United News of Bangladesh

Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter after a protracted legal battle and months of uncertainty. The question now is what the billionaire Tesla CEO will actually do with the social media platform. Musk gave one indication of where he's headed in a tweet Friday, saying no decisions on content or reinstating of accounts will be made until a “content moderation council” is put in place. The council, he wrote, would have diverse viewpoints. Major personnel shakeups are widely expected, with Musk ousting several top Twitter executives on Thursday. A fourth confirmed his departure, in a tweet. But Musk, the tech guru and self-proclaimed “Chief Twit,” has otherwise made contradictory statements about his vision for the company — and shared few concrete plans for how he will run it after buying it for $44 billion. That has left Twitter's users, advertisers and employees to parse his every move in an effort to guess where he might take the company. Many are looking to see if he will welcome back a number of influential conservative figures banned for violating Twitter’s rules — speculation that is only heightened by upcoming elections in Brazil, the U.S. and elsewhere. “I will be digging in more today,” he tweeted early Friday, in response to a conservative political podcaster who has complained that the platform favors liberals and secretively downgrades conservative voices. Former President Donald Trump, an avid tweeter before he was banned, said Friday he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” but promoted his own social media site, Truth Social, that he launched after being blocked from the more widely used platform. Trump was banned two days after the Jan. 6 attacks for a pair of tweets that the company said continued to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the presidential election and raised risks for the presidential inauguration that Trump said he would not be attending. Trump has repeatedly said that he will not return to Twitter even if his account is reinstated, though some allies wonder if he’ll be able to resist as he moves closer to announcing another expected presidential campaign. His Twitter account remained suspended Friday. Meanwhile, conservative personalities on the site began recirculating long-debunked conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19 and the 2020 election, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to “test” whether Twitter’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced. The mercurial Musk has not made it easy to anticipate what he'll do. He has criticized Twitter’s dependence on advertisers, but made a statement Thursday that seemed aimed at soothing their fears. He has complained about restrictions on speech on the platform — but then vowed he wouldn’t let it become a “hellscape.” And for months it wasn’t even clear if he wanted to control the company at all. After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition. A Delaware judge had ordered that the deal be finalized by Friday. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimated that Musk and his investors overpaid. Even Musk has said the $44 billion price tag for Twitter was too high but that the company had great potential. The payment “will go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street, in our opinion,” Ives wrote in a note to investors. “With fair value that we would peg at roughly $25 billion, Musk buying Twitter remains a major head scratcher that ultimately he could not get out of once the Delaware Courts got involved.” After months of uncertainty, a series of moves by Musk this week signaled that the deal would in fact go through. On Wednesday, he strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a porcelain sink and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” Then on Thursday, he tweeted, “the bird is freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo. The same day, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Sean Edgett, who had been Twitter’s general counsel, confirmed on Twitter Friday that he’s also out of a job, posting that the company is full of the most amazing people. “Keep taking good care of this place, Tweagle,” he added, referring to the company name for Twitter's legal department. Gadde, meanwhile, removed all references to her former employer from her Twitter bio, while trolls continued to post thousands abusive messages in replies to her most recent tweet.   As concerns rise about the direction of Twitter’s content moderation, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted to Musk on Friday that “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.” Breton and Musk met in May and appeared in a video together in which Musk said he agreed with the 27-nation bloc’s strict new online regulations. Its Digital Services Act threatens big tech companies with billions in fines if they don’t police platforms more strictly for illegal or harmful content such as hate speech and disinformation. Musk has also spent months deriding Twitter’s “spam bots” and making sometimes conflicting pronouncements about Twitter’s problems and how to fix them.   He posted a note Thursday aimed at addressing concerns that his plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users. It showed a newfound emphasis on ad revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users’ personal information. About 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, but it's far from being the biggest digital marketing platform. Google, Amazon and Meta account for about 75% of digital ads. Twitter was just 1% of global digital ad spending in 2022, according to an Insider Intelligence projection. Lou Paskalis, former head of media for Bank of America, said Twitter’s most loyal advertisers, many Fortune 100 companies, believe in the platform and probably won’t leave unless “some really untoward things” happen. On Friday, General Motors announced that it had temporarily paused its Twitter advertising while it works to “understand the direction of the platform” under Musk's ownership. GM described the pause as a normal step it takes when a media platform undergoes “significant change.” The takeover means Twitter is becoming a private company. Trading of its shares was suspended Friday, and they will be pulled from the New York Stock Exchange next month.

