A focus on February – February’s client coverage highlights

February is one of the busiest months of the year here at Babel. A record number of our clients attended the world-renowned Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, meaning the team spent the month organising briefings and pitching press releases. As some of the team flew to the event to offer on-the-ground support for our clients, the team back home held the fort and secured brilliant pieces of coverage across tech trade and business / national publications. It was a tough choice, but here are just some of my favourites from February. 

Kicking off with Orange Cyberdefense which featured in Computer Weekly to comment on the prolific cyberattacks on European oil facilities, which spread from distribution facilities in Germany to many of the facilities in Belgium and the Netherlands. UK Product Manager, Dominic Trott, noted that critical national infrastructure is becoming an increasingly popular target for hackers. This is due to the potentially disastrous consequences that could occur if these services are partially or severely disrupted which is making these facilities even more attractive to malicious individuals.

Continuing the security theme…after Apple announced that it is limiting advert tracking, Google is following suit, revealing that it is set to limit advert tracking on Android phones over the next two years. EMEA CMO of Acquia, Tom Bianchi, told the Metro that Google’s decision clearly emphasises the idea that the value of privacy and transparency initiatives are being noticed and will soon become a standard rather than an outlier. Tom also stated that big tech companies are starting to wake up to the fact that this ‘opaque data usage is no longer acceptable’. We hope that even more big tech companies will follow suit and put data privacy above financial gain.

It was great to see client Ciena featured in ZDNet to discuss ‘ the Affordable Connectivity Programme‘, which was launched by the FCC in response to the broadband affordability gap that keeps more than 47 million Americans offline. Any eligible households will receive up to a $30 monthly discount on internet service, up to $75 discount per month if your household is on qualifying Tribal lands and a one-time discount of up to $100 for a laptop, tablet or desktop computer. The White House has just announced that more than 10 million households enrolled in the programme which is a massive step towards bridging the affordable connectivity gap. Although this programme is a step in the right direction, Gary Smith, CEO of client Ciena joined in on the conversation and gave his view. Gary told ZDNet that the funding will take a while to reach the right individuals and that we should not expect the digital divide to close overnight.

Problems could be on the horizon for our regular Christmas shopping catalogues and brochures this year. Many Finnish paper workers have gone on strike which has impacted the rate of production. This led Jeremy Walters, chief executive of Paragon Customer Communications, to speak with the Telegraph and warn of the impending supply crunch. He estimates that 70% of the product that is normally made at the mills is being affected by the strikes, which could result in a stock shortage leading up to their busiest festive months.

And last but not least…client Cohere Technologies has raised $46mn in Series D funding, meaning that the start-up is worth a staggering $500mn. Following this investment, telecoms reporter at Bloomberg, Tom Seal, recognised the notable funding and how it will be used to commercialise new Universal Spectrum Multiplier (USM) solution. Their USM solution has significant consequences for telcos, hence why major players on the RIC, VMWare, Intel are investing in Cohere. This is a big step for Cohere and we are excited to see what they do next.

And that concludes my focus on February and another month of great coverage for our clients. If you are interested in becoming part of the major discussions in the news at the moment and getting your company’s message out into the crowded media space, please be sure to get in touch.