Month: February 2025

States don’t have a clear picture of how federal waivers are shaping implementation of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Pew Charitable Trusts said that should change.

The organization called on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to publicly disclose all past waivers granted under BEAD, arguing that transparency would improve consistency and fairness across states.

Kathryn de Wit, director of Pew’s broadband access initiative, told Fierce Network that while states often share information informally, making these waivers public would provide clarity on approved adjustments and ensure equitable treatment across jurisdictions.

“States know about the waivers because they are sharing them among themselves. We’re encouraging NTIA to make those public, so people know the options that have been approved until now,” de Wit said. “Not all of them are public, but they are related to shared challenges that states have.”

NTIA has the authority to grant waivers on a case-by-case basis, but it has not published details on how these decisions were being made. Without public documentation, it’s unclear whether waivers have been granted consistently.

Some of the biggest obstacles to BEAD deployment — including permitting delays, Build America, Buy America compliance, and letter of credit requirements — have already been the subject of NTIA-issued waivers. If NTIA has allowed certain states flexibility on these issues, but not others, that could create disparities in broadband rollouts nationwide.

Pew’s recommendation comes as BEAD enters a critical stage: All 56 states and territories have had their BEAD initial proposals approved, and at least 19 states were already reviewing project bids.

Pew was also recommending that NTIA look to existing permitting processes from other federal broadband programs rather than introducing new ones. De Wit stressed that such an approach would build trust among states and ISPs and ensure the program remains on track.

“We’re hoping they queue off of the recommendations that we’ve provided,” de Wit said. “Members of Congress and the states are eager to get shovels in the ground. We have high participation of ISPs, which indicates they are acting in good faith and are ready to get moving.” Broadband Breakfast

The India tablet market (inclusive of detachable and slates) shipped 5.73 million units in 2024, up 42.8% year-over-year (YoY), according to new data from the (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The detachable and slate tablet categories grew by 30% YoY and 47.2% YoY, respectively. The market, however, declined by 17% YoY in 4Q2024 due to delays in some government manifesto deals.

The consumer segment grew by 19.2% YoY in 2024, driven by strong eTailer promotions, discounts, and cashback offers. Samsung led the eTailer channel in 2024 with a share of 24.4%. The commercial segment grew by 69.7% YoY, fueled by a remarkable 104.5% YoY growth in the Education segment driven by increased government-funded education projects despite a 9.9% YoY decline in the Very Large business (VLB) segment.

“With Android tablets getting better cameras, software updates, and app integration, tablets are becoming the device of choice for light productivity and entertainment and attracting a certain section of PC buyers. Despite more than 60% of shipments continued to be entry-level tablets (<=US$300), the ASP (average selling price) increased from US$309 in FY2023 to US$336 in FY2024 in the consumer segment. With rising component costs resulting in an increase in notebook PC prices, tablets are becoming an attractive option for customers”, said Priyans h Tiwari, research analyst, IDC India & South Asia.

Top 5 Company Highlights:
Samsung led the market with a 42.6% share in 2024 as it led in both commercial and consumer segments, with shares of 51.1% and 32.1%, respectively. Samsung maintained its leadership with a share of 35.5% in 4Q24 with its strong presence in public sector education projects, its good push across consumer channels, and a heavy inventory push during online sales.

Acer Group stood second with an 18.7% share in 2024. It did very well in the commercial segment, with a share of 32.8%, as it fulfilled several key government and education deals. The vendor held a share of 8.9% in 4Q24.

Apple stood third with an 11% share in 2024. It did well in both commercial and consumer segments, growing by 45.3%YoY and 4.7% YoY, respectively. Its growth in the commercial segment was driven by increased adoption of iPads by top management in enterprise and government ministries, along with FMCG companies. The vendor held a share of 18.1% in 4Q24.

Lenovo stood fourth with a 9% share in 2024. Its consumer segment showed a healthy 18.6% YoY growth driven by strong demand for its models priced between $150 and $250 primarily in the e-tailer channel. The vendor held a share of 12.5% in 4Q24.

Xiaomi also stood fourth with a 9% share and 101.7% YoY growth. The growth came from strong 3Q24 shipments with a 27.3% share of the total consumer market. Its focus on offline and eTailer channels along with new launches led to this growth. The vendor held a share of 10.5% in 4Q24. IDC

Hangzhou-based Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) star DeepSeek has announced a new discount programme, slashing prices for accessing its models through its application programming interface (API) during off-peak hours, in response to high demand that has strained its server resources during the day.

DeepSeek revealed the new rates on Wednesday, and they will take effect on Thursday after midnight.

