Networking

This week the International Avaya User Group (IAUG) is holding its annual user event, Engage, in Orlando, Florida. I attended the event and found it interesting for a couple of reasons: The first is that it returned to an in-person format after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, so it was nice to see the enthusiasm from an audience that seemed to be excited about seeing colleagues again. Second and more importantly, it was the first Engage held post-Avaya’s transition to a cloud company. 

The transformation of Avaya has been well underway for several years. It had evolved its business model to subscription-based, cut a deal with RingCentral for a cloud communications solution, and built a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) platform. Last year the company launched its cloud contact center product and most recently announced its Experience Builders program to build an ecosystem of “experience creators” that use Avaya’s platform.The proof of its success in this transition was highlighted in the keynote delivered by Avaya’s CEO, Jim Chirico. He reported that the company has had six consecutive quarters of accelerating growth, and all of its cloud-related metrics are up. The biggest measure of its cloud growth is the annual recurring revenue (ARR), which was up 180% from 2020 to 2021. However, while numbers certainly tell one story, more meaningful to me is customer use cases to highlight success.What is interesting about Avaya is that its definition of cloud bucks the trend of most of the cloud communications industry. The majority of communications vendors use the term “cloud” as a euphemism for “UCaaS” (unified communications as a service) or “CCaaS” (contact center as a service), and while these are indeed cloud offerings, there is more to cloud than public cloud — cloud can also mean private and hybrid clouds. It’s this ability to deliver a cloud in any format (public, private, or hybrid) that makes Avaya unique because it doesn’t force any customer into a particular deployment model. At the event, I caught up with the following customers that were using the different flavors of Avaya’s cloud.Skybridge Americas is a business process outsourcer (BPO) that supports contact center-heavy verticals, such as financial services and retail. The company had been on a hosted platform for several years and is in the process of migrating to Avaya’s OneCloud Private Cloud for Contact Center. The organization has about 1,000 total agents and moved to a cloud model so it could rapidly scale up and down as needed due to seasonality in its customers’ businesses. I asked why Skybridge chose to go private cloud, and CIO Bryant Richardson told me: “We wanted control over updates and wanted to ensure we are able to manage the environment ourselves.” The customers I work with consider control is one of the most common reasons businesses choose private cloud over public. Engagent Health is a BPO with a speciality in healthcare payers. It provides a variety of services, such as commission payments, CRM, agent onboarding, and others. The company chose Avaya’s OneCloud CCaaS solution, which is the public cloud version of its contact center technology. I met with Austin Ifedirah, founder and managing partner, and asked why they chose a SaaS model for its approximately 600 agents, and he told me it was a matter of economics. Given that the company is only a couple of years old, the public cloud model allowed him to start with very little upfront cost and then cost-effectively ramp up as needed. He did tell me that he chose Avaya because its strong brand in the contact center would help him attract customers. “Everyone knows Avaya in contact centers, and when I’m talking to healthcare executives, they don’t question the quality or reliability of the product,” Ifedirah said. He also said he believes the use of the public cloud was transitional and thought it would be more cost-effective to use the private cloud when they got to about 6,000 agents. Avaya having both public and private would make the transition easier, he said. Liberty Mutual is the sixth-largest global property and casualty insurer in the U.S. and ranks 71 on the Fortune 100 list of the largest American companies. The company currently has about 11,000 agents that run on an Avaya hybrid cloud. I won’t get into the technical details regarding the hybrid architecture; the more important point is why Liberty Mutual chose to go hybrid. Josh Hoium, Director of Engineering and Global Network Communications, told me: “We have a mix of legacy and new systems all around the globe, so we had to go hybrid. We use public cloud where we can and then keep on-prem what we need to control.” One of the interesting aspects of the deployment is Liberty Mutual’s use of Twilio Flex. The “roll your own” CCaaS model was hyped a couple of years ago and viewed as a killer to companies like Avaya. Hoium told me, while they use Twilio, it’s been marginalized to a handful of countries where they are just trying to keep the costs down because it’s a “dirt-cheap deployment model” and does not offer the best experience. Where voice quality and experiences matter, the Avaya cloud is used. 

