Internet

During the early days of the coronavirus outbreak many wondered if the internet would end up going down due to the dramatic increase in traffic from remote working, distance learning and people keeping themselves occupied while stuck at home. 

In fact, research from Cloudflare revealed that internet usage swelled by over 25 percent in most major cities around the world as a result of lockdown measures. Thankfully though, data center providers were able to upgrade capacity to handle this added strain on their networks.

To learn more about how data centers were able to adapt to this surge in internet usage, TechRadar Pro spoke with the President and CEO of CyrusOne, Tesh Durvasula.

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The European Court of Justice has annulled the EU’s decision to block the 2016 merger of Three and O2.

A £10.25 billion deal to combine the two companies had been agreed by parent companies CK Hutchison and Telefonica in a transaction that would have created the UK’s largest mobile operator with 40 per cent of the market.

The two parties had argued that Three and O2 would struggle to compete independently as pure-play operators. EE had been acquired by BT the previous year, while Vodafone was investing in fixed line infrastructure as both pursued converged network strategies.

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Three O2 merger

However the EC blocked the deal on the grounds that it would damage competition in the UK market. It argued that in EU member states where the number of major players had been reduced from four to three, prices had risen for consumers.

There were also concerns that there would be reduced incentive to invest in infrastructure as O2 and Vodafone have a network infrastructure sharing joint-venture, as do Three and EE. Finally, the EU feared the wholesale market would suffer, reducing choice for Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs).

It is worth pointing out that regulator Ofcom had similar concerns and that the deal would still have had to have been approved by the UK Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA). Nonetheless, Three sought an annulment of the decision in order to remove a precedent that could influence any future consolidation in another European market.

The ECJ upheld Three’s appeal stating that the evidence provided by the EC was not sufficient to demonstrate the detriment to competition or the disincentive to invest in infrastructure. It also said that Three’s share of the wholesale market wasn’t sufficient enough at the time to justify its concerns for MVNOs.

“In our appeal, we argued that the Commission’s approach to reviewing the proposed merger, and European telecoms mergers more broadly, was guided by a misconceived default view that European telecoms markets are better served by having a minimum of four Mobile Network Operators in each EU Member State,” said CK Hutchison.

“This approach ignores market realities, the clear evidence of successful market consolidation in Europe and across the world as well as the very significant efficiencies in terms of increased investment, network improvements and consumer benefits that can be achieved from mobile mergers.

“The Commission’s approach has unfortunately acted as a brake on, or in a number of cases prevented, vital industry consolidation in Europe which would have resulted in significant new investment, innovation and benefits for European consumers and industry. Following the Court’s findings, the Commission will need to fundamentally revisit its approach to merger reviews in this key sector.”

In the immediate aftermath of the failed merger, both Three and O2 pursued independent network strategies and pressed ahead with their respective 5G strategies. O2 is now merging with Virgin Media to create a UK communications giant worth £31 billion.  

•  Here are the best Three mobile deals for May 2020

As a result of the world’s newly changed economic state, wholly unexpected demands are being put on networks from businesses, employees and everyone looking to fill the afternoon. Looking at a mass of WAN usage statistics shared by hundreds of organisations around the world, here are five predictions on how businesses will alter the way they work based on changes in enterprise traffic.

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Cloud adoption will increase

Public cloud adoption was already growing globally. While the previous motivation was cost, convenience and simplicity, the new focus for cloud adoption will be driven by the ease of change management. This in turn, will further put the spotlight on data privacy, security and local regulatory and compliance requirements. A global survey of 1000+ enterprises revealed adoption of SaaS applications increased from 23% in 2019 to over 51% in 2020, with the average number of SaaS applications also increasing.

Hybrid workplaces will increase, while networks need to be optimized for video conferencing

The current environment has demonstrated that tech workers and enterprises need to have the flexibility to work from anywhere and have to be equally productive. Collaboration is key. Video conferencing applications will become the norm. In this environment, the wide area network (WAN) will assume strategic importance and, as such, it has to be optimised for servicing needs of voice, video and other such applications to enable hybrid workplaces. Collaboration applications over the WAN are at the top of the heap of SaaS applications and expected to grow rapidly in a post Covid-19 world. Over 38% of people surveyed in the aforementioned report indicated complexity as the primary barrier to WAN performance. This will need to be addressed.

