Kathmandu: The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has initiated a process to study the possible interference between the 5G frequencies and the frequencies used in the latest technology.



NTA has signed an agreement with Tribhuvan University Institute of Engineering Studies on Monday. The agreement was signed on Monday by Purushattam Khanal, chairman of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, and Dean of the Institute of Engineering Studies, Shashidhar Ram Joshi.



As per the agreement, the Institute of Engineering Studies will study the possible interfaces between 5G Mobile as well as new technology and other storage devices related to 5G.



The study, funded by the authority, will investigate possible interference between 5G technology.

Govt begins study of possible frequency interruptions in 5G

ROME (Reuters): The Italian data privacy watchdog ordered video app TikTok on Friday to block the accounts of any users in Italy whose age it could not verify following the death of a 10-year-old girl who had been using the Chinese-owned app.



In a statement, the regulator said that although TikTok had committed to ban registration for children aged under 13, it was nonetheless easy to circumvent this rule.



As a result, it said TikTok had to block unverified user accounts until at least Feb. 15 awaiting further information.



A spokeswoman for TikTok in Italy said the company was analyzing the communication received from the authority.



“Privacy and safety are absolute priorities for TikTok and we are constantly working to strengthen our policies, our processes and our technologies to protect our community and younger users in particular,” she said in an emailed comment.



Owned by China’s ByteDance, TikTok has been rapidly growing in popularity around the world, particularly among teenagers.



The ruling came after a girl died of asphyxiation in Palermo, Sicily, in a case that has shocked Italy.



Her parents said she had been participating in a so-called blackout challenge on TikTok, putting a belt around her neck and holding her breath while recording herself on her phone.



“TikTok was her world. And YouTube. That’s how she spent her time,” the girl’s father Angelo Sicomero was quoted as saying in Saturday’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.



Prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible incitement to suicide and are looking to see whether someone invited the girl to take part in the challenge.



“The watchdog decided to intervene as a matter of urgency following the terrible case of the 10-year-old girl from Palermo,” the authority said.



It said TikTok was banned from “further processing user data for which there is no absolute certainty of age and, consequently, of compliance with the provisions related to the age requirement”.



An official said this meant that users of unverified accounts would no longer be able to upload videos or interact with other people on the platform.



The watchdog said it had raised concerns with TikTok in December over what it called a series of violations, including allegations the firm had failed to protect minors.



It added that it had told the authorities in Ireland about its decision because TikTok has announced that it would run its European operations out of Dublin.

Italy tells TikTok to block users after death of young girl

Kathmandu: Nepal has improved its mobile broadband quality by one place. According to Okla's Speedtest Global Index, a monthly report, Nepal has risen one place to 115th position.



According to the index, Nepal's mobile broadband internet has a download speed of 18.42 Mbps, an upload speed of 11.62 Mbps and a latency of 31 milliseconds.



According to the same report, the quality of fixed broadband has also improved in December compared to mobile broadband internet. It has risen five places to 115th position in fixed broadband.



According to the index, the average download speed of Nepal's fixed broadband internet is 24.05 Mbps, average upload speed is 22.46 Mbps and latency is 13 milliseconds.



But according to the index, Nepal's download, upload and latency capabilities are all below the standard average.



Only the top 37 countries in terms of mobile broadband have met this standard. Similarly, only the top 42 countries have met this standard for fixed broadband. But Nepal has not been able to meet the standards in both broadband.

Nepal improve its place in internet quality ratings

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP): General Motors is teaming up with Microsoft to accelerate its rollout of electric, self-driving cars.



In the partnership announced Tuesday, the companies said Microsoft’s Azure cloud and edge computing platform would be used to “commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale.”



Microsoft joins General Motors, Honda and other institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing its valuation to about $30 billion. Cruise, which GM bought in 2016, has been a leader in driverless technology and got the go-ahead from California late last year to test its automated vehicles in San Francisco without backup drivers.



“Microsoft is a great addition to the team as we drive toward a future world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth.”



