Category: Communications

Most companies leveraging Extended Reality (XR) do not tap into one of its most valuable assets—data. Despite having the tools to capture rich insights, businesses primarily use XR for engagement rather than as a data-driven resource to measure ROI, optimize performance, and enhance customer experiences. According to a new report from global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, organizations are not fully harnessing XR’s potential because they either lack awareness of its role as a valuable data source or do not understand its benefits in this capacity.

“When discussing with companies how they measure their success rates, or with what data they approach customers to convince them XR is a business tool, most said that they use their own case studies as proof of success, or customer questionnaires to understand the usefulness of their product,” explains Matilda Beinat, Research Analyst at ABI Research. “With that in mind, approaching companies that offer modes for XR as a data source expressed similar findings – most companies do not gather biometric and usage-based data, and more importantly, they do not completely understand the benefits of tangible results to prove success rates.”

While many companies are missing an important opportunity, innovators like Cognitive3D, InContext Solutions, and XRHealth are demonstrating the transformative potential of XR data. Cognitive3D’s platform captures detailed spatial analytics and user interactions within XR environments, providing businesses with unprecedented insight into user behavior and engagement. This data empowers data-driven decisions for ROI measurement, design optimization, and enhanced customer experiences. InContext Solutions leverages XR for real-time retail insights, allowing brands to test store layouts and product placements virtually before costly real-world implementations. XRHealth is revolutionizing healthcare by using XR data to personalize therapies and track patient progress, enabling clinicians to precisely measure recovery outcomes.

These companies showcase the untapped power of XR as a data source, proving its ability to drive measurable success. By harnessing XR data effectively, organizations gain actionable insights for transforming operations and elevating customer engagement. This represents a significant opportunity for businesses across industries, and those who embrace XR data now stand to gain a considerable competitive advantage.

“In the age of immersive experiences, data is the key to unlocking competitive advantage. With the way Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving forward, and how it is being paired with XR, it is important to understand the benefits of data, how it should be used, and why it should be used,” says Beinat. “XR is often viewed as a platform for engagement, but it’s also a powerful source of information. Shifting our perspective to recognize this data potential is crucial for realizing its full value.” ABI Research

European telecommunications executives gathered at the continent’s biggest trade show railed against over-regulation, blaming Brussels for preventing consolidation in the industry that’s fallen behind peers in the US and Asia.

“You know, what Europe needs is a DOGE,” Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Officer Tim Höttges said Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, referring to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency spearheaded by Elon Musk.

Höttges’s frustrations about a stagnant European telecom industry hampered by low margins and high levels of competition were echoed by others on his panel, including Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle, Orange SA boss Christel Heydemann and Telefonica SA’s Marc Murtra.

“In what has now become a global race, it is fair to say that Europe is not winning,” Della Valle said, adding that in “the 5G era, Europe is a laggard.”

Many in the industry see consolidation as a cure. In several European markets, regulators have blocked or heavily modified planned mergers that would reduce the number of operators in a country from four to three in an effort to maintain affordable service.

A report by former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi last year said the European Union should encourage more mergers in the sector. While Teresa Ribera, the bloc’s antitrust chief, has said she supports overhauling EU merger rules in general to boost competitiveness of local companies, the commission hasn’t yet pushed through any changes.

Read More: Telefonica Eyes EU Consolidation After Meeting Expectations

“We should just copy what the Americans are doing,” said Höttges, whose Deutsche Telekom gets most of its revenue and profit from a stake in US operator T-Mobile US Inc. “China has three operators, even India went to three operators and they are prospering.”

The panel came at the end of a day when the leaders of companies including Telefonica, Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC, Telenor ASA, and Bharti Airtel Ltd expressed frustration that their companies haven’t got sufficient financial rewards from building expensive telecommunications networks.

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said the industry bears the burden of building digital infrastructure, but isn’t not getting enough back.

“The return on capital? At 4% average,” Mittal said. “We may as well put the money in the bank and go and play some golf.” Bloomberg

Bharti Airtel vice-chairman and MD Gopal Vittal has urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI ) to expand its regulatory oversight to over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms in order to significantly curb spam.

In a recent letter to TRAI secretary Atul Kumar Chaudhary, Vittal has recommended three immediate steps to TRAI to address the issue of spams over OTT. First involves extending the digital consent acquisition (DCA) framework to OTT platforms. Second, mandating KYC framework for OTTs, and third is expanding the centralised blacklist system for spam detection to OTT platforms.

