Altel changes roaming rates in CIS

Kazakhstan mobile operator Altel has modified its roaming rates in the CIS states, as well as in Georgia and Ukraine. Incoming calls cost KZT 55.73 per minute, and outgoing calls cost KZT 334.40 per minute in Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. In Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, incoming calls cost KZT 234.08 per minute, and the rate of outgoing calls is KZT 928.88 per minute.

Cubans hope U.S. ties bring better Internet access

HAVANA — The line outside the Internet cafe in theMiramar neighborhood of this city forms early each day with patrons waiting up to two hours for a chance to send e-mails, chat online or update their Facebook page. The service may be slow, unreliable and expensive, but still they come.

"I need to keep up," said Carlos Lopez, 71, who rents out rooms in his home to tourists and checks his e-mail twice a month for reservation requests. "I don't have Internet at home, so I have no choice."

The topics of improving telecommunications on the island and connecting more Cubans to the Internet — major tenets of the United States' diplomatic strategy here — were discussed this week during high-level talks between the U.S. and Cuban government in Havana.

How soon and how far-reaching changes will be to Cuban's telecom network remains to be seen. Just 5% of Cuba's 11 million residents have access to the Internet — one of the lowest rates in the hemisphere. Cuba's state telecom company, ETECSA, maintains a monopoly on Internet service.

Two years ago, more than 100 cybercafes opened across the island, but connections remain frustratingly slow and expensive. An hour of Internet service costs around $5 — equal to a week's salary for the average Cuban.

Even more enticing to Cubans is the prospect of Web and e-mail access on smartphones, currently unavailable to island residents.

Alejandro Robaina Cardoso, owner of Havana's La Casa paladar, or privately run restaurant, said allowing Internet access on smartphones would boost his business. Tourists visiting his eatery often request Wi-Fi, which he doesn't have. Cardoso owns a Samsung Galaxy smartphone but can use it only to make and receive calls because the other features are not possible in Cuba.

A few years ago, Cardoso hired a social media manager to keep his restaurant updated on sites such as TripAdvisor.com and Facebook and to run a blog. But until Cuba's technology catches up, his business will suffer, he said.

"We are like in another world, like in the time of the dinosaurs," Cardoso said. "That has to change. Everyone's waiting for it."

The Cuban government will need to loosen reams of rules and restrictions to implement an effective telecommunications network, said Ted Henken, a Baruch College Latino studies professor and longtime Cuban author and scholar. Cuban officials will have to decide how much access to the world they will allow their citizens and how fast they want to move in that direction, he said.

The Obama administration "is eliminating as many obstacles to the Internet, to commerce, to all the rest as fast as it can," he said. "The onus is now on the Cuban government to respond to the demands of the Cuban people."

Across Havana, Cubans followed news of this week's U.S.-Cuba meetings closely for signs that their Internet connectivity could soon improve. Joana Ramirez, 28, a Havana waitress, has to catch rides to a cybercafe then wait in line to check her e-mail. She said she hopes improved relations with the U.S. will soon change that.

"The people of Cuba want change," she said. "A lot of people don't have computers, don't have Internet. It's a big problem."

A1 launches A1 NOW mobile TV service nationwide

Austrian operator A1 has announced the commercial launch of the new A1 NOW mobile TV service. This gives customers access to 41 linear TV channels, including nine in HD. The nationwide launch follows a beta trial at end-2015 with over 1,000 participants. The service will be offered free until end-2016 for A1 smartphone tariff and fixed-line internet customers who signed a contract between 18 November 2013 and 26 February 2016, as well as all new and existing A1 Go! Premium customers.

A personal online video recorder allows users to access all available linear TV channels for up to seven days after broadcast, as well as being able to store up to 10 hours TV content for up to three months. The A1 NOW Library gives users free on-demand access to Austrian TV series.

Data used with this streaming service is not included, with A1 recommending that customers have a tariff with at least 2 GB data. Once the promotional offer ends, the service will cost EUR 7.90 a month. The A1 NOW app is available for Android and iOS. The service can also be accessed through a web browser.

Shilpi Cables partners with Eyecom Telecommunications

MUMBAI: Cables manufacturer Shilpi Cable Technologies (SCTL) has partnered with New Zealand headquarteredEyecom Telecommunications Equipments to make a foray into the antenna business with a view to offer end-to-end solutions to telecom operators.

