions of Americans, as it relies on copper phone lines for transmission. Despite its important, however, USA Today is reporting the company stopped taking new customers as of October 1.
“We’re beginning to phase out outdated services like DSL and new orders for the service will no longer be supported after October 1,” read a corporate statement USA Today gained access to. “Current DSL customers will be able to continue their existing service or where possible upgrade to our 100% fiber network.”
While the company says existing customers will be able to continuing using the service, it remains to be seen if that means indefinitely or just until AT&T moves on to the next phase of its DSL shutdown.
“Today starts a new chapter in our close collaboration with the telecommunications industry to unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever,” said Microsoft Azure Executive Vice President Jason Zander in a blog announcement. “We’re building a carrier-grade cloud and bringing more Microsoft technology to the operator’s edge. This, in combination with our developer ecosystem, will help operators to future proof their networks, drive down costs, and create new services and business models.”
Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Azure, announces new collaborations with the telecommunications industry that will unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever:
The increasing demand for always-on connectivity, immersive experiences, secure collaboration, and remote human relationships is pushing networks to their limits, while the market is driving down price. The network infrastructure must ensure operators are able to optimize costs and gain efficiencies, while enabling the development of personalized and differentiated services. To address the requirements of rolling out 5G, operators will face strong challenges, including high capital expenditure (CapEx) investments, an increased need for scale, automation, and secure management of the massive volume of data it will generate.
Today starts a new chapter in our close collaboration with the telecommunications industry to unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever. We’re building a carrier-grade cloud and bringing more Microsoft technology to the operator’s edge. This, in combination with our developer ecosystem, will help operators to future proof their networks, drive down costs, and create new services and business models.
In Microsoft, operators get a trusted partner who will empower them to unlock the potential of 5G. Enabling them to offer a range of new services such as ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity, mixed reality communications services, network slicing, and highly scalable IoT applications to transform entire industries and communities.
By harnessing the power of Microsoft Azure, on their edge, or in the cloud, operators can transition to a more flexible and scalable model, drive down infrastructure cost, use AI and machine learning (ML) to automate operations and create service differentiation. Furthermore, a hybrid and hyper-scale infrastructure will provide operators with the agility they need to rapidly innovate and experiment with new 5G services on a programmable network.
More specifically, we will further support operators as they evolve their infrastructure and operations using technologies such as software-defined networking, network function virtualization, and service-based architectures. We are bringing to market a carrier-grade platform for edge and cloud to support the operator’s goals to future proof their infrastructure with disaggregated, and containerized network architectures. Recognizing that not everything will move to the public cloud, we will meet operators where they are—whether at the enterprise edge, the network edge, or in the cloud.
Our approach is built on the acquisitions of industry leaders in cloud-native network functions—Affirmed Networks and Metaswitch and on the development of Azure Edge Zones. By bringing together hundreds of engineers with deep experience in the telecommunications space, we are ensuring that our product development process is catering to the most relevant networking needs of the operators. We will leverage the strengths of Microsoft to extend and enhance the current capabilities of industry-leading products such as Affirmed’s 5G core and Metaswitch’s UC portfolio. These capabilities, combined with Microsoft’s broad developer ecosystem and deep business to business partnership programs, provide Microsoft with a unique ability to support the operators as they seek to monetize the capabilities of their networks.
Your customer, your service, powered by our technology
As we build out our partnerships with different operators, it is clear to us that there will be different approaches to technology adoption based on business needs. Some operators may choose to adopt the Azure platform and select a varied mix of virtualized or containerized network function providers. We also have operators that have requested complete end-to-end services as components for their offers. As a part of these discussions, many operators have identified points of control that are important to them, for example:
Control over where a slice, network API, or function is presented to the customer.
Definition of where and how traffic enters and exits their network.
Visibility and control over where key functions are executed for a given customer scenario.
Configuration and performance parameters of core network functions.
As we build out Azure for Operators, we recognize the importance of ensuring operators have the control and visibility they require to manage their unique industry requirements. To that end, here is how our assets come together to provide operators with the platform they need.
Communication Service Providers
Interconnect
It starts with the ability to interconnect deeply with the operator’s network around the globe. We have one of the largest networks that connect with operators at more than 170 points of presence and over 20,000 peering connections around the globe, putting direct connectivity within 25 miles of 85 percent of the world’s GDP. More than 200 operators have already chosen to integrate with the Azure network through our ExpressRoute service, enabling enterprises and partners to link their corporate networks privately and securely to Azure services. We also provide additional routes to connect to the service through options as varied as satellite connectivity and TV White Space spectrum.