General Motors has been aggressively revamping its image, saying the industry has reached a history-changing inflection point for mass adoption of electric vehicles. The 112-year-old Detroit automaker this month unveiled a new corporate logo to signify its new direction as it openly pivots to electric vehicles. It wants to be seen as a clean vehicle company, rather than a builder of cloud-spewing gas-powered pickups and SUVs.



GM scrapped its old square blue logo for a lower case gm surrounded by rounded corners and an ‘m’ that looks like an electrical plug.



Shares in GM jumped more than 8 percent in early trading, to $54.07.

GM teams up with Microsoft on driverless cars

ISTANBUL (AP): Facebook announced Monday it has begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey to comply with a controversial law governing social media companies.



The law, which passed in July, requires social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to maintain representatives in Turkey to deal with complaints about content on their platforms. Companies refusing to designate an official representative are subject to fines, advertising bans and bandwidth reductions that would make their networks too slow to use.



“This decision does not change Facebook’s Community Standards, nor the global process for reviewing government requests, and we will withdraw the representative if we face pressure on either,” Facebook said in its statement.



According to the law, the local representative of social media companies would be tasked with responding to individual requests to take down content violating privacy and personal rights within 48 hours or to provide grounds for rejection. The company would be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.



The law also requires social media data to be stored in Turkey, raising concerns in a country where the government has a track record of clamping down on free speech.



Turkish authorities fined the social media giant at least 40 million Turkish lira ($5.3 million) last year for not complying with the request to assign a representative. Advertising bans for companies that have not complied are set to begin Tuesday.



Facebook will join LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion and the Russian social media site VKontakte in setting up legal entities in Turkey.



Rights groups have said the decision by international tech companies to bow to Turkish pressure and appoint representatives would lead to censorship and violations of the right to privacy and access to information. The Freedom of Expression Association says more than 450,000 domains and 42,000 tweets have been blocked in Turkey as of October.



Amnesty International’s Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum tweeted that the law undermines freedom of expression online in a country where independent media are already curtailed.



“The consequences of compliance for human rights are huge: companies would not be able to resist arbitrary blocking/banning requests, would be compelled to provide user data,” she said.



Facebook said, “We remain committed to the Turkish community and maintaining free expression and other human rights in Turkey.”



Last week, Turkey’s antitrust board launched a probe against messaging application WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook Inc. for its new usage terms. The new terms, which were later postponed by the company, unleashed privacy concerns and prompted Turkish users to switch to other messaging apps.

Facebook bows to Turkish demand to name local representative

Kathmandu (Rastriya Samachar Samiti): The 'Citizen App', which was unveiled on Friday under the slogan 'Support for Communication and Information Technology, Government Service at Hand', has attracted a lot of users.



It has been found that 162,500 users have downloaded the app on the Android till 12 noon today. According to the National Information Technology Center, more than 40,000 users have already downloaded the app (opened an account).



Although a large number of citizen apps have been downloaded, more than 122,000 details could not be verified due to various reasons, said Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, Information Officer of the Center.



According to Pokharel, many users do not have a SIM card in their own name. He said that although the user was attracted to the app which was being tested, there were difficulties in operating the app due to various reasons.



Officials at the National Information Technology Center say that the details in the citizenship, passport or voter identity card did not match the data in the ministry and could not be verified using a SIM card in another's name.



The citizen app has been launched on Friday saying that all kinds of services provided by the government will be digitized and services will be provided from an integrated platform.



Citizens will be able to get PAN number by applying for PAN card from the app and also get information about the tax paid to the government through mobile set. Through the app, citizens will be able to get details of citizenship, passport, educational certificate and voter identity card, while citizens will be able to get information about the amount deposited in the account of investment fund, provident fund and social security fund and loan details.



In the initial stage, the digital identity of the citizen has been established in the app using the details in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Election Commission and Passport Department. The government plans to add national identity cards in the coming days.

One lakh 62 thousand downloaded 'Nagarik App'

Kathmandu: Both Connect IPS and QR code syllable usage and payment amounts, which have become easy means of payment, have increased significantly. People were more attracted to e-commerce during the Corona epidemic. Due to which e-commerce has been increasing significantly in recent times.