Industries will need to evolve and automation will increase

It is clear that some industries are going to be more severely impacted than others. In many cases, foot traffic drives network traffic. Retail, hotel, transportation, sports – all these industries have taken a hit on foot traffic and that has impacted network traffic as well. On the other hand, ecommerce traffic has spiked, and last mile delivery has increased. All these factors will drive the greater adoption of automation, particularly in manufacturing and farming industries, for example. Robotics, 3D printing and AI-based technologies will form the core of the next generation of industries reducing some form of human dependency.

Enterprise sites may become a unit of one

What this means is that we may see more workers tele-working whilst expecting all the normal facilities. This may lead to reduction of campus sites, as companies evaluate workers that need to be present on site, versus the “floating” worker population. Some shrinkage of commercial real estate will therefore be inevitable, at least as part of the current cyclical change, though population growth and density of workers within a certain geography are likely to offset any such shrinkage. Tech and software companies are more likely to benefit from this trend, while other traditional companies will need to make accommodations to their physical real estate that include desk arrangements, cafeteria, rest room facilities, conference rooms and such. Legal teams will also need to evaluate risk of physical engagement including for part-time visitors. This will impact how work is conducted at least for the foreseeable future. It is conceivable that businesses may permanently designate some workers in their organisation as remote workers, even if they live in the same vicinity as the office, but have reduced need to come in. Physical security and workplace protection will need to be re-emphasised.

In what is very much a sign of the times, Germany is considering making remote working a right, while many tech giants are toying with the idea of a more permanent transition to remote working.

Managed network services will accelerate further

The reduction in onsite staff, and the focus on managing change quickly, will likely result in further acceleration of managed services. The concept of network-as-a-service is already prevalent. Managed WANs and SD-WANs will be the preferred option, as providers will own delivery responsibility and can provide the same or superior service levels as an enterprise implementing a do-it-yourself (DIY) network. This will be an attractive proposition for even larger companies that employ an army of personnel to maintain their networks and IT, with the pendulum swinging a bit further towards managed services. In the context of software-defined WANs (SD-WANs), this trend is clearly visible, with the discussed survey finding the preference for a managed SD-WAN has grown from 59% to over 87% between 2019 and 2020.

Nothing is forever and the current situation is no different. What will last longer is that businesses will realise a good disaster recovery strategy should include planning for unforeseen eventualities without having to compromise on productivity, data security or the peer-to-peer collaboration tools which are key to maintaining ‘business as usual’. The modern network will have to be architected to enable any eventuality.

Shashi Kiran is Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Aryaka Networks

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iPhone SE deals are Apple's new 'cheap iPhone', finally giving Android's budget market a run for its money. And for anyone considering the device, looking to drop their costs as much as possible, there are some excellent choices available at the moment.

And a collection of offers with monthly bills of just £20 or less have really caught iour attention. Yes, there are some upfront costs to go with these iPhone SE deals and yes, the data caps are nothing mind blowing but these are some of the cheapest offers yet.

That makes these the perfect iPhone deals for those who don't need to connect to the internet much outside their homes and just want to score a cheap iPhone contract. We've searched through these cheap offers and picked out the absolute best, listing them below.

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These iPhone SE deals with cheap bills:

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What's the new Apple iPhone SE actually like?

Finally…a cheap iPhone. It's been years since Apple offered us a budget handset but the SE 2020 is clearly that. It comes at almost half the price of the iPhone 11 while offering some 2020 specs.

4K video, Apple's super-powered A13 Bionic, wireless charging, increased battery size and an IP67 rating feature amongst the more impressive features of this device. To lower the price however, Apple has gone back to the design of the iPhone 8, brought the camera lenses down to just one and dropped the screen quality.

Overall, this falls in place as the best budget device Apple has out, coming way under its more recent devices in price but offering some impressive specs to out-do the iPhone 8, 7 and other such devices.

