Author: Francesca Greane - 5G Series
This is hardly surprising, given the fact that telecommunications is now the foundation for almost every element of society. So, with more people self-isolating or working from home, performance and co-operation will need to be on-point to keep societies and economies running smoothly. Some of the actions being taken by operators around the world include:
Supporting Emergency Services The team at BT group groups have said that it will prioritise emergency calls and systems supporting emergency services such as the NHS, Airwave and the Emergency Services Network (ESN), critical national infrastructure and vulnerable customers, should the network come under intolerable pressure. Alongside this, Vodafone has said it will offer anonymised data, where legally permitted, to aid in tracking people’s movements and the spread of COVID-19. Government departments have also been offered the opportunity to deliver targeted text messaging where technically possible. In line with this approach, Telia has provided a customized version of its Telia Crowd Insights product to the Finnish government to help the authorities gain a better understanding of the population's mass movements through anonymized location data during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Financial Assistance Orange is stepping up its COVID-19 aid program, adding €3 million (US$3.2 million) on top of the €5 million ($5.4 million) it has already set aside to support a range of healthcare and preventive initiatives. In Africa, each country in which Orange operates will receive personal protective equipment as well as a specific sum for sourcing medical equipment to support NGOs and local health authorities fighting the coronavirus. In France, Orange will donate €500,000 ($539,403) to the Fondation Hôpitaux de France, which is on top of the previously announced €150,000 ($161,819) that was split between the Red Cross and two other organizations. And, in Europe, a €200,000 ($215,761) fund will be used to support various initiatives via the Orange Foundations present in each country, building on the €1 million ($1.07 million) already pledged by these bodies.
Increased Data Limits At Group level, CEO Nick Read announced a number of measures to be applied across the European footprint, one of which included capacity being increased to deal with the new spikes in internet traffic, with Vodafone saying that it has seen a 50% increase already. Alongside this, Telecom Italia and Telefonica have lifted limits on data and call, and added an additional 300GB for customers, respectively.
Meeting Traffic Demands AT&T said that its investments into software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have been instrumental in the company's efforts to keep pace with rising Internet traffic stemming from the new coronavirus. Fuetsch explained that demand for the company's Virtual Private Network (VPN) offering skyrocketed 700% during the past few weeks as millions of Americans began working from home. He said that AT&T's network-based IP remote access VPN – AT&T Network-Based IP VPN Remote Access (ANIRA) – uses a cloud-based software platform and a plug-and-play white box gateway that doesn't require a professional installer.
