#Complicated Telecom

[costreductionfirm]

10 New Complicated Telecom Plans Solved: Understanding the Connection between Complicated Telecom Plans and High Telecom Expenses | Business Cost

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Richard R John’s “Network Nation”

THIS SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

The telegraph and the telephone have a special place in the history and future of competition and Big Tech. After all, they were the original tech monopolists. Every discussion of tech and monopoly takes place in their shadow.

Back in 2010, Tim Wu published The Master Switch, his bestselling, wildly influential history of "The Bell System" and the struggle to de-monopolize America from its first telecoms barons:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/11/01/the-master-switch-tim-net-neutrality-wu-explains-whats-at-stake-in-the-battle-for-net-freedom/

Wu is a brilliant writer and theoretician. Best known for coining the term "Net Neutrality," Wu went on to serve in both the Obama and Biden administrations as a tech trustbuster. He accomplished much in those years. Most notably, Wu wrote the 2021 executive order on competition, laying out a 72-point program for using existing powers vested in the administrative agencies to break up corporate power and get the monopolist's boot off Americans' necks:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

The Competition EO is basically a checklist, and Biden's agency heads have been racing down it, ticking off box after box on or ahead of schedule, making meaningful technical changes in how companies are allowed to operate, each one designed to make material improvements to the lives of Americans.

A decade and a half after its initial publication, Wu's Master Switch is still considered a canonical account of how the phone monopoly was built – and dismantled.

But somewhat lost in the shadow of The Master Switch is another book, written by the accomplished telecoms historian Richard R John: "Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications," published a year after The Master Switch:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674088139

Network Nation flew under my radar until earlier this year, when I found myself speaking at an antitrust conference where both John and Wu were also on the bill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VNivXjrU3A

During John's panel – "Case Studies: AT&T & IBM" – he took a good-natured dig at Wu's book, claiming that Wu, not being an historian, had been taken in by AT&T's own self-serving lies about its history. Wu – also on the panel – didn't dispute it, either. That was enough to prick my interest. I ordered a copy of Network Nation and put it on my suitcase during my vacation earlier this month.

Network Nation is an extremely important, brilliantly researched, deep history of America's love/hate affair with not just the telephone, but also the telegraph. It is unmistakably as history book, one that aims at a definitive takedown of various neat stories about the history of American telecommunications. As Wu writes in his New Republic review of John's book:

Generally he describes the failure of competition not so much as a failure of a theory, but rather as the more concrete failure of the men running the competitors, many of whom turned out to be incompetent or unlucky. His story is more like a blow-by-blow account of why Germany lost World War II than a grand theory of why democracy is better than fascism.

https://newrepublic.com/article/88640/review-network-nation-richard-john-tim-wu

In other words, John thinks that the monopolies that emerged in the telegraph and then the telephone weren't down to grand forces that made them inevitable, but rather, to the errors made by regulators and the successful gambits of the telecoms barons. At many junctures, things could have gone another way.

So this is a very complicated story, one that uses a series of contrasts to make the point that history is contingent and owes much to a mix of random chance and the actions of flawed human beings, and not merely great economic or historical laws. For example, John contrasts the telegraph with the telephone, posing them against one another as a kind of natural experiment in different business strategies and regulatory responses.

The telegraph's early promoters, including Samuel Morse (as in "Morse code") believed that the natural way to roll out telegraph was via selling the patents to the federal government and having an agency like the post office operate it. There was a widespread view that the post office as a paragon of excellent technical management and a necessity for knitting together the large American nation. Moreover, everyone could see that when the post office partnered with private sector tech companies (like the railroads that became essential to the postal system), the private sector inevitably figured out how to gouge the American public, leading regulators to ever-more extreme measures to rein in the ripoffs.

The telegraph skated close to federalization on several occasions, but kept getting snatched back from the brink, ending up instead as a privately operated system that primarily served deep-pocketed business customers. This meant that telegraph companies were forever jostling to get the right to string wires along railroad tracks and public roads, creating a "political economy" that tried to balance out highway regulators and rail barons (or play them off against each other).

But the leaders of the telegraph companies were largely uninterested in "popularizing" the telegraph – that is, figuring out how ordinary people could use telegraphs in place of the hand-written letters that were the dominant form of long-distance communications at the time. By turning their backs on "popularization," telegraph companies largely freed themselves from municipal oversight, because they didn't need to get permission to string wires into every home in every major city.

When the telephone emerged, its inventors and investors initially conceived of it as a tool for business as well. But while the telegraph had ushered in a boom in instantaneous, long-distance communications (for example, by joining ports and distant cities where financiers bought and sold the ports' cargo), the telephone proved far more popular as a way of linking businesses within a city limits. Brokers and financiers and businesses that were only a few blocks from one another found the telephone to be vastly superior to the system of dispatching young boys to race around urban downtowns with slips bearing messages.

So from the start, the phone was much more bound up in city politics, and that only deepened with popularization, as phones worked their ways into the homes of affluent families and local merchants like druggists, who offered free phone calls to customers as a way of bringing trade through the door. That created a great number of local phone carriers, who had to fend off Bell's federally enforced patents and aldermen and city councilors who solicited bribes and favors.

To make things even more complex, municipal phone companies had to fight with other sectors that wanted to fill the skies over urban streets with their own wires: streetcar lines and electrical lines. The unregulated, breakneck race to install overhead wires led to an epidemic of electrocutions and fires, and also degraded service, with rival wires interfering with phone calls.

City politicians eventually demanded that lines be buried, creating another source of woe for telephone operators, who had to contend with private or quasi-private operators who acquired a monopoly over the "subways" – tunnels where all these wires eventually ended up.

The telegraph system and the telephone system were very different, but both tended to monopoly, often from opposite directions. Regulations that created some competition in telegraphs extinguished competition when applied to telephones. For example, Canada federalized the regulation of telephones, with the perverse effect that everyday telephone users in cities like Toronto had much less chance of influencing telephone service than Chicagoans, whose phone carrier had to keep local politicians happy.

Nominally, the Canadian Members of Parliament who oversaw Toronto's phone network were big leaguers who understood prudent regulation and were insulated from the daily corruption of municipal politics. And Chicago's aldermen were pretty goddamned corrupt. But Bell starved Toronto of phone network upgrades for years, while Chicago's gladhanding political bosses forced Chicago's phone company to build and build, until Chicago had more phone lines than all of France. Canadian MPs might have been more remote from rough-and-tumble politics, but that made them much less responsive to a random Torontonian's bitter complaint about their inability to get a phone installed.

As the Toronto/Chicago story illustrates, the fact that there were so many different approaches to phone service tried in the US and Canada gives John more opportunities to contrast different business-strategies and regulations. Again, we see how there was never one rule that governments could have used if they wanted to ensure that telecoms were well-run, widely accessible, and reasonably priced. Instead, it was always "horses for courses" – different rules to counter different circumstances and gambits from telecoms operators.

As John traces through the decades during which the telegraph and telephone were established in America, he draws heavily on primary sources to trace the ebb and flow of public and elite sentiment towards public ownership, regulation, and trustbusting. In John's hands, we see some of the most spectacular failures as more than a mismatch of regulatory strategy to corporate gambit – but rather as a mismatch of political will and corporate gambit. If a company's power would be best reined in by public ownership, but the political vogue is for regulation, then lawmakers end up trying to make rules for a company they should simply be buying giving to the post office to buy.