“While regulatory efforts have significantly curbed spam and unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) over SMS and voice, bad actors are increasingly shifting their operations OTT communication platforms, where regulatory oversight remains limited,” Vittal said in the letter.

His suggestions were in response to TRAI’s letter to Airtel, commending its role in the successful implementation of the SMS traceability framework, which the regulator had mandated telcos to do to avoid SMS frauds.

The ability of fraudsters to bypass telecom regulations through these platforms creates new challenges, leaving consumers vulnerable to phishing, financial fraud, and other security threats, Vittal explained.

Vittal’s suggestions come at a time when TRAI has amended the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018 and introduced easy spam reporting mechanism, new do not disturb app, penalties on telcos on non-compliance, and opt-out option from promotional messages, among key things.

However, the TRAI regulations do not apply to OTTs as the same is currently out of its ambit, officials said.

According to Vittal, the DCA framework will ensure that users can seamlessly manage their consent across both telecom and digital communication channels. The same helps consumers to control promotional communications.

Just like telcos do a KYC for users, a similar verification framework for OTT platforms will help improve traceability, accountability, and consumer safety, Vittal said, adding that lack of blacklist system in OTT platforms allow repeat offenders to continue their activities unchecked.

Airtel last year also introduced its AI driven anti-spam solution.

“Our industry’s first anti-spam tool has brought significant relief. We have been able to alert 252 million unique customers and effectively combat the spam menace. Powered by our AI driven network, this identifies over 1 million unique spammers making more than 130 million calls a day.

That’s roughly a trillion records that it’s processed on a daily basis,” Vittal said during an earnings call.

Among other key things, Vittal has urged TRAI to create a unified consumer protection and compliance framework, which includes a robust authorisation/licensing framework for principal entities (PEs) and telemarketers (TMs).

The same should also include strong penalties. “This (ensuring accountability of PEs and TMs, is especially imperative given that TSPs are merely the conduits while the PEs/TMs are actual content generators,” Vittal said.

Airtel has also sought TRAI’s intervention in pitching for global standards against calling line identification (CLI) spoofing. Financial Express

A new hydrogen fuel cell-based backup power solution for telecom towers is set to revolutionise the industry by providing a cleaner, more efficient alternative to traditional diesel generators, the government said.

This innovative plug-and-play system aligns with India’s renewable energy goals while ensuring uninterrupted connectivity for millions of users across the country, according to Ministry of Science and Technology.

“India is home to over a million telecom towers, many of which are located in remote areas where maintaining continuous operations can be challenging due to limited access to the power grid,” the ministry added.

It added that for years, diesel generators have been used as backup power sources. However, these generators are costly, inefficient, and contribute significantly to carbon emissions, making them less suitable in the long term.

The solution to this problem lies in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which offer an environmentally friendly, efficient, and reliable energy source.

These fuel cells generate electricity by using hydrogen as fuel, producing only water vapour as a by-product.

They also have the advantage of quick start-up times, operate at relatively low temperatures, and require much less maintenance than diesel generators, making them a promising option for telecom towers, especially in areas without reliable grid power.

The fuel cell technology operates through an electrochemical reaction, where hydrogen gas is supplied to the anode, oxidised to release protons, and then passes through a polymer membrane to the cathode.

Here, it reacts with oxygen to generate electricity and water, providing a clean energy solution, the Ministry added.

In line with global environmental efforts, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have been encouraging greener energy alternatives for telecom towers.

TRAI’s 2012 directive mandates that at least 50 per cent of rural telecom towers and 33 per cent of urban towers switch to hybrid renewable energy sources.

Integrating PEM fuel cells with telecom towers supports this vision, offering an eco-friendly backup system. OdishaTV

The US government office responsible for a marquee $52 billion chip subsidy program will lose about two-fifths of its staff as President Donald Trump slashes the federal workforce.

The reduction includes around 20 employees who accepted a voluntary deferred resignation and left the Chips Program Office last week, the people said. There also are about 40 who are considered probationary and will be terminated Monday, according to one of the people. Probationary employees are those who started their jobs, including promotions, in the past one to two years.

The terminations threaten to hamper implementation of the Chips and Science Act, a bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Designed to boost domestic chipmaking after decades of production shifting to Asia, the program includes $39 billion in manufacturing grants to companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel Corp., plus $11 billion for research and development. It has prompted well over $400 billion in promised private investment, including chip factory spending and supply chain projects.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the former chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, hasn’t expressed clear intentions for the Chips Act. But in remarks on Monday, he suggested that the legislation’s approach hasn’t generated the kind of payoff that Trump is poised to get with tariffs.

