Telecom news

• Bharti takes the initiative on Digital India with Airtel Payments Bank

  12-01-2017 20:51
  
  The major new initiative to bring mobile banking to the whole of India is backed by around $440 million of investment and government endorsement.
  The big unveiling was led by Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley and has already both a million merchants, including a quarter of a million banking points in Airtel retail stores, and a million customers. Bharti Airtel is currently India’s biggest mobile operator, with almost a quarter of a billion subscribers but is under severe pressure fr
  
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• Bharti Airtel opens banks in mobile phone shops

  12-01-2017 18:17 via ft.com
  New central bank rules allow supermarkets and mobile operators to launch services
  
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• Europe very slowly moves to prevent the machines taking over

  12-01-2017 17:18
  
  In another example of glacial bureaucracy, a committee from the European Parliament has written a report which recommends a meeting about robots and AI.
  The Legal Affairs Committee has produced a report that strongly urges the European Commission (hereafter known as the Gaggle of Red-tapers) to create legislation and regulation to govern the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence. It suggests the Gaggle of Red-tapers creates a new department to ‘to supply public authorities
  
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• Voice quality and testing are priorities for VoLTE in 2017

  12-01-2017 14:15
  
  Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece John Wick, VP and GM of the Service Provider Group at Syniverse, looks at how operators should go about optimising their approach to voice over LTE this year.
  Voice over LTE, or VoLTE, is in many ways one of the final frontiers for LTE. Most voice calls still use 3G networks, but in the next few years mobile operators are expected to make a massive transiti
  
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• Xiaomi admits it got carried away chasing growth

  12-01-2017 14:07
  
  A refreshing admission in these frenetic times see Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi admit that its thirst for growth started to become counter-productive.
  Bloomberg has reported on Xiaomi Chief Exec Lei Jun outlining his company’s goals for the year, including a revenue target of 100 billion yuan. This is the same number he was aiming for in Xiaomi’s best year so far – 2015 – but we never found out if that was achieved. We were given a shipment number of 70 million units f
  
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• BT sort of addresses security concerns with Trend Micro tie-up

  12-01-2017 13:29
  
  BT has announced the immediate availability of Trend Micro’s Deep Security data centre solution on its cloud compute platform, but does that actually answer the question of security?
  Deep Security is available across BT’s 22 global cloud delivery zones in 19 countries across Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific, on a pay-as-you-use basis. Customers will receive the option to turn on the service when the sign up to BT’s cloud compute platform, activating
  
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• Google continues retreat from connectivity… or does it?

  12-01-2017 12:44
  
  Google’s parent company Alphabet has confirmed it will be shutting down its drone business unit Titan in favour of more cash-friendly alternatives.
  The Titan business unit, which was brought into the X research lab last year, promised to use drones to deliver internet connectivity to remote areas, as well as delivering imagery to enhance other platforms such as Google Maps. The move was initially reported by 9to5Google this week, but a company spokesperson has said the decision was made in
  
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• FCC’s Wheeler launches one last pitch for net neutrality

  12-01-2017 12:06
  
  Outgoing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has sent a letter to several Senators in what appears to be a last-gasp effort to save net neutrality policies.
  Wheeler’s tenure as the head of the FCC has been partly defined by a long-standing battle with industry giants and Republican Commissioners over the role of net neutrality in the US telco and technology industry. While there are arguments for and against the concept, Wheeler’s legacy is seemingly under threat as a Republican dominant FCC lo
  
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• HTC seeks to capitalise on Note7 opportunity with bizarre launch

  12-01-2017 12:02
  
  The struggling smartphone maker is promoting the launch of its HTC U phablets, which could benefit from the absence of Samsung competition, by obsessing relentlessly about the letter ‘U’.
  In a complete break with press release convention HTC started its announcement with the following bizarre passage:
  U laugh, U cry
  U love, U lose
  U play, U fight
  U work, work, work…
  U question why
  U want change
  U dream big
  U are bold
  U are unstoppable
  U are U
  We hear U
  We see U
  We learn from U
  
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• Telenor shakes up management structure

  12-01-2017 01:00
  Telenor announced on Thursday plans to restructure its management team and reorganise its business units in a bid to become what it describes as a more integrated global company, and to deliver on its digital strategy.The Norwegian incumbent will group its various opcos into four clusters…read more on TotalTele.com »
  
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• Fitch lowers Ericsson outlook

  12-01-2017 01:00
  Fitch ratings late on Wednesday downgraded Ericsson's outlook to negative from stable, on concerns about its turnaround strategy amid a slowdown in the market.The Swedish kit maker's financial performance has been hit hard by lower spending on LTE equipment in major developed markets, and economic headwinds in some developing countries…read more on TotalTele.com »
  
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• FCC repeats accusation that AT&T, Verizon are flouting net neutrality

  12-01-2017 01:00
  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) late on Wednesday published a report repeating its accusation that certain zero-rated services offered by AT&T and Verizon violate net neutrality rules.The telco watchdog also examined T-Mobile US's zero-rated Binge-On video service and concluded that it probably doesn't break the rules.The same cannot be said for AT&T and Verizon though.In its report…read more on TotalTele.com »
  
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• Colt to expand Asia metro networks

  12-01-2017 01:00
  Colt on Thursday unveiled plans to expand its presence in Asia over the next three years by extending its metro network coverage in a number of key cities and countries.The U.K.-based enterprise networking provider will begin with Singapore in April…read more on TotalTele.com »
  
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