Read our full iPhone SE review

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Fujitsu has unveiled 14 new models of tablets, notebooks and mobile workstations geared towards a the newly mobile, remote workforce working from home due to the coronavirus lockdown. 

The launches include nine models of Notebook LIFEBOOK, four models of the ARROWS Tab (Windows tablet) and one model of Fujitsu Workstation CELSIUS, all of which will go on sale in Japan from today.

Many companies are allowing all employees to continue working from home, with the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way the business world operates, and Fujitsu says its new launches reflect this new reality, with the releases targeting a wide range of remote workers.

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Future-ready

The new launches include multiple variants of the LIFEBOOK U-Series:

• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK U7310/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK U7410/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK U7510/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK U9310/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK U9310X/D

All the models under this range feature a 10th generation Intel CPU, as well as the Windows 10 OS updated as of last November. There is also a privacy camera shutter function which prevents unauthorised access to the webcam.

The LIFEBOOK E/A series features large-screen laptops suited primarily for office and remote work. All four models in this series have a removable privacy filter that prevents third-party snooping and protects against information leaks. 

The LIFEBOOK notebooks will be available from late May onwards, with four new models being released:

• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK E5410/D 
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK E5510/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK A7510/D
• FUJITSU Notebook LIFEBOOK A5510/D

The ARROWS Tab Q series, meanwhile, offers both educational and enterprise models which will go on sale in Japan from late May to early June.

The educational tablets come with a QR code reader application and Function Manager-QR Code Reader. This is a proprietary application developed by Fujitsu Cloud Computing which can scan QR codes on textbooks and use pre-installed video and audio resources. 

• FUJITSU Tablet ARROWS Tab Q7310/DE
• FUJITSU Tablet ARROWS Tab Q7310/DB
• FUJITSU Tablet ARROWS Tab Q5010/DE
• FUJITSU Tablet ARROWS Tab Q5010/DB

The CELSIUS M7010 mobile workstation comes with the Windows 10 May 2019 update installed and like Fujitsu's notebooks, will be available in late May. 

• Here's our list of the best business laptops on the market

The Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 seems to be schedule to be announced in August, as a report from Korea states that the phone has just entered mass production.

Daily Korea reported on insider information around Samsung’s current manufacturing scenario. 

It says Samsung has already placed bulk orders for the components needed for mass manufacturing with major suppliers. Considering that foldables use more complex parts, the report believes that the time lag from order to delivery of components will also be slightly longer than usual.

• Samsung Galaxy Fold 2: Everything we know
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• Cheaper Samsung Galaxy Fold tipped for July unveiling

One of the biggest changes expected from the original Fold is a shift to UTG (ultra-thin glass) instead of plastic for the display. This will add more robustness to the mechanism that is used for folding, which will go through a multitude of folds and unfolds in its lifetime. 

A similar implementation was seen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.

The Fold 2 is expected to share the stage with the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series in August. A second foldable which will be considerably cheaper is also said to be in the works, which will use similar tech to both the original Fold and the Z Flip. 

If things pan out as expected, Samsung will flood the ultra-premium segment with multiple capable foldables, extending its lead over the competition. They will be the first Galaxy flagships to be made official over a virtual event as Samsung won’t be able to hold its Unpacked event physically due to the ongoing pandemic.

As for the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, it is also expected to offer a higher refresh rate of 120Hz, a periscopic telephoto camera and support for the S-pen stylus. The outer display is also expected to be bigger and more functional this time while Samsung is also likely to make structural improvements to the design too.

• Check out our full Samsung Galaxy Fold review

PUBG Mobile partnered with a YouTuber to showcase an exclusive preview of the upcoming map, which will be the biggest update yet to the game.

Historically, PUBG has always brought new features and weapons to its PC/console games first, before making their way to the mobile version with the next major update. However, for the first time ever, it seems like PUBG Mobile will be the first to get this new upcoming map. YouTuber Powerbang Gaming got an early preview of the game to showcase the new changes.