Lutnick spoke during the White House announcement of TSMC’s plan to invest an additional $100 billion in US manufacturing. With the Chips Act, the US gave a $6 billion grant to TSMC and received a pledge to invest $65 billion, he said.

“So America gave TSMC 10% of the money to build here,” Lutnick said at the event. “And now you’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency because TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with a $100 billion investment. And, of course, that is backed by the fact that they can come here because they can avoid paying tariffs.”

A representative for the Commerce Department, which oversees the office, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the staffing cuts.

The previous administration built an office of about 140 people to oversee the Chips Act manufacturing spending, on top of staff responsible for R&D funding. Those officials allocated the vast majority of factory incentives before Biden left office, but only a small portion of that money has actually gone out the door. Under the negotiated contracts, companies receive payments when they reach construction and production milestones.

The staff cuts, while significant, aren’t as deep as some within the government and chip industry anticipated. In particular, they won’t have a major impact on the teams responsible for negotiating with companies and evaluating their progress toward contractual benchmarks, a person familiar with the matter said. The chips office leadership urged against cuts to those departments in recent meetings with Lutnick.

But it’s unclear how the office will proceed on a wide range of other matters, including the execution of manufacturing awards focused on smaller supply chain projects. The office has received applications for the $500 million program, but has not yet announced any winners.

Lutnick’s questions to current staff have focused on the rationale behind award decisions, the people said, as well as the government’s legal authority to claw back money that’s been disbursed. Lutnick is especially focused on rules limiting how much Chips Act winners can expand in China, the people said.

The program’s staff, meanwhile, have been preparing a list of potential amendments — to both the funding application process and contract terms — that would allow Lutnick to claim a win for the administration without causing major disruptions, according to two people. That could include removing language encouraging union contracts, the people said, or requirements to offer child care at major facilities — something many companies independently planned to do.

But it’s possible that Lutnick’s changes will prove more consequential than cosmetic. For weeks, he’s quietly led conversations with Intel and TSMC — which won the two largest Chips Act awards — about a possible deal that could see the Taiwanese company take over operation of Intel’s factories. That could involve changes to both companies’ awards, depending in part on the ownership structure of a potential partnership. Bloomberg

According to Counterpoint’s latest Global Cellular IoT Module and Chipset Tracker by Application, Q4 2024. The Global cellular IoT module shipments climbed 10% YoY in 2024 as the market rebounded from the downturn seen in 2023. This resurgence was primarily driven by strong demand in China and India, underscoring the resilience and evolving dynamics of the IoT ecosystem.

Commenting on the cellular IoT module market, Principal Analyst Tina Lu said, “China played a pivotal role in the market’s resurgence with a robust 21% YoY growth, primarily driven by the significant expansion in POS, particularly soundbox, as well as automotive and asset-tracking applications. Meanwhile, India rose 31% YoY, emerging as the only country outside China to register growth. India was fueled by rising deployments in smart metering and tracking applications. Government initiatives supporting digitalization, combined with an expanding ecosystem of IoT deployments, contributed to India’s strong performance. In contrast, the rest of the world saw a decline due to inventory corrections.”

Lu added, “The technological landscape of the cellular IoT market saw significant shifts in 2024. Cat 1 bis emerged as the fastest-growing category, recording an impressive 100% YoY growth. This surge was driven by applications such as asset tracking and smart meters. Conversely, NB-IoT and standard Cat 1 experienced sharp declines of 34% YoY and 51% YoY, respectively. In China, application vendors are increasingly favoring Cat 1 bis due to its cost efficiency, improved power consumption, and superior network coverage, making it the preferred connectivity solution across various IoT verticals.”

• Quectel continued to lead the market, followed by China Mobile and Fibocom. These three companies captured more than half of the global market in 2024. In markets outside China, Telit Cinterion maintained its second position behind Quectel.
• Despite the overall market recovery, leading IoT module vendors faced increasing geopolitical challenges. Quectel and Fibocom, two of the largest China-based IoT module suppliers, may face heightened restrictions in international markets. Notably, Quectel was added to the US 1260H list, further complicating its ability to operate in Western markets. These developments have prompted concerns over supply chain stability and vendor diversification strategies among global IoT adopters.
• The competitive landscape of the cellular IoT module industry underwent substantial transformation in 2024. Consolidation trends intensified, with major industry players making strategic acquisitions and restructuring their business portfolios. Qualcomm’s acquisition of Sequans’ 4G technology underscored the increasing importance of LTE-based solutions in the IoT market. Meanwhile, u-blox’s complete exit from the cellular module segment highlighted the growing challenges faced by mid-tier players in sustaining profitability amid price pressures and evolving technology demands.