From the hours of 12.30am to 8.30am China time, API access to the V3 model will be available at a 50 per cent discount. This comes to US$0.035 per million tokens for cache hits, US$0.135 per million tokens for cache misses, and US$0.55 per million tokens for output.

Access to the start-up’s R1 reasoning model will be available during the same hours at a 75 per cent discount. The two models are now priced identically during off-peak hours.

Context length – the maximum number of tokens a model can process at one time – is 64,000 tokens for both models. A token in AI refers to a fundamental unit of data processed by the algorithm, which can be a word, number, or even a punctuation mark. DeepSeek bills users based on the total number of input and output tokens processed by its models.

By comparison, OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model is priced at US$15 per million input tokens, US$7.5 per million cached input tokens, and US$60 per million output tokens, with a context length of 200,000 tokens. South China Morning Post

Telecom Italia is considering pushing back to as late as June its annual shareholder meeting currently scheduled for April 10, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.

TIM’s directors could discuss the potential postponement at a board meeting on Friday, one of the sources said. TIM declined to comment.

At the annual meeting, in addition to its full-year earnings and top management pay, TIM could put to a shareholder vote actions on its share capital that would help it restart investor remuneration, the two sources said.

A delay would buy TIM time at a moment when relations with its top shareholder Vivendi are strained, which increases uncertainty around the outcome of the vote on the items TIM will include in the general meeting’s agenda.

After failing to stop TIM’s landmark disposal of its landline grid, Vivendi has challenged the deal in court.

It is now considering selling its stake in the phone group, and has held talks with private equity firm CVC, sources have previously said.

The potential transaction, however, has been put on hold by the Italian government, which has special vetting powers on TIM and must clear any stake acquisition in the group bigger than 3%.

Meanwhile, state-controlled Poste Italiane this month became a TIM shareholder by taking a 9.8% stake which was previously held by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. Reuters

Business software provider Salesforce forecast fiscal 2026 revenue below Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, weighed down by slower adoption of its artificial intelligence agent platform, sending shares of the company down around 5% in extended trading.

The software-as-a-service pioneer is banking heavily on AI agents to reinvigorate growth at a time when other cloud firms, including Microsoft and Amazon, have firmly established themselves as leaders in the sector while making strides in machine learning.

The company expects revenue to be between $40.5 billion and $40.9 billion, compared to the average analysts’ estimate of $41.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The downbeat forecast indicates that the spending environment remains pressured, with enterprises withholding new financial commitments owing to still-high interest rates and economic uncertainty.

It forecast full-year adjusted earnings per share between $11.09 and $11.17 per share, compared with analysts’ estimate of $11.18 per share.

Analysts have said that the company’s return to double-digit growth rates hinges on the success of Agentforce — its AI agent builder platform — after it reported single-digit revenue growth in the past few quarters.

The emergence of AI agents reflects a shift in the booming artificial intelligence space, as tech firms are starting to move beyond chatbots in a move to show returns on the billions they have poured into this revolutionary technology.

The rapid evolution of AI has spurred Salesforce to hire people to sell its new products while simultaneously cutting jobs in other areas.

The company’s fourth-quarter revenue came in at $9.99 billion, missing a consensus estimate of $10.04 billion.

Salesforce forecast first-quarter revenue to be between $9.71 billion and $9.76 billion, below estimates of $9.90 billion. Reuters

Bharti Airtel Ltd said it is in discussions with Tata Group for a potential merger of their direct-to-home (DTH) businesses, confirming media reports about an impending deal between Airtel Digital TV and Tata Play.

In a regulatory filing, Airtel said that both companies are engaged in bilateral discussions to explore a possible combination of Tata Group’s DTH business, housed under Tata Play Ltd, with Bharti Telemedia Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel.

However, the telecom major clarified that the talks are at a preliminary stage.

“The above is at a discussion stage only,” Airtel said in its disclosure to stock exchanges.

Tata and Bharti groups are finalising a merger of their loss-making DTH businesses through a share-swap deal, with Airtel expected to hold more than 50% in the combined entity.

The proposed merger comes at a time when traditional DTH operators are witnessing a decline in subscribers as consumers increasingly shift to digital streaming platforms. The move is seen as a strategic step by Airtel to bolster its non-mobile revenues by integrating Tata Play’s 19 million subscriber base into its ‘triple play’ strategy, which bundles telecom, broadband, and DTH services.

