Orange is reportedly considering buying back an infrastructure asset it sold almost two decades ago to boost its recently-created TOTEM towers business. That’s a surprising development in a world in which telecoms operators are increasingly looking to offload infrastructure or monetise it by bringing in third-party investors, for example. But it also makes sense against
Tech
A couple of months after a US judge overturned Trump’s decision to blacklist Chinese gadget giant Xiaomi, the US government has moved to make it official. Placing Xiaomi on the list of companies that should be shunned by the US on the grounds that they might, in some unspecified way, assist the Chinese military, was
Germany’s lead data protection regulator for Facebook is banning the social network from processing personal data from WhatsApp users because it views the messaging app’s new terms of use as illegal, it said on Tuesday. The decision follows emergency proceedings opened by the regulator in the city-state of Hamburg last month after WhatsApp required users
OneWeb has brokered a deal to acquire TrustComm, the US-based satellite services firm it partnered with a couple of months ago to further its push into the US government, looking particularly at northern latitudes. The companies did not share details on the value of the deal, but said that, regulatory approvals pending, they expect it
Africa-focused telecoms infrastructure specialist Helios Towers has expanded to the Middle East with the acquisition of 2,890 sites from Omantel. Helios has a presence in ten African countries, with a total of 7,356 sites, so this acquisition not only represents a geographical expansion, but a significant increase in its portfolio. The nearly three thousand sites
Flipkart has introduced a new Flagship Fest on its site offering smartphones at a reduced rate thanks to the deals and discounts attached to it. The Flagship Fest has already begun and will go on till May 14. The five-day sale will see phones like iPhone 11, iPhone 12 range, and Samsung Galaxy F62 be
Telefónica’s German operation has taken its first steps in carrier aggregation for 5G and expects hat to lead to the launch of standalone 5G this summer. O2 Deutschland currently offers 5G using 3.6 GHz frequencies, with around 1,000 antennas covering 30-plus cities, it announced a few weeks ago. Now it has upgraded one 5G facility
Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Liran Weiss, CCO at mce Systems, looks at the technological foundations required to make a success of IoT. These days, we see an ever-increasing labeling of products as “smart this” or “smart that.” But where do these
Live audio app Clubhouse will begin introducing a test version of its app to Google’s Android users in the United States on Sunday, the company said, in a potentially big expansion of its market. The app, which spiked in popularity early this year after celebrity billionaire Elon Musk and others appeared in audio chats, has
Orange secured just over half the shares it aimed for in its recent tender offer to minority shareholders of Orange Belgium, but insists that’s a good result. “We have achieved the objective we set for ourselves: offering a fair price to shareholders who wanted to monetize their shares and strengthening our stake in Orange Belgium,”
Verizon has achieved speeds of 4.3 Gbps in a lab trial that saw it aggregate C-band and mmWave spectrum. The US operator said it worked with Ericsson and MediaTek on the trial which took place recently and gives it the opportunity to once again talk up the planned expansion of its 5G Ultra Wideband network.
Vodafone Idea is a popular telecom operator in India, competing with giants like Jio and Airtel. The telco offers prepaid and postpaid services to its subscribers in India, along with other add-on services like caller tunes, value added services, and more. Vodafone Idea subscribers can easily attach caller tunes to their phone numbers instead of
The Italian government is reportedly on the verge of pulling the plug on a plan to create a single fixed-line network due to fears over creating a new telecoms monopoly in the country. There have been media rumblings to that effect for a few weeks and on Thursday Bloomberg reported that Italian Prime Minister Mario
The only fun in covering patent disputes comes when there’s a clear winner, but Ericsson and Samsung aren’t even revealing the terms of their settlement. Late last year we heard Ericsson was suing Samsung after accusing it of taking liberties when it comes to the licensing of FRAND patents. The Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory system
Realme V25 could be launching in China soon. A new leak suggests that the Realme V25 may be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G SoC and may have specifications similar to the Oppo K9 5G that was launched in China this week. The Realme V25 is said to have been listed on China’s TENAA certification
India’s telcos may have got the go-ahead to trial 5G services, but it could be some time before they have 5G spectrum for commercial use in their possession. Delays in allocating spectrum have been par for the course in India over the past decade or so, so it came as no surprise when the Economic
Earlier this week India started 5G equipment trials that excluded Chinese vendors and China thinks that’s bang out of order. While there didn’t appear to be and explicit ban on Chinese vendors at the time, the Chinese embassy in India reckons there was and is not happy. For some reason China decided to frame its
Oppo Enco Air true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones and Oppo Band Vitality Edition smart band have been launched in China. These products were unveiled alongside Oppo K9 5G smartphone and Oppo K9 smart TV at an event on Thursday. The Oppo Enco Air earphones come with a translucent case and supports Bluetooth v5.2. They are