Commenting on the chipset player dynamics, Research Analyst Anish Khajuria said, “Qualcomm remains the leading player, followed by ASR and UNISOC. ASR demonstrated exceptional growth, nearly doubling its market share over the years, driven by its dominant presence in the 4G Cat 1 bis chipset segment, where it accounted for nearly half of the market in 2024.”

China and North America have started commercially deploying 5G RedCap. Several chipset vendors, including Qualcomm, MLink, UNISOC, MediaTek, and HiSilicon, have introduced 5G RedCap chipsets, signaling a growing shift toward next-generation connectivity solutions. The adoption rate of 5G RedCap largely depends on MNOs strategies, including their transition from 4G to 5G and the penetration of standalone (SA) 5G networks, as well as device cost considerations. Key applications for 5G RedCap include MiFi devices, routers, and surveillance cameras, reinforcing its expanding role in the evolving connectivity ecosystem. Counterpoint Research

A simple handshake between President Xi Jinping and once-shunned entrepreneur Jack Ma sent Chinese tech stocks booming in recent weeks as it was interpreted as the latest sign the sector is being brought in from the cold — though experts advise caution.

Beijing launched a regulatory blitz on the industry in 2020 that triggered a massive sell-off, wiping hundreds of billions of dollars from major tech firms’ market value.

But there are increasing signals that it is adopting a friendlier attitude, as domestic economic woes persist and leaders nervously eye a heightened trade war with the United States.

“Beijing cannot accomplish its national ambitions of technological independence from the United States and ultimate dominance of cutting-edge technologies without the private sector,” Shehzad Qazi, managing director of China Beige Book, told AFP.

The shock release in late January of a sophisticated AI chatbot by Hangzhou-based start-up DeepSeek — which matched US rivals’ performance seemingly at a fraction of the cost — could be seen as a stark example of that.

DeepSeek was praised by authorities, with its founder also present at the high-level business symposium where Xi met Ma in Beijing nearly two weeks ago.

Xi’s warm greeting of the Alibaba co-founder, who had stayed out of the spotlight since making disparaging comments about the nation’s regulators in 2020, is “the latest sign of China more firmly aligning private enterprises with the (Communist) Party’s economic and national security ambitions”, said Qazi.

But he warned that “Beijing isn’t interested in helping companies produce record-breaking earnings or spurring mega rallies in the stock market”.

“The outlook for private enterprises is not nearly as bright as the recent market optimism would have you believe,” he said.

Observers are keenly awaiting a key annual political gathering in Beijing in the coming days, in the hope it might show whether the government’s recently warmed attitude will translate into concrete actions.

A softening towards the tech sector has been under way since 2023, with regulators taking a more supportive stance in a bid to revive business confidence.

China has struggled to meet official growth goals over the past few years as the world’s number two economy is beset by a property sector crisis and sluggish consumption.

Stimulus measures unveiled last year are slowly taking effect, but a threatened trade war with US President Donald Trump’s new administration could cause further economic instability.

With hurdles yet to be overcome, Beijing is now eyeing tech products — AI in particular — with renewed interest.

“In theory, AI can help China break through stagnation and deflation” in addition to solving the future labour crunch caused by the country’s declining population, analysts at ANZ Research wrote in a recent note.

The symposium of business leaders, they wrote, showed that adoption of AI in China now stands to be further accelerated by revamped policy support.

Local authorities across the country have in recent weeks issued orders to promote the use of AI tools such as DeepSeek to assist in governance.

“DeepSeek’s success in AI has revived investor hopes for broader AI adoption and increased enterprise demand in China,” said UBS in a note.

The DeepSeek phenomenon has also ignited an intense race within the domestic industry to develop advanced chatbots, with Tencent’s release Thursday of its Hunyuan Turbo S model representing the newest contestant.

Tencent claims the new model’s instant responses differentiate it from DeepSeek, which it said needs to “think before answering”, resulting in slight delays in generating results.

In a move to reassure the business community, Chinese lawmakers last month advanced a draft law on the private sector that the state-backed Global Times said would “cement legal protection” for firms.

But analysts say a private-sector boom will only be encouraged as long as it aligns with Beijing’s strategic objectives.

During the 2010s tech giants were allowed to rapidly grow, but the Communist Party has historically been wary of runaway private-sector expansion.