This makes John's history into a history of the Gilded Age and trustbusters. Notorious vulture capitalists like Jay Gould shocked the American conscience by declaring that businesses had no allegiance to the public good, and were put on this Earth to make as much money as possible no matter what the consequences. Gould repeated "raided" Western Union, acquiring shares and forcing the company to buy him out at a premium to end his harassment of the board and the company's managers.

By the time the feds were ready to buy out Western Union, Gould was a massive shareholder, meaning that any buyout of the telegraph would make Gould infinitely wealthier, at public expense, in a move that would have been electoral poison for the lawmakers who presided over it. In this highly contingent way, Western Union lived on as a private company.

Americans – including prominent businesspeople who would be considered "conservatives" by today's standards, were deeply divided on the question of monopoly. The big, successful networks of national telegraph lines and urban telephone lines were marvels, and it was easy to see how they benefited from coordinated management. Monopolists and their apologists weaponized this public excitement about telecoms to defend their monopolies, insisting that their achievement owed its existence to the absence of "wasteful competition."

The economics of monopoly were still nascent. Ideas like "network effects" (where the value of a service increases as it adds users) were still controversial, and the bottlenecks posed by telephone switching and human operators meant that the cost of adding new subscribers sometimes went up as the networks grew, in a weird diseconomy of scale.

Patent rights were controversial, especially patents related to natural phenomena like magnetism and electricity, which were viewed as "natural forces" and not "inventions." Business leaders and rabble-rousers alike decried patents as a federal grant of privilege, leading to monopoly and its ills.

Telecoms monopolists – telephone and telegraph alike – had different ways to address this sentiment at different times (for example, the Bell System's much-vaunted commitment to "universal service" was part of a campaign to normalize the idea of federally protected, privately owned monopolies).

Most striking about this book were the parallels to contemporary fights over Big Tech trustbusting, in our new Gilded Age. Many of the apologies offered for Western Union or AT&T's monopoly could have been uttered by the Renfields who carry water for Facebook, Apple and Google. John's book is a powerful and engrossing reminder that variations on these fights have occurred in the not-so-distant past, and that there's much we can learn from them.

Wu isn't wrong to say that John is engaging with a lot of minutae, and that this makes Network Nation a far less breezy read than Master Switch. I get the impression that John is writing first for other historians, and writers of popular history like Wu, in a bid to create the definitive record of all the complexity that is elided when we create tidy narratives of telecoms monopolies, and tech monopolies in general. Bringing Network Nation on my vacation as a beach-read wasn't the best choice – it demands a lot of serious attention. But it amply rewards that attention, too, and makes an indelible mark on the reader.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/18/the-bell-system/#were-the-phone-company-we-dont-have-to-care

[mariacallous]

Every year has its own mix of digital security debacles, from the absurd to the sinister, but 2024 was particularly marked by hacking sprees in which cybercriminals and state-backed espionage groups repeatedly exploited the same weakness or type of target to fuel their frenzy. For attackers, the approach is ruthlessly efficient, but for compromised institutions—and the individuals they serve—the malicious rampages had very real consequences for people's privacy, safety, and security.

As political turmoil and social unrest intensify around the world, 2025 will be a complicated—and potentially explosive—year in cyberspace. But first, here's WIRED's look back on this year's worst breaches, leaks, state-sponsored hacking campaigns, ransomware attacks, and digital extortion cases. Stay alert, and stay safe out there.

China's Salt Typhoon Telecom Breaches

Espionage operations are a fact of life, and relentless Chinese campaigns have been a constant in cyberspace for years now. But the China-linked espionage group Salt Typhoon carried out a particularly noteworthy operation this year, infiltrating a slew of US telecoms including Verizon and AT&T (plus others around the world) for months. And US officials told reporters earlier this month that many victim companies are still actively attempting to remove the hackers from their networks.

The attackers surveilled a small group of people—less than 150 by current count—but they include individuals who were already subject to US wiretap orders as well as state department officials and members of both the Trump and Harris presidential campaigns. Additionally, texts and calls from other people who interacted with the Salt Typhoon targets were inherently also caught up in the espionage scheme.

Snowflake Customer Breaches

Throughout the summer, attackers were on a tear, breaching prominent companies and organizations that were all customers of the cloud data storage company Snowflake. The spree barely qualifies as hacking, since cybercriminals were simply using stolen passwords to log in to Snowflake accounts that didn't have two-factor authentication turned on. The end result, though, was an extraordinary amount of data stolen from victims including Ticketmaster, Santander Bank, and Neiman Marcus. Another prominent victim, the telecom giant AT&T, said in July that “nearly all” records relating to its customers' calls and texts from a seven-month stretch in 2022 were stolen in a Snowflake-related intrusion. The security firm Mandiant, which is owned by Google, said in June that the rampage impacted roughly 165 victims.

In July, Snowflake added a feature so account administrators could make two-factor authentication mandatory for all of their users. In November, suspect Alexander “Connor” Moucka was arrested by Canadian law enforcement for allegedly leading the hacking spree. He was indicted by the US Department of Justice for the Snowflake tear and faces extradition to the US. John Erin Binns, who was arrested in Turkey for an indictment related to a 2021 breach of the telecom T-Mobile, was also indicted on charges related to the Snowflake customer breaches.

Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack

At the end of February, the medical billing and insurance processing company Change Healthcare was hit with a ransomware attack that caused disruptions at hospitals, doctor's offices, pharmacies, and other health care facilities around the US. The attack is one of the all-time largest breaches of medical data, impacting more than 100 million people. The company, which is owned by UnitedHealth, is a dominant medical billing processor in the US. It said days after the attack started that it believed ALPHV/BlackCat, a notorious Russian-speaking ransomware gang, was behind the assault.

Personal data stolen in the attack included patient phone numbers, addresses, banking and other financial information, and health records including diagnoses, prescriptions, and treatment details. The company paid a $22 million ransom to ALPHV/BlackCat at the beginning of March in an attempt to contain the situation. The payment seemingly emboldened attackers to hit health care targets at an even greater rate than usual. With ongoing, rolling notifications to more than 100 million victims—with more still being discovered—lawsuits and other blowback has been mounting. This month, for example, the state of Nebraska sued Change Healthcare, alleging that “failures to implement basic security protections” made the attack much worse than it should have been.

Russia's Midnight Blizzard Hit Microsoft

Microsoft said in January that it had been breached by Russia's “Midnight Blizzard” hackers in an incident that compromised company executives' email accounts. The group is tied to the Kremlin's SVR foreign intelligence agency and is specifically linked to SVR's APT 29, also known as Cozy Bear. After an initial intrusion in November 2023, the attackers targeted and compromised historic Microsoft system test accounts that then allowed them to access what the company said were “a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions.” From there, the group exfiltrated “some emails and attached documents.” Microsoft said that the attackers seemed to be looking for information about what the company knew about them—in other words, Midnight Blizzard doing reconnaissance on Microsoft's research into the group. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) also said in January that it had suffered a corporate email breach attributed to Midnight Blizzard.

National Public Data

The background check company National Public Data suffered a breach in December 2023, and data from the incident started showing up for sale on cybercriminal forums in April 2024. Different configurations of the data cropped up again and again over the summer, culminating in public confirmation of the breach by the company in August. The stolen data included names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and dates of birth. Since National Public Data didn't confirm the breach until August, speculation about the situation grew for months and included theories that the data included tens or even hundreds of millions of Social Security numbers. Though the breach was significant, the true number of impacted individuals seems to be, mercifully, much lower. The company reported in a filing to officials in Maine that the breach affected 1.3 million people. In October, National Public Data's parent company, Jerico Pictures, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the Southern District of Florida, citing state and federal investigations into the breach as well as a number of lawsuits that the company is facing over the incident.