Operators have inherent network advantages in connectivity and can bring unlimited interconnection value to the world if their connectivity capabilities are fully unleashed. Simon Lin, senior vice-president of Huawei and president of Huawei Asia-Pacific, said this Friday at the two-day Ultra-Broadband Forum 2022 which began in Bangkok Thursday. Huawei is cooperating with operators to help the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector formulate standards and jointly define the network carbon intensity energy indicator system, he added. Simon also set out a roadmap for how operators can unleash the full value of connections in home and enterprise scenarios and how green networks can underpin the green development of various industries. The upgrade of home networks and the emergence of new services such as live streaming at home pose new requirements on gigabit broadband. Coupled with gigabit broadband, new services can provide users with diversified experiences, create new home network business models for operators, and enable connection monetisation, the senior vice-president of Huawei said. "Fast and large-scale deployment of optical fibres lays the foundation for operators to build a positive business cycle. Deploying optical fibres on a large scale can effectively reduce the cost per line and enable operators to launch gigabit services with higher average revenue per user (ARPU)," he added. Good network and service experiences can ensure operators' solution sales at a premium rate, Simon said. "Operators can combine gigabit home networks with new services, such as providing scenario-specific broadband services, binding Internet services, and binding smart home device services. In this way, each new service can increase the ARPU of broadband services," he added. Currently, operators have just begun to put into practice and expand new services based on optical fibre home networks. Also, a connection entry is built for the digital transformation of enterprises to monetise their private lines and networks. The digital transformation of traditional industries calls for connectivity upgrades. A variety of industries have different requirements for connectivity, driving operators to provide diverse enterprise network connectivity solutions. Currently, more and more enterprise services are migrating to the cloud, allowing operators to expand their business space. Simon said: "Enterprise private lines are a high-value market for operators and can be used for covering campus networks and enterprise data centre networks. The private line bandwidth is upgraded from Gbps to 10 Gbps to offer high-quality connections in and out of campuses and data centres." "Enterprises' digital transformation requires diverse network connection services. Operators can provide scenario-specific private lines to increase revenues. For example, they can provide ultra-high-bandwidth private lines for the media industry, and millisecond-level low-latency private lines as well as security cloud services for securities companies." "As many enterprise branches need to access multiple clouds, N x N private lines are required," Simon said. "Operators can use multi-cloud backbone and network slicing technologies to upgrade private lines to private networks, providing deterministic network assurance for enterprises," Simon said, All-optical, simplified, and intelligent green networks enable the green development of various industries, the senior vice-president of Huawei also said.    

In an exclusive interview with UNB, Huawei's Asia Pacific Region's Vice President Zhang Zhengjun recently spoke about the tech giant's plans in Bangladesh. Q. 5G is here already. What are your plans for Bangladesh? Yes, in the Asia-Pacific region, 5G is already a hot topic. Korea and Japan were among the first countries to launch 5G. Thailand followed. Now, 30% of Thais are using 5G. Bangladesh is an important country for us. In 2020, Huawei participated in the Digital Bangladesh Mela where we showcased the real power of 5G -- mobile internet speed up to 1.6 GBps. We have had a lot discussions with the Bangladesh government and telecom operators.  Though 4G has been catering to the needs of mobile users for watching videos on YouTube or using TikTok, or Facebook, I found weak signal at many places -- like in Sylhet and Mymensingh. There are 183 million mobile subscribers in Bangladesh. For such a large population, more cellular towers are required for ensuring better coverage.  I believe Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Authority (BTRC) and Post and Telecommunication Division (PTD) will encourage telecom companies to facilitate installation of more mobile towers in Bangladesh to provide continuous network coverages. And, this improvement should be ensured in all cities and rural areas across Bangladesh; not only in the major cities like Dhaka and Chattogram. So, this is important to bridge the digital divide. Read more: Huawei: Maximise network resources for 5G's commercial success Bangladesh government has already released 5G spectrum. However, 5G is more used in industrial areas. In China, for instance, 5G is widely in use in hospitals, port areas, manufacturing units. Bangladesh should take note of these things. PTD has plans to utilise 5G in Chattogram. In a port city like Chattogram, a lot of workers are there to control different machineries. They stay at their workplaces for a very long time. If 5G is introduced there, workers can control the machines remotely because of the low latency and massive connections.  