internet | Common News Update

Mar222021 by adminNo Comments

Dominic Cummings and the £400m public bailout to rescue imperilled satellite internet firm

Technology

This Thursday, three dozen satellites will be fired into space from a launch station in a desolate corner of eastern Russia, less than a hundred miles from the northern Chinese border.Each a little bigger than a fridge, they are attached to a Russian rocket which will travel 750 miles up into what is known as low Earth orbit. Here they will stay, at an altitude 30 times closer than that of more traditional communication satellites, in a zone previously the domain of international space stations and the Hubble telescope, and if all goes well provide internet connectivity, in time, to every corner of the globe. Image: A Russian rocket will be used to take the UK bankrolled satellites 750 miles up They are a marvel of innovation and tech...

Mar182021 by adminNo Comments

BT’s Openreach to build full-fibre internet ‘like fury’ after Ofcom move

Technology

OpenreachBT has said it will "build like fury" to roll out full-fibre internet connections after new rules announced by the UK's telecoms regulator.Ofcom has decided not to impose price caps on full-fibre connections provided by the firm's Openreach subsidiary.This gives the company the certainty it had been looking for ahead of a planned £12bn investment.However, the decision lays Ofcom open to criticism that is has given a near-monopoly operator a generous deal.That could mean more expensive internet connections for the public than might have been the case.Ofcom also froze the price curbs it levels on what Openreach charges internet service providers for its slower copper-based connections.'Ramp up'Openreach lays down and maintains the fibre-optic cables involved as well as operating the...

Feb142021 by adminNo Comments

Myanmar coup: Troops on the streets as internet cut off

World

Getty ImagesArmoured vehicles have appeared on the streets of several cities in Myanmar amid signs the military is preparing a crackdown on opposition to the coup it carried out on 1 February. The internet was almost entirely shut down from 18:30 GMT (01:00 local time).In the northern state of Kachin, the security forces fired shots at a protest - the ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations across the country. A UN official accused the military of "declaring war" on the people.Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar (also known as Burma), said the generals were showing "signs of desperation" and would be held accountable. It's as if the generals have declared war on the people of Myanmar: late night raids; mounting arrests; more rights stripped away; another Internet shutdown; mili...

Jan12021 by adminNo Comments

Internet users say farewell to Adobe Flash Player as it is officially discontinued

Technology

An internet plug-in that was responsible for some of the internet's best-loved viral animations has officially been discontinued.On 1 January software company Adobe stopped supporting and updating its Flash Player. The company has asked users to uninstall the software before it blocks all Flash content from 12 January.First released in 1996, Flash was instrumental in allowing content creators to make and share animations and games that could be downloaded quickly via a dial-up internet connection.It also helped early versions of websites like YouTube stream high-quality videos. ...

Aug292020 by adminNo Comments

E-shoppers double amid pandemic to 42% of urban active internet users: Study

Finance

(This story originally appeared in on Aug 29, 2020)Bengaluru: The consumer base of e-commerce shoppers has doubled to 42 per cent of urban active internet users in India over the last three months (amid the Covid-19 pandemic), according to a study by consulting firm Kantar. Nearly 50 per cent of these are new users of e-commerce coming from tier-1 and -2 cities. For new shoppers, Amazon and Google have emerged as the preferred discovery platforms before making purchases. In contrast, before the virus outbreak in India, just 22 per cent of the urban active internet users had shopped online. In 2019, India had 309 million urban active internet users, the report said. This would translate to about 130 million users having shopped online. While e-commerce sales have surpassed pre-Covid level...