News

This year’s Connected America event has kicked off in Texas

The second annual Connected America event is underway at the Irving Convention Center in Texas, bringing together leaders from the telecommunications field and public-sector leaders, along with non-profits, suppliers, providers, and manufacturing leaders.

Jose Ortero, the vice president of 5G Americas, began the event with a keynote speech and reminded attendees that the country is “less than five (or) six years away from 6G.”

“One of our main commitments as an industry is to explain to the government the need that we have (with) spectrum,” Ortero said, and added that the United States needs to do more when it comes to providing mid-band spectrum.

Ortero was then joined by a panel to discuss the American mobile landscape. The panel included Karmen Rajamani, the vice president of government affairs at the Wireless Infrastructure Association, Amanda Toman, the director of the innovation fund at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Yigal Elbaz, a senior vice president and network CTO at AT&T.

During the panel, Toman laid out a roadmap to the remaining $1.3 billion that her agency is set to award to advance broadband builds across the United States.

“We’re going to have additional opportunities, two additional opportunities this calendar year, for industry to submit for funding opportunities to enhance the supply chain,” she said, and added that one funding chance would be focused on specific hardware, and the other would focus on software that can increase efficiencies.

“We hope that we get a lot of interest from industry players,” she said.

Connected America, an event that’s part of the Total Telecom portfolio, will continue until Wednesdays, March 13, when the event concludes after dozens of panel discussions that will focus on topics like middle-mile fiber builds, tribal connectivity, sustainability, what comes next after the potential lapse of the Affordable Connectivity Program, along with much more.

The event expects to bring together thousands of attendees, scores of exhibitors, and hundreds of organizations.

Those not at the event can track news and updates about Connected America by following the hashtag #ConnectedAmerica.

This article was originally published by Brad Randall (brad.randall@totaltele.com) on Total Telecom’s sister website, Broadband Communities.

Keep up with all the action on social media with #ConnectedAmerica

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Press Release

Stockport, UK, March 12, 2024 – CDW, a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education, and healthcare customers, has joined forces with Stockport NHS Health Foundation Trust to better enable staff and improve patient care with innovation and digital capabilities. The collaboration is part of an 18-month digital transformation programme, and includes introducing cutting-edge solutions at Stepping Hill Hospital, the main acute hospital in the Stockport area.

The digital transformation, facilitated by CDW, includes the implementation of a new Cisco wireless network infrastructure, digital informatics supporting agile working, Kontakt.io Real-Time Location Services (RTLS) for medical device management integrated with Imprivata Enterprise Access Management (formerly OneSign) and VDI infrastructure for fast and easy access to clinical workspaces. Additionally, the partnership incorporates a Zebra electronic blood tracking system which enhances traceability and reduces potential errors, thereby improving patient care.

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust runs Stepping Hill hospital; the first acute hospital in the UK to implement the Kontakt.io Real-Time Location Services solution. Setting a precedent for innovation within NHS trusts, Stockport is paving the way for other trusts to integrate new technologies that can vastly transform and enable improved patient outcomes.

With circa 6,300 staff, Stepping Hill serves 300,000 patients annually. Like many hospitals, it had been heavily reliant on manual processes. The hospital had a clear need to modernise and introduce technology to enhance patient care and flow. Holly Carr, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Clinical Safety Officer said: “We knew we needed to be smarter to maximise and optimise our existing resources. The new technology makes sharing devices and information more seamless and has enabled us to provide the infrastructure and digital capability to support a more agile working environment and more mobile workforce across multiple care settings.” 
 
The trust turned to CDW as its technology partner due to its longstanding experience and wealth of knowledge in the healthcare sector and because CDW provided consistent value and consultancy throughout the programme. The transformation will serve as a model for other NHS trusts seeking to implement technology to improve overall performance.

According to Phillipa Winter, Chief Technologist for Health and Social Care at CDW: “The forward-thinking vision that Stockport NHS Foundation Trust harboured for integrating technology sparked genuine excitement at CDW. It stands as a remarkable example of harnessing technology not to substitute human efforts but to elevate and amplify their impact on day-to-day tasks. This transformative approach not only empowers clinicians to extend their reach to more patients but also affords them the precious opportunity to invest additional, high-quality time in patient interactions, fostering a future where healthcare is not just efficient but deeply human-centred.” 

