Here are the stories we’re chasing today:
> Apple could release four new iPhones this year including a more expensive SE 2. PhoneArena article
> T-Mobile said it and Nokia tested the first 3GPP standards-based, bidirectional data transmission over millimeter wave spectrum. MWL article
> A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of IMSI catchers in Washington, D.C., using SS7. Washington Post article
> Vermont’s VTel has reportedly committed $4 million to buy some Ericsson equipment and services for Wi-Fi calling and 5G. Broadcasting & Cable article
Read more on

News of Note—New iPhones, T-Mobile’s mmWave tests, VTel’s upgrade and more

WiseGuyReports.com “Burundi - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses” report has been added to its Research Database. Scope of the Report:
Given its high population density and the low penetration rates across all telecom sectors, Burundi remains potentially one of the most attractive telecom markets in Africa for investors. Nevertheless, investor reticence is still evident given the country’s low economic output and the fact that outside the main urban areas fixed-line infrastructure remains poor. Compounding these practical difficulties is the continuing political turmoil which can has rendered the investment environment problematic. To overcome difficulties associated with the poor telecom infrastructure the government, supported by the Word Bank, has backed a joint venture with a number of prominent telcos to build a national fibre backbone network, offering onward connectivity to submarine cable infrastructure landings in Kenya and Tanzania. The first sections of this network were switched on in early 2014, and additional provinces have since been connected. In addition, the government in early 2018 kick-started the Burundi Broadband project, which aims to deliver national connectivity by 2025. Based on this improved infrastructure the government and ITU have developed an ICT strategy to make use of telecoms to promote the country’s socio-economic development through to 2028.
International bandwidth increased almost five-fold between 2014 and the end of 2017, resulting in lower retail prices for consumers. There have also been efforts to encourage the country’s ISPs to join the national IXP in a bid to cannel internet traffic locally and thus reduce the cost of providing services to end-users. Two of the mobile operators have launched 3G and LTE services to capitalise on the growing demand for internet access. The number of mobile subscribers grew rapidly for several years, and though this slowed in 2016 there were about 6.2 million subscribers as of early 2019. Mobile penetration, at 52%, remains low by regional standards, suggesting considerable room for further growth. A new player, Viettel Group, which received a licence to provide mobile services in early 2014, launched 2G and 3G services in June 2015 and LTE services in February 2016. It soon became the leading player in the country, with an extensive fibre-backhaul network which it can use to provide fixed-line services. The long-established plans to privatise the national telco Onatel (which also operates one of the mobile networks), have been delayed several times, but the government since 2013 has made efforts to kick-start the process. Key developments:

Burundi Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Industry 2019-2028 Specification, Growth Drivers, Market Analysis and Industry Key Players – Office National des; U-Com; VTEL Holdings; Econet Wireless Burundi; LaCell SU

Vermont and Ericsson to provide Rutland City Public Schools with free internet
Vermont and Ericsson to provide Rutland City Public Schools with free internet
31 March, 2020 at 5:08 PM
Posted by: Anasia D'mello
Arianna Robinson, CTO of VTel
Students affected by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic now have access to free high-speed wireless Internet and Google Chromebooks, thanks in part to collaborative efforts by Rutland City Public Schools, Vermont Telephone Company (VTel) and Ericsson. “As we watched COVID-19 impact other countries, we began to develop a plan to support our students, just in case. We were uneasy because so many of our families are in poverty, with close to 70 % of our students receiving free or reduced lunch. Equity of access would determine our success or failure if schools were to close, and we are committed to providing a world-class education to all of our students,” said Patricia Aigner, director of technology, Rutland City Public Schools. “The biggest hurdle to successful online instruction is the lack of connectivity faced by families across the city. We are fortunate that Vermont Telephone and Ericsson stepped up to provide Internet to so many of our families, and our educational community is excited that we can connect more children to their teachers. This partnership is providing expanded access to our families to ensure students’ continued education and overall welfare.”
In less than ten days, VTel and its sister company VTel Wireless, in collaboration with Ericsson, mobilised quickly to deploy and install next-generation 4G/5G wireless radios and antennas on a building in downtown Rutland. These actions, combined with delivering wireless modems and routers to homes, allowed students to receive free Internet service immediately. “One of our biggest challenges moving to online learning is making sure all our kids had Internet access at home. Many districts are facing this challenge, and we can’t thank Vermont Telephone and Ericsson enough for helping bring Internet to families in Rutland. Through this partnership, we can continue to serve our kids and community,” said Dan Roswell, Network Administrator, Rutland City Public Schools. “Moving to remote learning requires students have access to the Internet, and we know the work Ericsson is doing is critical to many rural communities like Rutland,” said Rob Johnson, head of customer unit regional carriers for Ericsson North America. “We’re proud to partner with the operator community to bring connectivity to rural America and connect the unconnected.”
Dr. Michel Guite, founder of Vermont Telephone Company, said: “We’re all seeing the same grim news, leaving some to feel even hopelessness. But in Vermont we’re trying our best to be optimistic. As an essential business, our 15 trucks are visiting rural Vermont homes on a daily basis to solve problems. We’re delivering free wired and wireless Internet to kids without Internet wherever we can. In Rutland, we took it a step further by implementing an immediate upgrade, using our 5G spectrum, to ensure students of Rutland who may not have access to Internet could receive some of the fastest unlimited wireless Internet in America. We are deeply optimistic that American ingenuity and determination will help alleviate some of the burdens brought forth by this COVID-19 pandemic.”
Arianna Robinson, chief technology officer for VTel and VTel Wireless, said: “We’ve been in a race against time to get fastest wireless Internet out there, to Rutland families in need, and we know we’ll find glitches, but we’re today recording wireless speeds to many Rutland homes well above 100 Mbps, in some cases over 300 Mbps, and with new 5G devices later this year we should be seeing speeds even higher.”
Rutland City Public Schools will be delivering Google Chromebooks to students during breakfast and lunch deliveries currently through school bus routes for efficiency and those lacking in transportation. Students’ Chromebooks will automatically connect to the Internet when it’s turned on. Comment on this article below or via Twitter:  @VanillaPlus  OR  @jcvplus

