Hala Turk

Hala is a journalist and an editor with experience in the news industry. She enjoys writing motivational stories aiming to inspire people to overachieve.

COVID-19 misinformation rate rises amid strong U.S. Delta wave

The U.S. ranked the second highest country worldwide with 54,615 CoV-2 Delta variant cases on Monday, according to Statista, amid a similar wave of virus misinformation that spiked noticeably between June and July.  Rates of COVID-19 misinformation and its vaccines increased significantly from June to July, according to U.S.-based AI intelligence cloud that tracks relevant phrases on social media and news outlets, Zignal Labs.  Among the most common falsehoods according to the AI media firm, 437 percent claimed that vaccines don’t work, 156 percent […]

Huawei’s Q2 revenues dip to 29%, as KT profit soars by 38%

Chinese telecom giant Huawei experienced fatal losses in Q2 2021 revenues, while South Korea-based telecom provider, KT Corporation, acquired on Tuesday a remarkable increase in profits during the same period. The two-year old U.S. sanctions imposed on the Chinese firm pounded both its network infrastructure and smartphone sales. The consumer electronics business was the company’s […]

Safaricom will offer mobile money services in Ethiopia

Ethiopia will allow the Safaricom-led consortium to offer mobile money services throughout the country, signaling the end of Ethio Telecom’s monopoly over the service, local media reported late last week.   This step follows the government’s announcement earlier last week of re-opening bidding on second operator license including the right to operate mobile financial services.  Previously, any new entrant was barred from offering any mobile money based […]

Google Maps will alert drivers when entering a low-emission zone

Google Maps introduced a new feature alerting drivers before they enter a low-emission zone with fees or fines, the company said in a blog post.   The application aims to help drivers in detecting these areas beforehand, as it is not clear where these zones begin.   During this stage, the navigation app will begin rolling out this feature to drivers across Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London, and Paris.  Currently, London’s Ultra […]

Facebook rolls out simplified setting page design

Facebook unveiled on Wednesday its redesigned setting page enabling Android, iOS, mobile web, and FB Lite users to find tools in a simplified way.   “Whether it’s managing the ads people see, adjusting sharing settings, or curating an audience for posts, people shouldn’t have to think too hard about where to start,” said Facebook in a blog post.   The Big […]

Vodafone Idea refuse to file for voluntary bankruptcy

Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi), a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group (ABG), is not looking to file for voluntary bankruptcy despite its financial struggles, ABG senior executives told ET Telecom.  Vi’s financial criticality was revealed on June 7 when Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the telco, wrote to the government offering to hand over the group’s stake in Vi to any public sector or local financial entity who could save the company.  In his letter, Birla asserted that without immediate government support, […]

MTN backs out of Ethiopia, as it renews operating license in Rwanda

South Africa’s MTN have expressed their unlikeliness to resubmit a bid to enter Ethiopia’s telecoms market, Bloomberg reported citing sources familiar with the matter.   The company’s possible move, came after Ethiopia announced earlier this week plans to re-open bidding on second operator license including the right to operate mobile financial services.  This comes as a surprise to many, as […]

WhatsApp finally unveils self-destructing media feature

WhatsApp unveiled on Wednesday a new media feature labelled “view once” allowing photos and videos to disappear automatically after being seen by their receiver.   The Facebook-owned messaging app promoted the new feature as a privacy tool.   “New feature alert! You can now send photos and videos that disappear after they’ve been opened via View Once on WhatsApp, giving you more control over your chats privacy!” said the company in a tweet.   The “view […]

Global 5G infrastructure revenue to reach $19.1 billion in 2021

Worldwide 5G infrastructure revenue is expected to grow by 39 percent reaching $19.1 billion in 2021, up from $13.7 billion last year, according to a report published on Wednesday by U.S.- based research and advisory company, Gartner.   The report revealed that communications service providers (CSPs) in mature markets enhanced 5G development in 2020 and 2021, citing the pandemic as a reason for this increase.  “The COVID-19 pandemic spiked demand for optimized and ultrafast broadband connectivity to […]

Serbian Telecom introduces mobile services in Macedonia

Serbia-based telecom company, Telekom Srbija, announced on Thursday the launching of its new subsidiary in North Macedonia called Mtel, to provide mobile services in the area by the end of 2021.  The future subsidiary will offer satellite TV services that will be launched within a month; along with mobile telephony and optical internet services that will be provided by the end of 2021, according to Serbian media reports.  The state-owned company revealed that it aims to expand […]