Avaya’s unique capabilities in offering UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS in various configurations is due to its new Media Procession Core (MPC), which creates a hub-and-spoke model between the services by offering a single set of channels into the platform, regardless of use case. This enables Avaya to deliver services such as voice or video as part of the contact center, in a meeting tool, or even APIs in any cloud configuration. To date, much of the hype around cloud communications had been around public cloud, and that makes sense because early adopters were smaller companies — many of whom had no contact center. Looking ahead, as more large enterprises plan to move UC and CC to the cloud, the definition of what constitutes a true SaaS offer has evolved. Whether an organization deploys in a public cloud, a dedicated instance, or a hybrid approach, the benefits of the solution, not where it’s operated, will be crucial. With very few providers having the capacity to offer all flavors of cloud, Avaya’s ability to deliver to the customer’s needs is something they should continue to amplify. While it’s fair to say Avaya was a latecomer to cloud communications, the company has done a nice job of building a platform, OneCloud, that can deliver a cloud any way the customer wants. More

Telstra has paid a AU$2.5 million fine levelled at it by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) after the regulator found what it described as large-sale privacy and safety breaches. The first was Telstra failing to mark a customer’s phone number as silent in the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) 50,000 times, which allowed them to be published in phone directories. The second was Belong failed to update IPND data on its customers on more than 65,000 occasions. Australian telcos are required to upload a customer’s phone number, name, address, and whether the number is silent to the IPND. The IPND can also be used by Triple Zero, emergency services, and law enforcement. “When people request a silent number it is often for very important privacy and safety reasons, and we know that the publication of their details can have serious consequences,” ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said. “The provision of these critical services can be hampered and lives put in danger if data is missing, wrong or out of date. It is alarming that Telstra could get this so wrong on such a large scale.” O’Loughlin said although Telstra self-reported the violations, ACMA chose to level the fine due to the telco failing to update IPND data in 2019. Alongside Telstra, other telcos that were handed a remedial direction at the time included Optus, Vodafone, AAPT, Agile, Chime Communications, PowerTel, Primus Telecommunications, Symbio Networks, and TransACT.

In May, ACMA issued Lycamobile with a AU$604,800 infringement notice after it failed to pass on emergency info on 246,000 lines. Two days later, ACMA issued formal notices to Telstra, Optus, and Aldi Mobile for not verifying new customer information. Medion Mobile, which powers Aldi Mobile and is owned by Lenovo, was caught out on 53 occasions, Telstra was found to have breached its obligations 52 times, and Optus was pinged for one violation. Related Coverage More

At approximately 10:26 AM US Eastern time, Amazon Web Services (AWS) started having serious network problems. According to reports on the Outages mailing list, the central mailing list for ISP and network operators to report and track major internet problems, AWS-hosted services started to go “wonky” this morning. 

Numerous AWS-based business services, such as Duo, the two-factor authentication endpoint security service; Zoom, the video-conferencing platform; and Slack, the messaging service, were affected. Entertainment services, including Hulu, Xbox Live, and Halo, also went down. DownDetector also showed AWS having a failure surge this morning. Since then AWS reported that the problem was with internet connectivity in the US-West-1 and 2 Regions. “We have resolved the issue affecting Internet connectivity to the US-WEST-1 Region. Connectivity within the region was not affected by this event. The issue has been resolved and the service is operating normally.”Outage administrators are still reporting that “it looks to have stabilized somewhat but still seeing some unusual errors.” Hang in there, folks. It looks like the AWS trouble isn’t done messing us over yet.  More

Image: Cisco
The City of Adelaide has picked TPG Telecom to replace its free Wi-Fi network at a cost of AU$4.8 million. Since 2014, the network was built and run by hometown telco Internode, with Internode’s parent winning the contract for an initial five years.TPG is set to replace the “current mix of mesh-wireless, fibre, and copper-based technology” with a fibre network built on the Ten Gigabit Adelaide network that TPG built, and increased the number of access points by 25%, taking the total over 250. “ADL Free powered by TPG will be an integral service for the community as Adelaide prepares to welcome back more tourists and international students, whilst also servicing the needs of all city users and residents,” Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said. “Not only will the new Wi-Fi assist businesses in the CBD and help position Adelaide as a leading centre of investment.” The funding for the network upgrade is co-funded by the Commonwealth and City of Adelaide under the 10-year AU$699 million Adelaide City Deal, and work will commence in early 2022.Late Tuesday night, it was announced a AU$60 million digital technologies academy was approved at Lot Fourteen under the Adelaide City Deal.