Vermont and Ericsson to provide Rutland City Public Schools with free internet

WiseGuyReports.com “Burundi- Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses” report hasbeen added to its Research Database. Scope of the Report:
Given its highpopulation density and the low penetration rates across all telecom sectors,Burundi remains potentially one of the most attractive telecom markets inAfrica for investors. Nevertheless, investor reticence is still evident giventhe country’s low economic output and the fact that outside the main urbanareas fixed-line infrastructure remains poor. Compounding these practicaldifficulties is the continuing political turmoil which can has rendered theinvestment environment problematic. To overcomedifficulties associated with the poor telecom infrastructure the government,supported by the Word Bank, has backed a joint venture with a number ofprominent telcos to build a national fibre backbone network, offering onwardconnectivity to submarine cable infrastructure landings in Kenya and Tanzania.The first sections of this network were switched on in early 2014, andadditional provinces have since been connected. In addition, the government inearly 2018 kick-started the Burundi Broadband project, which aims to delivernational connectivity by 2025. Based on this improved infrastructure thegovernment and ITU have developed an ICT strategy to make use of telecoms topromote the country’s socio-economic development through to 2028. Internationalbandwidth increased almost five-fold between 2014 and the end of 2017,resulting in lower retail prices for consumers. There have also been efforts toencourage the country’s ISPs to join the national IXP in a bid to cannelinternet traffic locally and thus reduce the cost of providing services toend-users. Two of the mobileoperators have launched 3G and LTE services to capitalise on the growing demandfor internet access. The number of mobile subscribers grew rapidly for severalyears, and though this slowed in 2016 there were about 6.2 million subscribersas of early 2019. Mobile penetration, at 52%, remains low by regionalstandards, suggesting considerable room for further growth. A new player,Viettel Group, which received a licence to provide mobile services in early2014, launched 2G and 3G services in June 2015 and LTE services in February2016. It soon became the leading player in the country, with an extensivefibre-backhaul network which it can use to provide fixed-line services. The long-establishedplans to privatise the national telco Onatel (which also operates one of themobile networks), have been delayed several times, but the government since2013 has made efforts to kick-start the process. Key developments:

Burundi Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market 2019-2028, Upcoming Trends, Challenges and Industry Key Players – Office National des; U-Com; VTEL Holdings; Econet Wireless Burundi; LaCell SU