Honorable Mention: North Korean Cryptocurrency Theft

A lot of people steal a lot of cryptocurrency every year, including North Korean cybercriminals who have a mandate to help fund the hermit kingdom. A report from the cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis released this month, though, underscores just how aggressive Pyongyang-backed hackers have become. The researchers found that in 2023, hackers affiliated with North Korea stole more than $660 million across 20 attacks. This year, they stole roughly $1.34 billion across 47 incidents. The 2024 figures represent 20 percent of total incidents Chainalysis tracked for the year and a whopping 61 percent of the total funds stolen by all actors.

The sheer domination is impressive, but the researchers emphasize the seriousness of the crimes. “US and international officials have assessed that Pyongyang uses the crypto it steals to finance its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles programs, endangering international security,” Chainalysis wrote.

[beardedmrbean]

Finnish media outlets closely followed Tuesday night's US presidential debate, when Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, met face to face for the first time.

Finnish outlets were particularly interested in the candidates' stances on Ukraine — unsurprisingly as Finland is among the world's top military aid donors to the war-torn country.

Ilta-Sanomat reports that Trump was asked whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, but he avoided giving a direct answer.

"I want the war to stop. I want to save lives," Trump said, adding that Europe had not done its share to end the war. "They [The Biden administration] don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are," Trump said.

Tiktok and kids

Some 1.6 million people in Finland use the short video app Tiktok every week, but the Chinese-owned company doesn't want to reveal who moderates the content.

Hufvudstadsbladet talked to Chloe Setter, the platform's European child safety manager on a recent trip to Helsinki. She said the platform is neither intended for nor suitable for children under 13.

HBL noted that this was an interesting admission given that a survey conducted by the telecom operator DNA three years ago showed that as many as one in five children aged 5–12 in Finland regularly use the platform.

"Verifying a user's age sounds very simple, but in reality, it's complicated," Setter told reporters.

According to Setter, the platform has some 30 moderators reviewing Finnish-language content and argued that the company is an industry leader in working to keep children safe.

What TikTok does not want to reveal, according to HBL, is where the Finnish or Swedish-speaking moderators are actually located. This means that outsiders can't know whether these are people who speak the language or if they are simply employees tasked with monitoring user activity in Finland and Sweden.

Hormonal changes

Fuelled by social media, children as young as ten have started using pricey skin products that scientists now say are harmful to growing bodies as these products often contain phthalates, chemicals associated with numerous health harms.

Known as "endocrine disruptors", they are chemicals that interfere with the human hormone system and are found in a wide range of everyday household products.

Helsingin Sanomat reports on an American study indicating that children as young as four are being exposed to phthalates.

"This finding isn't at all surprising, Jorma Torppari, a pediatric endocrinologist, told HS.

The widespread use of skincare products among pre-teens has become a growing trend on Tiktok. On that front, Torppari said it would be wise for kids to exercise caution.

"Early adolescence is a particularly sensitive period when the development of reproductive organs is most vulnerable to potential harm," he said.

No longer testing on animals, cosmetics companies try their products on synthetic skin and cell cultures that don't gauge hormonal impact, according to Torppari.

"The users themselves are the guinea pigs," he said.

[schraubd]

End Spoofing

The Portland JCC, which also houses the local Jewish Day School, was swatted today. Elsewhere, the mom of a friend of mine nearly got victimized by a scam where someone used voice-altering software to impersonate her daughter and beg for money after she was "in a car accident". It's no mystery that these sorts of scams seem to be on the rise, and seem to be increasingly sophisticated. And I doubt I'm giving any hot take when I say that these scammers are absolutely, 100%, the lowest of the low. One common tactic in these thugs' repertoire's is "spoofing" -- basically, impersonating another number when they call you, so it shows up on Caller ID as your doctor or the IRS or a customer support center (or just hides the actual number that the person is calling from).  I don't know whether spoofing was involved in either of the above incidents. But I'm increasingly of the mind that we might need to just ban spoofing outright. I'm aware of the legitimate reasons for spoofing. A business wants a call to register as emanating from their main line, not whatever back office is calling you. Or someone working from home still wants to be identified as calling from their company, not their personal cellphone. I even can understand some cases where spoofing may have anti-fraud properties (it lets me know that the call is coming from someone at Aetna, which I may be disinclined to believe if the phone number is the random area code of wherever the nurse went to high school). But at this stage, I just don't see those real benefits as outweighing the costs. It doesn't seem like the phone companies have any real way to distinguish "bad" spoofing from good. And while I don't actually know the mechanics (so what I say next might be entirely wrong), it seems to me that it would be technologically-easier to simply ban the practice outright -- create no mechanism through which phone calls can "identify" themselves as anything but their unique actual phone number -- than to engage in what seems to be a losing game of whack-a-mole. And sure, I know in my heart that this is probably a lot more complicated than I realize (though I do genuinely believe that it's one of those things where, if there was some serious government regulatory muscle behind it, you'd see the telecom providers hop to it). But one of the joys of aging is that I get to cantankerously grumble about problems and just demand they be fixed, and I'm leaning in.  via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/WqlrTzE

[naturepointstheway]

Youtube's Autocaption tried: Pekes and Pollicles edition, plus some extras

Mountains vs atoms: FIGHT! (Wait…aren't mountains, like everything else, made of atoms and thus particles? Eh, whatever.)

Indeed. A week-long pause is a long time indeed.

Pigs vs Particles: FIGHT! (Despite pigs also being made up of particles.) And somehow loons get involved. It's...complicated, I guess?

DAMN. Dogs (or at least one named Isadora) can drive tanks now?! These cats better up their game (then again, Misto could totally win against a tank with his magical powers. They still have an ace up their sleeves, so to speak.)

Also, I just love Michael's face here XD

And while not related to autocorrect, I just have to add this as a bonus:

Now some more bonus autocaption ones:

LET ALONZO SAY COCK. #letalonzosaycock

"Telecom songs with jellicle cats" is just making me think of hold music, but it's songs from Cats.

We apologise for the delay. Someone will be with you shortly.

Hold music: JELLICLE CATS ARE QUEENS OF THE NIGHT!

Also I'm sure several cats would be highly offended by the implication of being fragile. Especially Misto, who may be small but call him fragile and boy. You'll regret it.

The more thick, soundproof walls between yowling cats and long suffering humans, the better, I guess.

OMG even Jellicle cats are getting polls!

The Jellicle Moon is readying for battle with an electrical bow?

Yeah more likely he'd prefer kittens to pups, being a cat.

[brandliaisonpvtltd]

5 Reasons to Get a TEC Certification in India

As India’s technology sector continues to expand, regulatory compliance has become a vital part of establishing and maintaining a foothold in the market. The Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), operating under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), mandates the TEC certification for telecom and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) equipment sold or used in India. This certification ensures that products comply with safety, security, and performance standards set by the Indian government.

If you’re a manufacturer, importer, or distributor, here are five compelling reasons to prioritize obtaining a TEC certificate registration in India.

1. Regulatory Compliance

Compliance with Indian regulations is essential for any telecom or ICT equipment manufacturer looking to operate legally in India. TEC certification is mandatory for a wide range of products, including routers, modems, base stations, and optical fiber equipment. Products without TEC certification cannot be sold or distributed in the country.

By obtaining a TEC certificate, businesses ensure they meet the Telecommunication Engineering Centre’s standards, avoiding fines, product bans, or legal complications. Compliance not only protects a business’s operations but also fosters a reputation for adhering to the law and delivering reliable products.