It needs to be noted that the unnamed map is currently in beta, and could change when it actually rolls out. There are a ton of new environmental features too, which will have to be fine-tuned. It is available in a closed beta only, with a build number of 0.19. PUBG Mobile did share a rather cryptic clue with us last week, which now seems to be another teaser of the upcoming overhaul.

The map is currently labelled as “Secretmap Beta”, but will get a more conventional name in the final version. It is significantly smaller than the other regions, spanning just 2km x 2km. Most interestingly, it looks like a combination of the four current maps — Miramar’s desert, Vikendi’s tundra, Sanhok’s forests and water bodies and Erangel’s grasslands. A new style of houses can also be seen, with some locations having weapon crates with regular weapons but with all the attachments.

Not just that, additional environmental features have also been added, including a waterfall. Swimming against the stream will reveal treasure chests, which will presumably be filled with loot in the final version. Considering the smaller size of the map, the loot is also very concentrated.

Gameplay changes include a new enemy marking feature, where as soon as an enemy is cleared spotted, they are marked (similar to “Enemies ahead!”) and tracked till they die. While landing from the plane, the vague altitude bar is replaced by a new altimeter which shows exact distance to the ground.

Two new weapons were also spotted in this beta PUBG Mobile game. The P90 SMG now makes its way to the classic mode, with a 50-bullet mag size. The SPAS shotgun has also been added which seemed to be suppressed by default. It’s unclear if these weapons will be exclusive to this map.

Perhaps the most fun addition is the new driveable monster truck. As expected, it can ride over all sorts of terrain and potholes and over other vehicles too. They could be rarer than the other vehicles on the map. Vehicles can also be found on the spawn island now, before the match starts.

No timeline for the official rollout was mentioned. PUBG seems to be in the early testing phase as many features will be added for the first time. Some may not even make it to the final game, but knowing its track record, it is more likely that they well. Along with this, we also expect the overhauled Vikendi map with trains to be added in the future PUBG Mobile updates.

• OnePlus organises PUBG pro-gamers face-off with Indian cricketers
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Microsoft could become the latest global entity to seek a share of the Jio Platforms pie as the tech major is reportedly negotiating an investment worth $2 billion. Facebook and institutional investors have already pumped in over $10.3 billion dollars into the Mukesh Ambani-owned digital services company. 

A report in The Mint quotes sources close to the discussions to suggest that Microsoft, which had been discussing possible investments with several players in the digital services business, could acquire a 2.5% stake. Jio Platforms is a unit of India's most valuable company Reliance Industries.

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Facebook was among the first of the tech giants to commit itself to Ambani's dream of creating a monolith in the digital marketplace, including taking on Amazon and the Walmart-owned Flipkart on the eCommerce front with their Jio Mart, an online venture that went live just a week ago.  

If the discussions between Microsoft and Jio Platforms fructifies, it would mean that the world's most valuable company would own a small slice of India's most valuable company, which is currently valued at a whopping Rs.5 trillion, which roughly translates to a whopping $66 billion. 

While Facebook pumped in $5.7 billion for a 9.9% stake, the other marquee investors added more than $4.33 billion. This includes $1.5 billion each from KKR & Co and Vista Equity Partners, $0.87 billion from General Atlantic and $0.75 billion from Silver Lake. 

However, the report suggests that there is no guarantee that the investment from Microsoft would go through though earlier this year Microsoft had partnered with Reliance Jio to set up data centres across the country. They had also done a deal whereby Jio would use Microsoft Azure's cloud service for enterprise customers. 

The Jio Platforms combine all of Reliance's digital and telecom initiatives that includes Jio Digital services offering mobile and broadband, apps, tech capabilities, big data etc. besides their investments in Hathway Cable, Datacom Ltd. and Den Networks. 

Meanwhile, reports emerged that Reliance Industries was preparing for an overseas listing of the digital business. Such an offering could take place within the next 12 to 24 months though the venue wasn't yet confirmed. A report published on ET claimed that  the timeline and the size of the public offering too were under discussion. 

Via: The Mint

• Jio launches new plans for work-from-home professionals

Corroborating previous reports, the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 seems to be right on schedule to be announced in August, as a report from Korea states that the phone has entered mass production.