News Analysis
Vermont wireless network operator VTel said it is in the process of replacing some Huawei equipment in its network with equipment from Ericsson, a move that comes amid rising concerns among US officials that equipment from Chinese suppliers like Huawei pose a threat to national security. "Our wireless network is built almost entirely with Ericsson, though two of our 60 rural microwave links installed in 2017 are Huawei, which we are in the process of replacing with Ericsson equipment," VTel wrote in a recent filing to the FCC . VTel operates a fiber network throughout parts of the Northeast, and a wireless network covering much of the state of Vermont. Continued the company: "While VTel has no technical insights into the US government's position that equipment from Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese manufacturers pose security threats, VTel understands... that if the US government determines that Huawei and ZTE pose a threat to the security of our nation's communications networks, we have an obligation to support this policy." VTel also wrote of a run-in the company had with fiber provider FirstLight Fiber, which provides fiber links in the Eastern portion of the US. "VTel recently received a request for interconnection from FirstLight Fiber, an operator owned by a French multinational that we understand has extensively deployed Huawei equipment in its network," the operator wrote in its filing to the FCC. "During negotiations of an interconnection agreement, VTel sought to include language mirroring the language in section 889 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019. This language was intended to mitigate the risk that interconnecting could undermine the security of VTel's network and threatened its continued ability to receive universal service support. FirstLight refused to agree to this language and requested arbitration by Vermont Public Utility Commission. However, for reasons only FirstLight can explain, FirstLight subsequently withdrew its request for arbitration, opting not to interconnect with VTel." FirstLight did not immediately respond to questions from Light Reading on the matter. VTel's filing to the FCC focused on the agency's proposal, issued last year , to prevent telecommunications companies that receive government funding from using equipment from providers that pose a security threat. Specifically, the FCC is considering a ruling that would bar companies using Universal Service Fund (USF) money from using equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE. In its recent filing, VTel said the FCC should freeze USF payments to companies that have equipment from the likes of Huawei and ZTE. Such a rule by the FCC would align with Congress' John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law last year by President Trump, that essentially prohibits the federal government from purchasing equipment from Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE, due to security concerns. You're invited to attend Light Readings Big 5G Event ! Formerly the Big Communications Event and 5G North America, Big 5G is where telecom's brightest minds deliver the critical insight needed to piece together the 5G puzzle. We'll see you May 6-8 in Denver -- communications service providers get in free! Huawei has strongly argued against US government claims that its equipment opens a conduit for Chinese spying. In the same USF proceeding at the FCC, the company filed details about its lawsuit against the US government on the issue, citing a Trump tweet on 5G as part of its reasoning for the move. The FCC's USF proceeding is part of a much bigger battle between the US and Chinese governments over trade, a geopolitical firestorm that stretches from a US government investigation into IP theft to an arrest of Huawei's CFO for allegedly conducting business with Iran . At the center of the issue are US government requests to allies like Germany and Japan to prevent telecom companies in those countries from also purchasing equipment from the likes of Huawei and ZTE. (Based on the latest developments , though, nations including the U.K. and Germany don't appear to be acquiescing to those requests.) Incredibly, tiny US telecommunications companies like VTel have found themselves caught in the crossfire. For example, the Rural Wireless Association in the US said that it believes fully 25% of its membership -- or about a dozen of its roughly 50 member companies -- currently use equipment from Chinese suppliers like Huawei and ZTE. Rural wireless network operators that have admitted to purchasing equipment from Huawei include United TelCom, SI Wireless, Viaero, James Valley Telecommunications (JVT), NE Colorado Cellular, United Telephone Association, Nemont Telephone Cooperative and Union Telephone Company. Will those companies remove Huawei's equipment from their networks? "We plan to do what the federal government says that we should do. To the extent that that equipment needs to be replaced, we plan to replace it. Of course we would need funding to do that," said the Rural Wireless Association's General Counsel Carri Bennet during a recent Congressional hearing. She said the group is currently having discussions with the FCC and Congress about how to go about doing just that. Of note, T-Mobile has offered to help RWA members strip out Huawei equipment and replace it with equipment from another vendor. At the same hearing, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said that "we've even offered to play a role with the Rural Wireless Association and help them possibly use some of our pricing power to purchase alternative equipment." Perhaps not surprisingly, he made those comments while looking to garner Congressional support for T-Mobile's proposed merger with Sprint. A possible government action to replace Huawei equipment in US wireless networks may well be on the table. For example, representatives from the WTA  Advocates for Rural Broadband trade group recently met with an FCC official to urge the agency to "use its expertise to study the matter further so that the Commission and industry could have a complete grasp of the costs of a transition away from equipment prohibited by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Such a study should also consider what types of equipment actually impact national security and should be banned versus what types of equipment are deemed to not be a threat." It's currently unclear whether the US government plans to cough up the millions of dollars it will surely cost to replace Huawei's equipment among RWA's membership. But such an action could play into the regulatory strategy of companies like VTel that are proactively moving away from Chinese suppliers. And it would also put Trump's money where his mouth is, so to speak.

Vermont's VTel Strips Out Huawei Gear, Swaps In Ericsson Equipment

MenaITech

For his part , Bashar Hawamdeh , MenaITech CEO said signing this partnership agreement with VTEL aims at enhancing integration between the telecommunications and IT sectors , which will allow for providing business solutions for human resources management through MenaITech cloud computing platform .

Application Date	Grant Date	Title	Related Topics	Status
6/16/2011	3/3/2015	Video conference control system and method	Videotelephony, Teleconferencing, Williams pinball machines, Assistive technology, Telecommunication services	Grant

Application Date	6/16/2011
Grant Date	3/3/2015
Title	Video conference control system and method
Related Topics	Videotelephony, Teleconferencing, Williams pinball machines, Assistive technology, Telecommunication services
Status	Grant

Predict your next investment

Vtel

See what CB Insights has to offer

Stage

About Vtel

Vtel Headquarter Location

Latest Vtel News

Predict your next investment

Vtel Patents

Vtel Web Traffic

Vtel Rank

CB Insights uses Cookies