Category: Communications

South Korea’s SK Telecom was fined about 134 billion won ($96.53 million) after the country’s largest mobile carrier suffered a cyberattack this year causing the leak of data for nearly 27 million users.

The government-run Personal Information Protection Commission announced the punishment in a statement, blaming the company for neglecting its duty to take safety measures and for delays in notifying the leak to customers.

The company’s systems were in a “very weak condition” that allowed outside users to gain access to its internal intranet, the commission said. There was no password or safety measures taken to protect its servers, while operating systems were outdated without the latest security updates, it said.

The company must strengthen safety rules on information protection and revamp its governance, the commission said.

SK Telecom felt a “grave responsibility” and would do its best to protect customer information, making it a top priority, the company said in a text message, when asked about the ruling.

The company would make further comment when it received formal notification from the commission.

SK Telecom said in July it would beef up information protection and invest about 700 billion won over five years on data protection. Reuters

Singapore-based CapitaLand is selling a 750,000 sq ft industrial unit in Chennai leased to Pegatron, a supplier for Apple, for nearly ₹600 crore. Bidders include Brookfield, Hines, and Hillhouse Capital. The unit is leased long-term and holds significant value due to the manufacturing of Apple products there. CapitaLand is reassessing the bidding process and seeking board approval for rebidding. AInvest

Telecom operators, including Reliance Jio and Airtel, on Wednesday (August 27) announced relief measures for customers affected by heavy rains and severe weather in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh, offering a three-day validity extension for prepaid mobile users with plans expiring this week and a grace period on postpaid bill payments.

In a post on X, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) has been activated in Jammu & Kashmir.

”My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the heavy rains and landslides in Jammu & Kashmir. To ensure people remain connected during this tough time, @DoT_India has activated Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR), allowing users to latch on to any available network,” Scindia said.

Meanwhile, a statement by Jio spokesperson said while the company continues to provide critical connectivity in most of the areas, it recognises the vital role of reliable connectivity in enabling access to emergency services, family communication, and critical updates.

To ensure uninterrupted digital access during this period, Jio is implementing the customer-centric measures, it said, adding that prepaid mobile and JioHome subscribers with expiring plans this week would be granted an automatic three-day validity extension.

Mobile users will get unlimited voice calling and 2GB of high-speed data per day, at no additional cost or recharge requirement, and JioHome users will get 3 additional days benefit of their last valid plan at no additional cost.

Further, postpaid mobile and JioHome users will receive a 3-day grace period for bill payments, for service continuity without interruption.

Airtel, too, announced special measures to support users in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh where unprecedented rains and extreme weather have severely disrupted telecom services.

Prepaid customers whose plans are expiring this week, will receive a three-day extension with unlimited calls and 1 GB data per day, even if they are unable to recharge, according to a statement by an Airtel spokesperson.

”Unprecedented rains and extreme weather have severely disrupted telecom services across Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh. In these challenging times, staying connected is more important than ever,” Airtel said.

Airtel said postpaid and broadband customers will get a three-day grace period on bill payments to ensure uninterrupted services.

”Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) has been enabled in Jammu, Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh so customers can stay connected through other available networks,” the company said.

Airtel said its teams are working on the ground to restore services at the earliest. CNBCTV18

US asset manager Blackstone is looking to expand its planned project to build data centres in Spain’s Aragon, with an additional investment of 4.3 billion euros ($5.03 billion) in the region striving to become a major cloud computing hub.

Documents filed with the regional government showed that aside from an initial investment of 7.5 billion euros over nine years, that was disclosed in 2024, the world’s largest alternative asset manager plans a second phase to add capacity at the same site, depending on demand from customers.

That second phase would take seven years to be completed, the company said.

Blackstone follows tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon in choosing the northeastern region, which has around 20 data centre projects under evaluation.

The first phase would start in the second quarter of 2026, the document said. It would comprise eight data centres, an electricity substation, a photovoltaic power plant and connections to the grid.

The company said it had signed renewable electricity supply contracts for all its needs and its cooling systems will not use water, a commodity that is often in short supply in Spain. Reuters

An unusually broad coalition composed of the United States, its traditional English-speaking allies, and other nations including Germany, Italy and Japan is calling out three Chinese companies over alleged hacking activity.

In a 37-page advisory, published on Wednesday, the countries accused the firms, Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology, Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong Information Technology, and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie Network Technology, of providing “cyber-related products and services to China’s intelligence services, including multiple units in the People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of State Security.”

