The Microsoft Worldwide Telecommunications Industry team is pleased to share with you the August 2019 Telecommunications Industry newsletter, available to both internal and external audiences. We encourage you to share it with your colleagues and distribute it to your customers and partners as appropriate. As always, we welcome your input, feedback, and suggestions!

1. Telecommunications Industry Newsletter
August 2019
The Microsoft Worldwide Telecommunications Industry team is pleased to share
with you the August 2019 Telecommunications Industry newsletter, available to
both internal and external audiences. We encourage you to share it with your
colleagues and distribute it to your customers and partners as appropriate. As
always, we welcome your input, feedback, and suggestions!
Transforming to a digital business is a key theme across global communications
service providers and many industry leaders are pursuing a new paradigm by
leveraging agile new technologies, systems, and services to enable this
transformation. This newsletter showcases how the telecommunications industry
leverages Microsoft and partner technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence, big
data, virtual network functions, and blockchain to accelerate the transformation to
digital services.
Microsoft in the News
Telecom industry news featuring Microsoft business, products, services,
and hardware partners.
Microsoft and Jio: Accelerating India’s
digital progress
Microsoft announced a comprehensive long-term
alliance with Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio), a
subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. This is an
exciting advancement that will accelerate India’s
digital transformation and bring the latest
technologies to millions of businesses across the country. This alliance represents a unique
collaboration between our two organizations.
Jio has transformed the communication and data landscape here in India, connecting
more than 340 million people in the country with the power of affordable data. Microsoft
has helped businesses revolutionize the global landscape of digital transformation with
the worldview of intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. With a solid foundation of trust,

2. we’re committed to accelerating the pace of innovation and delivering more value to
every customer, be it large enterprises, SMBs, startups or consumers, and our partners.
This unique alliance also reinforces our commitment to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
This announcement was shared as part of the Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting
where Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D. Ambani shared the news.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared his thoughts as well and reinforced our enthusiasm
for the work we will do together and the potential benefits our alliance can bring to
organizations across India, and to the country itself.
more
RILAGM 2019 | Jio-Microsoft Cloud Partnership
ETTelecom | Reliance Jio, Microsoft partner to bring Azure cloud to Jio’s data centers
LightReading | Reliance Jio & Microsoft Team Up on Cloud
FierceTelecom | India's Reliance teams up with Microsoft Azure on 10-year alliance
TechCrunch | India’s Reliance Jio inks deal with Microsoft to expand Office 365, Azure to more businesses; unveils
broadband, blockchain and IoT platforms
Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft
ask FCC for speedy low-power Wi-Fi
tethering
It’s rare to see Apple, Google, Microsoft,
Facebook, HP, Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, and
Marvell all on the same side of the aisle, but
there’s at least one place they publicly agree: they
want ...

3. It's Groundhog Day! Explaining AT&T's
Microsoft & IBM Deals
AT&T recently cut a big cloud deal with IBM. Then
AT&T cut a big cloud deal with Microsoft the next
day. That doesn't mean we're caught in a
timeloop – the deals are different, and have
plenty ...
Demo: Minecraft Earth at Microsoft
Inspire 2019
Mobile network operators are excited about the
potential of Minecraft Earth - real Minecraft
experiences anchored right into local
neighborhoods, so when you and your friends
play, they get to see what you've built, exactly
where you placed it.
AT&T's Stephenson: Microsoft, IBM
cloud deals will drive down network, IT
costs
AT&T sees many benefits to its recently
announced cloud deals with IBM and Microsoft,
but one of the biggest is driving down its network
costs. AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall
Stephenson delved into ...
'Big Four' Accountancy Firm KPMG
Partners With Blockchain Providers
Microsoft, R3, TOMIA For Telecoms -
forbes
KPMG, known as one of the 'Big Four' in the world
of accounting, is teaming up with a trio of
software companies heavily tied into the
enterprise blockchain space to develop a solution
for telecom ...

4. Azure Data Box Edge: A little bit of
Azure in your data center
Microsoft's family of Azure Data Box devices is an
important part of its cloud migration pitch.
Getting data from your data center to the cloud
can be an issue, bandwidth notwithstanding. At
heart ...
Microsoft Teams reaches 13 million
daily active users, introduces 4 new
ways for teams to work better together
Telcos can leverage partners Five9, Genesys, NICE,
ASC Technologies, Verint, and others to enable
integration between Teams and contact center
solutions.
Microsoft Azure spins up new cloud
tools for media and entertainment
companies | FierceVideo
The Video industry is an ever-changing world
where big ideas come along daily. Cable, Media
and Entertainment, Telco, and Tech companies
rely on FierceVideo for the latest news, trends,
and analysis on video creation and distribution,
OTT delivery …
At the Microsoft global Hackathon,
customers break something to make
something
Great to hack with partner T-Mobile and their T-
Racer remote-controlled car to promote and
demystify Machine Learning and Edge Computing
across Wi-Fi, 4G, & 5G – a paradigm that
relocates computation from data centers to a
network’s edge.

