Reliance India Limited is one of the very few companies in the world that has been riding high amidst the pandemic. Be it the topping Warren Buffet or for attracting major investments, RIL’s chairman Mukesh Ambani has been in the news for all the right reasons. Apart from a couple of major announcements from Jio, there has been a lot going on in the 5G space. Here is all the top news from this week.
Nokia’s New 5G Solution
On Tuesday, Nokia announced an upgrade that will enable its 4G/LTE radios to be migrated seamlessly to 5G/NR. These features are expected to provide immediate support for approximately one million radios, reaching 3.1 million by the end of the year and over 5 million in 2021. By upgrading existing radio elements via software, Nokia offers a novel solution for hassle free migration to 5G. This news comes at a crucial juncture as the world is poised to embrace 5G.
The Finnish company estimates that their solution will save the telecommunications industry potentially tens of billions of euros in site engineering and re-visit costs as communication service providers are able to upgrade their networks to 5G.
Top Europe Court Bans US-EU Data Sharing
On Thursday, Europe’s top court declared that he Decision on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield is invalidated.
“The limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the United States on the access and use by US public authorities are not circumscribed in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law,” the court said in a statement.
The EU-U.S Privacy Shield Frameworks were designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the European Commission to provide companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements. The court has also stated that the EU commission’s decision on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is still valid.
Ambani Puts India On Global 5G Map
The 43rd RIL AGM was streamed live for a digital audience who were introduced to brand new tech updates. The two-hour long event was widely covered by both regional and national news media.
“The Jio-Google partnership can make India 2G-mukt.”
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL
RIL announced that the tech giant will be investing Rs 33,737 crore – or take a 7.7% stake – in Jio Platforms. According to the terms of the partnership, RIL and Google will be developing an Android-based operating system that could power these entry-level phones.
RIL’s Chairman, Mukesh Ambani has even hinted that a homegrown ‘world-class 5G service’ can be ready for field deployment as soon as next year.
In a big boost to India’s AR/VR industry, RIL presented Jio Glass, a new augmented reality solution. Calling it a ‘meaningful immersive experience’, RIL President Kiran Thomas said that it is ideated to enable smoother virtual classes where both teachers and students can meet in 3D virtual rooms and conduct holographic lessons.
While little is known about its specifications, it is slated to weigh about 75 grams and will come with built-in apps to allow AR meetings to happen in real-time.
These announcements come amidst the news of major investments from Intel, Qualcomm and previously Facebook. And, in this year’s annual meeting, RIL had made their 5G ambitions official. With AI, AR/VR innovations in the loop along with collaborations with major players, Jio’s roadmap of the future looks quite exciting.
Huawei Hits Wall In The UK
On Wednesday, following new advice produced by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on the impact of US sanctions against the telecommunications vendor, the UK government announced that Huawei will be completely removed from their 5G networks by the end of 2027. Starting this December, there will be a total ban on the purchase of any new 5G kit.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) chaired by the Prime Minister, in response to new US sanctions, that were imposed on Huawei in May.
According to the official press release, there will be a ban on the purchase of new Huawei kit for 5G from next year and it will be completely removed from 5G networks by the end of 2027.
Google’s New Confidential VMs
Google Cloud announced their new product, Confidential VMs, now in beta, is the first product in Google Cloud’s Confidential Computing portfolio. Confidential VMs offer memory encryption to further isolate workloads in the cloud. Confidential Computing builds on the protections Shielded VMs offer against rootkit and bootkits, helping to ensure the integrity of the operating system. Using the AMD SEV feature, Confidential VMs offer high performance for the most demanding computational tasks, while keeping VM memory encrypted. Google Cloud stated that Confidential Computing can help organisations transform the way they process data in the cloud while preserving confidentiality and privacy.
Hackers Time Out On Twitter
In one of the biggest security breaches ever on Twitter, numerous high-profile accounts including those of Barack Obama and Elon Musk were taken over by hackers to promote a bitcoin scam, which earned them nearly $120,000. In a series of tweets Twitter said that its internal systems were compromised by the hackers, confirming theories that the attack could not have been conducted without access to the company’s own tools. According to Motherboard, Twitter’s internal company admin tool was allegedly used to conduct the account takeovers, potentially by resetting account email accounts and then recovering passwords.