Sichuan Juxinhe has already been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury over its alleged ties to the hacking group nicknamed “Salt Typhoon,” which has been accused of gobbling up vast amounts of Americans’ call records, including communications from senior leadership in Washington. Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie were both allegedly hit by recent and so far unexplained data leaks, .

Previous attempts to reach Sichuan Juxinhe have been unsuccessful. Reuters could not immediately locate contact information for the other two firms. Beijing typically denies sanctioning cyber-espionage activity.

Although U.S. officials have been complaining of China-linked hacking activity for decades, the breaches attributed to Salt Typhoon have stood out as particularly sweeping. One senator last year described its scope as “mind-boggling.” Another said it likely represented “the largest telecommunications hack in our nation’s history.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, published on Wednesday, the FBI’s top cyber official, Brett Leatherman, said that Salt Typhoon was responsible for “one of the more consequential cyber espionage breaches we have seen here in the United States.” The Journal said the hackers targeted more than 80 countries and had shown varying levels of interest in more than 600 companies.

The United States regularly calls out specific Chinese and other foreign entities over their alleged involvement in cyber espionage, and it has occasionally done so in conjunction with other members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance: Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. Wednesday’s statement was cosigned by the latter, as well as by Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Reuters

Vodafone Idea Ltd., the country’s third-largest telecom operator, is in advanced talks to raise about Rs 5,000 crore in debt financing as it works to shore up capital for its ongoing turnaround.

The debt will be raised by Vodafone Idea Telecom Infrastructure Limited, a group subsidiary that houses part of the company’s telecom infrastructure and renewable energy assets. The operator has appointed JM Financial as its advisor for the transaction, which is expected to close in the next fortnight.

The fundraise, if completed on schedule, would mark a critical step in Vodafone Idea’s long and difficult effort to restore financial stability. For years, the company has struggled under the weight of enormous liabilities and declining subscriber numbers, with its financial distress aggravated by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues.

While the government’s decision to convert more than Rs 53,000 crore of dues into equity provided some relief, fresh capital is still needed to maintain competitiveness in India’s three-player telecom market, dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel alongside Vodafone Idea.

Industry watchers said that this fundraise will provide sufficient liquidity for Vodafone Idea’s planned network investments through the first half of 2026.

Sources said the proceeds will be used primarily for capital expenditure on network expansion and for selective 5G rollouts, ensuring that the company continues to hold on to its share of India’s fast-growing data market. Vodafone Idea Telecom Infrastructure Limited was chosen as the vehicle for the fundraise to help ring-fence core infrastructure assets and attract investor interest in a structure that offers greater security than exposure to the main operating company.

Vodafone Idea and JM Financial are yet to respond to Moneycontrol queries.

Signs of recovery in Vodafone Idea’s subscriber performance have added momentum to these efforts. In the most recent quarter, the company’s churn fell sharply, with net subscriber losses down to about half a million. News18

Meta’s, opens new tab planned AI data center in Louisiana will cost $50 billion, President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The social media company is building its largest data center in Richland Parish, which could handle intense computational power to support digital infrastructure, including artificial intelligence workloads.

The Facebook and Instagram parent declined to comment when asked about Trump’s remarks about the data center.

Meta has tapped U.S. bond giant PIMCO and alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital (OWL.N), opens new tab to spearhead a $29 billion financing for its data center expansion in rural Louisiana, Reuters reported earlier this month.

The company announced last year that it would spend over $10 billion to set up the data center.

Meta reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs in June, a high-stakes push that followed senior staff departures and lukewarm reception to its latest open-source Llama 4 model.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers for Superintelligence, intensifying his pursuit of a technology he has chased with a talent war for top engineers. Reuters

The European Commission rejected on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism that EU digital services rules unfairly target U.S. tech companies and denied they amounted to censorship.

Trump wrote on Monday he would impose additional tariffs on all countries with digital taxes, legislation or regulations, saying they were “all designed to harm or discriminate against American technology”.

The United States and the European Union last week agreed a joint statement on a deal to limit most U.S. tariffs on EU goods exports to 15%, with little mention of digital services.

The Trump administration has consistently criticised the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which seeks to curb the power of tech giants, and the Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content.

The European Commission, which proposed both acts, said on Tuesday it was the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate economic activities. The Commission firmly rebutted Trump’s statement that the EU was targeting U.S. companies, insisting the DMA and DSA applied to all platforms and firms operating in the bloc.