Edge platform
This reach helps us to supply operators with cloud computing options that meet the customer wherever those capabilities are needed: at the enterprise edge, the network edge, the network core, or in the cloud. The various form factors, optimized to support the location in which they are deployed, are supported by the Azure platform—providing virtual machine and container services with a common management framework, DevOps support, and security control.
Network functions
We believe in an open platform that leverages the strengths of our partners. Our solutions are a combination of virtualized and containerized services as composable functions, developed by us and by our Network Equipment Provider partners, to support operators’ services such as the Radio Access Network, Mobile Packet Core, Voice and Interconnect services, and other network functions.
Technology from Affirmed and Metaswitch Networks will provide services for Mobile Packet Core, Voice, and Interconnect services.
Cloud solutions and Azure IoT for operators
By exposing these services through the Azure platform, we can combine them with other Azure capabilities such as Azure Cognitive Services (used by more than 1 million developers processing more than 10 billion transaction per day), Azure Machine Learning, and Azure IoT, to bring the power of AI and automation to the delivery of network services. These capabilities, in concert with our partnerships with OSS and BSS providers, enables us to help operators streamline and simplify operations, create new services to monetize the network, and gain greater insights into customer behavior.
In IoT our primary focus is simplifying our solutions to accelerate what we can do together from the edge to the cloud. We’ve done so by creating a platform that provides simple and secure provisioning of applications and devices to Azure cloud solutions through Azure IoT Central, which is the fastest and easiest way to build IoT solutions at scale. IoT Central enables customers to provision an IoT app in seconds, customize it in hours, and go to production the same day. IoT Plug and Play dramatically simplifies all aspects of IoT device support and provides devices that “just work” with any solution and is the perfect complement to achieve speed and simplicity through IoT Central. Azure IoT Central also gives the Mobile Operator the opportunity to monetize more of the IoT solution and puts them in a position to be a re-seller of the IoT Central application platform through their own solutions. Learn more about using Azure IoT for operators here.
Cellular connectivity is increasingly important for IoT solutions and represents a vast and generational shift for mobile operators as the share of devices in market shifts towards the enterprise. We will continue our deep partnership with operators to enable fast and efficient app development and deployment, which is critical to success at the edge. This will help support scenarios such as asset tracking across industries, manufacturing and distribution of smart products, and responsive supply chains. It will also help support scenarios where things are geographically dispersed, such as smart city automation, utility monitoring, and precision agriculture.
Where we go next
Our early engagement with partners such as Telstra and Etisalat helped us shape this path. We joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab as the founding public cloud partner to accelerate enterprise startups and launch new innovations to foster new 5G use cases with even greater access to leading-edge networks. The Lab will create long-term, sustainable developer and commercial ecosystems that will accelerate the delivery of exciting new capabilities at the edge, including pervasive IoT intelligence and immersive mixed reality. And this is just the beginning. I invite you to learn more about our solutions and watch the series of videos we have curated for you.
Dish Network has chosen Nokia for its 5G core network software as the satellite company rolls out its wireless network.
Dish Network has been working to expand beyond its core satellite business to become a major wireless carrier. The company received a major boost due to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. In order to assuage concerns from regulators, T-Mobile agreed to sell spectrum to Dish Network, and provide the company with several years of access to T-Mobile’s network. The goal was to create a fourth major carrier, essentially replacing the ailing Sprint post-merger.
It appears Dish is moving full-steam-ahead in its efforts to roll out its network, and has tapped Nokia to provide the software for its standalone 5G network. The software will handle device management, subscriber data management, integration services, packet core, voice and core. Nokia’s software will also provide standalone 4G and 5G, as well as voice over WiFi access.
“This is an important step in bringing to life DISH’s plans to deliver the first open, agile, virtualized 5G network in the U.S.,” said Marc Rouanne, DISH Chief Network Officer. “Nokia’s new release is cloud-native, standalone and ready for full automation, providing DISH the software capabilities required to deliver thousands of network slices with low latency and SLA on demand.”