According to the Nepal Rastra Bank, the number of connected IPS transactions has almost doubled in December compared to July.



According to the statistics, the number of transactions increased from 696,447 in July to 12,17,310 in December. Similarly, 6 lakh 33 thousand 134 in July, 8 lakh 95 thousand 586 in August, 12 lakh 59 thousand 291 in September, and 10 lakh 28 thousand 37 in November were traded through Connect IPS.



Connect IPS also had a turnover of Rs 51 billion in June and Rs 90 billion in December.



Similarly, the number of people paying by QR code has also increased tremendously. Out of 195,016 transactions in the month of July, 343,574 transactions were scanned in December and the amount was paid.



According to the central bank, 1,79,150 transactions were scanned in August, 265,125 in October and 241,818 in November.



Also, the payment from QR code has increased. A turnover of Rs 589 million was made in July last year and Rs 1.25 billion has been paid by scanning the QR code in December alone.

Significant increase in the use of Connect IPS and QR codes

Kathmandu: The government has launched a Nagarik app to make public services faster and more effective. Minister for Communications and Information Technology Parbat Gurung unveiled the citizen app at a press conference.



At the press conference, Minister Gurung said that the app was brought as a test to make the government service simple, transparent and effective. By applying for PAN card from the citizen app, one can get PAN number and also get the details of tax paid to the government through mobile set.



Similarly, details of citizenship, passport, educational certificate and voter identity card can be obtained as well as the amount and loan details deposited in the accounts of Citizens Investment Fund, Provident Fund and Social Security Fund, the ministry said.



The government had envisioned a citizen app in its policy and program for the fiscal year 2078/19. It has been completed after three years.

Govt launch 'Nagarik App'

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP): Europe’s push into electric cars is gathering speed — despite the pandemic.



Automaker Volkswagen tripled sales of battery-only cars in 2020 as its new electric compact ID.3 came on the market ahead of tough new European Union limits on auto emissions. And Germany, long a laggard in adopting electric vehicles, saw more people buy electrics in December than opted for previously dominant diesel vehicles.



Those are early signs of what will likely be an upcoming year of increasing market share for electric cars as EU regulations drive their adoption, despite the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has caused the overall car market to shrink.



Volkswagen said Tuesday its namesake brand sold 134,000 battery-powered cars last year, up from 45,000 in 2019.



Including hybrids, which combine an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, sales of electrified cars reached 212,000, up from 82,000 in 2019.



Volkswagen’s announcement comes as the auto industry association in Germany reports that one in four cars sold in the country in December had an electric motor, uptake that was supported by incentives as part of the government stimulus package during the COVID-19 recession.



Battery and hybrid cars took 26.6% of sales that month, running ahead of diesel cars, which had 26.2%. That is also a token of diesel’s steep decline after Volkswagen’s 2015 scandal involving diesel cars rigged to cheat on emissions tests.



Electric cars have so far been a small but rapidly growing slice of the European market. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, in the July-September quarter of 2020 9.9% of cars sold were chargeable vehicles, up from 3.0% a year earlier. The association publishes full-year statistics on Feb. 4.



Automakers in the EU must sell more zero-emission cars in order to meet tougher fleet average limits on emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas blamed for climate change. Those limits came fully into effect on Jan. 1. Failure to achieve a fleet average of less than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven can mean heavy fines.



Sales have been driven by government incentives, and by an increasing number of new models that — like the ID.3 — were designed purely as electric cars, rather than being converted from internal combustion models. Electric-only design can mean more interior space as a selling point. The compact ID.3 isn’t coming to the U.S. market, where Volkswagen will offer the electric ID.4 sport-utility vehicle made on the same mechanical base.



Demand has been held back by lack of places to charge electric cars, including for people who live in apartment buildings and can’t install a charging box at home. Germany’s auto association, the VDA, said there’s only one publicly available charging station for every 17 electric cars.



California-based Tesla has been a major factor in the electric upswing with its Model 3 and its proprietary network of fast-charging stations.



The government in China, the world’s largest auto market, is also pressing carmakers to lower emissions.



