Ghana to Ban Inappropriate Social Media Content, Google Claims Quantum Supremacy, and ARM Will Supply Chip Tech to Huawei

Africa

Safaricom cuts airtime costs by 33% and scraps data expiry

Kenya’s Safaricom has introduced a new airtime bundle that cuts airtime costs by up to 33% at peak time, it has been announced. Customers who purchased the no-expiry data bundles would be eligible for another 50% airtime. This means a minute of talk time will cost subscribers SH 2.86 as compared to the previous price of SH 4.3. Acting CEO Michael Joseph said, “Our customers have indicated to us that they think our voice calls are too expensive so we had to find a way of making our calls cheaper. The advent of WhatsApp and internet calling obviously has made voice call costs to start declining and we have to counter that.” However, the special tariffs cannot be used for international calls or be transferred to others. Subscribers will also not be able to use the airtime to surf the internet. Meanwhile, customers who chose the no-expiry data offer would have less data bundles compared to those who purchased bundles with expiry dates.

Ghana to criminalise inappropriate content

The Ministry of Communications has announced that Ghana would soon criminalise the sharing of inappropriate content on social media, Citi News Room has gathered. Among the inappropriate content she cited were sexual images that had the tendency to degrade and penalise children and female victims. She added that the Ministry was working with key stakeholders to create a safe working and play environment for children who are online. “The Ministry is working with the Attorney General, and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, among others to come up with the framework on child online development and welfare within the shortest possible time,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful confirmed. A 2016 survey by UNICEF showed that four out of ten children had been exposed to sexual content online. Almost half of the surveyed children had also been abused by adults online. The Minister, therefore, urged the public to support the effort to protect children online and punish abusers.

Asia

Huawei launches foldable phones in China

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has launched its foldable phones in China after successive delays, Reuters has revealed. The new 5G Mate X smartphone is selling at $2,400 and the company has started taking orders from China. Tech supply disruptions due to the US ban affected earlier release dates especially in Europe. Users will get their hands on the new 5G Mate X in November 2019 according to reports. Despite not being able to receive license for the latest version of Android, amid other troubles, Huawei claims to have already sold 200 million smartphones. This is at least two months earlier than it hit the milestone in 2018.

China’s BAIC to launch new brand of intelligent cars

China’s Beijing Automotive Group Co has announced plans to launch intelligent cars under a new brand called, BEIJING, reports have said. Chairman of BAIC Group, Xu Heyi, said the company intended to develop electric cars as well as intelligent technologies needed for such vehicles. The company launched the BEIJING brand with its partner, Daimler, as part of a $2 billion investment. BAIC Group has a 5% stake in Daimler which will not rise in the near future. “We have finished our stake investment in Daimler. We do not have plans to increase our stake,” Xu said of the partnership. The company also operates Benz factories through a joint venture with the German company.

The Americas

SoftBank takes over WeWork in $10 billion deal

Japan’s SoftBank has taken over US office-sharing startup, WeWork, in a deal said to be worth more than $10 billion, it has been reported. The deal, part of which involves paying off Adam Newmann, the startup cofounder, to give up control, leaves WeWork worth only $8 billion after the company incurred losses. This is despite SoftBank having already invested a total of $13 billion in equity over the years. SoftBank will pay the startup’s cofounder, Adam Newmann $1.7 billion to give up control of the company. In addition, Newmann is expected to give up his role on the board of The We Company, WeWork’s mother company. Newmann also gets a four-year paid-consultancy role at WeWork as part of the deal. Some analysts have questioned the rationale behind paying Adam Newmann for advice, especially since he was in charge of WeWork’s dramatic stumble from a record valuation of $47 billion at the beginning of the year. Some shareholders have however defended the deal. All Blue Capital managing partner Matt Novak said, “Adam is a visionary who has created an impactful company which has transformed the way many people work, live and think. We think he deserved to take some money off the table for his contribution to the company.”

47 US attorneys general probing Facebook

The number of attorneys general probing Facebook’s alleged mishandling of user data has increased to 47 according to information from the New York Attorney General, Leticia James. Attorneys from the states of Colorado, Ohio, Nebraska, Florida, among others, are investigating whether Facebook pushed up advertising rates and also put consumer data at risk. Facebook is also being investigated for engaging in anti-competitive practices but the company denies any wrongdoing. This probe is thought to be part of a larger investigation into the activities of big tech companies as reported by Reuters. In addition to Facebook, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are looking into the activities of Apple and Google.

Google lays claim to quantum supremacy

Google claims it has developed a supercomputer that takes only minutes to solve problems a quantum processor would take 10,000 years to solve, it has been reported. This seems to be breakthrough in quantum computing necessary for the further development of AI and materials science. “We’re hoping that when people start using this and looking at performance stability and cloud interface, they’ll get really excited about what we have to offer at Google,” Google’s quantum computing expert, John Martinis, said. Critics like IBM and Intel have both dampened the excitement around Google’s breakthrough, however. IBM thinks a supercomputer would be able to achieve same results within a few days and not take thousands of years as claimed by Google. Intel, meanwhile, thinks whatever breakthrough had been made was years away from being practical. Tech companies would have to produce these processors on a large scale to be beneficial to the average consumer, something that is far from happening in the short term. While it didn’t dispute claims by its rivals, Google said it was on track to build a quantum processor with 1,000 qubits. It calls it Sycamore, and it would be vastly superior to the 64-bits that consumer devices use.

Europe

UK’s ARM chipmaker will continue to supply chip tech to Huawei

Chipmaker, ARM, will continue to supply chip technology to Hauwei because its chips were from the UK and not America, thereby eliminating any chance of breaching US ban on the Chinese company. Huawei relies on ARM v8 and v9 blueprints to design its smartphones. Since the US practically banned tech exports to Huawei, many tech companies have had to cut back on their supplies to the Chinese company or face repercussions back home. However, ARM’s legal team has confirmed that its chips originate from the UK and would therefore not be in any violation of US statues. “ARM can provide support to HiSilicon for the ARM v8-A architecture, as well as the next generation of that architecture, following a comprehensive review of both architectures, which have been determined to be of UK origin,” an ARM spokesperson told reporters.

UK telcos to ban rural ‘not-spots’ with £1 billion fund

UK’s four mobile giants are teaming up with government to build a £1 billion fund to end poor network delivery in rural areas. The deal includes O2, Vodafone, EE, and Three. The deal is expected to be finalised early next year and involves the four telcos providing up to £530 million in funding while the government matches that with up to £500 million. This funding will be used to build telecoms infrastructure that will be shared by the contributors in a bid to banish areas of poor network signals. This will cover about 280,000 families and also bring coverage to 16,000km of road. “Brokering an agreement for mast sharing between networks alongside new investment in mobile infrastructure will mean people get good 4G signal no matter where they are or which provider they’re with,” UK’s digital secretary, Nicky Morgan, said of development.