“The benefits of Nokia’s industry-leading, cloud-native standalone 5G Core products built on our proven Common Software Foundation — near-zero-touch automation capabilities, high-level operational efficiencies, scale and performance – continue to set us apart from the competition,” said Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software and Nokia Chief Digital Officer. “DISH has great ambition and we are both excited and laser-focused on helping them deliver on that.”
Verizon has announced that it is buying TracFone, the country’s largest prepaid wireless reseller, for $7 billion in cash and stock. Over 13 million TracFone subscribers currently use the Verizon cell network via a reseller deal. The acquisition expands Verizon’s offerings in the low-priced market segment, enabling it to upsell its premium products and services to a new set of customers. Verizon says that the “portfolio of Tracfone brands creates a platform for growth and innovation in Verizon’s support of the value and low-income segments. “
Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg tweeted: “We are excited about the opportunity to bring Tracfone and its brands into the Verizon family where we can put the full support of Verizon behind this business and provide exciting and compelling products into this attractive segment of the market.” Tracfone is the largest reseller of wireless services in the US, serving 21 million subscribers through a network of over 90,000 retail locations nationwide.
“This transaction is aligned with what we do best: providing reliable wireless service alongside a best-in-class customer experience,” said Vestberg. “We are excited about the opportunity to bring Tracfone and its brands into the Verizon family where we can put the full support of Verizon behind this business and provide exciting and compelling products into this attractive segment of the market. We are pursuing this important strategic acquisition from a position of strength given our very strong and prudent financial profile.”
Ronan Dunne, Executive Vice President and Group CEO, Verizon Consumer Group added: “Since its launch, Tracfone has developed strong consumer brands and has established itself as a clear leader in the value mobile segment. This transaction firmly establishes Verizon, through the Tracfone brands, as the provider of choice in the value segment, which complements our clear leadership in the premium segment.”
“We’re looking forward to welcoming all of Tracfone’s customers and each of Tracfone’s nearly 850 valuable employees. We are excited to expand our relationship with Tracfone’s distribution partners, and when Tracfone’s customers become part of our family, they will get the best of both worlds – more choices, better services, and new features thanks to Verizon’s investment–but with the flexibility and control that they have come to value with its prepaid plans. Being connected is now more important than ever, and Tracfone customers will benefit from Verizon’s innovations–both now and in the future,” Dunne added.
Verizon is paying $3.125 billion in cash and $3.125 billion in Verizon common stock. The company will also pay up to an additional $650 million in future cash consideration related to the achievement of certain performance measures.
According to the Wall Street Journal Microsoft is partnering with tech startups as part of its fierce battle to win the cloud war against Amazon, Google, and others. Microsoft just announced today a global strategic alliance with cloud security startup Abnormal Security. The deal is straight forward. The fast-growing startup moves its platform to Azure and Microsoft will offer Abnormal Security to its huge list of enterprise customers. Amazon has been employing this tactic as well per WSJ.
In the latest deal with Abnormal Security, Azure customers can purchase Abnormal Security directly via Microsoft co-sell and through the Azure Marketplace. Microsoft says that all purchases count towards enterprise Azure commitments.
“Microsoft for Startups is committed to helping B2B startups use the Microsoft platform to scale their business quickly and deliver innovative AI-powered solutions to enterprise customers,” said Jeffrey Ma, VP Microsoft for Startups. “Abnormal has hit the ground running, seeing success with Fortune 1000 companies in a short time, and we’re looking forward to joining forces to further accelerate their security solution to our global customers.”
Evan Reiser, Co-founder and CEO at Abnormal Security said, “When considering the right cloud infrastructure, startups need to look at both the technology platform and the business opportunity. As a cybersecurity company, we were very intrigued with Azure’s inherent security, privacy and AI offerings and as a startup, Microsoft’s go-to-market support and access to the largest enterprises is unmatched. We decided that to be a high-growth company selling to the Fortune 1000, it made business sense to partner with Microsoft and move our business to Azure.”
“Abnormal’s unparalleled market traction is a testament to incredible value being delivered to their customers and the ability to protect organizations from these cyberattacks that have cost them over $2b. I couldn’t be any more excited to see the accelerated growth with Microsoft co-selling the solution,” said Saam Motamedi, General Partner at Greylock Partners.
It’s definitely a win-win for Microsoft and startups like Abnormal Security. Microsoft gets a fast growing startup exclusively on its platform and Abnormal Security gets access to Microsoft’s massive connections with enterprise companies.
