Telecom Daily
Welcome to Faulkner's Telecom Daily. We publish Monday through Friday, updating top stories as events warrant.
Wednesday, November 13...
Disney+ Launch Day Kicks Off with Connection Issues
The Walt Disney Company's highly
anticipated Disney+ streaming service made a less-than-perfect debut, with many
users complaining of technical issues and other problems. The streaming service
offers access to much of Disney's own back catalogue of movies, TV shows,
documentaries, and more, as well as original series like Star Wars: The
Mandalorian, several upcoming series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and
many new family friendly offerings. Unfortunately for many hoping to enjoy this
content on launch day, several technical obstacles stood in their way. The most
common complaint was the inability to connect entirely, with an error message
appropriately sporting Disney's Wreck-it Ralph replacing all content on the
platform. At the peak of the issues,
Downdetector.com was
fielding about 8,000 complaints per hour. Disney quickly acknowledged the issue,
saying it was due to customer demand for the service having "exceeded [its] high
expectations." The company promised to work quickly to resolve the problems, and
appears to have succeeded, as the reports of connectivity issues rested at a
small fraction of their original volume by prime time viewing hours on launch
day. Disney+ is available now for $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year, with a
seven-day free trial available for new users.
AT&T Expands Relationship with Amdocs
AT&T signed a new agreement with Amdocs, a
provider of software and services to communications and media companies, to
expand their existing alliance in an effort to "modernize and upgrade AT&T’s
digital business support systems under a multi-year managed services agreement."
Under the terms of the deal, Amdocs will support AT&T’s business transformation
strategy, including its customer experience and digital enablement programs, as
well as AT&T's efforts in new areas, such as data analytics and security. AT&T
claims the new level of cooperation will also help it to accelerate its ongoing
implementation of DevOps to "address business priorities and bring innovation to
market in an agile manner." No terms for the expanded agreement were disclosed.
Sprint Grows 1 Million Project Efforts to Four More Atlanta School
Districts
Sprint and the
1 Million Project Foundation announced
an expansion of their joint effort to bring connectivity to high school students
who lack home Internet access. The latest phase of the duo's charitable efforts
will target Atlanta, Georgia, where they program will expand from its current
support of two school districts to a total of seven districts within the metro
area. Sprint claims this will double the number of students supported by the
program to 20,000 in that metro. The carrier estimates that the free services it
offers to program participants in the region are valued at almost $7.6 million,
while the free mobile devices provided under the program are valued at $2.1
million.
....Michael Gariffo, Faulkner Information Services
New Security Management Product Is Now Available on the Web
Faulkner's newest information service, Security Management Practices, is now available to subscribers over the Web! For information about subscribing, just send an email message to sales@faulkner.com or call 800-843-0460 (856-662-2070).
Site content copyright 2019, Faulkner Information Services, a division of Information Today. All rights reserved.