The uptake of electric vehicles has been slower in the United States, where regulatory pressure has been weaker and where gasoline costs as little as $2 per gallon, depending on the region. That compares to 1.30 euros per liter of gas, or $6 per gallon in Germany, much of which is taxes.

Volkswagen triples electric car sales ahead of climate rules

Kathmandu: Bagmati Pradesh has demanded applications for setting up IT labs in its subordinate community campuses.



To improve the quality of community campuses, the state is going to set up an IT lab / science laboratory.



This program was launched by the state in the previous fiscal year as well. Therefore, it has been mentioned that the campuses that could not participate in the project last year and needed it can apply.



Based on the information made public on Monday, it has been mentioned that the campuses can apply to the Education Development Directorate of Hetauda with a proposal within 15 days.



This program will give priority to schools that teach science subjects and computer subjects. While submitting the proposal, the list of office bearers and tenure of the office bearers of the Campus Management Committee should be certified at the local level.



Also, a recommendation from the local level should be submitted stating that no such program has been received before.

Application demand for setting up IT labs in colleges

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP): New Zealand’s central bank said Sunday that one of its data systems has been breached by an unidentified hacker who potentially accessed commercially and personally sensitive information.



A third party file sharing service used by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to share and store sensitive information had been illegally accessed, the Wellington-based bank said in a statement.



Governor Adrian Orr said the breach has been contained. The bank’s core functions “remain sound and operational,” he said.



“We are working closely with domestic and international cybersecurity experts and other relevant authorities as part of our investigation and response to this malicious attack,” Orr said.



“The nature and extent of information that has been potentially accessed is still being determined, but it may include some commercially and personally sensitive information,” Orr added.



The system had been secured and taken offline until the bank completes its initial investigations.



“It will take time to understand the full implications of this breach and we are working with system users whose information may have been accessed,” Orr said.



The bank declined to answer emailed questions seeking more details.



It’s unclear when the breach took place or if there were any indications of who was responsible, and in what country is the file sharing service based.



Several major organizations in New Zealand have been the target of cyber interference in the past year, including the New Zealand Stock Exchange, which had its servers knocked out of public view for nearly a week in August.



Dave Parry, professor of computer science at Auckland University, told Radio New Zealand that another government was likely behind the bank data breach.



“Ultimately if you were coming from a sort of like criminal perspective, the government agencies aren’t going to pay your ransom or whatever, so you’d be more interested probably coming in from a government-to-government level,” Parry said.

New Zealand central bank says data system hacked

Kathmandu: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has demanded free frequency from the government for the use of smart meters.



NEA has demanded a frequency of 395 to 400 MHz band to bring the data of the customer's connected smart meter to the data center of the authority. NEA needs radio frequency to bring the data of the meter to the data center of NEA through the electronic chips placed in the smart meter.



NEA has informed that discussions have been initiated with the Ministry of Communications regarding the frequency. According to NEA, there is no option to get free frequency as the government has to increase the electricity tariff for the customers when they take the frequency by paying the fee at the rate fixed by the government.



Earlier, when the directorate asked the Nepal Telecommunication Authority for information about the fee, it was informed that using the frequency in 98,000 smart meters would cost around Rs 1.97 billion annually. According to the number of devices, frequency charges have been levied and the number of meters has been increasing.



NEA had started installing smart meters in the border areas of Kathmandu by removing the old meters. In the first phase, about 98,000 old meters are being replaced with smart meters by single phase and three phase of customers under Ratna Park and Maharajgunj Distribution Center in Kathmandu. So far, about 28,000 meters have been replaced.



Another tender is being held to connect 3.5 million smart meters in Kathmandu for the implementation of 'Digital NEA' put forward by former NEA executive director, Kulman Ghising.



After connecting the smart meter, the data of electricity consumption can be transmitted to both the sides, so not only meter reading from NEA, but also the line of the customer who does not pay the bill on time can be cut online from the center.



NEA expects to control the leakage of electricity due to meter reading. If someone tries to steal electricity by bypassing the meter, the information will be available online, so it will be effective in controlling the theft.

Tech

Our Team

Contact Information

Address (USA):

Address (Nepal):

Email:

Phone: