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☆ Nokia quarterly profit misses forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Nokia new logo displayed on mobile, with Nokia logo on screen. Nokia on Thursday reported quarterly operating profit below market expectations as the Finnish company is selling more 5G gear in low-margin markets and said it was seeing signs of customer spending slowing down. First-quarter comparable operating profit fell to 479 million euros ($524.94 million) from 583 million last year, missing the 532.4 million euro mean forecast of analysts polled by Refinitiv. Apart from getting big contracts from telecom operators for launch of 5G, Nokia has also managed to diversify its base to industrial customers who set up their own private 5G networks at power plants, utilities and mines among others. Net sales grew 10% in the quarter to 5.86 billion euros, beating estimates of 5.72 billion euros.

OAKLAND, California, April 19 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley 5G chip startup EdgeQ Inc said on Wednesday it raised $75 million to help fund a ramp up in production as the company starts selling its technology to customers, including telecom operators. EdgeQ makes semiconductors that power base stations for 5G telecom towers and for 5G access points that can be installed inside places like factories to run robots and autonomous vehicles wirelessly, said Vinay Ravuri, CEO and co-founder of EdgeQ. The fundraising shows that companies viewed as promising by investors are able to secure financing even though funding has dried up for many startups following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the ensuing banking sector turmoil in March. EdgeQ has a valuation of "hundreds of millions of dollars", said Ravuri, adding it was "definitely less than" $1 billion. The recent advent of a new open standard chip architecture called RISC-V has made it possible to design its new 5G chip more cost effectively, he said.

☆ Factbox: Italy's govt nominees for top jobs at Enel, Eni, Terna
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Their appointments will need to be approved by investors at meetings scheduled for May 9 for Terna, and May 10 for both Enel and Eni. ENEL (ENEI.MI)Flavio Cattaneo, 59, is an experienced manager and entrepreneur who will leave his role as vice president of high-speed train operator Italo to succeed current Enel CEO Francesco Starace. Becoming Enel chairman would be for him a return to the utility where he served as CEO between 2002 and 2005. Scaroni also served as chief executive of energy group Eni between 2005 and 2014. ENI (ENI.MI)The Treasury proposed CEO Claudio Descalzi for a fourth term and picked Giuseppe Zafarana, 59, as chairman for the energy group.

☆ Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary breaks down his latest crypto bet as regulators look to crush 'rogue' operators
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I caught up with Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, an active crypto investor and market veteran, to get his take on the digital asset sector and recent regulatory action. Since November, he's moved his holdings to Canada, where he uses WonderFi, a name he's backed as an investor. They told regulators 'go get them,' and all of a sudden we have a mountain of enforcement action." The SEC said it's "neutral" about the technology at hand, yet "anything but neutral when it comes to investor protection." I bet if you looked at who's managing these companies 36 months from now, all the current guys are gone."

☆ Gen Z's desire to limit screen time leads to resurgence of 'dumb phones' in the US: 'I love how low stimulus it is'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Influencers and members of Gen Z are swapping smartphones for "dumb phones" that can only call and text, CNBC reported. The trend has since expanded to influencers who are documenting their journey of winding down screen time with the use of dumb phones. "What we're trying to do with the Light phone isn't to create a dumb phone, but to create a more intentional phone — a premium, minimal phone — which isn't inherently anti-technology," Hollier told the outlet. TikToker Alex Purdy used a Light brand dumb phone for a month and shared an update with followers in January. In the video, Purdy mentioned some issues with receiving texts, but ultimately encouraged commenters to get one of their own.

☆ Dumb phones are on the rise in the U.S. as Gen Z looks to limit screen time
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Liam Mays | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This includes what's known as "feature phones" — traditional flip or slide phones that have additional features like GPS or a hotspot. "I think you can see it with certain Gen Z populations — they're tired of the screens," said Jose Briones, dumb phone influencer and moderator of the subreddit, "r/dumbphones." At the same time, HMD's global feature phone sales were down, according to the company. "In North America, the market for dumb phones is pretty much flatlined," said Moorhead. Watch the video to get a look at the dumb phones that may have a promising future in the U.S.

☆ Nokia will launch 4G internet on the moon later this year to help expand lunar exploration
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Nokia plans to put a 4G/LTE network on the moon later this year, CNBC reported. The network will help potential lunar explorations, including plans to look for ice on the moon. Nokia is set to launch 4G internet on the moon later this year, CNBC reported, part of the company's ongoing relationship with NASA. The Finnish telecommunication company intends to launch the network on a SpaceX rocket later this year, CNBC reported. Nokia's plan to introduce 4G to the moon includes an antenna-equipped base station on the moon and a solar-powered rover.

☆ Raymond James says this telecom stock is a strong buy as it enters a new market segment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Investors should turn their attention toward Ciena as the firm plunges deeper into edge routing, according to Raymond James. He also hiked his price target to $70 from $58 on the stock, implying upside of 44%. Leopold highlighted the firm's potential success from investments in the edge routing sector, as well as continued market expansion and "Huawei displacements." CIEN YTD mountain CIena's plunge into edge routing could be the rocket fuel the firm needs to displace Huawei, according to Raymond James. But Ciena also has the opportunity to significantly displace Huawei, Leopold said, specifically in the optical transport and switching and routing markets.

☆ 4G internet is set to arrive on the moon later this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Nokia hopes to install a data network on the moon sometime in 2023, an executive told reporters. Nokia is preparing to launch a 4G mobile network on the moon later this year, in the hopes of enhancing lunar discoveries — and eventually paving the path for human presence on the satellite planet. The network will be powered by an antenna-equipped base station stored in a Nova-C lunar lander designed by U.S. space firm Intuitive Machines, as well as by an accompanying solar-powered rover. The infrastructure will land on the Shackleton crater, which lies along the southern limb of the moon. Nokia says the technology is designed to withstand the extreme conditions of space.

☆ Bitcoin is poised to blow up Africa's $86 billion banking system
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +16 min

Then there's mobile money, which has been around since the early 2000s. Africa's mobile money transactions rose 39% to more than $700 billion in 2021, according to data from the GSM Association, a non-profit representing mobile network operators worldwide. That cash network was extraordinarily difficult and expensive to build, which is why there aren't a lot of direct competitors. Bitnob is SMS-based and piggybacks on the mobile money system, making it easier for people to send money directly into bank accounts and mobile money wallets in African countries. "We're able to settle into bank accounts or mobile money accounts, without the recipients having to interact with bitcoin themselves," Parah tells CNBC.

☆ How this 26-year-old went from running bitcoin trading desks in Taco Bells to creating the largest crypto exchange in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +28 min

Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice just before meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Accra, Ghana. Chris MauriceFrom there, Yellow Card users can send or receive digital cash in eligible markets. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice in Accra, Ghana loading cash onto his Mobile Money account, MoMo. Yellow Card has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since launching in 2019 and has about 220 employees – mostly in Africa. A resident checks his phone outside a mobile money kiosk in the Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.

☆ Wall Street downgrades European banks and names stocks to buy 'in case markets turn sour'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Wall Street is downgrading European banks after stresses in the sector led to the emergency merger of the two largest lenders in Switzerland. The bank's strategists said — in a report titled "A dozen stocks in case markets turn sour" — their list of 12 buy-rated stocks would prove resilient during broad market sell-offs. The list includes companies such as Nokia , Sodexo , and SAP among others that strategists at Deutsche Bank Research said could outperform broader markets during recessionary environments. Meanwhile, they said that Sodexo's defensive growth profile is also expected to lead to top-line growth of 8-10% this year. Deutsche strategists Maximilian Uleer and Caroline Raab added that the German tech giant SAP had finished its costly cloud investments and is now starting to see benefits from the transformation.

☆ These 74 stocks across 5 categories of AI are the top picks from the sector's leading fund managers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

These 74 stocks are picked by AI ETF managers. What she believes is unique about her fund is its heavy focus on quantum computing technology, making up 41.22% of the fund. While big data is used for different technologies, it enables AI to work with massive data sets in its machine-learning process. TipRanks, a financial technology website that uses AI to analyze financial data, created a stock list for what they deem are the best AI stocks based on popularity. TipRanks' list of nine of the best AI stocks have large market caps and are likely to remain relevant for a long time.

☆ Microsoft adds OpenAI technology to Word and Excel
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Photographer: Charles Pertwee/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMicrosoft is bringing generative artificial intelligence technologies like the popular ChatGPT chatting app to its Microsoft 365 suite of business software. features, dubbed Copilot, will be available in some of the company's most popular business apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The Copilot technology is built upon a type of artificial intelligence software known as a large language model, or LLM. Microsoft executives demonstrated some of the capabilities of its Copilot tool on Thursday during an online presentation. In February, Microsoft debuted a new version of its Bing search engine that included a chatbot powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 language technology.

☆ From Apple to Boeing, India is being put to the test as China manufacturing alternative
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Vikram Barhat | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe ties between American companies and India as a manufacturing and supply chain partner are getting deeper. The Boeing deal is indicative of the wider trend among global manufacturers including Apple, Samsung and Nokia, to accelerate manufacturing in India. As far back as 2014 it launched the "Make in India" campaign to raise the profile of India as a global manufacturing hub and encourage multinational companies to produce in India. Boeing, Air India issues The partners have their internal issues to work through. That's on top of the hurdles foreign companies can expect to face in India's accleration as a manufacturing and supply chain partner.

☆ Vintage Red-Carpet Looks Are Having a Moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Fiorella Valdesolo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

With awards season in full swing comes the red-carpet photo dump of picture-perfect celebrities: Hours have been spent on hair and makeup; limbs are dripping in six-figure jewels; and couture finery abounds. But on Instagram, a different, less fussy era of red-carpet dressing has begun to hold sway via accounts that serve as scrapbooks of what celebrities once wore. The 2002 MTV Video Music Awards as a new fashion touchstone, for example? A post last year on New York stylist and vintage fashion archivist Gabriel Held’s Instagram feed suggested as much, with a carousel of images featuring the likes of Molly Sims and Ashanti in various hip bone–baring, low-slung styles emblematic of the early aughts. “I feel like the Gen Z kids are at a point now where they’re kind of referencing the era that they were born in,” says Held.