2. Ensuring Product Quality and Safety

The TEC certification process includes rigorous testing to assess a product’s compliance with standards for safety, electromagnetic compatibility, and environmental sustainability. Certified products demonstrate higher quality and reliability, offering consumers and businesses peace of mind about their safety and performance.

With increasing scrutiny on product safety and security, a TEC certificate serves as a badge of quality assurance, making your products stand out in the competitive telecom and ICT equipment market.

3. Market Access and Opportunities

India’s rapidly growing telecom and ICT sectors present lucrative opportunities for businesses. However, access to this market is restricted to certified products that meet TEC requirements. Without a TEC certificate, businesses cannot legally operate in India’s booming telecom infrastructure sector.

Certification also enables companies to bid for government and private contracts, expanding their market reach. By ensuring compliance, businesses position themselves as credible players in the Indian market and gain a competitive advantage over non certified products.

4. Building Consumer Trust and Credibility

Consumers and businesses prefer certified products that meet established standards for safety, performance, and reliability. The TEC certification enhances consumer confidence by signaling that a product has undergone stringent evaluation and meets government-mandated criteria.

For manufacturers and distributors, this trust translates into greater sales and a stronger market presence. Certification also strengthens a brand’s reputation, enabling long-term business growth in a competitive industry.

5. Supporting Export Opportunities

While TEC certification primarily applies to products sold in India, it also aligns with international telecom standards in many cases. This alignment helps Indian manufacturers meet regulatory requirements in other countries, simplifying the process of expanding into global markets.

By achieving TEC compliance, businesses demonstrate their commitment to quality and regulatory adherence, making their products more appealing to international buyers and partners.

Conclusion

The TEC certification is a critical requirement for telecom and ICT equipment in India, offering numerous benefits beyond regulatory compliance. It ensures product quality, enhances market access, builds consumer trust, and opens doors to global opportunities.

For businesses aiming to establish a credible presence in India’s telecom sector, obtaining a TEC certificate is not just a regulatory obligation—it’s a strategic advantage. Prioritizing compliance allows businesses to thrive in a competitive and regulated market, driving long-term success.

Navigating the TEC certification process can be complex, involving detailed documentation, product testing, and coordination with regulatory bodies. Professional TEC certification services simplify this process, ensuring accurate and timely compliance.

Such services, often offered by experienced TEC consultants like Brand Liaison, assist with:

Preparing and submitting documentation.

Coordinating product testing at TEC-authorized labs.

Addressing queries from TEC and ensuring adherence to updated regulations.

Reach out to us and kickstart your TEC certification journey today! Stay compliant, and be market-ready!

[rcpanel-blog]

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[truebylsolutions]

Top Challenges in Telecom Tower Asset Tracking and How Modern Solutions Address Them

In this article, we explore the top challenges in telecom tower asset tracking and the modern solutions that are transforming the way TowerCos manage their assets.

Top Challenges in Telecom Tower Asset Tracking

1. Lack of Real-Time Visibility

Telecom towers often span geographically dispersed locations, making it difficult to track assets in real-time. This lack of visibility can result in delays in maintenance, resource mismanagement, and operational inefficiencies.

2. Asset Mismanagement and Loss

The inability to accurately track assets like generators, batteries, and antennas can lead to equipment misplacement, theft, or underutilization. This increases operational costs and hampers service delivery.

3. Manual Tracking Systems

Many TowerCos still rely on manual processes or outdated systems for asset tracking. These approaches are prone to errors, inefficiencies, and a lack of centralized data, making it challenging to maintain accurate records.

4. Inconsistent Data and Reporting

Inconsistent data from different sources complicates decision-making. This issue arises when TowerCos use fragmented systems or lack standardized procedures for data collection and reporting.

5. Maintenance and Lifecycle Management

Tracking the lifecycle of tower equipment is critical for scheduling preventive maintenance and avoiding unexpected downtime. Without proper asset tracking, TowerCos face challenges in maintaining equipment health and optimizing its lifecycle.

6. Scalability Concerns

As the number of telecom sites grows, tracking assets manually or using siloed systems becomes unmanageable. Scaling asset tracking solutions to match operational growth is a significant challenge.

7. Compliance and Audits

Regulatory compliance requires TowerCos to maintain precise and up-to-date asset records. Inefficient tracking systems can lead to non-compliance and penalties during audits.

How Modern Solutions Address These Challenges

1. IoT-Enabled Asset Tracking

Modern IoT-enabled sensors and GPS trackers provide real-time data on asset location, usage, and condition. This technology ensures transparency and allows TowerCos to monitor assets remotely across dispersed locations.

2. Centralized Asset Management Platforms

Integrated platforms consolidate data from all sites into a unified system, offering a 360-degree view of all assets. This eliminates data silos and ensures consistent reporting and decision-making.

3. Automation and AI Integration

Automation reduces manual intervention and improves accuracy in asset tracking. AI-driven analytics can predict maintenance needs, optimize asset utilization, and identify patterns that may lead to inefficiencies.

4. Digital Twins

Digital twin technology creates virtual replicas of physical tower sites, enabling real-time monitoring of assets. TowerCos can simulate different scenarios, plan maintenance schedules, and optimize operations more effectively.

5. Mobile Apps for Field Teams

Mobile applications enable on-ground teams to update asset data in real-time, reducing communication gaps and ensuring the accuracy of asset records. These apps also streamline maintenance workflows and improve coordination.

6. Scalable Cloud Solutions

Cloud-based asset tracking systems are highly scalable, allowing TowerCos to manage growing numbers of assets without compromising performance. These solutions also provide remote accessibility and data security.

7. Predictive Maintenance Tools

Modern asset tracking solutions include predictive maintenance features that analyze usage patterns and environmental conditions to predict equipment failures. This reduces downtime and extends asset lifecycles.

Benefits of Modern Asset Tracking Solutions

Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Automated and real-time tracking streamlines workflows and reduces resource wastage.

Improved Asset Utilization: Accurate tracking ensures that assets are optimally deployed, reducing underutilization or over-procurement.

Reduced Operational Costs: Preventive maintenance and loss prevention minimize repair and replacement costs.

Better Decision-Making: Centralized and accurate data enables informed decisions on asset investments and upgrades.

Regulatory Compliance: Transparent and updated records simplify audits and ensure adherence to regulations.

Scalability: Modern solutions adapt to the growing scale and complexity of telecom tower portfolios.

Conclusion

Telecom tower asset tracking has evolved from manual processes to technology-driven solutions that address the challenges of visibility, scalability, and efficiency. By adopting modern technologies like IoT, AI, and cloud-based platforms, TowerCos can streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve asset utilization.

As the telecom industry continues to expand, embracing these advanced solutions will not only ensure operational excellence but also enable TowerCos to stay competitive and prepared for the future.

[industrynewsupdates]

Security Information And Event Management Market: Key Trends and Growth Drivers

The global security information and event management market size is expected to reach USD 11.62 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2023 to 2030, according to the new reports of Grand View Research, Inc. Security information and event management (SIEM) systems enhance threat detection capabilities through the utilization of advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms.

By analyzing vast volumes of security data, these platforms can proactively identify and respond to emerging risks by identifying patterns, anomalies, and correlations. Integrating with threat intelligence feeds and services offers significant advantages for SIEM platforms. By incorporating up-to-date threat intelligence data, SIEM systems can effectively recognize and respond to established attack vectors, emerging threats, and indicators of compromise (IOCs), thereby bolstering their ability to safeguard against potential security breaches.

In today's ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations face a multitude of complex threats, including malware, ransomware, phishing, and insider risks. To effectively combat these challenges, a robust security infrastructure must include a SIEM solution, providing users with real-time threat detection and response capabilities.