So, this kind of advantages could be used for industries in Chattogram and Mongla port areas and also at airports in different cities. For consumer uses, 4G is not bad, but l, of course, 5G will be better. Manufacturing units can benefit from the use of 5G. Assembling lines that need a lot of cables to connect with different equipment during the production of, say, a mobile handset, can use 5G to save time and money. In Bangladesh, the garment industry can also bank on artificial intelligence plus 5G to boost production.   Q. You said that Thailand, China and Korea have already launched 5G. In Bangladesh, we are still advocating for 4G’s expansion and 5G’s industrial use. But what is your experience in these three countries?  I think there are two aspects. People are more interested in 5G, especially in Korea, where there is a very big entertainment industry. People enjoy HD videos and gaming, which draw them to 5G. In Bangkok, thanks to 5G, the mobile internet speed is much faster and data traffic is much better. Moreover, different industries in both the countries also want to utilise 5G to improve efficiency and save costs. I think operators also want to promote 5G, because now, especially in countries like Bangladesh, there's 2G to 5G. And for every technology, you need a network, even more than one network, because you have a different spectrum.  As there are so many networks, you need a lot of money for operation and maintenance; there’s a huge cost in terms of both Capex and Opex. So operators want to merge it; for example, in some countries, 3G has been shut down. In Bangladesh, I believe they will focus more on 4G and 5G. Q. What would be your suggestion for the country, which is lagging in 4G coverage but 5G is available? Let’s take Bangladesh as an example. The first suggestion is that 4G is the foundation. So, continuous and very good experience of 4G network is still needed.  The government and operators need to join hands and work together with that, because in rural areas, honestly speaking, there’s not so much convenience there, because even if you put up a tower and set up the network, revenue is little. So how to encourage operators to set up the network in rural areas and make coverage continuous and seamless -- is an important topic.  Read more: Huawei promises more innovation to push 5G operations ahead globally And secondly, I think that 5G should be used extensively in some peak traffic areas like Chattogram and Dhaka. Because there we have high-end users – some people who use 5G handsets want 5G and better experience in online gaming.  Industries can use 5G for digitalisation that will help improve efficiency. Maybe you don’t have to roll out 5G countrywide in the very beginning, it depends on the needs. Q. The entire world is suffering from energy crisis. Bangladesh is no exception. In that case, how Huawei’s tech like 5G can help countries like ours in energy? Actually, regarding this, I think I can tell you two aspects. One thing is about the grid itself. Especially like in China, we use 5G to monitor the grid network to guarantee its smooth functioning. We also use drones to check power lines. Secondly, talking about energy, Huawei also have solar power solutions. A one-time investment on solar power can serve upto 30 years, and you don’t have to import more oil. Now the unit price of solar power is equal or even less than a unit of traditional electricity. Q. What about the health sector, do you have any plan for smart hospitals? I do believe every country needs smart hospitals. From a Bangladesh perspective, I believe you need a network to cover the entire country.  Currently, every hospital is isolated, very independent. So, one common challenge is that one patient, when he or she goes to the hospital and do some checkups, and then it's difficult for them to get this record at another hospital because the data is not centralised. In rural areas, it's difficult for people to access proper healthcare. Here, comes the role of technology again. Read more: Huawei ICT Incubator announces top 6 startups from Bangladesh Q. You have a strong partnership in Bangladesh in building telecom structure. What's your next plan? We are in Bangladesh for 23 years. Huawei has different business groups. The first one we call it CNBG (Carrier Network Business Group) that is the area with telecom operators. Secondly, we have the Enterprise Business. We cooperate with enterprises and the government. The third one is Consumer Business Group that includes laptops, tablets and wearables. And another one is Huawei Cloud. We started Huawei Cloud in Bangladesh in 2018.  Next is our Digital Power that reflects smart energy/solar power. So talking about solar power in Bangladesh, we cooperate with the government and try to promote it. We have the second largest solar power plant in Mymensingh. Q. Over the next five years or so, where does Huawei want to stand in Bangladesh? Actually, I believe the operators, I mean, the carrier business has still potential. Because 5G is not yet ready and 4G lacks countrywide coverage. So, I believe there is a high potential of work in this area. I can say that operators, regulators and also suppliers like us will need to understand each other and collaborate to make the network better. Especially now, we value our position in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's economy is stable and growing. So, now it is high time for Bangladesh to grow further in the digital sector. We are paying more and more attention to the Bangladesh market, and we will try to develop a better ecosystem.

Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s general counsel, two people familiar with the deal said Thursday night. The people wouldn’t say if all the paperwork for the deal, originally valued at $44 billion, had been signed or if the deal has closed. But they said Musk is in charge of the social media platform and has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and General Counsel Vijaya Gadde. Neither person wanted to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the deal. The departures come just hours before a deadline set by a Delaware judge to finalize the deal on Friday. She threatened to schedule a trial if no agreement was reached. The major personnel moves are expected to be the first of many changes made by Musk, who says he can increase Twitter's subscriber base and and revenue. Earlier in the day, Musk tried to soothe leery Twitter advertisers saying that he is buying the platform to help humanity and doesn’t want it to become a “free-for-all hellscape.” The message appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns among advertisers — Twitter’s chief source of revenue — that Musk’s plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote in an uncharacteristically long message for the Tesla CEO, who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets. Also read: ‘Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!’: Musk tweets He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.” Musk has previously expressed distaste for advertising and Twitter’s dependence on it, suggesting more emphasis on other business models such as paid subscriptions that won’t allow big corporations to dictate policy on how social media operates. But on Thursday, he assured advertisers he wants Twitter to be “the most respected advertising platform in the world.” The note is a shift from Musk's position that Twitter is unfairly infringing on free speech rights by blocking misinformation or graphic content, said Pinar Yildirim, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.   But it’s also a realization that having no content moderation is bad for business, putting Twitter at risk of losing advertisers and subscribers, she said.   “You do not want a place where consumers just simply are bombarded with things they do not want to hear about, and the platform takes no responsibility,” Yildirim said.   Musk said Twitter should be “warm and welcoming to all” and enable users to choose the experience they want to have. “I didn’t do it to make money,” he said of the pending acquisition. “I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.” Friday’s deadline to close the deal was ordered by the Delaware Chancery Court in early October. It is the latest step in a battle that began in April with Musk signing a deal to acquire Twitter, then tried to back out of it, leading Twitter to sue the Tesla CEO to force him to go through with the acquisition. If the two sides don’t meet Friday's deadline, the next step could be a November trial that could lead to a judge forcing Musk to complete the deal. But Musk has been signaling that the deal is going through. He strolled into the company’s San Francisco headquarters Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit," and tweeted “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” And overnight the New York Stock Exchange notified investors that it will suspend trading in shares of Twitter before the opening bell Friday in anticipation of the company going private under Musk. Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees directly Friday if the deal is finalized, according to an internal memo cited in several media outlets. Despite internal confusion and low morale tied to fears of layoffs or a dismantling of the company's culture and operations, Twitter leaders this week have at least outwardly welcomed Musk's arrival and messaging. Top sales executive Sarah Personette, the company's chief customer officer, said she had a “great discussion” with Musk on Wednesday and appeared to endorse his Thursday message to advertisers. “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged,” Personette tweeted Thursday. “Looking forward to the future!” Musk's apparent enthusiasm about visiting Twitter headquarters this week stood in sharp contrast to one of his earlier suggestions: The building should be turned into a homeless shelter because so few employees actually worked there. The Washington Post reported last week that Musk told prospective investors that he plans to cut three quarters of Twitter’s 7,500 workers when he becomes owner of the company. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberation. Musk has spent months deriding Twitter's “spam bots" and making sometimes contradictory pronouncements about Twitter's problems and how to fix them. But he has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. Thursday's note to advertisers shows a newfound emphasis on advertising revenue, especially a need for Twitter to provide more “relevant ads” — which typically means targeted ads that rely on collecting and analyzing users' personal information. Yildirim said that, unlike Facebook, Twitter has not been good at targeting advertising to what users want to see. Musk’s message suggests he wants to fix that, she said. Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said Musk has good reason to avoid a massive shakeup of Twitter’s ad business because Twitter's revenues have taken a beating from the weakening economy, months of uncertainty surrounding Musk's proposed takeover, changing consumer behaviors and the fact that "there's no other revenue source waiting in the wings." “Even slightly loosening content moderation on the platform is sure to spook advertisers, many of whom already find Twitter’s brand safety tools to be lacking compared with other social platforms,” Enberg said.