☆ Reliance Jio to buy U.S.-based Mimosa Networks for $60 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, March 9 (Reuters) - Jio Platforms, owned by Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS), will buy communications equipment maker Mimosa Networks for $60 million to bolster its expanding 5G and broadband services, the companies said on Thursday. The deal is between Radisys Corp, a unit of Jio Platforms, and US-based Airspan Networks Holdings (MIMO.A), which owns Mimosa. Reliance Jio Infocomm USA, a unit of Jio, is a shareholder in Airspan and has a seat on its board, according to the statement. The Mimosa deal also comes at a time when some governments, including India, have either banned or discouraged the use of China's Huawei in national networks. Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Janane VenkatramanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Next-gen mobile internet — 6G — will launch in 2030, telecom bosses say, even as 5G adoption remains low
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

"We have not completed the deployment of 5G yet," Ha Min Yong, chief development officer of SK Telecom , told CNBC last week. However, after hundreds of billions of dollars of investment into 5G networks, carriers have struggled to see the return. I don't see any use cases today that we can't do with 5G or its immediate evolutions," Watson told CNBC last week. Many of the current 5G networks are built on top of equipment and technology from 4G. There will also be more software that powers 5G networks helping with efficiency such as the management of data traffic.

☆ There’s hope beyond moaning for European telcos
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The annual Barcelona tech fest this week was in line with tradition, but a different mood music could also be heard beyond the bleatings of European telco executives. The good news for them is that European competition authorities seem to have been mollified by the constant pleading, and could take a softer approach to consolidation in the industry. Höttges compared the 55 billion euros invested by European telcos on infrastructure last year to the 1 billion euros invested in connectivity by those he calls the “hyperscalers”. The hope is now that, considering the European telcos’ low return on investment, European competition authorities will review their strict stance on consolidation in the sector. But European telcos also have means to address some of the problems they are facing without giving the impression that everything depends on forces beyond their control.

☆ Russian internet speeds drop on hardware shortage, research finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Alexander Marrow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The country's largest telecoms operators, including MTS (MTSS.MM) and Megafon disputed the research, saying they had noted increased speeds in February, both in Moscow and beyond. It also said a fall in mobile internet traffic in Moscow had contributed to a rise in speeds there. MTS said it had noted increased traffic and mobile internet speeds in the regions, recording no decrease. "MTS is constantly working to expand network capacity, and telecoms operators and regulators are engaged in dialogue aimed at removing administrative barriers and stimulating the industry's development," it said. Rival Megafon said the median mobile internet speed on its network in regions excluding Moscow was 14% higher in February year-on-year, and up 18.5% in the capital.

BARCELONA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Ericsson's (ERICb.ST) CEO says the company is still in the market for more acquisitions, albeit smaller ones, after splurging over $7 billion to buy networking company Cradlepoint and communication platform Vonage. In contrast with Nokia, which announced a new strategy focused on enterprise, Ericsson expects to continue to focus on its business of selling to communications service providers (CSPs) or telecom operators along with adding to its enterprise offerings. While the global enterprise business, which revolves around private 5G and automating factories, has yet to grow significantly, it has been a melting pot of partnerships between equipment makers, mobile operators and big technology companies. “We will need to add to our enterprise offerings, so you will see smaller acquisitions,” CEO Borje Ekholm told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Monday. "We have 90% plus of sales from CSPs... we need to build on that strength that is always central [to the business]."

☆ Googlers are begrudgingly testing Bard and making memes out of their new task.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Since it's a tough time in the tech industry right now, I hope this resonates with some of you, too. Thomas Maxwell/InsiderGooglers are begrudgingly testing their company's ChatGPT competitor. CEO Sundar Pichai asked every employee to spend multiple hours testing Google's new chatbot Bard. They were tasked with improving Bard by asking it questions and flagging bad answers, in addition to their normal responsibilities. Some made memes from the conversations they've had with Bard, continuing a trend of internally mocking the chatbot.

☆ Nokia signs deal with MTN to expand 5G in South Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Nokia (NOKIA.HE) said on Monday it has been selected by MTN South Africa (MTNJ.J) for the first time ever as one of its 5G radio access network equipment providers, as the mobile carrier expands next-generation wireless services across the country. "Under the deal, Nokia will modernise the existing 2G, 3G, 4G radio network and expand MTN's 5G radio network across 2,800 sites in the central and eastern part of the country," Nokia said in a statement. Nokia did not give financial details of the deal. MTN South Africa, the second biggest carrier in the country, snapped up airwaves worth 5.2 billion rand ($282.66 million) in a 14.4 billion rand spectrum auction in March last year. Even before the auction it had launched 5G services in select cities.

☆ We expect an extended 5G market peak of many years, Nokia CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWe expect an extended 5G market peak of many years, Nokia CEO saysPekka Lundmark discusses the outlook for 5G at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

☆ Nokia redesigns iconic logo to remind the world it’s not a phone company anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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