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Security Information And Event Management Market

Security Information and Event Management Market Report Highlights

• The software segment accounts for the largest market share of over 65.1% in 2022 and is anticipated to maintain its dominance over the forecast period owing to extensive event correlation, alerting, and process automation capabilities of software solution to enable effective incident response features across organizations

• The cloud segment is expected to observe the highest CAGR of 15.8% during the forecast period. In cloud environments such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), security events can be monitored and analyzed with the help of cloud-based SIEM solutions, thereby enabling organizations to have complete visibility and control over the entirety of their IT infrastructure

• The small & medium enterprises enterprise segment is anticipated to witness an exceptional CAGR of 15.2% during the forecast period. SIEM technology offers SMEs a centralized and economical way to improve their security posture and safeguard their valuable assets and sensitive data, thereby surging the market demand across organizations

• The IT & telecom segment is anticipated to register a considerable CAGR of 16.3% over the forecast period. An ecosystem that combines edge computing, cloud services, on-premise architecture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and other cutting-edge technologies is complicated and diverse. Due to the high risk of cyberattacks in such a setting, Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions must be used by the IT & telecom sector

• North America accounted for the largest market share of over 32.7% in 2022 and is expected to retain its position over the forecast period. Due to the highly developed IT infrastructure in the region, the dangers and complexity of cyberattacks are increasing, which is driving the demand for security information and event management

• Key players in the SIEM market have an extended operating history, a large customer base, and significant competitive strengths. In addition to the inorganic growth strategies, vendors emphasize improving after-sale service offerings to ensure periodic maintenance of installed products

Security Information And Event Management Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global security information and event management (SIEM) market based on solution, deployment, enterprise size, vertical, and region:

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Solution Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2030)

• Software

• Service

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Deployment Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2030)

• Cloud

• On-premise

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Organization Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2030)

• Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

• Large Enterprises

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Vertical Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2030)

• BFSI

• IT and Telecom

• Retail & E-commerce

• Healthcare and Life Sciences

• Manufacturing

• Government & Defense

• Energy & Utilities

• Others

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2018 - 2030)

• North America

o U.S.

o Canada

• Europe

o UK

o Germany

o France

o Italy

o Spain

• Asia Pacific

o China

o India

o Japan

o Australia

o South Korea

• Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

o Argentina

• Middle East and Africa

o UAE

o Saudi Arabia

o South Africa

Order a free sample PDF of the Security Information And Event Management Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

[unhingedwomandiaries]

Christ on a bike, another day in the endless parade of monotony, though this one came with a side of bizarre romance. Spent all day chatting shit with x and x, when in swoops x - you know, the one who won't shut up about his Ferrari like it's a personality trait. Proper fell head over designer heels for x, didn't he? Must've been love at first sound bite since they're both passionate about… whatever it is they're passionate about.

Speaking of passionate, fucking hell - x and the whole family are already planning the wedding china patterns or something. They're lovely people, if you enjoy being smothered to death by niceness and marriage talk. I mean, they're proper loaded - their dads own a telecom company. X could be living the high life, never work another day, probably have gold-plated toilet paper and a mansion in Japan.

But like… German might not be her cup of tea (no shade to the Germans, some of my best bratwursts are German). It's all a bit Jane Austen meets Silicon Valley, isn't it? Poor little rich boy falls for girl, family plans wedding before first date, everyone lives happily ever after in their solid gold house. Except real life's usually more complicated than that, especially when one party won't stop banging on about their car.

And to top off this absolutely riveting day of other people's potential romance, I can't even pick up the sodding cat because of the flea treatment. Brilliant. At least the cat's not itchy anymore, I suppose.

[Note to self: When did my life turn into a weird tech-billionaire romance novel? And why am I not the main character getting offered mansions in Japan?]

[mariacallous]

For more than three weeks, Gaza has faced an almost total internet blackout. The cables, cell towers, and infrastructure needed to keep people online have been damaged or destroyed as Israel launched thousands of missiles in response to Hamas attacking Israel and taking hundreds of hostages on October 7. Then, this evening, amid reports of heavy bombing in Gaza, some of the last remaining connectivity disappeared.

In the days after October 7, people living in Gaza have been unable to communicate with family or friends, leaving them unsure whether loved ones are alive. Finding reliable news about events has become harder. Rescue workers have not been able to connect to mobile networks, hampering recovery efforts. And information flowing out of Gaza, showing the conditions on the ground, has been stymied.

As the Israel Defense Forces said it was expanding its ground operations in Gaza this evening, internet connectivity fell further. Paltel, the main Palestinian communications company, has been able to keep some of its services online during Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attack. However, at around 7:30 pm local time today, internet monitoring firm NetBlocks confirmed a “collapse” in connectivity in the Gaza Strip, mostly impacting remaining Paltel services.

“We regret to announce a complete interruption of all communications and internet services within the Gaza Strip,” Paltel posted in a post on its Facebook page. The company claimed that bombing had “caused the destruction of all remaining international routes.” An identical post was made on the Facebook page of Jawwal, the region’s biggest mobile provider, which is owned by Paltel. Separately, Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization, said on X (formerly Twitter) that it had lost contact with its operation room in Gaza and is “deeply concerned” about its ability to keep caring for people, with landline, cell, and internet connections being inaccessible.

“This is a terrifying development,” Marwa Fatafta, a policy manager focusing on the Middle East and North Africa at the digital rights group Access Now, tells WIRED. “Taking Gaza completely off the grid while launching an unprecedented bombardment campaign only means something atrocious is about to happen.”

A WIRED review of internet analysis data, social media posts, and Palestinian internet and telecom company statements shows how connectivity in the Gaza Strip drastically plummeted after October 7 and how some buildings linked to internet firms have been damaged in attacks. Photos and videos show sites that house various internet and telecom firms have been damaged, while reports from official organizations, including the United Nations, describe the impact of people being offline.

Damaged Lines

Around the world, the internet and telecoms networks that typically give web users access to international video calls, online banking, and endless social media are a complicated, sprawling mix of hardware and software. Networks of networks, combining data centers, servers, switches, and reams of cables, communicate with each other and send data globally. Local internet access is provided by a mix of companies with no clear public documentation of their infrastructure, making it difficult to monitor the overall status of the system as a whole. In Gaza, experts say, internet connectivity is heavily reliant on Israeli infrastructure to connect to the outside world.

Amid Israel’s intense bombing of Gaza, physical systems powering the internet have been destroyed. On October 10, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which oversees emergency responses, said air strikes “targeted several telecommunication installations” and had destroyed two of the three main lines of communications going into Gaza.

Prior to tonight’s blackout, internet connectivity remained but was “extremely slow and limited,” Access Now’s Fatafta says. People she has spoken to from Gaza say it could take a day to upload and send a few photos. “They have to send like 20 messages in order for one to go through,” Fatafta says. “They are desperately—especially for Gazans that live outside—trying to get through to their families.”

“Every time I try to call someone from family or friends, I try to call between seven to 10 times,” says Ramadan Al-Agha, a digital marketer who lives in Khan Yunis, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip. “The call may be cut off two or three times,” he told WIRED in a WhatsApp message before the latest outages. “We cannot access news quickly and clearly.” People in the region have simultaneously faced electricity blackouts, dwindling supplies of fuel used to power generators, and a lack of clean water, food, and medical supplies. “It is a humanitarian disaster,” Al-Agha says.

