Chinese electronics and software company Xiaomi has reportedly signed on bankers to support an expected initial public offering (IPO) which could value the company at $100 billion, Bloomberg said. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanely have been selected by Xiaomi, with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank playing a role, the report speculates.
North Korea’s only 3G network provider, Egypt’s Orascom, froze operations in the hermit kingdom last month, cutting off some 3.5 million people connected to its local Koryolink services. According to a report by Newsis, citing Japanese intelligence sources, Orascom is pulling out of North Korea due to the regime’s continuous nuclear missile provocations.
Philippine telecom and digital services provider PLDT and its mobile unit Smart Communications announced a US$28.5 million partnership with global information and communications technology leader Huawei to transform the group's wireless service delivery platforms.
An important technology milestone based on the newly-approved NSA 5G NR (New Radio) standard has been achieved by a group of mobile communications companies. Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies, in collaboration with AT&T, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, T-Mobile US, Verizon, and Vodafone, showcased 3GPP-compliant 5G NR multi-vendor interoperability during live demonstrations held in both the Ericsson Lab in Kista, Sweden and the Qualcomm Research lab in New Jersey, USA.
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group has moved swiftly to cool down speculation over reports claiming it is preparing to list its mobile unit on the stock exchange in Tokyo. Speculation has become so rife the company was forced to issue a statement concerning the potential IPO listing. In the statement released to the press, it reiterated that no decision has been formally made to officially proceed with the IPO listing of its mobile unit.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted proceedings in the Federal Court in mid-December against Australian telecom company Optus, alleging it misled customers about the need to move quickly from its existing HFC network to the National Broadband Network (NBN).
Chinese smartphone brands continue to grow in Bangladesh and now capture 29 percent of the market, up from 13 percent a year ago, according to Counterpoint Research. In Q3 2017, Chinese smartphone brands grew 125 percent year-on-year in the South Asian nation.
SK Telecom announced that its newly developed element of 5G network technology was adopted as a Korean national standard by the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA). The name of the element is fronthaul, or nicknamed as the capillary of the 5G networks.
Vodafone Australia will have to significantly improve its processes for verifying the identity of prepaid mobile customers under an enforceable undertaking accepted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The evolution to digital business strategies and an increased awareness of emerging cyber threats will boost global security spending by 8 percent in 2018 to reach $96.3 billion, research firm Gartner predicts. Yahoo’s recent shocking revelation that up to 3 billion user accounts were hacked in 2013 is a reminder to all organizations that security spending is a worthy investment.
