Reports and Coverage

ITU Telecom World 2018 officially opened for business on September 10^th in Durban, South Africa with a dynamic Opening Ceremony in the presence of (in order of speaking): H.E. Nomvula Paula Mokonyane, Minister of Communications, South Africa; Acting Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Sihle Zikalala; H.E. Abdulaziz Bin Salem Al Ruwais, Governor, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Rob Shuter, Group President and CEO, MTN; ITU Secretary General, Houlin Zhao; H.E Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, South Africa; and South Africa President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivered the keynote address.

Commercial rollouts of 5G and larger than previously forecasted deployments of cellular IoT are focal points in the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

US President Donald Trump has warned US technology behemoth Apple to move its manufacturing operations back to the United States if it wants to avoid high tariffs on Chinese imports.

Qualcomm’s former chairman Paul Jacobs will head a new San Diego-based company which he launched along with two other former Qualcomm executives, Derek Aberle and Matt Grob. XCOM will mainly focus on developing 5G technology. Aberle will be the company’s COO and Grob will assume the role of CTO.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that he plans on selling a 30% to 40% stake in the state-owned telecoms company Ethio Telecom and split it into two with the aim of bolstering competition in the marketing. This step will attract huge investments into the country and the telecoms industry in particular.

The issue of regulating and legalizing ride-sharing services in Egypt was raised in the last couple of months when an Egyptian court ordered the suspension of such services in March after a group of taxi drivers claimed that they were illegally using private cars as taxis.

A highly disputed European copyright law that could force online platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay for links to news content passed a key hurdle in the European Parliament.

The CEO of Oger International has confirmed that the company is set to embark upon a new chapter in its history with the full acquisition of its capital by a new shareholder.

The mobile industry has confirmed that it has achieved a critical milestone in the race to bring 5G networks to life: official approval of "5G standalone" specifications. In a collective announcement, 3GPP and dozens of wireless companies are describing the approval as kicking off "the final sprint towards 5G commercialization," which will begin in the United States this year and elsewhere next year. The newly completed specification enables developers to choose from a standalone 5G standard that doesn't depend upon 4G, or the earlier non-standalone 5G standards with 4G ties.

The Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization (AICTO) has recently announced the opening of its center of excellence "China-Arab BDS/GNSS Center-AICTO" established in El Ghazala Technological Park, Tunis within the scope of the bilateral relationship between the League of Arab States and the People's Republic of China and the cooperation agreement signed by H.E. Eng. Mohamed Ben Amor, Secretary General of AICTO and H.E. Mr. Chengai Ran , CEO of the China Satellite Navigation Office (CSNO) in Cairo, Egypt on the 20th of January 2016.