Ultra-broadband 5.5G will be a key milestone on the path to an intelligent world, David Wang, Huawei's executive director of the board and chairman of the ICT infrastructure managing board, said Thursday. He was speaking at the two-day Ultra-Broadband Forum 2022 which began in Bangkok today. "As we approach the intelligent world of 2030, home broadband speeds will reach 10 Gbit/s, marking a huge improvement over today's 1 Gbit/s experience," David said. "Now homes have an average of 5 to 20 devices connected to their Wi-Fi networks. However, this is set to change as smart home devices see broad adoption, which will drive this number up to 150 to 200. It will therefore be essential that fibre can reach every room of every home." Read: 5.5G: 'The key to building an intelligent world' By 2030, Wi-Fi networks will also be capable of delivering several 10 Gbit/s experiences for mid- and large-sized campuses and will need to support intelligent operations and management, David said. "Micro and small enterprises will need Wi-Fi networks that can deliver large bandwidth, premium experiences, and one-stop intranet services. Industrial Internet will require a bandwidth higher than 10 Gbit/s and latency lower than one millisecond," he added. "Enterprises will adopt a multi-cloud strategy that requires networks to dynamically adjust routing. Driven by green development and automation, we will see 10-fold increases in network capacity, energy efficiency, and O&M efficiency," David said.

Microsoft on Tuesday reported a 14% drop in profit for the July-September quarter compared to the same time last year, reflecting a weak market for personal computers affecting its Windows business. The company reported quarterly net income of $17.6 billion, or $2.35 per share, which still slightly beat Wall Street expectations despite undershooting last year’s results. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker posted revenue of $50.1 billion in the quarter, up 11% from last year, also beating expectations. Analysts expected Microsoft to earn $2.31 per share on revenue of $49.7 billion for the quarter. Microsoft’s personal computing business, centered on its Windows software, was widely expected to take a hit given economic uncertainties such as inflation. In addition, many consumers bought new devices during the pandemic, helping crimp demand. The company gets licensing revenue from PC manufacturers who install its Windows operating system on their products. Revenue from those licenses dropped 15% in the quarter, Microsoft said. Worldwide shipments of personal computers declined almost 20% in the quarter from the same time last year, according to market research firm Gartner, which said it was the steepest decline since it began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s. A disappointing back-to-school sales season for new computers also contributed to a fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline, Gartner said. Microsoft shares slipped more than 6% in after-hours trading Tuesday. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on a conference call with investors that some of the negative factors affecting the last quarter could extend into the near future. Alluding to recent layoffs and the past year of new hires, she said net headcount growth “will be minimal” heading into the current quarter. Microsoft made up for some of the Windows-related losses through the strength of its cloud-computing services supplied to big businesses and other institutions. Revenue from that segment grew 20% from the same time last year to $20.3 billion, making it the largest source of Microsoft’s sales and growth during the period. But growth in the company’s flagship Azure cloud computing platform was lower than what analysts anticipated, in part because of what Hood described as an ongoing spike in the cost of energy needed to run powerful data centers. The second-largest business segment, made up of productivity-related software such as the Office suite of work products, grew 9% to $16.5 billion in revenue.