“At a time where more and more high-tech jobs are coming online here in South Australia, it’s absolutely vital we can train the talent to take these jobs,” Premier Steven Marshall said.”South Australia is unashamedly the space, defence and cyber state — it’s my aim to create a pipeline of jobs in these industry’s [sic] so we can put the brain-drain behind us and be the country’s beacon for major companies in these areas.”Construction is pencilled in for commencing in late 2023.Last week, TPG landed a five-year deal with Qantas to handle fixed and mobile voice services. That deal included new fibre to carry voice and data between the airline’s head offices, and airport terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin. The telco has already shifted the airline’s 1300/1800 inbound customer support numbers to its mobile network. TPG said it already handles 90% of the mobile services for Qantas. On Tuesday, TPG reshuffled and reduced its executive structure, with 11 positions being cut down to seven. The company announced it was merging its fixed and mobile networks, IT, and digital functions under a CTO, with Giovanni Chiarelli to fill the role in January. Heading out the door is TPG Telecom new business development executive and former TPG COO Craig Levy, whose responsibilities are parked under the consumer function led by Kieren Cooney; CIO Rob James will depart; as will TPG Telecom wholesale executive and former Vodafone Australia chief strategy officer and director of corporate affairs Dan Lloyd. “By bringing networks and IT into the same department, we will create a better end-to-end technology experience for our customers,” TPG Telecom CEO Inaki Berroeta said.”Migrating customers off the NBN and onto our own infrastructure is one of our biggest opportunities, and now that 4G and 5G home wireless has launched across our brands, business development will find a natural home in the consumer unit where we will continue to expand and innovate. “Wholesale will come under Jonathan Rutherford, who is currently leading the enterprise and government function.” Related Coverage More

Networking

Ookla, the company best known for its Speedtest.net and Downdetector services, has acquired RootMetrics, a firm specializing in mobile network performance measurement services.Both companies have long been a favorite of mobile network operators: their names frequently show up in broadband providers’ and carriers’ communications whenever a given company’s network performs well. RootMetrics’ RootScore is a particularly popular measurement tool for gauging network performance across the US. Ookla CEO and co-founder Doug Suttles claims the transaction will provide customers of both companies with “the network assessment trifecta of crowd measurement, controlled testing and consumer perception.” Ookla plans to continue operating RootMetrics as an independent brand. It will, however, begin offering combined analytics packages that bring together network diagnostic offerings with software products, crowdsourced testing capabilities, and data science services. Ookla noted that the combined firm’s goal will be to leverage the assets of RootMetrics and the recently acquired WINd suite of mobile performance testing tools to help clients “better understand, market, deploy, and optimize their networks.” RootMetrics CEO Kevin Halsey said the transaction “completes the vision that Doug [Suttles] and I had when we first met years ago.” As carriers across the country continue jockeying for 5G mobile supremacy and home broadband dominance, reports provided by combined companies will be integral to attracting both customers and investors.  

No financial terms for the transaction were disclosed. 

Tech Earnings More

Image: MiaoMiao Lv, Getty Images/iStockphoto
The company responsible for Australia’s National Broadband Network has once again revealed the amount of copper it has purchased in its existence. However this time, NBN decided it would add the amount of optical fibre as additional information. “As of 26 October 2021, NBN co has purchased 361,451.33 kilometres of optical fibre,” it said in Senate Estimate Questions on Notice. “The relatively small amount of copper purchased (61,102km) is largely used to connect the new optical fibre to existing legacy networks.” In October 2015, NBN kicked off with 1,800kms of copper, subsequently increased to 15,000kms and 16,600kms, and by February 2019 was sitting at almost 30,000kms. NBN has previously said the copper is used for links between existing pillars and new nodes, as well as for extensions on fibre-to-the-curb deployments (FttC) for lead-ins to reach the FttC distribution point unit. Last week, NBN revealed it replaced 21,000 FttC connection devices in the six weeks to mid-November, as lightning has continued to fry the boxes. On Monday, NBN released its second sustainability report and pledged to purchase 100% renewable energy by December 2025, as well as have 20% renewable energy, around 80GWh annually, by the end of fiscal year 2023. It also said it would reduce energy use by 25GWh annually in the next four years, and would use electric or hybrids vehicles where it could by 2030. Related Coverage More

