Blogs

More people than ever are opting to work for long periods away from their homes. WorkMotion, a firm that says it helps companies work through international compliance hurdles to hire people based anywhere in the world, looked at which cities are best for such nomads....

Communications Data Group (CDG) recently announced that Florida-based Rapid Fiber Internet will use its consumer and enterprise operations and billing platform for its business operations in the communities it serves in the Suwannee Valley of northern Florida. The...

AT&T had the best customer satisfaction in the large- and medium-sized business categories for both voice and data services, while Verizon was ranked as the top telecom provider among smaller enterprises, according to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Business Internet...

Twelve resale and wholesale fiber providers make up the 2023 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings Leaderboard, according to the company that compiles the annual benchmark, Vertical Systems Group. The Leaderboard consists of service providers who had 15,000 or more on-net...

MEF and the TM Forum are collaborating to align their application programming interfaces (APIs) and product and service models. The goal is to streamline automation for MEF Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) implementations. Examples of NaaS implementations include on-demand...

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said that “there is much to celebrate” and “progress is encouraging” in its comparison of Internet use between 2021 and 2023. A new NTIA study found that 83% of people ages three and up...

Reliable internet access is prioritized over affordable childcare among U.S. parents of children under 18 (25% versus 16%) when deciding where to live, according to a study conducted by Censuswide for global internet exchange operator DE-CIX. Researchers also found...

Worldwide growth in spending on telecom services and pay TV services is slowing this year and will finish with a gain of just 1.4% over 2023, when growth was 2.1%, according to International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker. A...

CDG’s operations support systems and business support systems are poised to gain new capabilities through the incorporation of artificial intelligence. The goal is to improve broadband service providers' subscriber and support capabilities, and it’s part of a broader...

As streaming video providers crack down on password sharing, churn is increasing, according to a new report from Horowitz Research. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed who view TV content have cancelled or lost access to one or more of their subscription video on...

CompTIA has provided details on its new learning and certification programs for its Essentials and Expansion training programs for the burgeoning AI job market. The goal is to train people already working in the IT industry on various AI disciplines without requiring...

5G connections will comprise more than half (51%) of all global mobile connections by 2029, according to new research from GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi). Increasingly, the networks are based on standalone 5G (5G SA). Standalone 5G networks do not rely on...

Leader AT&T and five other service providers earned a spot on Vertical Systems Group (VSGs) 2023 U.S. Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard. The overall category rose 2.4%. The direct Internet access (DIA) sector drove the growth. It was somewhat offset, however, by the...

New Parks Associates research found that almost half of pay TV subscribers — 46% — find home control and interactive features provided through their television to be appealing or very appealing. The research found that the most popular advanced feature is the ability...

Telecom providers should be aware of a new security rating system that has been developed by supply chain security firm SecurityScorecard in cooperation with providers. The application is underpinned with artificial intelligence (AI) and is designed to assign a...

Last year was a difficult one for augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) sector, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). Worldwide shipments of headsets declined by 8.3%, IDC researchers noted. The sector is primed for a strong rebound in 2024,...

Accelerating demand for gigabit speed commercial services is driving demand for Gigabit Ethernet ports at the expense of lower-speed ports, according to Vertical Systems Group (VSG). The analysts say that Gigabit Ethernet (GE) ports are increasing at a double-digit...

Seventy-eight percent of Americans feel that the Internet is as important as other basic household utilities and 85% rely on it seven days per week, according to an internet attitude study conducted in October by Consumer Reports. The survey, which was conducted by...

The availability of fiber internet service across the United States grew from 45.9% of households to 55.6% between December 2021 and June 2023, according to a study by BroadbandNow. The site said that 5.6 million fiber subscribers have been added in the last 18...

A 5G report commissioned by Boldyn Networks found that 71 percent of decision-makers at service provider and public and private sector organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland feel more confident in 5G performance than ever before. They said that availability of 5G...

The percentage of U.S. households with a live pay-TV service continues to go in one direction: Down. The portion is now at 64%, according the Leichtman Research Group (LRG). Pay-TV operators use cable, satellite or telco platforms or act as virtual multichannel video...

Vertical Systems Group's first Leaderboard assessing the suppliers used for U.S. carrier managed SD-WAN services consists of Cisco (featuring Meraki MX, SD-WAN), VMware (SD-WAN by Velocloud), Fortinet (FortiGate), Versa Networks (Secure SD-WAN) and HPE Aruba...

The global wearables market segment made a comeback in the second quarter of 2023 with shipments of 116.3 million devices and a year-over-year growth of 8.5% according to International Data Corp.’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Data Tracker. It's not all good...

The United States dropped seven spots during the past year to finish nineteenth in global Digital Quality of Life rankings from Surfshark, a provider of cybsecurity technology. The drop in the U.S. rankings occurred, despite the country's gains in broadband speeds and...

AT&T has retained the top spot on Vertical Systems Group's (VSG) mid-2023 U.S. Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard, which measures market leadership based on market share results. AT&T replaced Lumen in the top spot at the end of last year.  Lumen, Spectrum...