Summertime revenue growth at Google’s corporate parent slipped to its slowest pace since the pandemic jarred the economy more than two years ago, with advertisers clamping down on spending and bracing for a potential recession. Alphabet Inc., which owns an array of smaller technology companies in addition to Google, on Tuesday posted revenue of $69.1 billion for the July-September quarter, a 6% increase from the same time last year. It marked the first time Alphabet’s year-over-year quarterly revenue has risen by less than 10% since the April-June period of 2020. At that time, the advertisers that generate most of its revenue pulled in their reins because of the economic uncertainty during the pandemic’s early months. Google’s ad sales weakened even more dramatically than Alphabet’s overall revenue. Ad revenue totaled $54.5 billion, up just 2.5% from the same time last year. In another sign of more challenging times, YouTube’s quarterly ad sales decreased 2% from last year, the first time the video site’s revenue has regressed since Google began disclosing its results in 2019. The revenue slowdown also created a drag on Alphabet’s profits. The Mountain View, California, company earned $13.9 billion, $1.06 per share, a 27% drop from the same time last year. Both revenue and earnings per share fell below projections of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Alphabet’s shares declined nearly 7% in extended trading after the numbers came out. The stock price has plummeted by more than 30% this year, erasing about $600 billion in shareholder wealth. “Online ad spending is clearly slowing more than we thought,” said David Heger, an analyst for Edward Jones. “It looks like it is going to be tough sledding for the next few quarters.” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai described the conditions as “uncertain” and told analysts during a conference call, “it is a moment where you take the time to optimize the company to make sure we are set up for the next decade of growth ahead.” Google’s moneymaking machine, propelled by its dominant search engine, roared back as pandemic restrictions loosened last year and government stimulus juiced the economy, helping power Alphabet to a 41% increase in its revenue last year that lifted its stock price to new peaks. But the economy has been sputtering in recent months as central bankers steadily lift interest rates to combat the highest inflation rates in more than 40 years, a strategy that is threatening to plunge the economy into a recession. As it is, many households have already tightened their budgets and cut back on some discretionary items — a trend that has prompted advertisers to spend less marketing their products and services. “This disappointing quarter for Google signifies hard times ahead,” warned Insider Intelligence analyst Evelyn Mitchell. Alphabet has vowed to scale back its hiring, but didn’t show much restraint during the summer months. After adding 17,500 employees to its payroll during the first half of the year, the company’s workforce increased by another 11,765 people in the past quarter. Alphabet ended September with nearly 187,000 employees. Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, predicted during the conference call that the company will hire fewer than 6,380 workers during the final three months of this year, a more measured approach that Pichai said would continue into next year. The cautious remarks came after Pichai told Alphabet employees last month to be “a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macroeconomic conditions” of the past decade and urged them not to “equate fun with money.” Although the economy is squeezing its finances, Google is faring far better than other internet companies whose fortunes are tied to digital advertising. Facebook suffered its first year-over-year quarterly decline in revenue earlier this year. Another social networking company, Snap, has been so hard hit that its stock price has plunged by more than 80% so far this year. Facebook, Snap and a variety of other internet services rely on being able to track users’ whereabouts and online activities to target ads. Apple began blocking that tracking on iPhones 18 months ago unless users consented to the surveillance. Google’s search engine is still able to gather personal information prized by advertisers through its search engine, minimizing the impact of Apple’s tougher privacy controls on its revenue. Facebook’s corporate parent, Meta Platforms, is scheduled to report its results for the latest quarter Wednesday afternoon.

