Tech

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Paramount+ streaming service heading for Sky platforms; Saudi Telecom Company’s Q2 impresses; Virgin Media slide-tackles BT and Sky over TV soccer coverage. Telecom Italia (TIM) and its international services arm, Sparkle, have been carrying out what they say is the first public demonstration of an “international quantum connection”. The

Samsung announced that Indian customers can reserve a pre-booking for its upcoming flagship smartphones by paying Rs. 2,000. Although it did not officially name the phones, Samsung will be launching its next generation foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, on August 11 at its Galaxy unpacked virtual event. Fans

Trade organisations called on the Biden administration to expedite its China policy reviews and to reopen trade talks with its main rival. The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive that on Thursday dozens of US trade organisations sent a letter to Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, and Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, urging

Ethiopia has formally announced that it will launch the process to award a second new mobile licence later this month, including a permit to offer financial services. But despite the removal of what has been widely seen as a key stumbling block in the liberalisation of the country’s telecoms market, African telco giant MTN is

PlayStation VR 2 will reportedly have two OLED displays that will support high-dynamic-range (HDR) video — that should make it brighter, more vibrant with an expanded colour spectrum, and capable of deeper blacks and more powerful whites. The original PSVR headset had a standard-dynamic-range (SDR) LCD display. The next-gen PlayStation virtual reality headset will also

KPN has secured a €1 billion credit facility that is linked to its own sustainability goals, a further sign that telcos are taking this stuff seriously. The Netherlands-based operator said it has refinanced an existing credit line. The interest rate on the new facility is tied to KPN’s performance in three specific areas that form

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Sparkle turns to Infinera to power 400G services; auctions ahoy in French overseas territories; EE puts on its headphones and Hawaiian shirt in the cause of 5G. Amazon’s Prime Air drone-delivery research programme, based in Cambridge, UK, appears to have gone into a nosedive, if a report on Wired

Microsoft has paused Windows 365 free trials just a day after launching the cloud PC service. The Redmond company said that it had to pause the free trial programme for Windows 365 due to “significant demand”. Windows 365 is designed to deliver a full-fledged computing experience to users, with a variety of virtual processing cores,

Global 5G network infrastructure revenue is on course for a growth spike this year, but growth will slow in 2022, according to new data published on Wednesday. 5G infrastructure revenue will reach US$19.13 billion in 2021, up from $13.77 billion last year, Gartner predicts, citing an acceleration in 5G rollout both this year and last

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: MTN warns of H1 earnings fall; Orange combines with SSE Networks for improved maritime connectivity; Brussels looks into latest Facebook acquisition. Ethiopia is to re-open bidding on its second operator licence later this month, according to a Reuters report citing two government officials. This follows an earlier auction in

Sony ZV-E10 interchangeable lens mirrorless camera has been launched in North America. It has been designed for vloggers and comes with features like a compact build, rotating display, easy livestreaming with a PC connection, and others. Sony ZV-E10 is the first interchangeable lens vlog camera in the Alpha series. It comes with a 25-megapixel Exmor

Private 5G networks are on the verge of taking off in a big way worldwide, with China leading the way, according to new research published this week. While China’s sheer scale means it is often ahead of the pack where numbers are concerned, its leading position in 5G private network revenues is not clear cut

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: UK government updates on Project Gigabit; Telecom Italia makes quantum leap; O2 turns on 5G street light in Frankfurt. Space cowboy Elon Musk has secured a licence to build a ground station on the Isle of Man that will enable his company, Starlink, to provide satellite broadband to rural

Ariana Grande is coming to Fortnite. On Sunday, Epic Games revealed the “record-breaking superstar” who is coming to Fortnite’s Rift Tour series — it’s the 28-year-old Grammy-winning artist known for songs such as “Thank U, Next”. She’s also the most streamed female artist on Spotify and Apple Music, and the most subscribed solo female artist

Safaricom’s shareholders formally approved the operator’s incorporation in neighbouring Ethiopia, following it led a successful bid for a telecoms licence in Africa’s second largest country. The licence, the first of its kind in Ethiopia, whose telecoms market has been monopolised by the state-owned Ethio Telecom, was awarded after the consortium led by Safaricom outbid a

Samsung and Apple experienced an exceptional drop-off in smartphone sales volumes in the second quarter, allowing Chinese vendors to gain ground. Omdia was first out of the blocks among the smartphone market trackers this quarter, maybe for the first time, so we’ll use its data and canned quote. This means the year-on-year changes need to

WhatsApp groups are a great way to stay connected to family, friends, or even colleagues, but the feature is often exploited by many to add tons of people to groups in order to sell products or promote services. These groups are often created without permission from participants and this could be frustrating for many. Most

Newly merged Virgin Media O2 has announced it plans to upgrade its entire fixed network to fibre. The operator is also assessing the prospect of becoming a fixed broadband wholesaler. Two months after it was created by the merger of Virgin Media and O2, the new integrated operator announced its fixed network upgrade plan for