"We are already present in the telecom sector through our radio Frequency (RF) wires business. But now we aim to provide complete end-to-end solutions to the operators and making a foray into the antenna business is a part of this strategy," SCTL Chief Executive Officer Manish Bhatt told PTI here today.

He said with the joint venture SCTL will become a one-stop RF path solution provider in the telecom space and introduce base station antenna (BSA) products for 2G/3G/4G and next generation roll-outs in India.

"The rollout of 4G, penetration of smart phones and growing demand for data as well as government's push on Digital India has necessitated enhancing the current telecom network. So far, we have been secondary product suppliers. But with this JV we want to emerge as a complete solution provider," he said.

SCTL plans to set up a manufacturing facility at Chopanki in Rajasthan which will have a capacity of 15,000 antennas per month. The facility would also produce other products such as repeaters and IBS passive components.

"For the entire path, nearly 150 products are required. Eyecom will transfer the technical know-how for manufacturing and carry out R&D for the future technologies relevant for the Indian market, which is currently estimated at around Rs 1,500 crore," Bhatt said, adding the company can achieve nearly 30 per cent share over the next 3 years.

With this partnership, the company expects a turnover of up to Rs 1,500 crore from the telecom business. "Our telecom business currently contributes around Rs 300 crore to total revenues. But in the next 3 years, we expect this to increase to up to Rs 1,500 crore," he said.

Commenting on the JV, Eyecom General Manager Guan QI said, "This partnership marks our entry of Eyecom in one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world."

Apple, Nokia and Qualcomm eye wireless telecommunications specialist InterDigital

The auction of the wireless telecommunications specialist - expected to be heavily contested as giant tech companies fight to shore up patent portfolios - will be postponed from next week until after Labor Day, the sources said.

Shares in InterDigital, which has a market value of about $3 billion, leaped as much as 12.2% on the news. But it quickly backtracked and was up $4.38 or 6.8% at $68.41 in afternoon trade.

Key potential bidder Google has not formally withdrawn from the auction but it is unclear whether the Internet leader will bid for the company, the sources said.

'Magic wand' created to improve healthcare, cybersecurity

The system, called "Wanda," will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in April.

"Wanda" is part of a National Science Foundation-funded project led by Dartmouth called "Trustworthy Health and Wellness." THaW aims to protect patients and their confidentiality as medical records move from paper to electronic form and as health care increasingly moves out of doctors' offices and hospitals and into the home.

David Kotz, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth, says wireless and mobile health technologies have great potential to improve quality and access to care, reduce costs and improve health. "But these new technologies, whether in the form of software for smartphones or specialized devices to be worn, carried or applied as needed, also pose risks if they're not designed or configured with security and privacy in mind."

One of the main challenges is that most people don't know how to set up and maintain a secure network in their home, which can lead to compromised or stolen data or potentially allow hackers access to critical devices such as heart rate monitors or dialysis machines. There are three fundamental operations when bringing a new mobile device into the home, workplace or clinic: to configure the device to join the wireless local-area network; to partner the device with other nearby devices so they can work together; and to configure the device so it connects to the relevant individual or organizational account in the cloud.

In the new Dartmouth-based project, doctoral student Tim Pierson developed "Wanda," a small hardware device that has two antennas separated by one-half wavelength and uses radio strength as a communication channel. The clever solution makes it easy for people to add a new device to their home (or clinic) Wi-Fi network: they simply pull the wand from a USB port on the Wi-Fi access point, carry it close to the new device and point it at the device. Within a few seconds, the wand securely beams the secret Wi-Fi network information to the device. The same method can be used to transfer any information from the wand to the new device without anyone nearby capturing the secrets or tampering with the information.

"People love this new approach to connecting devices to Wi-Fi," says Pierson. "Many of our volunteer testers remarked on the frustration they've encountered when configuring wireless devices at home and ask when they can take our wand home."

Kotz adds: "We anticipate our `Wanda' technology being useful in a wide variety of applications, not just healthcare, and for a wide range of device management tasks, not just Wi-Fi network configuration."

The THaW team conducts research related to mobile and cloud technology for health and wellness applications, including authentication and privacy tools to protect health records, methods to secure small-scale clinical networks and efforts to reduce malicious activity in hospitals. Supported by a $10-million, five-year grant from the NSF's Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program, the Frontier-scale project includes experts in computer science, business, behavioral health, health policy and healthcare information technology at Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University.

Source :- http://www.sciencedaily.com/