Connectivity in Gaza started to drop not long after Israel responded to the October 7 Hamas attack. Rene Wilhelm, a senior R&D engineer at the nonprofit internet infrastructure organization Ripe Network Coordination Center, says based on an analysis of internet routing data it collects that 11 Palestinian networks, which may operate both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, began to experience disruption after October 7. Eight of the networks were no longer visible to the global internet as of October 23, Wilhelm says. Ahead of this evening’s blackout, there was around 15 percent of normal connectivity, according to data from Georgia Tech’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis project. That dropped to around 7 percent as reports of the blackout circulated.

One office belonging to Paltel in the Al Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City has been destroyed in the attacks, photos and videos show. Floors have been destroyed and windows blown away in the multistory building, and piles of rubble surround the entrances. (It is unclear what equipment the building housed or how many floors Paltel occupied.) Another internet provider, AlfaNet, is listed as being based in the Al-Watan Tower. The company posted to its Facebook page on October 8 that the tower had been destroyed and its services have stopped, with other online posts also saying the tower has been destroyed.

Multiple Palestinian internet and telecoms firms have said their services have been disrupted during the war, mostly posting to social media. Internet provider Fusion initially said its engineers were trying to repair its infrastructure, although it has since said this is not continuing. “The network was destroyed, and the cables and poles were badly damaged by the bombing,” it wrote on Facebook. JetNet said there had been a “sudden disruption” to access points. SpeedClick posted that the situation was out of its control. And HiNet posted that it has “no more to offer to ensure” people could stay online following “the attacks and destruction our internet servers have suffered.”

Across Paltel’s network on October 19, according to an update shared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 83 percent of fixed line users had been disconnected, with 53 percent of sites providing fixed line connections also being offline. Half of the company’s fiber optic internet lines in Gaza weren’t operational, the update says. The connectivity disappeared this evening, according to Paltel’s Facebook post, which says there has been a “complete interruption” of all its services. Paltel, AlfaNet, Fusion, and SpeedClick could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.

Lost Connections

In recent years, governments and authoritarian regimes have frequently turned to shutting down the internet for millions of people in attempts to suppress protests and curtail free speech. Targeting the communications networks is common during conflicts. During Russia's war in Ukraine, its forces have decimated communications networks, tried to take over the internet, and set up new mobile companies to control information flows. When Hamas first attacked Israel on October 7, it used drones to bomb communications equipment at surveillance posts along the borders of the Gaza Strip.

Monika Gehner, the head of corporate communications at the International Telecommunication Union, says the body is always “alarmed” by damage inflicted on any telecommunications infrastructure during conflicts. The ITU, the United Nations’ primary internet governance body, believes “efficient telecommunication services” are crucial to peace and international cooperation, and its secretary-general has called for respecting infrastructure in the Middle East, Gehner says.

Officials in Israel have consistently claimed they are targeting Hamas militants within Gaza, not civilians, while responding to the Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,400 people in Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry within Gaza has said more than 7,000 people have been killed there and released a list of names. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to WIRED’s questions about internet disruptions within Gaza.

Hanna Kreitem, a senior adviser for internet technology and development in the Middle East and North Africa at the Internet Society, an open internet advocacy nonprofit, says Palestinian firms have a “big reliance” on Israeli internet firms. “Palestinians are not controlling any of the ICT infrastructure,” says Mona Shtaya, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Mobile networks in the Gaza Strip rely on 2G technologies. Al-Agha, the digital marketer, shared a screenshot showing mobile internet speeds of 7.18 kilobytes per second; average mobile speeds in the US in 2022 were 24 megabits per second, according to mobile analytics firm Statista.

“The internet is vital in times of war in crises,” says Fatafta, the Access Now policy manager, who adds that there can be “terrible consequences” linked to connectivity blackouts. The UN’s OCHA said rescue workers have had a harder time “carrying out their mission” partly due to the “limited or no connection to mobile networks.” Al-Agha says he has lost some clients due to the disruptions. The lack of connectivity can obscure events that are happening on the ground, Fatafta says. News crews have told WIRED they have footage from the ground but are “losing the story because of the internet.”

Kreitem says that a lack of electricity and access to the equipment will have made an impact on top of any physical damage to communications networks. “We don't know how many of the people that actually operate these networks are still alive,” Kreitem says. “The network operators are part of the world there, there's no place for them to run. They are as affected as any other person.”

[cdusupplies]

The Challenges in Finding a Reliable Power and Telecom Pipeline Supplier

Finding a reliable power and telecom pipeline supplier who can consistently deliver full orders on schedule is no easy task. In power and telecom pipework projects, timing is crucial. With tight deadlines and specific requirements, these projects are highly sensitive to supplier-related issues, which can lead to significant complications. Identifying the perfect supplier is a complex process, but acknowledging these challenges can help companies make better decisions.

One of the most important factors to consider is a supplier’s capability to provide all the materials needed to fulfil an order. Power and telecom pipework requires specific pipes and fittings that must meet stringent quality and safety regulations to ensure reliability and security. It’s worth noting that not all suppliers can provide these materials, and even those who can may not always have them in stock when required. A supplier’s inability to deliver the precise materials on time can delay project progress and escalate overall costs. Selecting a supplier with a diverse inventory and the capacity to meet the precise requirements of your project is essential.

While some suppliers may initially promise to deliver orders in full and on time, they may fail to uphold these commitments. This issue often arises when a supplier lacks a dependable inventory management system or takes on more orders than they can handle. Such situations create stress for the customer and disrupt project timelines, potentially leading to significant delays and complications. To avoid these issues, it’s vital to thoroughly research a supplier’s track record and verify their reliability before engaging with them.

Communication is another area where challenges frequently occur. A supplier who fails to maintain clear and timely communication can make it difficult to track order progress or resolve issues as they arise. For example, material shortages or other unforeseen problems might prevent a Gas pipework supplier from meeting their delivery commitments. Poor communication in such situations leaves the customer unprepared, exacerbating delays. Reputable suppliers, on the other hand, are transparent about potential issues and will notify you well in advance, allowing you to adjust your schedules accordingly.

Finding a reliable power and telecom pipeline supplier requires careful evaluation of their capabilities, inventory management, and communication practices. Addressing these challenges proactively can minimise disruptions, control costs, and ensure the successful completion of your project.

[celltowereasement]

How Is a Cell Tower Perpetual Easement Valued?

Cell towers are a crucial part of modern infrastructure, and the presence of one on a property can lead to lucrative financial opportunities. However, it becomes crucial to assess the valuation of a cell tower perpetual easement if you are a property owner considering selling your property or leasing land. Here, we walk through the working process of this, which is divided into six sections.

1. What Is a Cell Tower Perpetual Easement?

A cell tower perpetual easement in essence is the process in which the property owner conveys long-term rights to telecom companies to use only a given line of the property for tower. This is a transaction without the periodic payments which occur in leases. The buyer who is entitled to the grants can carry out business or commerce within this area without any restrictions on the parcel of property forever. It is a vital aspect of a valuation that property owners have to consider.

2. Factors Affecting Cell Tower Lease Valuation

The valuation of a cell tower lease or perpetual easement depends on several factors:

Location: Urban areas with high demand for connectivity can command premium prices.

Tower Type: Monopole towers, lattice towers, and rooftop installations may have different valuations.

Market Demand: Areas with limited telecom infrastructure but high population density may see higher offers. Understanding these factors ensures property owners receive fair compensation.

3. Income Potential of the Cell Tower

One of the primary methods to determine value is the income-generating potential of the tower. If the site currently hosts tenants, the annual rental income is analyzed. Easements are often valued as a multiple of this income, typically ranging between 10 to 20 years of rental value.

