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Revelations over the U.S. National Security Agency's Prism surveillance program have much of the general public in uproar, but in terms of the controversy's impact to enterprise IT, some CIOs have measured, albeit watchful reactions.

T-Mobile US touted its progress in getting subscribers from its MetroPCS brand off legacy CDMA service and onto its HSPA+ and LTE networks, saying that it is ahead of schedule in the migration.

Mobile devices need better security as they offer more services, and biometric authentication provides a solution, says Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider

Apple said that between Dec. 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013, it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. However, in statement, Apple reiterated that it does not provide any government agency with direct access to its servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order.

Samsung Electronics will sell a version of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that can run on LTE Advanced networks, even though most carriers around the world haven't yet launched the technology.

New innovation center will test Cisco's self-optimizing heterogeneous network with local telco Pelephone

From Baton Rouge to Warsaw

Verizon Communications is considering jumping into the Canadian wireless market by taking over one of the smaller players struggling against Canada's mobile incumbents, according to a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Europe's top privacy watchdog and the Digital Agenda Commissioner both said Monday that more transparency and trust is needed between the European Union and the United States following the Prism scandal.

Cable operators use cash incentives to cut off content deals with OTT rivals

T-Mobile appears to be tuning up its LTE network in Manhattan ahead of an expected summer launch

Wireless vendor unveils new outdoor access point for cable Wi-Fi deployments

Hundreds of homes and businesses in Kirkcaldy now have access to high-speed fibre broadband, BT announced today – and more than 17,600 will be able to connect as engineers complete the local upgrade in the weeks ahead.

The complexity of LTE means more costs, less room for antenna vendors, Heavy Reading finds

Vendor claims provisioning and management of services are simplified

Johan Dennelind steps up following resignation of Lars Nyberg

ITU experts are discussing ways to meet user and operator demand for a standardized methodology for measuring Internet access speeds. The establishment of such a framework would inspire greater consumer confidence in advertised speeds and ensure that accurate comparisons can be made between offerings from different operators.

The experts meeting under the auspices of the ITU-T Joint Coordination Activity on Conformance and Interoperability Testing (JCA-CIT) are discussing how end-to-end testing can be facilitated via remote access to world-class testing facilities.

A meeting of JCA-CIT, 25 April 2013, analyzed the proposal of an independent speed-testing methodology from a variety of perspectives; taking presentations from a national regulator, a national testing laboratory and a manufacturer of testing equipment.

Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) presented its study evaluating the status quo of received Internet access speed as compared to advertised or contracted broadband speeds. The ultimate goal of Germany’s research in this field is to produce fundamental considerations for the development of a quality-measurement methodology accessible to end-users. The study attempts to gain an informed basis on various QoS aspects with regard to Article 20 (Contracts) and Article 22 (Quality of Service) of the “Universal Service Directive” of the European Union, Directive 2002/22/EC on “universal service and users' rights relating to electronic communications networks and services”.

The testing laboratory of the Central Research Telecommunication Institute (ZNIIS, Russia) presented its implementation plan for the joint ITU-ZNIIS project to establish a ‘virtual laboratory’ granting developing countries remote access to cutting-edge tools for the assessment of network performance, Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE).

A central goal in the ITU-ZNIIS project is the development of a framework for the remote testing of fixed and mobile Internet access speeds. This goal is the subject of a contribution made by the Russian Federation to ITU-T Study Group 11 which proposes a new work item focused on standardizing the framework and protocols needed to enable the testing of end-to-end Internet access speed. The proposal advocates for the independent estimation of the quality of end-user access to the Internet and the interconnection speeds between carrier networks, thereby offering means to aid operators in drafting service-level agreements (SLAs) with their customers and other operators.

The presentations from the Federal Network Agency of Germany and ZNIIS were supported by a manufacturer’s perspective in the form of a presentation on QoS/QoE assessment from a maker of telecom testing equipment, Arcatech (UK).

JCA-CIT enters the 2013-2016 study period with a strengthened mandate, assisting ITU-T Study Group 11 (Protocols and test specifications) in coordinating the implementation of the ITU Conformity and Interoperability (C&I) programme.

Read the report from the most recent meeting of JCA-CIT here (TIES restricted)

More information on the implementation of the ITU C&I Programme is available in the C&I Portal

 

 

Hackers have found a devious new way to disseminate malware: They're using peer-to-peer networks.

Also in today's EMEA roundup: New boss at TeliaSonera; Orange CEO gets some support; Neelie talks pasta; 400G news

Security experts have been saying for years that insiders -- malicious, careless or simply unaware -- are a greater threat to organizations, both public and private, than hackers.