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When we look back, we find that Wars have been fought ever since the idea of tribes was born. It has graduated from tribal wars to States fighting and nations going to war. Arrows, lances, swords, machetes gave way to rifles and later to guns, tanks, artillery, rockets, and nuclear bombs as the weapons of war. Two devastating World Wars have been fought causing immense miseries to Human race. In future wars, even space will emerge as a region of conflict. The nature of conflict and shape of the global geopolitical landscape is being permanently changed with the advent and experimental advances in digital technology. Some technologies have been truly disruptive, changing the very course of war. In today’s Information Age, a countless number of military innovations are being developed that seek to take advantage of the digital revolution.

CFOs play a pivotal role in an organisation because they touch almost all areas of business. The role needs to evolve - in perception and reality - where the CFOs not just drive the present but also shape the future of the business, eventually becoming a trustee of all stakeholders.

In July 2021, STL announced that it will provide cloud-native OSS/BSS solutions for telecom service providers, leveraging Mi­crosoft Azure. This solution will give telcos the agility they need for building fu­ture-ready applications through STL’s Digital BSS Platform. These future-ready applications will be highly scalable, agile and built on four kinds of technology confluences – convergence (of wired and wireless), combination (of connectivity, compute and storage), disaggregation (of standard hardware and open source software) and edge compute (bringing all capabilities to the network’s edge). Telcos are increasingly embracing cloud-native solutions. By partnering with Microsoft, STL expects to provide telcos access to a cloud-native and comprehensive app development ecosystem, fl­e­xible modular microservices, and a hy­brid cloud management system.

In the past few months, Internet connectivity has been most valuable in keeping the world safe. In India, the Internet has saved livelihoods (and perhaps lives), kept the economy moving and, also, prepared a roadmap for the future. One glaring area that the pandemic exposed is our two-tiered broadband system. The first tier includes areas where high-speed broadband is opening up opportunities to learn and earn. The second tier has people who are struggling for connectivity and are left behind. Our internet penetration stands at only 40 percent compared to greater than 90 percent in most developed economies. For India to grow, there is a dire need to elevate the second tier.

One reason for telecom operators to transition towards OpenRAN is reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). Operators are able to choose from a larger pool of radio vendors when rolling out their 5G network. Open RAN will foster innovation and reduce time to market of critical features and capabilities that are essential to 5G because of the larger set of vendors that will now be competing in the market, says Rajesh Gangadhar, CTO - Access Solutions, STL.

One reason for telecom operators to transition towards OpenRAN is reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). Operators are able to choose from a larger pool of radio vendors when rolling out their 5G network. Open RAN will foster innovation and reduce time to market of critical features and capabilities that are essential to 5G because of the larger set of vendors that will now be competing in the market, says Rajesh Gangadhar, CTO - Access Solutions, STL.

India will play a big role in 5G. With the “Make in India” effort, with the PLI schemes being supported, with the disruption happening that is driving the OpenRAN efforts, and with recent geopolitical events that have affected the 5G ecosystem, the opportunity for Indian companies in 5G is enormous. Optical fiber has evolved in its maturity and in its form factors to drive the infrastructure medium for the “wireline” side of the network. It continues to be the preferred medium for high-speed network delivery, says Chris Rice, CEO - Access Solutions, STL.

As data demand rises and advanced use cases of IoT, AI, and immersive experiences emerge, digital networks need to deliver ultra-high bandwidth, low latency, and intelligence at the edge. Open RAN enables this evolution cost-effectively. STL said Accellus is based on the converged optical-radio architecture and expects its adoption to rise 250% year-over-year.

What exactly will 6G be? Given that current research is taking place among academics and technology partners in the private sector well ahead of formalized discussions within standardization bodies like the 3GPP, that’s hard to say. It’s fair to think it will build on capabilities associated with 5G, straightforward things like less latency, more speed, more embedded intelligence, and so forth, and will tap into new spectrum, and enable new use cases. But perhaps a better way to understand what 6G could be is to assess the state of currently maturing technologies that will likely inform the answer to the above question.

Change is the only constant in life as well as in business. From adapting to new operational paradigms to mitigating unprecedented business disruptions, professionals in all industries are dealing with major changes. Most of these changes are either caused by or can be mitigated by emerging technologies. The Accountant’s role is not immune to this constant change. From being a “cashier” or a “bookkeeper” to playing an increasingly strategic role, the nuances of traditional accounting have moved far ahead. And the dawn of newer technologies in areas such as cloud-based data management, advanced analytics, and process automation, is poised to redefine the world of finance.