5. Microsoft’s cloud business is kicking it |
FierceTelecom
We are building Azure as the world's computer,
addressing real-world operational sovereignty
and regulatory needs. We’ve 54 data center
regions, more than any other cloud provider. And,
we were the first in the Middle East and in Africa.
Microsoft Sharpens Azure Governance
With BlueTalon Buy | SDxCentral
Microsoft has acquired data-privacy provider
BlueTalon, which offers a unified data access
control platform that includes insight into data
security blind spots. The BlueTalon product allows
for ...
Microsoft a Leader in The Forrester
Wave™: Enterprise BI Platforms
Telcos and ISVs are doing amazing things with
Power BI, visually slicing and dicing through data
to find elusive insights that improve NPS, churn,
revenue leakage, and more
The Internet of Things is going
mainstream, Microsoft survey finds
Over 80% of large companies around the world
are adopting IoT solutions, stoking an “invisible
revolution” that will reach 94% of enterprises in
two years, according to a new Microsoft survey,
IoT Signals. But that widening commercial
embrace of ...

6. Merkle: Google ad growth slowed,
Microsoft gained with Yahoo in Q2 -
Search Engine Land
Merkle: Google ad growth slowed, Microsoft
gained with Yahoo in Q2 The Verizon Media
transition helped propel Microsoft Advertising's
shopping ad growth among Merkle’s client base
last quarter.
Microsoft-AT&T partnership is a
preemptive strike in 5G
The new Microsoft-AT&T partnership could
position both companies very competitively for
5G, although there are a few risks involved.
Corporate IoT – a path to intrusion –
Microsoft Security Response Center
Several sources estimate that by the year 2020
some 50 billion IoT devices will be deployed
worldwide. IoT devices are purposefully designed
to connect to a network and many are simply
connected to the internet with little management
or oversight.
Microsoft Teams With MSPs to Hook
Enterprises Into Azure | Light Reading
Microsoft is teaming with eight managed service
providers (MSPs), including SD-WAN specialist
Aryaka, as part of a new effort by the web services
giant to help enterprises connect to its Azure ...

7. AT&T CFO Stephens says IBM, Microsoft
cloud deals a two-way street |
FierceTelecom
While AT&T is on target for meeting its goal of
having 75% of its network functions virtualized by
next year, the next frontier is the cloud. Speaking
at Oppenheimer’s annual Technology ...
Microsoft and Samsung partner to
empower you to achieve more
Today, we joined Samsung on stage in New York
City at their Galaxy Unpacked event to share a
vision for the future of productivity and how we
will continue to partner in the coming years to
empower people to achieve more across new
Samsung devices an …
UK is falling behind on IoT adoption –
Microsoft | Telecoms.com
A new report from Microsoft suggests the UK is
falling behind the trend when it comes to IOT
adoption, risking losing out on the economic
benefits of the digital economy. At the moment, it
seems the UK can’t do much right in the digital
world.
Tech experts use Microsoft Azure to
better understand urban air quality
A group of German technology experts, including
from automotive supplier WKW, are using the
Microsoft Azure cloud to better understand urban
air quality and help citizens make informed
decisions. The project, called Airflow, was set up
by WKW’s Lisa …

8. GitHub’s CI/CD Expansion Set to
Change Workflows
GitHub is integrating a much sought-after
continuous integration/continuous development
(CI/CD) tool into its Actions product that expands
its ability to serve broader needs of the developer
community and could alter the market’s
competitive ...
Editor's corner—Microsoft 'friends' the
telecom industry | FierceTelecom
Prior to current CEO Satya Nadella taking the
helm in 2014, Microsoft wasn't known for its
willingness to partner with other companies.
Instead of insisting that the rest of the world
subscribe to ...
South Africa TV White Space Project
Receives Support from USTDA
The support from USTDA today validates what
we've seen in South Africa and many other
locations – TVWS is a valuable and important
technology for enabling affordable and reliable
connectivity.
Microsoft's Plan to Expand Broadband
to Rural Communities
As 2020 presidential hopefuls push their policies
to expand rural broadband access, tech giant
Microsoft has a plan of their own. Shelley
McKinley, head of technology and corporate
responsibility, joins Cheddar from the Iowa State
Fair with more.

