Dhaka, Jan 17 (UNB)- Huawei would never allow Chinese government to access customer data, even if Beijing requested it, the CEO and founder of the company said Tuesday.

In a rare sit down with international media, Ren Zhengfei addressed concerns raised by the US, which has warned that the company's equipment could allow the Chinese government to have a backdoor into a nation's telecommunications network. 

Ren said he would “definitely” refuse any request from the Chinese government to access the company's user data. He said his longtime affiliation with China's ruling party would not affect his ability to fight against that same government if it requested user data.

"When it comes to cybersecurity and privacy protection we are committed to be sided with our customers. We will never harm any nation or any individual," Ren told the journalists assembled at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen.

"Huawei and me personally have never received any request from any government to provide improper information," Ren added. "The values of a business entity is customer first, is customer centricity.”
 

Hawthorne, Jan 17 (AP/UNB) — SpaceX said Wednesday that it will build test versions of its Mars spaceship in south Texas instead of the Port of Los Angeles in another blow to the local economy that comes days after the company announced massive layoffs.

The decision was made to streamline operations, the Hawthorne, California-based company said in a statement.

SpaceX won approval last year to lease 19 acres at the port's Terminal Island. It planned to erect a new facility to do work on the interplanetary spacecraft, now called Starship, and its launch vehicle, the Super Heavy, which would be the largest rocket ever built.

The port facility would have allowed the giant craft to be barged or shipped to launch sites. It could have added about 700 jobs to the area.

SpaceX now won't proceed with that option.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted that development of Starship will continue in Hawthorne but prototypes will be built in south Texas. The company has a launch facility in Boca Chica near Brownsville, where one prototype of the spacecraft already has been assembled.

"We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport," Musk said.

SpaceX will continue using its existing port facilities to recover its reusable Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft, which arrive by water.

Southern California officials have talked about luring high-tech operations to boost the waterfront and create a "Silicon Harbor."

"While we are disappointed that SpaceX will not be expanding their operations at the Port of Los Angeles, we are pleased that they will continue their recovery operations here," port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said. "Our ongoing work with SpaceX and other advanced technology companies is important to our efforts to advance the port through innovation and new technologies."

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino said he felt crushed by the decision, but "I feel confident that other innovators will see the huge value they get in San Pedro."

Last Friday, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10 percent of its roughly 6,000 workers, most of them at its Hawthorne headquarters. The company said it needs to become leaner to accomplish ambitious and costly projects such as the Starship and Starlink, which would create a constellation of satellites to provide space-based broadband internet service.

Development costs for those two projects have been estimated at up to $10 billion each.

Dhaka, Jan 16 (UNB) - Mobile phone operator Robi on Wednesday conducted a non-commercial trial of Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) technology for the first time in Bangladesh. 

This makes Robi the first operator to complete its readiness for offering voice service on its 4.5G network. 

Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the VoLTE trial run programme as the chief guest and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) acting chairman Md Jahurul Haque was present as a special guest.

The first-ever trial of VoLTE service was conducted through making a voice call by the minister to the acting the BTRC chairman.

Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Shahed Alam along with the company’s senior management were present at the programme held at the Robi Corporate Office located in Gulshan.

Robi’s VoLTE service delivered on its nation-wide 4.5G network will enable customers to make high definition voice calls with faster call set up time. With VoLTE technology, the mobile phone users can avail both voice and data service. VoLTE treats voice as just another application that rides on the LTE data network.
 

Dhaka, Jan 16 (UNB) - Mobile phone operators will not be allowed to offer internet packages with less than seven-day validity from January 27, said the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Wednesday.

The telecom regulator will send letters to mobile phone operators soon in this regard, BTRC’s acting Chairman Jahurul Haque told a views-exchange meeting with ‘Telecom Reporters Network Bangladesh’ members at its office. 

“Ensuring quality mobile network and data service is our big challenge this year,” he said. 

BTRC received 2,947 complaints about mobile phone services last year and disposed of 2,838 of them, the acting BTRC boss said.

BTRC Commissioner Rezaul Kader said mobile phone operators would be ranked based on their service qualities. “Customers can choose operators after checking the ranking,” he said. 

“We want to start 5G services in 2020. We’re working on it,” said BTRC Commissioner (Spectrum) Aminul Hasan.
 

Tehran, Jan 16 (AP/UNB)  — An Iranian satellite-carrying rocket blasted off into space Tuesday, but scientists failed to put the device into orbit in a launch criticized by the United States as helping the Islamic Republic further develop its ballistic missile program.

After the launch, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated his allegation that Iran's space program could help it develop a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon to the mainland U.S., criticism that comes amid the Trump administration's maximalist approach against Tehran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal.

Iran, which long has said it does not seek nuclear weapons, maintains its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. Tehran also says they don't violate a United Nations resolution that only "called upon" it not to conduct such tests.

The rocket carrying the Payam satellite failed to reach the "necessary speed" in the third stage of its launch, Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said.

Jahromi said the rocket had successfully passed its first and second stages before developing problems in the third. That suggests something went wrong after the rocket pushed the satellite out of the Earth's atmosphere. He did not elaborate on what caused the failure, but promised that Iranian scientists would continue their work.

Iran had said that it plans to send two nonmilitary satellites, Payam and Doosti, into orbit. The Payam, which means "message" in Farsi, was an imagery satellite that Iranian officials said would help with farming and other activities.

It's unclear how the failure of the Payam will affect the launch timing for the Doosti, which means "friendship." Jahromi wrote on Twitter that "Doosti is waiting for orbit," without elaborating.

Tuesday's launch took place at Imam Khomeini Space Center in Iran's Semnan province, a facility under the control of the country's Defense Ministry, Jahromi said. Satellite images published last week and first reported by CNN showed activity at the launch site. Given the facility's launching corridor, the satellite likely fell in the Indian Ocean.

Iranian state television aired footage of its reporter narrating the launch of the Simorgh rocket, shouting over its roar that it sent "a message of the pride, self-confidence and willpower of Iranian youth to the world!"

The TV footage shows the rocket becoming just a pinpoint of light in the darkened sky and not the moment of its failure.

The Simorgh, meaning "phoenix" in Farsi, has been used in previous satellite launches. It is larger than an earlier model known as the Safir, or "ambassador," that Iran previously used to launch satellites.

Ahmad Motamedi, the chancellor of Tehran Amirkabir University of Technology, which designed the satellite, told the semi-official Mehr news agency that Jahromi already has ordered them to design another satellite.

"Now, we have earned plenty of experience and we will be able to make a new satellite quicker," he said.

Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.

Iran usually displays space achievements in February during the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the revolution amid Iran facing increasing pressure from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Pompeo has said that Iran's plans for sending satellites into orbit demonstrate the country's defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls on Iran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Pompeo alleged in a statement Tuesday that the vehicle that Iran tried to put into orbit uses technology that is "virtually identical and interchangeable with those used in ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles." He said the U.S. is working with its partners "to counter the entire range of the Islamic Republic's threats, including its missile program, which threatens Europe and the Middle East."

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promptly slammed Iran over the launch, accusing Tehran of lying and alleging that the "innocent satellite" was actually "the first stage of an intercontinental missile" Iran is developing in violation of international agreements.

Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons. A 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

However, Trump pulled America out of the deal in May. While United Nations inspectors say Iran has honored the deal up to this point, the country has threatened to resume higher enrichment.

On Tuesday, Iranian state television aired footage of nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi apparently from a previous interview warning Tehran could raise the its enrichment of uranium "instantly."

"In a matter of four days we (are able) to start," he said.