Global tech giant Huawei has called upon all industry players to prepare on all fronts so that they can move faster towards the 5.5G era and eventually build a better, intelligent world together. David Wang, Huawei's executive director of the Board and Chairman of ICT Infrastructure Managing Board, said this while delivering a keynote address at the Global Mobile Broadband Forum which began in Bangkok on Tuesday. "With the intelligent world fast approaching, the rapid changes we are set to experience will all be accompanied by increasing requirements for digital infrastructure. The next milestone we must hit on the path to the intelligent world is 5.5G. 5.5G will deliver 10 Gbit/s experiences, support hundreds of billions of connections, and help us achieve native intelligence," he said. Wang emphasized that after two years of concerted efforts across the industry, 5.5G has seen huge progress and three things have become clear. "First, the standardization of 5.5G has been initiated and is on the right track, making it more than just a vision. Second, the industry has made breakthroughs in key technologies for 5.5G, and ultra-large bandwidth and ELAA can now deliver 10 Gbit/s experience. "Third, the industry has a clear vision for the IoT landscape. Three types of 5.5G-enabled IoT technologies supported by 5.5G, namely NB-IoT, RedCap, and passive IoT, are developing rapidly and will support numerous IoT connections," he said. The communications industry, Wang said, is constantly evolving. "5.5G has been kicked into high gear. Looking ahead, our task is to tackle these five new areas – standards, spectrum, products, ecosystems, and applications. Together, let's stride to 5.5G and build a better, intelligent world." The Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2022 is hosted by Huawei, together with its industry partners, GSMA and GTI. This annual forum gathers mobile network carriers, vertical industry leaders, and ecosystem partners from around the world to discuss how to make 5G a commercial success and other hot topics like green development, intelligence, and 5G evolution. It may be mentioned that in December 2021, telecom regulator BTRC launched the initial 5G network in Bangladesh in collaboration with state-owned mobile operator Teletalk. But the initial coverage remains extremely limited, extending only to the Prime Minister's Office, Parliament, Secretariat, Bangabandhu Museum on Dhanmondi 32, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth place Tungipara in Gopalganj, and the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar. The country, however, has big ambitions with 5G and its expanded capabilities in the near future, as coverage expands. Till now, it has partnered with Huawei in bringing 5G to Bangladesh.

The call for submission of research on the fourth industrial revolution – a first of its kind initiative by Awami League's subcommittee on science and technology – drew overwhelming response with papers submitted by globally and nationally acclaimed academics and experts. As many as 578 authors came up with their research papers encompassing different fields revolving 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in technology – mostly to complement the party’s effort to build on the pledge of “Smart Bangladesh”, the next phase of digital transformation the government seeks to implement to address future challenges. Among them there are researchers from the Silicon Valley, London Imperial College, Australia’s Monash University, McMaster and Calgary universities in Canada, several universities in US, and Kyoto University in Japan, according to a press release. Set to be held next month, the two-day international conference would see participation from the country’s state minister for ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak and Engineer Md Abdus Sabur, AL’s Science and Technology Secretary, among other experts. It will take place at the capital's Engineers' Institution, Bangladesh (IEB). The international conference provides a unique opportunity for professionals, scientists, engineers, educators, researchers and students to share their views and thoughts on both the innovative drives of the government targeting 4IR and exploring emerging technologies that can lead to a “smart Bangladesh” by 2041. The organizers believe the country is progressing rapidly and to address the course of future progress, such initiatives stand as a pointer to the party’s measures for chartering out timely ideas to shape its visions. Courtesy Sajeeb Wazed, the ICT affairs advisor to PM, who has been credited with the country’s real and measurable gains in digital landscape with setting many records from making internet cost effective, taking public services at people’s doorstep, setting up ICT parks, and expansion of mobile financial services over the space of a decade, Bangladesh now boasts a significant earning from overseas through offering different services. Digital Bangladesh is a vision introduced by AL before the 2008 national election, seeking to brining about a revolution in the country’s overall rise in South Asia. In a word, this is one step forward towards works on 4IR and the party believes that this conference will give a chance to make inter and intra relationships and share knowledge among policymakers, scientists and researchers. 

After the longest reported downtime, WhatsApp messaging services are now operational again. For approximately 90 minutes, the instant messaging service was not available. Users reported receiving all messages now that WhatsApp is officially up and running. WhatsApp is currently functional on WhatsApp Web, Android, and iOS apps. Although some users claim that services on WhatsApp Web are still not functioning, phone app should be functional. Read WhatsApp down: Users report not being able to send, receive messages Many worldwide use WhatsApp, a popular messaging service owned by Meta, to send rapid texts. Earlier today, WhatsApp experienced a significant outage that lasted for about two hours. This prevented millions of WhatsApp users from sending or receiving messages globally. WhatsApp earlier claimed that it was working to resume operations. “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible,” a Meta spokesperson has said. Read Users report not able to send, receive messages Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all owned by the US-based firm Meta.