Tech

Google Duo will soon get a home screen redesign with a ‘New Call’ button. The new button is said to help make calls more easily. The ‘New Call’ button will also let users call their Assistant “Home” device. The new home screen user interface (UI) still retains the search bar at the top of the screen

Djibouti has confirmed that it will sell of a chunk of its incumbent telecoms operator, but questions remain over how attractive the asset will prove to would-be investors. The government of the Republic of Djibouti on Sunday revealed that ministers had adopted a bill to allow the sale of state-owned enterprises, thereby paving the way

Mid-sized US operators can now apply for money to swap out Huawei and ZTE kit from their networks. US Congress scraped together $1.9 billion of public money at the end of last year, to bribe operators to get rid of any Chinese gear they may have in their networks and replace it with nice, wholesome

Deactivating UPI payments becomes one of the important tasks if you’ve lost your mobile phone. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become a prominent payment system in India, with UPI transactions crossing over 2,800 million in June. Starting from bill payments to transferring money from one bank account to another, UPI can be used for most

US B2B comms outfit Lumen Technologies is looking to raise US$5 billion or more by selling certain consumer operations, according to a rumour that emerged this week. When Lumen adopted its current brand just under a year ago, it appeared the writing could be on the wall for the legacy CenturyLink side of its business,

Ericsson and Telia have successfully trialled a new feature that can improve smartphone battery life and lower latency in 5G standalone networks. The pair worked with Qualcomm to test Radio Resource Control (RRC Inactive), a feature that essentially creates a new inactive state for smartphones, reducing the amount of signalling required as the device transitions

It’s possible to get a decent 55-inch Ultra-HD television for under Rs. 40,000 today, from popular brands such as Xiaomi, Hisense, AmazonBasics, and Vu, to name a few. On the other hand, premium options from brands such as Sony, LG, and Samsung cost well over Rs. 1,00,000 for the same size, and there are still

It’s official: Ericsson is being punished by China for Sweden’s decision to ban Huawei. Otherwise thing’s are looking OK for the kit vendor. Ericsson’s net sales fell 1% year-on-year buy were up 8% when adjusted for adjustments that once more worked in Ericsson’s favour. The reason for this was a sales decline of SEK 2.5

Bell Canada has become the latest major telecom to announce its latest public cloud deal, this time hooking up with Google Cloud to give its network and IT infrastructure a leg up. The deal brings together Bell’s 5G network with Google’s multi-cloud, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, the telco said. Amongst other things,

Social networking giant Twitter is finally rolling out captions for voice tweets. The company had introduced the feature of voice tweets last year. As per The Verge, Twitter had rolled out the voice tweets feature in June 2020. At the time of the launch, the feature was criticised by many accessibility advocates for not having

Consumers in the UK are once again starting to see the appeal of smart home-related technology and it’s not just about smart TVs. Research firm GfK released the results of its latest annual Smart Home Study UK this week, along with the message that the Covid-19 pandemic has rejuvenated a market that was previously in

South Korean operator KT has become one of the world’s first operators to move its commercial 5G network to standalone mode. 5G SA means the whole network is using 4G-specific technology, as opposed to NSA which adds a layer of 5G-ness on top of legacy infrastructure. China has been ahead of the game on 5G

The government has reportedly withdrawn a letter it had sent to Apple India seeking details on compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 — which are commonly known as the new IT Rules — that came into force earlier this year. The letter is said to have been

BTEE had one of those strategic, news-light briefing sessions today, in which it was stressed that OpenRAN is far down its priority list. The virtual event kicked off at 8am with one of those Kevin Bacon ads – specifically the one in which 5G enables remote shaving. It’s hilarious to see the 5G wireless robotics

The UK’s competition watchdog is proposing to take its investigation into Cellnex’s planned acquisition of CK Hutchison’s towers to the next level unless they can give it a good reason not to. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) late on Thursday announced that its phase one investigation into the deal has raised competition concerns. Specifically,

Google Maps has rolled out a new real-time bus service information feature for users in Delhi. It will enable users to know exactly when the next bus will be arriving at the bus stop, enabling them to plan their commute better. Google has teamed up with Delhi Transport Ministry, Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS),

Some of the biggest telecoms operators in the Middle East have come together to form the industry’s latest OpenRAN alliance. Etisalat, STC, Zain, Mobily and Du have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to signal their joint commitment to rolling out OpenRAN technologies and their intention to help one another on the journey. The goals

The Spanish bit of Vodafone has joined its British and German stablemates in picking Ericsson for its standalone 5G core work. In common with previous announcements this is a ‘precommercial’ thing at this stage, which is presumably somewhere between a trial and the real deal. The announcement says Vodafone Spain has selected Ericsson as its