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Airtel on Thursday announced that it had become the first telco to successfully demonstrate live 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad. Taking on Reliance Jio, the New Delhi-based telco stated that it operated 5G and 4G concurrently over the existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800MHz band through the Non-Standalone (NSA) network technology. Airtel 5G is touted to deliver 10 times the speed of existing network technologies — allowing users to download a full-length movie in a matter of seconds on a 5G…

A Moscow court has fined Google RUB 21 billion (nearly Rs. 2,900 crore) for failing to remove content concerning Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, the nation's telecommunications regulator said Monday.Roskomnadzor said the Google-owned video platform YouTube had failed to block "false information" on the offensive in Ukraine, "extremist and terrorist propaganda" and content "calling on minors to participate in unauthorised demonstrations."The regulator said that as this was a repeat conviction for Google, the…

Netflix is testing a new way to tackle password sharing in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic (as reported first by Bloomberg). The test will prompt users to pay an additional fee if they use an account outside their household for over two weeks, costing an extra 219 pesos ($1.17 in Argentina) and $2.99 everywhere else. According to Netflix, in the test areas, subscriber accounts have one primary “home” where they can access Netflix across their devices, and they have the ability to…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been buying location data from third parties to sidestep the traditional warrant process, according to new documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The documents show that agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were able to purchase vast amounts of this location data without any judicial oversight and use it to track the movements of millions of cellphones within the US. Generally, obtaining…

Now that Sony has successfully rolled Funimation into Crunchyroll in an attempt to create the one anime streaming service to rule them all, it’s leveraging that consolidation to raise prices, right? Wrong, apparently! The company just announced price cuts in 95 different territories around the world, including the UK, China, India, and many, many more. The price of a Mega Fan subscription is dropping 25 percent in the UK, 37 percent in Brazil, and — at the current exchange rate — it’ll cost nearly 88 percent less in…

Apple is planning to slow hiring in 2023, according to Bloomberg, making it the latest big tech company to shift its hiring plans. The changes won’t affect every team, Bloomberg reports, but some groups won’t see increased staff next year and some positions won’t be backfilled. Apple is also still prepping to launch its long-rumored mixed reality headset in 2023. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Many tech companies have adjusted hiring in recent weeks. Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed…

Verizon says that customers in “many markets across the US” could get significantly faster 5G speeds, even when they’re not right next to a cell tower. According to a press release on Monday, this is possible because Verizon’s deploying extra C-band spectrum; for some areas, the carrier’s now using 100 MHz of bandwidth instead of 60 MHz. The company says some engineers got blazing fast download speeds of 1.4 Gigabits per second when they were “near active cell sites,” which dropped down to a (still very fast) 500 Mbps…

Uber has settled with the Department of Justice over allegations that it discriminated against disabled passengers, the DOJ announced in a press release on Monday. As part of the agreement, Uber will credit double the total wait fees issued to the 65,000 disabled riders already identified by Uber’s programs and commit more than $2 million to funds for other affected individuals. The claims center on Uber’s wait fee policy, which adds additional fees when a passenger takes more than two minutes to board the car.…

Sony is acquiring the esports tournament platform Repeat.gg, marking the PlayStation maker’s latest investment into esports. Repeat.gg has put on more than 100,000 tournaments with over 2.3 million participants, reports GamesIndustry.biz, featuring popular games like Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone. “Together with the talented Repeat.gg team, we’re excited to explore more ways for players to engage in competitive gaming and expand the breadth of our esports offerings,” Sony Interactive…

Instagram is getting a payment feature that will allow users to buy from small businesses through direct messages, parent company Meta Platforms said on Monday.According to the blog post, users will be able to make purchases with a qualified small business on Instagram without leaving the chat. Earlier, users had to exit the post, and send a message to the business to the chats to enquire about a product for purchasing. Now, users can directly chat about customizations and place order right in the chat.Moreover, it will…