Stories from Abroad

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US will impose visa restrictions on Chinese technology firms, the latest move expected to strain relations between Washington and Beijing. “State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese tech companies like Huawei, that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally,” Sec Pompeo said.

European Union judges have quashed a European Commission order for Apple to pay back €14.3 billion in taxes to Ireland in a landmark ruling that deals a big blow to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s efforts to crack down on low-tax regimes in the bloc.  The ruling hands a big legal victory to Apple and reduces the prospect of opening up other low-tax arrangements for multinationals around the EU to state aid scrutiny by Brussels.  The EU’s second-highest court said that Brussels did not succeed in “showing to the requisite legal standard” that the tech giant had received an ille

The upgrade of legacy infrastructure is a challenging undertaking in general. The underlying issues are especially prominent for telecommunications networks outside of urban areas. Using German micro-level data, we identify the structural determinants for fiber optics deployment and its extent. We also measure the role of technology competition from the existing infrastructures, VDSL-Vectoring and TV-Cable.

The reduction of the digital divide due to the availability of the Internet and the improvement of skills is accompanied by reverse and resistance trends associated with the influence of socio-demographic and economic characteristics of users. In this paper, we estimate the volume and dynamics of the digital divide in access and use of the Internet in Russia by key social groups according to a longitudinal survey for 2008–2018. We found that along with the reducing of the digital divide, its gaps still remain.

Apparently, Britain will bar new deployments of Huawei equipment in its fledgling high-speed 5G network, in what is a major blow to the Chinese technology giant and a significant win for the Trump administration, which has been pressing allies to shun the firm. The British decision, expected to be announced July 14, is part of a growing shift away from China in the global 5G competition, especially among advanced democracies increasingly concerned that the firm’s ties to the Communist government create an unacceptable security risk.

Floating 12 miles above the earth, high above commercial aircraft, internet balloons offer the possibility of online connection for hundreds of millions of people living in emerging markets. Loon, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has launched its first commercial project in Kenya. Success will lead more countries to seek a deal. Loon has already proved that its polyethylene, solar-powered helium balloons work by providing internet access to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico. Kenya is a test of whether the service can be profitable.

Michael Pack, the alt-right filmmaker installed by President Donald Trump to run US foreign broadcasting operations, remains on course to dismantle the independent journalism that has been their calling card. Apparently, Voice of America sources say Pack is refusing to renew the visas of foreign-born journalists who are vital to its mission of producing news reports in 47 languages. Pack has also frozen all VOA contracts, under which some 40 percent of its staff are employed.

How public funds, or State Aid, have been used to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in Europe since 2003. The descriptive analysis relies on a unique data set on all the broadband measures notified to the European Commission by Member States between 2003 and 2018. The authors identify two waves of State Aid for broadband: one for the deployment of basic broadband, and a more recent one for the roll out of next-generation access networks. The use of State Aid is very heterogeneous across Member States, with a few large countries representing the bulk of the cases.

China is using the same tactics it employed to drive down the price of telecommunications equipment from Huawei to flood the US market with fiber optic cables—crucial underlying infrastructure for fifth-generation networks—a senior Commerce Department official said. "China is currently driving massive overcapacity in critical sectors including steel, aluminum and optical fiber cables,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce’ assistant secretary for industry and analysis.

A fleet of high-altitude balloons started delivering internet service to Kenya on July 7, extending online access to tens of thousands of people in the first-ever commercial deployment of the technology. The balloons, which hover about 12 miles up in the stratosphere — well above commercial airplanes — will initially provide a 4G LTE network connection to a nearly 31,000-square-mile area across central and western Kenya, including the capital, Nairobi. Loon, a unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, launched 35 balloons in recent months in preparation for July 7’s start.