Today’s telecom news includes announcements on Optus outage, SingTel, telecom security testing labs in India, Infosys, Sunrise, SouthernWaves, among others.
Optus Outage Shakes SingTel, Emergency Calls Disrupted Across Australia
Shares of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) fell over 2 percent after a technical failure at its subsidiary, Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom provider. The outage lasted 13 hours and disrupted emergency call services across South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, affecting around 600 customers. The failure has been linked to four deaths, including an infant, a 68-year-old woman, and a 74-year-old man. The disruption occurred during a network upgrade. Optus CEO Stephen Rue acknowledged that standard procedures were not followed. Optus is cooperating with government investigations and will publish findings from its internal review, Reuters reports.
India Strengthens Telecom Security with Nine Testing Labs
India now has nine Telecom Security Testing Laboratories (TSTLs) for IP routers. The National Centre for Communication Security (NCCS), under the Department of Telecommunications, designated Compliance International Pvt. Ltd. in Noida as a new TSTL. These labs, located in Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, provide compliance testing for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), importers, and service providers. The TSTLs conduct security testing for 27 categories of telecom equipment, including IP routers, Wi-Fi Customer Premises Equipment (CPEs), Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), Optical Network Terminals (ONTs), and 23 network functions of the 5G Core. Testing of multiple telecom products is ongoing in these labs, IANS reports.
Infosys Powers Sunrise Telecom’s AI Transformation with Unified IT Services
Infosys has expanded its collaboration with Sunrise, Switzerland’s second-largest telecom operator, to advance IT transformation. The partnership focuses on building a technology foundation to support artificial intelligence integration and improve operational capabilities. Infosys will provide IT services including design, development, testing, deployment, and operations, consolidating multiple vendors into a single portfolio and transitioning various applications for Sunrise. Using its AI and analytics expertise and elements of Infosys Topaz, a generative AI platform, Infosys will support Sunrise’s transformation into an AI-powered organization, delivering operational improvements through data-driven insights and automation.
SouthernWaves Brings High-Capacity Fiber to Atlanta’s Tech Hub
Southern Telecom and Seimitsu formed SouthernWaves, a joint venture to provide fiber-optic network services across the Southeast. The alliance expands Southern Telecom’s services from dark fiber to managed lit services, while Seimitsu manages bandwidth on secure fiber routes. SouthernWaves secured an agreement to serve the South Downtown Atlanta project, covering 56 buildings across 10 blocks, creating a second location for Atlanta Tech Village. The development spans one million square feet. SouthernWaves will provide high-capacity fiber infrastructure to support data transfer and emergency response coordination.
Shafana Fazal