The recent gathering with entrepreneurs has echoes of a similar one held in 2018, when Xi told business leaders he was there to “boost (their) confidence”.

Two years later Beijing launched its flurry of anti-monopoly and anti-competition charges against the firms.

“Investors appear to have interpreted (the meeting with Xi and Ma) as a signal that the government’s pivot towards greater private-sector freedom, which has been underway since 2023, is set to be sustained,” wrote James Reilly, a senior economist at Capital Economics.

However, he added that the “lack of checks and balances in China means that this attitude shift towards the tech sector could reverse at a moment’s notice”. AFP

China’s ambassador to Australia has warned that a decision to ban artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from government systems and devices risks further politicizing trade and technology ties between the two countries which only recently stabilized bilateral relations.

Ambassador Xiao Qian’s comments came as a Chinese naval task force continued to skirt Australia’s territorial waters in an apparently plan to circumnavigate the island nation. The warships 10 days ago held live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.

Writing in The Australian newspaper on Monday, Xiao said the Chinese-developed AI program would “greatly benefit the world in various aspects” and encouraged Australia to work with Beijing to jointly develop new technologies.

“Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of ‘security risks’ is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues,” the ambassador said in his article.

In early February, Australia’s center-left Labor government became one of the first countries in the world to ban DeepSeek from official devices, a decision that it justified on national security grounds.

It was one of a number of moves over the past month that have threatened to sour ties between Australia and its largest trading partner. Canberra and Beijing have both made serious efforts to repair their relationship in the three years since Labor’s election in May 2022.

The Chinese naval task force’s surprise decision to hold live-fire drills off Australia’s heavily-populated east coast beginning Feb. 21 has sparked a national debate over whether Canberra has done enough to boost its military preparedness. Australia only learned of the exercises when it was alerted by commercial pilots that had to divert from the area.

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticized the lack of notice provided by Beijing, Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie described the exercises as an “overt signal of military strength from the Chinese government, and it’s a reminder to Australians that we can’t take anything for granted.”

On Monday morning, the ships were 305 nautical miles (565 kilometers) southeast of Western Australia’s state capital, Perth, according to the Department of Defence.

First spotted near Australia’s northern approaches in mid-February, the three-ship task force has now sailed almost two-thirds of the way around the island nation. Bloomberg

Polish cybersecurity services have detected unauthorized access to the Polish Space Agency’s (POLSA) IT infrastructure, Minister for Digitalisation Krzysztof Gawkowski said.

“In connection with the incident, the systems under attack were secured. Intensive operational activities are also underway to identify who is behind the cyberattack,” Gawkowski wrote on social media platform X.

Warsaw has repeatedly accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise Poland because of its role in supplying military aid to its neighbour Ukraine, allegations Russia has dismissed.

The agency confirmed to news agency PAP that a cybersecurity incident had occurred. The situation is being analysed, and in order to secure data, the POLSA network was immediately disconnected from the Internet, it told PAP. US News

In a major crackdown on financial fraud, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Sukhvinder Singh Kharour and Dimple Kharour, alleged masterminds behind the ₹3,558 crore ‘cloud particle scam’.

The duo was detained at Delhi’s IGI Airport while attempting to flee the country. Acting on specific intelligence, authorities detained them based on an active Look Out Circular (LoC) and subsequently placed them under arrest.

The ED launched its probe following an FIR filed by the Gautam Budh Nagar Police in Uttar Pradesh. Investigators revealed that Sukhvinder Singh Kharour, CEO and founder of Vuenow Group, orchestrated the massive fraud under a deceptive ‘sale and lease-back’ (SLB) model.

The so-called cloud particle technology business, which lured investors with promises of lucrative returns, was found to be largely non-existent, with funds allegedly siphoned off for personal gain.

Officials claim that investor money was funnelled into personal accounts and shell companies, used for luxury purchases, and distributed as hefty commissions to channel partners.

The ED has identified links between the diverted funds and entities connected to Dimple Kharour, including Kharour Films LLP, Fruitchaat Entertainment Pvt Ltd, and Avnii T Infra Ventures Ltd-companies that had no actual connection to the fraudulent scheme.

Earlier, the ED had conducted multiple searches at locations tied to Vuenow Marketing Services Ltd. and its associates, seizing assets worth ₹178.12 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The latest arrests come after another accused, Arif Nisar, was taken into custody on February 24.

A Jalandhar court has remanded Sukhvinder and Dimple Kharour to ED custody for further investigation, as officials continue to trace the full extent of the scam and recover misappropriated funds. India Today