Global Tech TrendsTop 10 trend news March 2021

South Africa reviews its

approach to taxing digital

services

Economic downturns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are making the review of existing tax regimes more compelling in many countries around the world, including South Africa.

4G spectrum auction and

next steps for 5G in

India

India’s 4G multi-band spectrum auction closed in March 2021. The three largest mobile operators, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea acquired in total 856 MHz of spectrum for US$10.6bn. However, over 60% of the spectrum offered in the auction remained unassigned, while perspectives for 5G remain uncertain.

Private 5G networks

growing in Japan

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) is making available 4.6-4.8 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum on a local basis for the establishment of private 5G local area networks, including for industrial uses across different economic sectors. One of the early adopters is the Japanese information technology and electronics company NEC.

India investigates WhatsApp’s

data sharing policies

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) started an investigation into WhatsApp’s new privacy policy that should go into effect in May 2021. India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with over 500m people using the service.

SOYA launches as the first

grain-backed cryptocurrency

Agrotoken, an Argentinian privately-led platform, launched SOYA, the first grain-backed stablecoin enabling soybean producers and investors to save, invest and trade in this commodity.

Appeals against GDPR

fines on the rise

Since the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in May 2018, EU data protection authorities have levied fines worth millions of euros. However, appeals seem to be a challenge in GDPR enforcement.

Leveraging utilities’ passive

infrastructure for fibre

deployments

Government-owned Oman Broadband Company (OBC) plans to install fibre optic cables also by using electricity poles, as a cost-competitive alternative to trench-laid cables.

Qatar consults on

cloud policy

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) of Qatar is consulting until 23 April 2021 on a draft cloud policy.

5G spectrum assignments

in the US: status and next steps

The US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), completed its second (and much larger) mid-band spectrum auction for 5G, and announced the next 5G auctions planned in the US.

More choice for app

developers according to a

proposed bill in Arizona

A bill presented in Arizona opens the door for alternative payment systems to those offered by Apple and Google. App developers could set up their own payment systems to process purchases by Arizona users.

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