INCOMPAS-Fall-2020-Daily-1

« 1 0 » THE INCOMPAS SHOW I SEPTEMBER 14 – 16, 2020 www.bekabusinessmedia.com S E P T E M B E R 1 4 - 16 THE 2020 T ilson, a national network development and information infrastructure professional services firm, announced the promo- tion of Kelly Brewer to chief operating officer (COO) along with Mike Dow’s new role as Chief Innovation Officer, in addition to his current role as Chief Information Officer. As COO, Brewer will lead Tilson’s ongoing operational growth and oversee more than 500 professionals who design, build, operate and main- tain the network infrastructure for telecom carrier, utility and government clients across the country. Brewer’s expanded responsibilities include oversight and strategic integration of Tilson’s high-performing Consulting Division. Dow, meanwhile, in his new role will lead Tilson’s innovation efforts, which include research, development and commercialization initiatives for Tilson’s tool set and service offerings. Previously, Brewer served as exec- utive vice president of Telecommunica- tions, where she led Tilson’s telecom units and oversaw the strategic planning and business development of Tilson’s largest division. Brewer joined the company in 2011 and estab- lished and led Tilson’s self-performing tower construction and engineering divisions serving wireline, wireless and utility customers. Her leadership helped drive Tilson’s double- and triple-digit growth percentages, particularly in the areas of engineering and construction self- performance capability. “Kelly is a trailblazer and major contributor to Tilson’s incredible growth,” said Tilson CEO Josh Broder. “Since joining the team, Kelly has been instrumental in scaling up our wireless construction, engineering and OSP divisions, putting Tilson among the top industry leaders.” As Chief Innovation Officer, Dow will leverage Tilson’s current stra- tegic and academic partnerships, while pursuing new part- nerships with other leaders in the infor- mation infrastructure innovation space – including key Tilson vendors and employees. Through this effort, Tilson will continue to invest in leveraging artificial intelligence, cloud computing and integrated systems for infrastruc- ture monitoring and management. “Mike has been crucial to every stage of Tilson’s growth: founding the company, leading our construction IT team and scaling our consulting prac- tice,” said Broder. “The creation of our first chief innovation officer position reflects our increased focus on tech- nology, innovation and the future of information infrastructure. Mike’s entre- preneurial spirt, coupled with his ability to adapt and pivot quickly in emerging markets has been extraordinary and make him ideally suited to lead Tilson’s new structured and disciplined approach to its innovation efforts.” p Tilson Promotes Kelly Brewer to COO; Expands Role of CIO Mike Dow Kelly Brewer Mike Dow Bandwidth, NC State University Partner for Robocalling Study N ew research from North Caro- lina State University (NCSU) has recently debunked some common misconceptions about robo- calling. Last year, Bandwidth and NCSU partnered on a research study – the results of which are published in the paper, “Who’s Calling? Characterizing Robocalls through Audio and Metadata Analysis” – whereby Bandwidth provided the university with the use of a SIP trunk and 66,000 phone numbers that had been disconnected by Bandwidth’s fraud mitigation team for violations of the company’s Acceptable Use Policy. The study, which ran from February 2019 to January 2020, allowed the NCSU research team to collect data on various traffic patterns through call detail records (CDR) and SIP signaling. One of the most surprising results of the 11-month study was that the number of fraudulent robocalling campaigns didn’t increase over time, instead remaining steady for the duration of the study. This finding was contrary to the commonly held understanding that robocalling was on the rise prior to the global shutdowns caused by COVID-19. Also contrary to the warnings against answering suspicious calls for fear of getting even more calls as a result, there was no increase in the volume of calls after they were answered. In the industry’s push toward reestablishing trust in the communica- tions between legitimate businesses and their customers, Bandwidth has taken an active and influential role. The company implemented a STIR/ SHAKEN solution on its Tier-1 network at the end of 2019 and has completed interoperability with major carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast to allow the exchange of traffic. The FCC requires service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 30, 2021. “We want to abolish robocalling entirely, and a project of this scope puts us one step closer to achieving (Bandwidth continued pg 11)