Tata Play, formerly known as Tata Sky, is India’s largest DTH provider. It was initially launched as a joint venture between Tata Group and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, with The Walt Disney Co later acquiring Murdoch’s stake as part of its 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

If finalised, this will be the second major consolidation in the DTH sector in the last decade, following the Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger in 2016. The talks also come amid ongoing consolidation in India’s media and entertainment sector, with Reliance Industries and Walt Disney recently announcing a merger of Star India and Viacom18 to create JioStar, the country’s largest media entity with revenues of ₹26,000 crore in FY24. Upstox

Two members of a gang have been arrested here for allegedly defrauding people by making them pay hefty registration fees on the pretext of installing mobile towers on their properties, police said on Wednesday. A police officer said the scammers — Sarfaraz (36) and Munna Singh (37) — operated fake websites and ran deceptive online advertisements to make the victims believe that they were dealing with genuine telecom companies.

Police said that Sarfaraz, a graduate from a university in Bihar, was a skilled freelance website developer before turning to cyber fraud. The other accused, Munna Singh, a BCA, previously worked in IT companies in Noida and Gurugram but later took to scamming people online.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outernorth) Nidhin Valsan said investigators linked at least six cases to this gang, with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (i4C) looking into possible nationwide connections.

“The fraudsters ran a sophisticated racket by creating fake websites and running deceptive advertisements online. The victims, believing that they were dealing with telecom companies, were asked to pay registration fees. Once the payment was made, all communication ceased,” the officer said.

The scam came to light after a resident of Delhi’s Pooth Khurd complained to police that some people contacted him over the phone to install a mobile tower on his property.

According to the complaint, the victim paid Rs 1.85 lakh as registration fee and other charges and then realised that he had been scammed, the DCP said.

A team of police officials tasked with cracking the case tracked the accused through mobile numbers linked to bank accounts and hosting details of their fraudulent websites.

“Surveillance led the team to Sarfaraz in Delhi’s Samalkha. He was arrested on February 21. Further probe led to the arrest of Munna Singh from Mahavir Enclave in Delhi. Singh was responsible for running online advertisements that lured victims,” said the police officer.

The police recovered two mobile phones and four laptops while more than 50 websites linked to the scam were discovered, he said, adding further investigation was underway. PTI

India’s space economy is projected to expand dramatically, increasing from $8 billion to $44 billion in the coming years. This ambitious forecast was announced by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, during the “Business Conclave” hosted by the Times Network in New Delhi. The minister emphasized the government’s commitment to enhancing the space sector, which is seen as a crucial component in achieving a developed India by 2047.

Significant Growth in Space Budget
Dr. Jitendra Singh highlighted the substantial growth in India’s space budget, which has nearly tripled under Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s leadership. The budget rose from ₹5,615 crore in 2013-14 to an anticipated ₹13,416 crore by 2025-2026. This increase reflects the government’s dedication to fostering advancements in the space sector, which is pivotal for national development and technological innovation.

The minister pointed to 2014 as a transformative year for India’s space endeavors. Under Modi’s guidance, the government made strategic decisions to “unlock” the space sector, allowing for greater participation from private entities and foreign investors. This shift has created a more dynamic environment for innovation and collaboration, with frameworks like NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and In-SPACe facilitating partnerships between government and private sectors.

Milestones and Achievements of ISRO
Dr. Singh also celebrated the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) historic achievements, including its successful mission to the Moon’s South Pole. He noted that while other nations had already sent humans to the Moon, India has emerged as a leader in space exploration, utilizing cost-effective and indigenous technologies. The Chandrayaan mission, for instance, was executed at a fraction of the cost of similar missions by other countries, showcasing India’s capabilities on the global stage.

Furthermore, the minister underscored the impact of space technology on various sectors, including land record mapping through the Swamitva Scheme, which employs satellite mapping and drone technology. He also mentioned ISRO’s success in launching 433 foreign satellites, generating significant revenue for the country.

Fostering an Inclusive Space Ecosystem
Dr. Singh emphasized the importance of inclusivity in India’s space ecosystem, highlighting the significant contributions of women in key projects like Chandrayaan and Aditya L1. He pointed out India’s growing stature in international space collaborations, including an invitation for an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station. This reflects India’s increasing prominence in global space affairs and its commitment to fostering international partnerships.

The minister also discussed the untapped potential of India’s Himalayan, coastal, and marine resources, which are expected to drive economic growth and innovation. He reiterated that the space sector will play a vital role in unlocking these resources for national benefit, paving the way for a prosperous future.

Commitment to Sustainable Growth
In his closing remarks, Dr. Jitendra Singh reaffirmed India’s dedication to leading the global space race with innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable technologies. He expressed confidence that India’s space sector would not only follow global trends but also carve out its own leadership role in space exploration. This commitment marks a new era for India, positioning it as a formidable player in the international space community. Observer Voice