Two weeks out from one of the world’s largest tech shows, the GSMA has issued some sweeping safeguards over growing concerns around the coronavirus for its upcoming event, Mobile World Congress. After a number of high profile back-outs, including ZTE, LG, NVIDIA, Ericsson, and most recently Amazon, the company issued a new list, including a ban of visitors originating from the Hubei province, whose capital Wuhan is believed to be the origin of the epidemic.
Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information unveiled that total fixed telephone lines rose by 5.7% to 592,196 by the end of December 2019, from 560,326 subscribers until end of December 2018. Analogue fixed telephone declined by 0.8% to 321,501 during the period under review.
US Attorney general Bill Barr has called for The United States and its allies to take controlling stakes in Nokia, Ericsson or both to battle Chinese telecoms giant Huawei's dominance of the 5G market.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has launched a first-of-its-kind advanced digital platform for pharmaceutical public and private facilities as well as health practitioners to store their data.
The GSMA continues to monitor and assess the potential impact of the Coronavirus on its MWC20 events held annually in Barcelona, Shanghai and Los Angeles and as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences. The GSMA confirms that there is minimal impact on the event thus far. MWC Barcelona 24-27 February 2020, will proceed as planned, across all venues at Fira Gran Via Fira Montjuïc and La Farga L’Hospitalet, including YoMo and Four Years From Now (4YFN).
Tougher UK and EU rules restricting Chinese 5G network supplier, Huawei, could be a golden opportunity for competitors, Nokia and Ericsson, to take back the reigns. However, analysts are also warning that the companies may struggle to meet the increased demand.
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has announced the signing of a new agreement with Oman ICT Group.
A Los Angeles jury ordered Apple and Broadcom to pay $1.1 billion to a university in California for infringing on four Wi-Fi technology patents. Apple was ordered to pay $837 million and Broadcom must pay $270 million to the California Institute of Technology, in what is thought to be one of the largest patent verdicts ever.
BAI Communications has announced that global wireless communications executive Igor Leprince has been appointed to the role of Group Chief Executive Officer commencing 1st May 2020.
Orange Business Services, a network-native digital services company, has announced the appointment of Osama Shwaihat as Managing Director for the UAE and Arabian Gulf. He is based at the company’s Middle East & Africa regional headquarters at Dubai Silicon Oasis.