A spokesperson added that the last three DSA enforcement decisions were against AliExpress, Temu and TikTok – all Chinese-owned. The Commission has also opened DSA investigations into X and Meta.

Accusations that European Union data laws censor social media, as Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has asserted, were “completely wrong and unfounded”, the EU spokesperson said.

The DSA was not asking platforms to remove content, but to enforce their own terms and conditions, which set out things that should not be on their platforms.

“And when we’re talking about this, more than 99% of content moderation decisions taken here in the EU online are proactively done by platforms based on their own terms and conditions,” the spokesperson said. Reuters

Telenor’s Finnish subsidiary KNL said on Tuesday it is seeing rising demand in the coming years for its encrypted portable radio units from NATO countries looking to boost battlefield communications.

Earlier this month, KNL announced a joint procurement of more than 15 million euros ($17.6 million) by the Finnish and Swedish armed forces for its Cognitive Networked High Frequency (CNHF) manpack radios.

“This is just the opening contract,” KNL Chief Executive Toni Linden told Reuters, adding that the company has ongoing pilot tests with militaries of Norway and several other NATO countries.

“We’re staring to see some real interest and substantial orders and we’re looking to grow that now,” Linden said.

Powered by KNL’s own software, the radios provide long-distance voice and data communication without relying on satellites such as the global positioning system (GPS) or private sector networks like Starlink, the company said.

European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have agreed to raise their collective defence spending over the next decade, citing a long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen civil and military resilience.

KNL declined to comment on any potential use of its units in Ukraine, but said that the ongoing conflict with Russia held important lessons.”The world was not prepared for such a full-scale war, where you have basically the whole country’s border as a battlefield and you need to connect the different hotspots,” Linden said.

The Swedish and Finnish contracts mark the first deliveries under the Nordic region’s NORDEFCO framework agreement signed in April, with equipment scheduled to arrive by year end, said telecom group Telenor, KNL’s Norwegian owner. Reuters

Telecom fraud cost the world nearly $39 billion in 2023—fueled by robocalls, spoofing and service abuse, according to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA).

Latin America is feeling the heat, with digital channels now driving over half of all fraud losses and 38% tied to mobile payments and cryptocurrencies. As digital adoption surges, so do the threats — demanding faster, smarter and more proactive defenses.

At the forefront of this fight is iconectiv, delivering proven solutions that help communication service providers (CSPs), regulators and ecosystem players stay ahead of evolving fraud schemes.

iconectiv will be at Telco Transformation LATAM, August 27–28, 2025, in Rio de Janeiro, to discuss strategies for fighting the LATAM region’s burgeoning fraud as well as showcase an array of solutions.

During the session, “Fighting Communications Fraud. Winning Global Trust,” on Thursday, August 28 at 12:30 pm, iconectiv Account Director for LATAM, Alberto Apablaza, will examine the fraud landscape in Latin America, as well as discuss best practices and effective strategies for securing and modernizing telecom networks across the LATAM region.

iconectiv will additionally spotlight three mission-critical fraud-fighting tools built to secure networks, protect consumers and restore trust in digital communications, including:

iconectiv TruNumber Protect. To stave off increasing communications fraud threats across the telecom landscape, TruNumber Protect delivers real-time phone number intelligence to help CSPs proactively detect and block suspicious calls and texts. By drawing on trusted data sourced from regulators, telecom consortiums and global numbering administrators, CSPs can protect customers, safeguard business operations and enhance Do Not Originate (DNO) directives by proactively blocking calls from invalid, unallocated and inbound-only numbers that should never originate traffic.

iconectiv TruNumber Routing. In an interconnected, mobile-first world, number portability data is essential. TruNumber Routing provides accurate, port-corrected information from over 100 countries – including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay – ensuring that calls and messages are completed successfully and cost efficiently. By avoiding incorrect routing and expensive intermediaries, CSPs can enhance customer experience and protect their bottom line. The platform also supports precise rating by delivering current number plans and portability data for every market in its coverage area.

iconectiv TruNumber Portability Clearinghouse. During the telephone number porting process, managing the complexity of forging bilateral agreements with multiple CSPs often results in delays, errors and miscommunications, as well as increased operational costs, which are passed onto the subscribers. TruNumber Portability Clearinghouse, already in use in Latin America, is a centralized system that simplifies the porting process while minimizing communications fraud and security concerns for CSPs, regulators and consumers. For instance, for more than a decade, iconectiv has been enabling customers in both Argentina and Chile to switch CSP without changing their phone number within their respective countries. The Fastmode