9. Cloud in a cloud: Amdocs and SES
Networks deliver “Dynamic Enterprise
Edge”
Cloud in a cloud. Using ONAP in the Microsoft
Azure public cloud yields rapid time to market
and ease of scale Why, as we build the “Telco
Cloud”, does the industry feel obliged to use
traditional on-prem infrastructure?
5 ways SMS Organizer will make your
train journey more convenient
One of the biggest pet peeves during train
journeys is spotty internet connectivity. The
mighty smartphone in your palm often feels
useless as your train passes through the middle of
nowhere. What if we told you that the humble
SMS, which we now …
Customer Stories & Case Studies
New telecommunications customer stories, case studies, and more.
The Shiproom / Episode 13 / T-Mobile

10. Today Brad spends a few minutes with the EVP/CIO of T-Mobile, Cody Sanford. They talk
about how to quantitatively communicate the value of an IT organization to company
leadership, how to attract and retain the best technical talent, and a communications
expert calls in with some new emoji ideas for T-Mobile.
Cody also talks about how they deployed and use Microsoft 365 services, and he explains
how he made his organization bigger and broader than traditional IT -- and how that has
impacted the way they work with other teams, the way they tackle projects, and even the
way they recruit.
Other topics include: Electric scooters, eating grasshoppers, getting to the office at 5am,
hot dog names naming rights, and clowns.
People-centric approach accelerates
adoption of new ways of working for
Swiss company
Swisscom is one of Switzerland’s leading
information and communications technologies
(ICT) companies, serving both business and
residential customers. To continue to enhance the
value of technology for its customers and
employees, the company ...
Rogers builds more inclusive culture
that supports diverse team members,
with help from Microsoft 365
Rogers is one of the most respected companies in
Canada. We were built by Ted Rogers, an
innovative entrepreneur with a single radio
station, and grew into this great company that
other great companies and industries rely on
every day to conduct ...
CenturyLink | Optimizing the supply
chain in the cloud
Today, the technology and processes used to
manufacture products and get them to market
are as critical to a business as the product itself.
Cutting-edge technologies, teamed with the

11. Microsoft Azure cloud, can bring new levels of
efficiency
Kuwaiti telecommunications expert
Swiftel International provides electronic
payment solutions
Microsoft Cloud delivers productivity boost for
telecom leader through next generation field
services
AT&T | Kansas Increases Statewide
Emergency Response Efficiency With
AT&T and RapidDeploy
The RapidDeploy Nimbus platform is hosted in
the cloud on Microsoft Azure Government and
accessed through a browser. Azure Government
employs world-class security and compliance
services critical to the U.S. government for all
systems and ...
SPOT TIM - 5G - The Future Together
Humanity and technology are intertwined thanks to the infinite potential of the new 5G
network that breaks down distances and expands our possibilities. Once again, TIM's
commitment plays a central role in the country's digital transformation.

12. U Mobile GoOffice with Microsoft
Office, Unlimited Voice & Internet, 1TB
U Mobile announced GoOffice today in
collaboration with Microsoft Malaysia. GoOffice is
a unique and affordable monthly bundle that
offers voice, data and Microsoft Office 365’s suite
of applications. It aims to enable all businesses,
especially SMEs.
SES Pioneers Cloud-Based Network
Automation and Service Orchestration
SES Pioneers Cloud-Based Network Automation
and Service Orchestration. SES teams with
Amdocs to operationalize the first ONAP
orchestration platform for scalable, automated
delivery of satellite-enabled network services on
Azure
How Telefónica’s data modelling
principles shaped its global approach -
TM Forum Inform
Communications service providers (CSPs)
arguably have access to the most comprehensive
insights into customers’ usage and behaviors,
leaving them well positioned to solve customers’
issues, fast, develop responsive new products and
services, and enables …
SoftBank secures $108B for Vision Fund
2 - Mobile World Live
SoftBank Group announced it lined up about
$108 billion in contributions for its second Vision
Fund, with Microsoft a key supporter of the
second round. In a statement, the Japanese
company, which launched the first Vision Fund in
2016 ...

13. Awards reaffirm Ooredoo Group’s
progress as a global digital enabler
Ooredoo was awarded the ‘Digital Transformation
Award’ at the Microsoft Digital Transformation
Awards for its new revolutionary sports #AI, which
transforms how fans engage with their favorite
sports.
Partner News
Telecommunications partner press releases, highlights, and more.
Amdocs Announces Expansion of Global Strategic Agreement with
Microsoft
Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services to communications and media
companies, today announced the extension of its global business, technology and services
collaboration with Microsoft to new strategic domains that will help communication
service providers (CSPs) continue to shape the connected society with differentiated,
cloud-based services. Transitioning industry accelerators to the cloud means CSPs can
now more rapidly launch innovative offerings to market. Amdocs and Microsoft will
collaborate across several domains, including Data and AI, NFV and virtualized
networking, IoT (including eSIM) and Media.
NTT DATA Becomes a Microsoft Azure
Expert Managed Service Provider
NTT DATA Services, a recognized leader in global
technology services, today announced the
company has been recognized as a Microsoft
Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP).
To be identified as an Azure Expert MSP ...