4. Comparing Selling Property with a Cell Tower

Selling a property with a cell tower can complicate valuation. Buyers might be interested in acquiring the land and the associated income stream. The presence of a tower can increase the property’s value, but it may also limit potential buyers due to zoning restrictions or aesthetic concerns. Working with an experienced broker ensures you understand how the tower impacts your property’s overall worth.

5. Legal and Financial Considerations

Selling a cell tower perpetual easement involves legal documentation that defines terms like access rights, maintenance responsibilities, and revenue sharing (if applicable). Property owners should consult legal and financial experts to ensure they fully understand the implications of the transaction.

6. Choosing the Right Valuation Expert

Engaging a professional specializing in cell tower lease valuation is critical for accurate pricing. These experts analyze market trends, comparable sales, and the tower's specific income potential. An experienced consultant can help you secure the best deal while avoiding undervaluation.

Final Thoughts

Deciding to sell a cell tower perpetual easement or negotiating a lease requires a clear understanding of its value. By considering location, income potential, and market demand, property owners can make informed decisions that maximize their financial returns. Partnering with valuation experts ensures a smooth process, whether you’re leasing, selling, or exploring your property’s options.

[govindhtech]

Vodafone And Google Cloud Unlock Gen AI For Telecom

Vodafone And Google Cloud Explore Telecom Gen AI Potential

Globally, generative AI is changing sectors, and the telecom sector is no exception. Generative AI has the potential to completely change the telecom sector, from individualized customer service and efficient content production to network optimization and increased efficiency.

Leading telecoms company Vodafone is aware of the enormous potential of advanced AI to transform its network engineering, development, and operations. Vodafone is starting an exciting journey to include generative AI into its network operations as part of its expanding, multi-decade cooperation with Google Cloud. The goal is to boost productivity, stimulate innovation, and optimize costs.

This blog post will explore the innovative ways that Google Cloud and Vodafone have used generative AI to increase productivity, creativity, and customer pleasure. They look at practical applications and give an overview of how this game-changing technology will develop inside Vodafone in the future.

The genesis of generative AI in Vodafone’s network

When Vodafone and Google Cloud began talking about the possible uses of gen AI in network use cases in late 2023, the roots of this partnership were planted. In March 2024, Vodafone and Google Cloud launched a hackathon in recognition of the technology’s revolutionary potential, bringing together more than 120 network experts with extensive knowledge of networks and telecoms but little expertise with AI/ML.

Innovation was sparked by this event, which led to the creation of 13 demonstration use cases using a combination of classical machine learning methods, Vertex AI Search & Conversation, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and a code generation model. These comprised:

AI-powered site evaluations: Using pictures, determine whether installing solar panels at RAN locations is feasible right away.

Using natural language searches, Doc Search for Root-Cause-Analysis (RCA) enables staff members to find pertinent material fast.

Natural language to SQL (NL2SQL): Developing intuitive user interfaces to enable colleagues who are not technical to use generative AI for activities such as SQL query generation.

Network optimization is the process of creating AI-driven tools to identify problems with networks, forecast possible outages, and help with setup.

With the help of Vodafone’s industry knowledge and the expanding possibilities of cloud computing, these creative solutions show how easily generative AI can be applied to real-world problems in the telecom sector. When the creative use cases from the Vodafone and Google Cloud hackathon specifically, RCA and NL2SQL were presented together at DTW 2024 in Copenhagen, other telecom companies keen to leverage the potential of generative AI expressed a great deal of interest.

Unveiling the potential: Understanding the network design, deployment and operations workflows

In order to have a thorough grasp of the normal workday in network departments, Vodafone and Google Cloud conducted in-depth interviews with a variety of network stakeholders. Network professionals’ problems and difficulties were clarified by these interviews, which also showed a wide range of areas where gen AI may be very beneficial.

The business case study that followed showed how using modern AI technologies might result in significant time and cost savings.

Vodafone and Google Cloud demonstrated the concrete advantages of gen AI in optimizing workflows, improving decision-making, and boosting efficiency, with over 100 use cases emerging from this network space discovery phase. Vodafone is working with Google Cloud to produce the following prioritized sample of gen AI for network use cases:

Empowering network operations with knowledge at their fingertips

During complicated occurrences, network operations teams frequently struggle to obtain vital information. It can take a lot of effort and impede quick resolution to move away from extensive documentation, incident reports, network topologies, and strategic plans. Vodafone is giving network operators immediate access to the information they require by leveraging Vertex AI Agent Builder‘s capability to extract and synthesize relevant information from these documents. They are able to make well-informed decisions more quickly as a result, which lowers downtime and improves network dependability overall.

Streamlining network engineering with automated documentation

It takes a lot of effort and time to create technical documentation, including network diagrams, high-level designs (HLDs), and low-level designs (LLDs). Multiple engineers and vendors are frequently involved, which might cause delays and irregularities. Vodafone plans to automate the creation of these papers by utilizing Gemini’s multimodal capabilities and artificial intelligence. Although human inspection is still essential, gen AI may offer a strong basis, saving engineers time, speeding up time to market, and enhancing the precision and coherence of technical documentation.

Transforming network development with data-driven insights

Large volumes of contractual data are thrown at network development teams, making analysis and decision-making difficult. Vodafone will using gen AI to examine thousands of contracts, extracting important terms and provide insightful information for the creation of contract templates. Together with ground categorization skills, gen AI can also make it possible to create digital twins of the Vodafone network. This minimizes mistakes and maximizes resource allocation by enabling more precise and efficient design and implementation of new network actions.

Enhancing customer fulfillment with AI-powered field technicians

Field technicians are essential to guaranteeing client pleasure. On-site visits, or truck rolls, are expensive and time-consuming. Vodafone will reduce the need for truck rolls, enable more efficient on-field responses, and prevent repeat dispatch by utilizing gen AI to provide field professionals with real-time information and multimodal troubleshooting help. Vodafone will save a lot of money as a result, and customers will have better experiences.

These applications demonstrate how gen AI has the ability to completely change a number of facets of Vodafone’s network operations. Vodafone’s usage of Gen AI is driving innovation and enabling a more customer-focused, agile, and efficient future.

Vodafone’s big bet: generative AI for the future

Vodafone’s network divisions stand to gain a great deal from the incorporation of Gen AI:

Zero-touch operations and accelerated automation: Gen AI can speed up network job automation, helping Vodafone meet its automation objectives more quickly and effectively.

Cost reduction: Gen AI can drastically cut Vodafone’s operating expenses by automating repetitive processes and streamlining network operations.

Time savings: Network workers may save a significant amount of time by using Gen AI-powered solutions to optimize operations and facilitate quicker decision-making.

Increased effectiveness: Gen AI has the potential to increase Vodafone’s network operations’ overall effectiveness through clever automation and optimization.

Innovation catalyst: Gen AI gives Vodafone the ability to stay ahead of the curve by creating new opportunities for innovation in network management, optimization, and design.

Building on past success: AI Booster and Neuron

Vodafone’s ambitious aim to integrate generative AI into all facets of its company is based on AI Booster and Neuron. Vodafone relies on these programs to research and apply cutting-edge AI.

Vodafone uses AI Booster, a Google Cloud Vertex AI-based machine learning platform, to build AI. Fast and efficient design allows this platform to create and apply AI models quickly. AI Booster’s strong automation and security features enable Vodafone’s data scientists to move from proof-of-concept to production with ease, greatly speeding up the rate of innovation.

Neuron, Vodafone’s specially designed “data ocean” hosted on Google Cloud, is a perfect match for AI Booster. As a central hub, Neuron compiles enormous volumes of data from all throughout the company into a single, easily accessible storehouse. The creation of potent generative AI applications is fueled by this data, which is essential for AI models training and analysis.