Daily Korea seems to have received insider information around Samsung’s current manufacturing scenario. Samsung has apparently already placed bulk orders for the components needed for mass manufacturing with major suppliers. Considering that foldables use more complex parts, the report believes that the time lag from order to delivery of components will also be slightly longer than usual.

• Samsung Galaxy Fold 2: Everything we know
• Samsung Galaxy Note 20 launch event looks set for August
• Cheaper Samsung Galaxy Foldtipped for July unveiling

One of the biggest change expected on the Galaxy Fold 2 is the shift to UTG (ultra-thin glass) instead of plastic for the display. This will add much-needed vigour to the mechanism which will go through a multitude of folds and unfolds in its lifetime. A similar implementation was seen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip (click to buy).

The Fold 2 is expected to share the stage with the Note 20 series in August. A second foldable which will be considerably cheaper is also said to be in the works, which will take bits from the original Fold and the Z Flip. If things pan out as tipped, Samsung will flood the ultra-premium segment with multiple capable foldables, extending its lead over the competition. They will be the first Galaxy flagships to be made official over a virtual event as Samsung won’t be able to hold its Unpacked event physically due to the ongoing pandemic.

As for the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, it is also expected to offer a higher refresh rate of 120Hz, a periscopic telephoto camera and support for the S-pen stylus with its own silo. The out cover display is also said to be bigger and more functional this time. Structural improvements in the design are also expected.

Samsung seems to be rather unaffected by the current crisis, and is looking to make a big splash in the premium segment. With the launch just a few months away, we expect a lot more leaks to surface in the coming weeks. 

• Samsung Galaxy Fold – Check out our review

The Oppo Find X2 and X2 Pro, launched in earlier this year, are two of the most premium phones available from Oppo, but they're definitely not affordable phones – and that's likely why the company just announced two new entries to the line, with reduced specs and lower price tags.

These phones are the Oppo Find X2 Neo and Find X2 Lite, and they've been announced for the UK – it's unlikely they'll come to the US, as previous Oppo phones haven't been sold there, but they may come to Australia, as certain phones from the company are released in the country. 

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Examining the 5G phones

The Oppo Find X2 Neo, available for £599 (roughly $735, AU$1,110), looks like a specced-down Find X2. It has a 6.55-inch AMOLED screen with 90Hz refresh rate, and like the Find X2 and X2 Pro the screen is curved at the sides, with a punch-hole for the front-facing camera. It runs the Snapdragon 765G chipset, which delivers the phone's 5G capability, and it's also packing 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

The camera array here consists of a 48MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, 13MP telephoto and 2MP black-and-white snappers; Oppo hasn't specified the specs of the selfie camera. Finally, the battery capacity is 4,055mAh, with 30W fast charging.

The Oppo Find X2 Lite is more affordable again at £399 (around $490, AU$740), although the Huawei P40 Lite 5G is a touch cheaper, denying the Find X2 Lite the title of 'cheapest 5G phone', at least in the UK.

The Find X2 Lite has the same battery, charging speed and chipset as the Neo, and three of the same cameras – the difference is the telephoto snapper makes way for a 'retro-effects camera' which we're certainly intrigued to test out, not least to find out what that actually means.

The Find X2 Lite's screen is the main feature that differentiates is from the other three phones, as unlike those it doesn't have a curved screen – the display is flat, and broken up by a notch at the top. It's a 6.5-inch AMOLED panel, though one with the 'standard' 60Hz refresh rate rather than the fast 90Hz.

The Oppo Find X2 Neo and Lite are available to pre-order in the UK and Europe now from Oppo's website, ahead of a wider release on June 10. We'll make sure to review both phones to see if they're worth your money.

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is also available to pre-order now too, though its £1,099 (about $1,350, AU$2,040) price tag seems daunting compared to the Lite and Neo; the Oppo Find X2 is more affordable, but still a good deal pricier than the new handsets, at £899 (about $1,150, AU$1,750).

• Oppo could have a OnePlus Z-rivaling cheap 5G phone coming very soon