14. Thought Leadership Series: SkyKick -
Accelerate time to market
Having an optimized bundled offering can
transform your net profitability per Office 365
seat from $8/year under CSP-only to $40+/year; a
5-10X increase! We hear how partners by
adopting Buy vs. Build strategies, and by
partnering with best of …
Cubic Telecom - How to optimize your
LTE IoT connectivity
Several members of our Cubic Team attended the
Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas to demo our
Cloud-to-Chip solution to IoT device makers,
system integrators, and the Microsoft Azure cloud
team.
Atos Becomes a Microsoft Azure Expert
Managed Service Provider (MSP)
Atos, a global leader in digital transformation,
today announced that it has successfully achieved
the audited Microsoft Azure Expert Managed
Service Provider designation from Microsoft. An
Azure Expert MSP is defined as a partner capable
of delivering …
Synchronoss partners with Microsoft to
deliver infrastructure for Smart Buildings
Synchronoss Technologies is partnering with
Microsoft to deliver an industry-leading Smart
Buildings solution. By leveraging Microsoft Azure
and joining Microsoft’s Azure IoT solutions
accelerator program, Synchronoss will develop
and offer a best-..

15. Connecting Cars To The Internet Is A
Growth Business, Supplier Cubic
Telecom Says - forbes.com
Cubic Telecom, a privately funded, high-tech
automotive supplier in the large and rapidly
growing field of connecting cars and trucks to the
Internet, recently announced it secured about $26
Capgemini Group strengthens its
relationship with Microsoft in new
initiative using the breadth of Azure
This new initiative focuses on four key solutions
based on Azure: Modernize and Migrate Legacy
Applications, Data Center Transformation,
Develop Cloud-Native Applications and Migrate
SAP ...
Events & Webcasts
Upcoming and recent telecommunications industry events and webcasts
featuring Microsoft and our partners.
International Broadcasters Conference
We invite you to engage with us at the International Broadcasters Conference (IBC),
September 13-17, 2019 at the RAI Amsterdam. The future is here. See what Inspired
Creativity, Content and Experiences looks like at IBC and empower every person and
organization on the planet to achieve more.
Advances in technology and innovations in intelligent cloud are enabling game-changing
breakthroughs for media and entertainment industries. At IBC 2019, Microsoft can help
you empower media and entertainment organizations to achieve more by helping them

16. inspire creativity and collaboration, optimize their digital media supply chain and to
engage and monetize audiences.
Our experts and partners will help you to:
• Empower your creative teams to produce higher quality and more innovative
content by augmenting human ingenuity.
• Manage your content better and get it to market faster by moving it to an
intelligent cloud.
• Grow audiences while increasing advertising and subscription revenue by
delivering unforgettable experiences.
You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-to-one with Microsoft thought leaders and
industry experts to deep dive into your particular areas of interest at IBC 2019. We are
offering booth tours showcasing intelligent cloud and our partner solutions.
Join us in Hall 1 – C27 to meet our partners and experience how media companies can
leverage the Microsoft Azure intelligent cloud and partner solutions built on Azure gain
sustainable competitive advantage in a changing media environment. Our worldwide
leadership teams are onsite and available to meet with you and your team to share our
perspectives on the media industry, cover product development, discuss your roadblocks
and see the wealth of solutions in action.
Leverage IoT solutions and devices on
premises with DataBox Edge, Azure
Stack and 3rd party dev kits, w/ PTC
The intelligent edge is a continually expanding set
of connected systems and devices that gather and
analyze data. Users get real-time insights and
experiences, delivered by highly responsive and
contextually aware apps running on the edge ...

17. Microsoft Azure welcomes customers,
partners, and industry leaders to
Siggraph 2019!
SIGGRAPH is back in Los Angeles and so is
Microsoft Azure! I hope you can join us at Booth
#1351 to hear from leading customers and
innovative partners. Teradici, Bebop, Support
Partners, Blender, and more will be there to
showcase the latest in cloud …
Do you have news to share about Microsoft or our partners in
telecommunications? Send us your news to be included in the next edition.
For more information on the Microsoft Telecommunications industry visit:
microsoft.com/telco @MSFTTelco