Tarawa, Kiribati 
Image: Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket via Getty Images
The United States, Australia, and Japan have said they will provide funding for a new subsea cable to connect the Pacific island nations of Nauru, Kiribati, and Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The new cable will connect the island containing the capital of Kiribati with Nauru and the island of Kosrae in FSM, before connecting with the Hantru-1 cable at the island of Pohnpei in FSM. A joint statement between the six nations said the cable would provide better connectivity to 100,000 people across the three Pacific nations. “We will continue to coordinate closely with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to ensure this project complements investments by these institutions to enhance digital connectivity in FSM, Kiribati, and Nauru,” the statement said. See also: Blaming China is handy when trying to keep telco infrastructure away from BeijingReuters has been reporting for the past year that the US has been warning Pacific nations about the risk of using Huawei equipment, with the previous process scuppered to avoid the former Huawei Marine Networks picking up the contract for the new cable. In 2018, Australia used around AU$200 million of its foreign aid budget to lock Huawei out of building a subsea cable to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

More recently, the Australian government ponied up AU$1.33 billion of the AU$1.6 billion cost for Australia’s biggest telco, Telstra, to take control of Digicel Pacific Digicel Pacific has 2.5 million customers and 1,700 employees, with $431 million in service revenue for the year to March 31, the majority of which location-wise comes from Papua New Guinea, with prepaid mobile being its best selling product. At the time, Telstra said the Commonwealth made the initial approach. Related Coverage More

What an NCD fears most
Image: Clinton Naik
When summer weather begins to hit the Australian east coast, those on fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) connections need to brace for some electronics frying thanks to lightning activity. In an update to the numbers it revealed to Senate Estimates in May, where it had replaced almost 48,000 FttC connection devices across November 2020 to March 2021, NBN said it has now replaced 99,226 NBN Co Connection Devices (NCD) from 1 December 2020 to 11 November 2021. “Between 1 October 2021 and 11 November 2021 NBN Co has replaced a total of 21,424 devices. This includes replacements as a result of multiple severe weather events across the eastern states of Australia during October,” it said. “FttC NCDs … can be replaced for a wide variety of reasons, including customers removing the device when they move house, new devices being automatically provided when a customer changes providers, and accidental damage in premises.” The company also said it had sought scientific advice on the lightning issue, and the NSW Blue Mountains had a higher than normal NCD failure rate. “The Blue Mountains area has high levels of electrical storm activity and a geological make-up that can affect earthing mechanisms,” it said. By contrast, the number of full fibre network termination devices that need replacing was 5616 from the start of the year to November 11.

In the July storms that hit Victoria and forced outages on the network, NBN said there were just over 200,000 services impacted, with 39.2% on cable, a further 39.2% on fibre to the node or fibre to the basement, 13.8% were on fixed wireless, 6.2% had full fibre, and 1.7% were on fibre to the curb. Elsewhere in its answers, NBN said it had 640,880 brownfields premises in its fibre-to-the-basement (FttB) footprint, and while full fibre was the default for new apartment blocks of more than 20 premises, FttB is sometimes deployed at a customer’s request and the total figure for FttB on new builds sits under the 2% mark. The company also said it had 83,356 Sky Muster customers, and 29.482 Sky Muster Plus customers at the end of September, with Plus customers averaging 159GB each in September, which includes uplink and downlink data. For the year to October 31, NBN said 9.3% of all scheduled appointments were missed. “In many of these cases, the technician turned up earlier or later than the stipulated time and still completed the job on the day. The number also includes some cases where bad weather restricted the ability to complete the job,” it said. “The number of missed appointments has decreased steadily month on month since May 21 despite adverse weather conditions in September/October, which can restrict the ability to reach site on time and complete the job.” In June, NBN called for expressions of interest from government agencies to take part in its AU$300 million regional co-investment fund. By October 21, it had AU$29 million of proposals in progress, with 250 requests from local councils and state governments for cost estimates, and 21 projects won. Related Coverage More