NEW DELHI: Digital networks integrator STL Tuesday appointed former Ericsson India CEO Paolo Colella to its Advisory Council. In his new role, Colella will work closely with STL and its Board of Directors to advise the company on the strategic roadmap for its Network services business. Paolo comes with over 25 years of experience in telecommunications, technology, and professional services.

Building flexible fronthaul to deliver 5G – is it easy, is it worth it, is it happening? A panel finds out at the ‘5G Driving Transformation’ conference. The kind of latency and reliability that advanced 5G applications hinge on, need a specific architecture approach. Is fronthaul a new media term then or is it a foundational aspect for disaggregation and impact for 5G? A panel sat in a special huddle at the 5G Conference organised by Voice&Data; and dug deeper into that question. What are the changes we need as we segue from 4G to 5G, specially for legacy players and from a fronthaul angle, asked Vikram Tiwathia, Deputy Director General, COAI. The panel unlocked some interesting peeks here.

oding is a way to experiment with problem-solving. - Namita Devadas, Intuit Tech is no longer a niche vertical. Everything we do in our lives is touched by tech. - Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners. The rapid expansion of 5G technology is a sine qua non for accessibility of seamless 4K video quality streaming solutions. - Subhasish Gupta, Brightcove. 5G is just not faster than 4G. It has a layer of high-powered, ubiquitous and cheap computing atop the connectivity layer. - Anjali Byce, STL.

As the world recovers from the pandemic, long-term sustainability concerns are becoming increasingly central to critical institutional choices. This compels organizations to evaluate priorities and optimize reforms in their business practices, embracing ESG along with financial materiality and thus, broader stakeholder concerns. Spearheading this shift is the telecom sector, upholding the digital backbone of global value chains. Here the 5th Generation of wireless communication with sub-millisecond latency and ultra-high throughput offers many promises for ongoing socio-economic transformation at scale.

NEW DELHI: Digital networks integrator STL Wednesday said it has bagged a Cloud-native SaaS-based Billing Support System and Operational Support System (BSS & OSS) rollout deal from Yemen’s Sabafon. Under the 5-year long deal, STL will deliver converged, charging, billing, and customer relationship management (CRM) solution that will be deployed in a public cloud infrastructure, according to an official statement. Due to the prevailing geopolitical situation in the region, Yemeni telco Sabafon said it has been facing business challenges including end-to-end revenue management of complete customer operations due to the legacy charging process.

Digital networks integrator Sterlite Technologies NSE -3.51 %' board-approved committee, which is looking into road map for reorganisation of the businesses in a tax and regulatory efficient manner, is expected to give its recommendations by mid-November, a top official said. STL Group CEO Anand Agarwal said that much of the reorganisation exercise is likely be put into action this financial year.

5G is the poster technology of the communication world. It is supposed to be 100 times faster than its predecessor. A technology that will download movies in seconds, bring virtual reality closer to reality, and nurture millions of smart devices. However, I believe it would be fairly disappointing if 5G does not leave a much bigger impact than that. It has the potential to be the thread the connected world of the future hangs on to. 5G is set to bring massive changes to every industry. Needless to say, it would heavily impact the workforce landscape as well. A study indicates 5G is set to support 22.8 million jobs, which is quite a significant number. Moreover, increased automation, accessibility and speed will see greater efficiencies, richer collaborations and real-time decision making.

On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, we reached out to business and HR leaders to know more about the lessons that they learnt from their teachers that have stayed with them over the course of all these years and have helped them tide over uncertain times.

Mental wellness at the workplace has been an issue of concern for over a while but with the pandemic, the mental health challenges employees have been facing has spiked. The recent major disruption has made employee mental wellbeing a top priority for employers and HR leaders as the sense of uncertainty persist. The pandemic has completely transformed the way the masses perceived wellness and the relation of mental health with wellbeing, with 86 per cent of people equally engaging in activities to improve both physical as well as mental health. The survey, undertaken by ICICI Lombard, one of India’s private general insurance companies, aims to understand the proactive interest towards health and wellness in today’s post-pandemic era. The survey further revealed that the prime motivator for every 2 in 3 respondents was being aware of the benefits of healthy lifestyles, to take a step in the right direction.

Digital networks integrator STL Thursday appointed Paul Atkinson as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for its Optical Networking Business. Paul’s appointment is in line with the widened portfolio and the increased global reach of STL’s Optical business,” the company in a release said. Atkinson takes over his new role from Ankit Agarwal who will now serve as a Whole-Time Director on the Board.