The largest cable, wireline phone and fixed wireless access (FWA) providers had a better second quarter this year than they had in the year-ago quarter, according to the Leichtman Research Group. These companies had a net gain of about 840,000 subscribers during this...

Over 150 million (157 million) 5G connections were added worldwide between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, reaching a total of 1.2 billion connections worldwide, according to research from Omdio and 5G Americas. North America now has 133...

A new testing lab in Burlington, MA aims to help ensure interoperability of open radio access network (O-RAN) equipment. The lab, to be known as the Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC), was established by the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT)...

Sixty percent of U.S. consumers responding to a YouGov survey said that a good experience with a brand is influential in their choice of a new cellphone. Previous experience easily outdistances price (51%) and value for the money (50%) as key factors. That’s not...

The number of commercial and government buildings with fiber broadband services available to them continues to grow. Twelve companies now have at least 15,000 on-net fiber lit buildings, which qualifies them for inclusion on Vertical Systems Group’s U.S. Fiber Lit...

Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC), a locally owned telecom service provider based in the South Carolina Lowcountry since 1951, is now using the Communications Data Group (CDG) MBS Cloud platform for billing and operations. MBS Cloud is a modular web-based...

Young people like mobile wallets and are OK with getting certain marketing messages via SMS, according to the 2023 Consumer Trends survey conducted by mobile engagement platform provider Vibes. Interest in Mobile Wallets The firm says that 54% of those between 25 and...

Worldwide IT and business services revenues will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023, or 5.7% year-over-year growth, according to an IT spending forecast from International Data Corporation. That’s a growth rate of 3.5% after accounting for...

The global telecom service provider equipment market will grow by a modest 1% this year, according to a telecom equipment forecast from the Dell'Oro Group, reflecting industry shifts. The 1% growth rate is lower than the 3% growth seen in 2022 and 8% growth seen in...

IT works best in a hybrid work environment, according to a new report from Info-Tech Research Group. Hybrid work is an environment in which employees work at home some of the time and in the employer’s location some of the time. "State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend...

For the first time since 2017, Lumen was not atop Vertical Systems Group's (VSG) Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard as the service provider fell to second behind AT&T. The other four providers qualifying for the 2022 year-end leaderboard were Charter Spectrum...

CableLabs and its subsidiary Kyrio will host the second year of the 5G Challenge, a competition aimed at accelerating adoption of 5G open radio access network (O-RAN) approaches including open interfaces, interoperable subsystems and multivendor solutions. The...

Internet exchange operator DE-CIX reports that it handled more than 48 exabytes (EB) of data in 2022. The total, the company said, was a 25% increase over the 38 EB of data that was exchanged in 2021. That’s the equivalent to the storage capacity of more than 370...

Iridium Communications and Qualcomm Technologies are partnering on the Snapdragon Satellite platform that will enable emergency services and texting via satellite on smartphones using the Snapdragon system on a chip (SoC). Snapdragon Satellite is expected to be...

More than half of U.S. adults would choose virtual healthcare over in person care if it meant they could see a specialist with more knowledge and experience specific to their health condition or medical needs, while also accessing that specialist in a timely manner,...

Communications Data Group (CDG) recently announced the completion of an integration between CDG's MBS consumer and enterprise billing and OSS solution and Salesforce. The integration supports automatic Salesforce order creation in MBS for new customers. This will help...

Almost half of respondents to a HighSpeedInternet survey – 44.7% -- said that their use of the Internet increased this year compared to last. Average internet usage was eight hours daily. Ten percent of respondents said that their internet usage had decreased. The...

According to the newly released Parks Associates Residential Security Tracker, nearly 40% of internet households own some type of security solution, such as a home security system, networked cameras or a video doorbell. This includes 7% of U.S. internet households,...

Business customer satisfaction with wireless service reached its highest level ever, according to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Business Wireless Satisfaction Study. The researchers attributed the increase to customers receiving more personalized service and dedicated...

More than 35 million households in the United States are interested in subscribing to a cloud gaming service, according to Parks Associates. The market research firm says that demand will grow to almost 39 million household by 2024. The firm found that 78% of...

U.S. consumer technology will have year-over-year revenue declines of 6% this year and 3% in 2023, according to market research firm The NPD Group. Revenues will remain above 2019 levels due to higher average selling prices (ASPs), the firm says. NPD also says that...

Six providers have been named to Vertical System Group's mid-year 2022 Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard, which consists of companies with 4% or more of the U.S. retail Carrier Ethernet market share. They are, in order, Lumen – which repeats as top provider-- AT&T,...

The largest pay TV providers lost about 1.925 million video subscribers during the second quarter of 2022 compared to the year-ago quarter, according to the Leichtman Research Group. And the earlier quarter was not a great one either: The sector lost 1.235 million...

The stars have aligned for FTTH equipment vendors and a big shift from GPON to XGS-PON is in full swing, according to Strategy Analytics Senior Analyst Dan Grossman. The major driver of the FTTH boom is that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an explosion in broadband...