Key solutions implemented include:

New Cisco Wireless Network Infrastructure and Digital Informatics:  
               Supports agile working for clinicians to ensure seamless access to data across all clinical areas.
Kontakt.io Real-Time Location Services (RTLS) 
               Equips hospitals with Real-Time Location Services to improve medical device and asset management identifying asset location on-site helping ensure greater efficiency and faster response times.
Imprivata Enterprise Access Management (formerly OneSign)
               Enables quick and secure logins for clinicians wherever they are, facilitating seamless workflows. Reducing login time from three to four minutes down to a matter of seconds.
Zebra Mobile Devices to Support a Blood Traceability System  
               Provides end-to-end traceability of blood products with handheld digital scanners. This improves efficiency and reduces potential errors.

About CDW 

CDW Corporation (Nasdaq: CDW) is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs approximately 15,000 coworkers. For the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2023, CDW generated Net sales of approximately $22 billion. For more information about CDW, please visit www.CDW.com.

News

Just days after AI was the hottest topic at this year’s MWC Barcelona, the company are firmly standing by human-based customer services

Spusu, an Austrian-based mobile operator with operations in the UK, has confirmed that it will continue to offer human customer service offerings, instead of replacing it with AI services. The company have pledged to only “using human customer service agents”.  

“To our current and future customers, we want to reaffirm that all enquiries are responded to and managed by Spusu’s dedicated customer service team using your preferred contact channel,” said Christian Banhans, UK MD of Spusu. “Our customer feedback shows that our current methods of communication and response are appreciated and well received. We don’t need to fix something that’s not broken,” he continued. 

Spusu, who were launched in Austria in 2015, have a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s UK network. The partnership was first announced in June last year, and allowed Spusu to launch their services into the UK market. 

“We’re proud to put accessibility and simplicity at the heart of everything we do and are thrilled to bring our friendly approach to business to the UK,” said Christian Banhans, director of Spusu UK. “Customers will now have access to our cost-effective plans and award-winning customer service, as well as access to the UK’s best mobile network in EE,” he continued. 

The news comes as it was announced last week that Vodafone became the first operator in the UK to launch a large language model (LLM) chatbot, introducing the novel technology for its VOXI customers. The chatbot was developed in partnership with Accenture UK, and will be used to create a more enhanced customer service experience, says Vodafone.  

“VOXI is using generative AI to fundamentally reinvent its business. The customer experience is only the start of how this technology can be adopted at scale across the organisation,” said Accenture UK’s Generative AI Lead, Mark Farbrace. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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News

A report from Bloomberg has revealed that French prosecutors have launched their own preliminary investigations into persons linked to Altice, in parallel to separate investigations by Portuguese authorities

Last year saw a three-year corruption investigation by Portuguese authorities drew to a close, resulting in the detention of Altice co-founder Armando Pereira and two other individuals linked to the company.

While these investigations into corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering were primarily focussed on individuals and not Altice itself, the company nonetheless moved quickly to minimise to distance itself from the probe, with co-chief executive officer Alexandre Fonseca suspending himself in July.

Fonseca was ultimately placed under house arrest in October, leading to him formally exiting Altice in January this year.

Now, however, it seems that these corruption allegations are spreading, with reports suggesting that France’s Parquet National Financier had quietly launched its own probes into these issues back in September.

According to anonymous sources speaking to Bloomberg, the investigation is exploring cases of corruption of individuals who don’t hold public office, money laundering, and attempts to conceal related offenses.

The investigation comes a turbulent time for Altice, which is currently in the midst of a strategic reset that includes the sale of various business units in an attempt to shrink the company’s $60 billion in debt.

Most recently, reports suggest that Saudi Arabian telco group STC has emerged as a leading bidder for Altice Portugal, a unit that Altice’s owner, billionaire Patrick Drahi, had previously hoped to sell for roughly €10 billion.

While the exact sum offered by STC has yet to be revealed, reports suggest it is unlikely to come close to Drahi’s expectations.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter 

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