Industrial internet of things conference

TOKYO: Japan's petroleum industry called on utilities to keep using oil-fired power plants as backups after the nation's power market faced a supply crunch amid cold weather, the head of the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said on Thursday.Japan's wholesale electricity prices have risen sharply since late last month amid the worst power crunch since the Fukushima disaster nearly a decade ago, sending power companies scrambling for extra supplies, especially liquefied natural gas (LNG), to fuel power stations."The electricity industry has requested our industry to provide excess oil and we have done as much as possible," Tsutomu Sugimori, president of the PAJ, told a news conference."But we could not take all the requests, especially from the utilities which have no contracts with us, as it was difficult to quickly prepare tanks, arrange ships, find staff and so on," said Sugimori, who is also chairman of Eneos Holdings Inc .The petroleum industry has been asking utilities to keep … [Read more...] about Japan’s petroleum industry calls on utilities to keep using oil-fired power plants

Alibaba owner had been absent from public view since October 24 when he had criticised regulators BEIJING - China's highest-profile entrepreneur, Jack Ma, appeared Wednesday in an online video, ending a 2 1/2-month absence from public view that prompted speculation about the future of the e-commerce billionaire and his Alibaba Group. In the 50-second video, Ma congratulated teachers supported by his foundation and made no mention of his disappearance or official efforts to tighten control over Alibaba and other internet companies over the past six months. The video appeared on Chinese business news and other websites. The normally voluble Ma disappeared from public view after he irked regulators by criticizing them in an Oct. 24 speech at a Shanghai conference. Days later, regulators suspended the planned multibillion-dollar stock market debut of Ant Group, a financial platform that grew out of Alibaba's payments service, Alipay. That prompted speculation online about whether the … [Read more...] about Jack is back, ends silence with video

BERLIN: German telecoms group Deutsche Telekom and Spanish cell phone mast operator Cellnex said on Thursday they would combine their tower business in the Netherlands and set up a joint fund to invest in digital infrastructure.Once the deal closes, Cellnex Netherlands will operate 4,314 sites, including 180 new ones which will be built over the next seven years. Cellnex will own 62% of the new entity, while Deutsche Telekom will hold 38% through the fund.The companies will become anchor investors in a newly established Digital Infrastructure Vehicle (DIV), an investment fund focused on European digital infrastructure. Deutsche Telekom will transfer its T-Mobile Infra business to the fund, they said.Deutsche Telekom will receive a 250 million euro ($303 million) cash payment and a shareholding in DIV, they added in the statement. This translates into a capital commitment of Deutsche Telekom of around 400 million euros to the fund.Cellnex also agreed to commit 200 million euros of … [Read more...] about Deutsche Telekom, Cellnex combine Dutch cell phone tower businesses

WASHINGTON: Outgoing U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai said potential Chinese espionage and threats to U.S. telecommunications networks and internet freedom are the biggest national security issue that regulators will face in the next four years.Ajit Pai told Reuters in an interview there is a "wide array" of activity from China that was of concern, including of surveillance, economic espionage and potential "injection of malware into networks here in the United States or around the world. There are a number of bad things that can happen when insecure equipment is used to handle sensitive information."Pai was named chairman in January 2017 by former President Donald Trump and stepped down on Wednesday. During his tenure, the FCC cracked down on Chinese network manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE.Last month, the FCC began the process of revoking China Telecom's authorization to operate in the United States. China Telecom is the largest Chinese … [Read more...] about Departing U.S. FCC chair warns of threats to telecoms from China

By Foo Yun CheeBRUSSELS: EU antitrust regulators have sought information from advertisers regarding Google's advertising technology practices, a European Commission document seen by Reuters shows.Alphabet-owned Google, the world's largest online search engine, has been hit with fines totalling 8.25 billion euros ($10 billion) in the last three years for blocking rivals in online shopping, Android smartphones and online advertising.It now faces two European Union investigations into its advertising practices, focused on technology and data.Google and Facebook together capture over half of the internet ad sales market globally. Both companies are currently the target of a U.S. lawsuit over their 2018 deal which gives Facebook's advertiser clients the option to place ads within Google's network of publishing partnersGoogle said it was cooperating with the Commission, whose 13-page questionnaire sent to advertisers this month asked about the impact of using the default setting 'Include … [Read more...] about Google’s advertising practices targeted by EU antitrust probe