EncryptoTel weekly digest(10.02.19)

Trump intends to ban telecommunications equipment from China, the litigation of the largest US operators due to 5G and the early launch of the main Telegram network

Donald Trump is ready to ban the use of telecom equipment from China

Next week, US President Donald Trump plans to sign an order banning the use of Chinese telecommunications equipment in US wireless networks, the EL Politico newspaper reports, citing three sources familiar with the discussion. The administration of the American president plans to issue a ban directive on the eve of a major industry conference MWC, which will begin on February 25 in Barcelona. The main reason is the same one that was voiced in disputes with the Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei — a threat to national cybersecurity and the deployment of 5G wireless networks. American security officials have repeatedly stated that the equipment of Chinese companies may contain vulnerabilities that will allow Chinese authorities to infiltrate into the American telecommunications infrastructure.

The White House has not yet commented on this information, but has not denied it either.

Italy will not prohibit the use of equipment from Huawei and ZTE

While the United States and other countries of the Western world are going on a crusade against Chinese manufacturers of telecom equipment, the Italian authorities have made a tricky move and refused to follow their European counterparts. Last week, the Italian government denied rumors that it has plans to prohibit the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment in deploying of 5G networks in the country.

Initially, information about a possible ban appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa, but the next day, the Italian Ministry of Industry denied these rumors.

“We do not intend to take any such initiatives. National security is a priority, and if there are any critical problems that are not present today, the ministry will decide whether to take action or not.

US mobile operator Sprint sued AT&T over 5G network naming

Sprint blames its rival AT&T for calling its network 5G, even though it is actually not, but working according to the standards of the 4G network generation. AT&T is trying to “mislead customers by stating that it currently offers the long-awaited and expected fifth-generation wireless network, known as 5G,” Sprint said

“By making a false claim that they offer a 5G wireless network, although the company only offers the 4G LTE Advanced network, AT&T is trying to unfairly gain an advantage from the saturated wireless market.”

Earlier, AT&T launched a marketing campaign using the terms “5GE”, “5G E” and “5G Evolution”, advertising the current wireless communication. AT&T users see the 5G E symbol on their smartphone screens, but this means that they are connected to the network at up to 400 MB/sec speed, which, according to AT&T, will become the main one in the future for a 5G network.

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York.

The Swiss government raised $ 380 million from the sale of the frequency spectrum for 5G networks

In Switzerland, an auction was held in which frequency blocks were sold in the 700 MHz, 1,400 MHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands. The winners of the auction were three companies — Swisscom, Sunrise Communications and Salt. 46% of the frequencies sold were purchased by the Swisscom operator. The demand for frequencies surpassed the expectations of the Swiss authorities: if initially it was expected to attract 220 million Swiss francs, then they were able to sold frequency range for 380 million Swiss francs.

Available mobile frequencies were auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission (OFCOM) on behalf of the Federal Communications Directorate. The auction was held from January 29 to February 7, 2019.

Earlier, Swisscom has announced that it plans to deploy 5G networks in 60 cities of Switzerland by the end of 2019.

The launch of Telegram’s main blockchain platform network is expected in March, capitalization is estimated at $ 30 billion.

The experts estimated the possible total token cost of the future Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain platform. The capitalization of the future Gram cryptocurrency may reach $ 29.5 billion by the end of 2019, reported by HASH Crypto Investment Bank, founded by Yakov Barinsky from the Qiwi payment system. According to the document, the target cost of Durov’s cryptocurrency by the end of 2019 is estimated at $ 5.9 per Gram. The report states that the indicated value is not a target or fair price, but rather it is “rational network value”.

Presumably, the same estimated target value was given in one of the latest reports from the TON team for investors.

If we compare the possible capitalization of TON cryptocurrency with other cryptocurrencies, TON will take second place after Bitcoin, whose current capitalization is almost $ 60 billion. According to this indicator, Gram will outrun Ripple and Ethereum by 2.5–3 times, whose total value is $ 12 billion and $ 11 billion, respectively.

EncryptoTel continues to refine the interface

This week, our team focused on improving the user experience while working with EncryptoTel applications. There were several modules at once where we found rough edges that needed correction. In addition, the developers of EncryptoTel created and tested a number of convenient and useful functions, and also continued to optimize the mobile version of our virtual PBX with integrated blockchain services.

Over the past week we have:

• implemented and tested the ability to authorize SIP accounts using a single key, which allows to simultaneously authorize on all devices and work under one account
• continued to refine the front-end for the CRM API
• improved performance
• set up a separate API for our support service for the entire virtual PBX
• finalized the front-end for the Support section
• made a number of changes to the settings and the ability to edit the profile in the mobile version
• accomplished other imperceptible but important edits in the PBX code