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Nokia quits R&D facility in China and cuts 1,600 jobs #
The closure of a Nokia facility in Hangzhou will lead to about 1,600 job cuts and comes after the Finnish vendor took full control of its China business.
Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson uses 5G for positioning; Orange Belgium launches cyber defense tool for businesses; VodafoneThree adds AI to non-emergency police call routing.
The UK Space Agency is providing a total £13 million (US$17.6 million) in funding to 16 projects seeking to tap satellite technology for various use cases. These span better Wi-Fi on ScotRail's remote West Highland line, faster data transmission between satellites and the ground, and a project deploying satellite-enabled sensors collecting data on land and crops. Further projects are expected, as the agency hopes to boost the UK's deep space and lunar communications expertise. The initiative is part of the European Space Agency's Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES).
Ericsson and MediaTek have tested the use of 5G networks for more precise global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning. The companies used technology standardized by the 3GPP in its release 16 to provide real-time kinetic (RTK) GNSS outdoor positioning, which is more precise than conventional GNSS. In less technical terms, the solution relies on the mobile network to distribute data that correct in real-time for signal delays in the atmosphere and satellite errors to reach decimeter-level accuracy. By comparison, conventional GNSS positioning is only accurate down to several meters.
The tests were carried out with the Swedish vendor's 5G core and RAN, as well Ericsson Network Location and its 5G Advanced location services. The Taiwanese chip company contributed its 5G modem technology to the tests.
German fixed operator Entega Medianet has tapped VertiGIS to provide a centralized digital platform for network documentation to support its planned large-scale fiber rollout. The companies seek to ensure accessibility of critical information and to liberate valuable operational knowledge from any silos.
Orange Belgium has launched Cyber Protection, a cybersecurity solution aimed at small companies, supporting up to 30 users. It combines AI behavioral analysis with real-time human surveillance by Orange's Cyberdefense unit to detect both known and unknown types of attack, according to the operator.
VodafoneThree will integrate AI into a new routing system for the UK 101 line designed to receive non-emergency calls to the police. The operator argues the technology will help callers reach the appropriate service faster, noting it often receives calls it's not equipped to handle. Every year, there are around 20 million calls to 101, about a fifth of which are seeking to get in touch with non-policing services like local councils or the healthcare service. The press release also notes that response times are held up by people calling about issues like slow pub service or delayed pizza delivery, and that the AI service will be able to prevent the police from wasting time with such inquiries.
Meanwhile, another UK institution is taking a decidedly less friendly stance to technology. The pub chain Wetherspoons is banning patrons from playing music or taking calls on loudspeaker, as polls suggest that most are annoyed by this behavior, according to the BBC. Customers are instead invited to use earphones or put their phones in silent mode. Alternatively, they could also engage in the arcane practice of real-life human-to-human communication.
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