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.

Mauritius Telecom introduces 5G services across the country

Mauritius Telecom announced last week the introduction of 5G services to its offering on the island, a step which follows the provider’s receival of 5G license for mobile telephony earlier last month.  The telco was among two other companies, Cellplus Ltd and Emtel Ltd, that had applied in February to a public consultation regarding the opening of frequency bands for 5G.  By April, the three operators were invited to submit their applications for the spectrum.   In […]

Major Thai telecom operator steps into bitcoin mining

Thailand-based mobile operator Jasmine Telecom Systems (JTS) announced last week its Bitcoin mining plans to become the largest miner in Southeast Asia by 2024.   The Thai telco, which is a subsidiary of telecom operator Jasmine International (JAS), aims to install 500 bitcoin mining machines at its Jastel Data Center during the third quarter of this year.  This step is considered rare, especially that several telcos are primarily interested in blockchain, yet few are concerned about cryptocurrency.  “Now is […]

BT, Microsoft partner to enhance voice calling

London-based telecom provider BT partnered on Thursday with Microsoft to enhance enterprise voice calling, security, and industry-focused services in various sectors.  The new agreement will allow BT to switch its global managed voice services to the cloud and deliver them directly through Microsoft Teams.  Microsoft’s Operator Connect plan, that supports telecom operators adding their calling plans to Microsoft Teams, will help the British partner to create new business models and revenue streams.  According to Microsoft’s blog post this deal “paves the way for the development […]

5G drives Chinese mobile service to rise at 3.1% in 2026

Chinese mobile service revenues are expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate CAGR of 3.1 percent from $131.3 billion in 2021 to $152.7 billion in 2026, according to a study published on Thursday.   London-based data analytics company, GlobalData published a study showing that the mobile data revenues will witness a rise in its CAGR reaching 6.8 percent due to the growing adoption of 5G services, followed by the rise […]

Indian Telco Reliance Jio adds 3.5 million users in May

Indian telco Reliance Jio added 3.55 million wireless subscribers during the month of May, acquiring the highest rank in the telecom industry for four consecutive months.  Despite the overall wireless subscriber base drop throughout that month by 6.27 million, Jio outperformed its fellow Indian telcos Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.  Both providers lost 4.61 million and 4.28 million subscribers, respectively.  As per data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Trai, Jio’s wireless subscriber base increased by […]

Google requests privacy policy for Play store apps

Google announced on Wednesday that Android developers will be required to include a privacy policy with their apps starting April 2022. This request is not new, as the Big Tech revealed earlier in May that developers must declare their safety information within a deadline between October and April. However, Google decided this week to provide […]

Pfizer vaccine efficacy falls to 84% after 6 months

Pfizer and BioNTech published on Wednesday new data indicating their COVID-19 vaccine efficacy decline from 96 percent to 84 percent over six months. These numbers are regarded as a big motivator to the drug makers currently developing a third “booster shot” to target the Indian Delta variant.  The released data shows that the antibody levels […]

Hatif Libya inked a fiber optic network with U.S. firm

Libya’s government-owned telecom Hatif Libya signed on Monday an agreement to improve its fiber optic network with an U.S.-based supplier of open optical networking solutions called Infinera.  This project will provide access to internet and mobile services in Libyan areas that were not covered previously by the network and improve the quality and reliability of services for all customers.   Infinera will install Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) technology, that will enable the Libyan company to dynamically […]

eBay cyberstalking schemer sentenced to 18 months in prison

Former eBay security manager Philip Cooke was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 months in prison for his role in an intense cyberstalking campaign against a pair of eBay critics.   U.S. district judge Allison Burroughs issued the sentence nine months after Cooke was found guilty to conspiracy of cyberstalking and tampering with witnesses.  According to federal prosecutors and a lawsuit filed last week by the victims, a group of eBay employees led by executives began in 2019 targeting the […]

Maxima Telecom wins $13.5M contract for biometric cameras in Moscow

Moscow’s public Wi-Fi provider, Maxima Telecom, won earlier this month a $13.6 million contract for the installation of 2000 biometric cameras on the roads of the capital, according to Russian media reports.  The contract was completed with the Center for Traffic Management of Moscow. It aims to deploy a neural network in the capital that will receive data from cameras, record accidents, fires and other incidents, and report them […]