Imagine having an AI that can forecast possible problems, evaluate the performance of network components, and even recommend the best settings to avoid downtime. Vodafone is enabling this kind of revolutionary impact by fusing the extensive data resources of Neuron with the model creation capabilities of AI Booster.

Vodafone is able to create and implement innovative AI solutions with speed and efficiency thanks to the collaboration between AI Booster and Neuron. Faster insights, more precise forecasts, and eventually an improved customer experience are the results of this. Vodafone is putting itself at the forefront of the generative AI revolution in the telecom sector by making an investment in this strong foundation.

In conclusion

Vodafone’s work on generative AI marked a turning point in CSPs’ AI-powered future. Vodafone can use current AI to generate remarkable productivity, innovation, and cost savings. Vodafone’s dedication to pushing the limits of technical progress and providing its customers with outstanding network experiences is shown by this strategic cooperation with Google Cloud.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[kpgreenengineering]

The Environmental Impact of Telecom Towers and Sustainable Practices

Telecom towers are an essential part of the telecommunications infrastructure, playing a vital role in providing mobile, internet, and other communication services. In India, telecom tower companies are pivotal to meeting the growing demand for connectivity in both urban and rural areas. However, while these towers help bridge the digital divide, they also present significant environmental challenges. From energy consumption to land use and e-waste management, telecom towers can have a considerable environmental footprint. Fortunately, many Telecom tower companies in India are adopting sustainable practices to mitigate these impacts, transitioning to cleaner energy sources, optimizing resource use, and reducing their carbon footprint. 

In this article, we will explore the environmental challenges posed by telecom tower infrastructure and how companies are addressing them with sustainable and green initiatives. 

1. The Environmental Challenges of Telecom Towers 

Telecom towers are large structures that require significant energy to operate. They house various equipment like antennas, base stations, and amplifiers, all of which need a reliable power source to ensure continuous operation. Let’s break down the environmental challenges that telecom tower companies face: 

A. High Energy Consumption 

One of the biggest environmental impacts of telecom towers is their high energy consumption. Traditional telecom towers rely heavily on grid electricity, which is often sourced from fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, or oil. This leads to substantial carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. In addition to this, many telecom towers are located in remote areas where the electricity grid may not be easily accessible, further complicating energy sourcing. 

B. Land Use and Habitat Disruption 

Building telecom towers, especially in rural and forested areas, can disrupt natural habitats and ecosystems. The land required for tower construction and the infrastructure around it (such as access roads, power lines, and backup generators) can lead to deforestation, soil erosion, and disturbances in local wildlife populations. 

C. E-Waste Generation 

Telecom towers house a variety of electronic equipment, such as power amplifiers, radios, and routers. Over time, this equipment becomes outdated or damaged and needs to be replaced. Improper disposal of these electronics can lead to the generation of e-waste, which contains harmful substances like lead, mercury, and cadmium. If not properly disposed of, this e-waste can leach into the soil and water, posing risks to both human health and the environment. 

D. Noise Pollution 

Telecom towers are equipped with cooling systems for equipment, which can generate noise pollution in the surrounding areas. In densely populated urban areas, this can contribute to unwanted noise levels, affecting the quality of life for local residents. 

2. Sustainable Practices by Telecom Tower Companies in India 

To reduce the environmental impact, telecom tower companies in India are increasingly adopting sustainable practices and integrating renewable energy solutions. Let’s take a look at some of the key ways telecom tower infrastructure is becoming greener: 

A. Transitioning to Renewable Energy Sources 

One of the most impactful steps telecom tower companies are taking to reduce their environmental footprint is the transition to renewable energy sources. Solar and wind power are increasingly being used to power telecom towers, especially in remote and off-grid locations. 

Solar Power: Many telecom tower companies are installing solar panels on tower rooftops to harness solar energy. Solar-powered towers can operate without relying on grid electricity, significantly reducing carbon emissions. These towers are particularly beneficial in areas with abundant sunlight, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. 

Wind Power: Some telecom towers in coastal regions, such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, are equipped with small-scale wind turbines to generate electricity. By combining wind and solar energy, telecom tower companies can ensure that their operations remain sustainable even during periods of low sunlight. 

Hybrid Power Systems: Many top tower companies in India are now implementing hybrid power systems that combine solar and battery storage, reducing their reliance on diesel generators (which are traditionally used as backup power sources). This shift helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as diesel-powered generators are major contributors to air pollution. 

B. Energy-Efficient Equipment 

Telecom tower companies are also focusing on using energy-efficient equipment to lower their overall energy consumption. This includes switching to more efficient LED lighting, low-power consumption antennas, and optimized cooling systems that require less electricity to operate. 

The introduction of intelligent energy management systems has allowed telecom companies to monitor and optimize energy use in real time, ensuring that power consumption is kept to a minimum, and equipment only operates when necessary. 

C. Tower Sharing and Infrastructure Optimization 

One of the innovative ways telecom companies are reducing environmental impact is by sharing infrastructure. Instead of each telecom operator building its own tower, multiple operators can share a single tower, reducing the overall number of towers needed for network coverage. 

This tower-sharing model not only cuts down on the number of structures being built, but it also reduces the amount of energy consumed by each tower. This practice helps save resources and reduces the need for land, decreasing habitat disruption. 

D. Sustainable Materials and Green Building Practices 

Some telecom tower companies are focusing on the sustainability of tower materials. By using recycled materials, such as steel and aluminum, for tower construction, they are reducing the demand for new raw materials and minimizing waste. Additionally, eco-friendly paints and coatings are being used to reduce the impact of chemicals on the surrounding environment. 

Telecom tower companies are also exploring the concept of green building practices for tower sites. For instance, the incorporation of green roofs, rainwater harvesting systems, and energy-efficient buildings for housing telecom equipment is becoming more common. 

E. Managing E-Waste Responsibly 

To address the issue of e-waste, telecom tower companies are adopting circular economy principles. By recycling and refurbishing old equipment, companies can prevent e-waste from ending up in landfills. Telecom companies are also partnering with certified e-waste management firms to ensure that equipment is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. 

F. Minimizing Noise Pollution 

To reduce the impact of noise pollution, telecom tower companies are investing in noise-reducing technologies such as silent diesel generators and soundproofing materials around their equipment. These technologies help to lower the noise output from towers, making them less disruptive to nearby communities. 

3. Future Outlook: The Green Telecom Tower of Tomorrow 

Looking forward, the future of telecom tower infrastructure in India is likely to become even more sustainable. With the Indian government’s increasing focus on sustainability and green energy, telecom tower companies are expected to invest even more in renewable energy, sustainable materials, and environmental innovation. 

In the coming years, we can expect the following: 

Greater integration of 5G infrastructure: As India transitions to 5G, telecom tower companies will need to adopt next-generation technologies that are more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. 

More widespread use of renewable energy: More towers will be powered by solar, wind, or hybrid energy systems. 

Increased focus on reducing e-waste: Telecom companies will continue to improve recycling and disposal practices for old electronic equipment, minimizing their environmental impact. 

Conclusion 

Telecom towers are crucial to the modern communication landscape, but they also pose significant environmental challenges. Telecom tower companies in India are increasingly adopting sustainable practices, such as using renewable energy, sharing infrastructure, and reducing e-waste, to mitigate these impacts. As the demand for connectivity continues to grow, the telecom sector’s commitment to sustainability will be critical in ensuring a green and eco-friendly future for the industry.