Tag - telecoms

 
 

TELECOMS

Malware used by Chinese state-backed hacking groups was on the systems of a U.S. telecommunications firm for seven months starting in the summer of 2023, investigators claim.
WORLD
Jun 5, 2025
Chinese hacked U.S. telecom a year before known wireless breaches
The hack raises questions about when Chinese intruders established a foothold in the American communications industry.
The Silver Dania, a Norwegian-owned ship suspected of cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea, whose crew are Russian citizens, in Tromso, Norway, on Jan. 31
WORLD / Politics
Jun 2, 2025
Southeast Asia joins Europe’s calls to defend subsea cables
A spike in cable damage in European waters, particularly in the Baltic Sea, has heightened fears about the global network of subsea cables' vulnerability.
As part of the tie-up between NTT and SBI Holdings, NTT Docomo will make SBI Sumishin Net Bank a consolidated subsidiary.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2025
NTT and SBI agree on business and capital tie-up
Through the alliance, the two sides hope to work together to merge the two worlds of telecommunications and finance.
NTT Docomo will retire its iconic Docomo Emoji, ending a 26-year run that helped shape the visual language of mobile communication.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2025
NTT Docomo to retire iconic emoji set after 26 years
Beginning next month, newly released Android smartphones and feature phones sold by Docomo will no longer include the carrier’s original emoji.
The parliament passed a bill to revise the law regulating Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's operations at a House of Councilors plenary session on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2025
Japan enacts revised NTT law
The amendments to the NTT law no longer require the former state-run company to provide uniform fixed-line telephone services throughout the country.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone plans a buyback of shares from May 12 through March 31, a move it says is geared toward raising capital efficiency and boosting shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025
NTT announces ¥200 billion buyback in capital efficiency push
The buyback from May 12 through March 31 is geared toward raising capital efficiency and boosting shareholder returns, the company said.
Akira Shimada, CEO of NTT, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2025
NTT to launch $16.5 billion tender offer for NTT Data in AI push
Japan’s biggest telecom operator is launching a tender offer of ¥4,000 per share for all stock it doesn’t own in NTT Data.
KDDI President and CEO Hiromichi Matsuda is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
KDDI aims to use direct satellite link for drones
A direct link with satellites will make it easier to operate drones in mountainous areas and other regions where radio waves are hard to reach
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings will invest in FPT Smart Cloud Japan, which oversees FPT’s Japan AI data center.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings to take stakes in Vietnam’s FPT AI unit
FPT is setting up a Japan AI data center, with an initial investment of $200 million.
Social engineering scams thrive on poorly monitored social media platforms, and while the UK is pushing tougher laws to hold tech companies accountable, the U.S. resists stricter rules, believing individuals should bear responsibility for avoiding fraud.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2025
The U.K. is trying to fight social scams. The U.S. not so much.
Social engineering is one of the hardest parts of the trillion-dollar online scam industry to block or disrupt.
Power utilities, telecommunications carriers and other infrastructure companies are working on measures to minimize damage and strengthen cooperation beyond company boundaries to ensure early recovery in the event of a huge Nankai Trough earthquake.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 2, 2025
Japan infrastructure sector draws up contingencies for Nankai quake
Power utilities, telecommunications carriers and other companies are working on measures to reduce damage and strengthen cooperation to ensure rapid recovery.
The Taiwanese Coast Guard detains Togolese-registered, Chinese-crewed cargo ship Hongtai in Penghu, Taiwan, on Tuesday after a subsea telecoms cable was severed off the islands.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 26, 2025
China says Taiwan 'manipulating' undersea cable cutting incident
Taiwan's coast guard said it detained a China-linked cargo ship on Tuesday after a cable to the Penghu Islands was disconnected.
The Togolese-registered ship Hongtai in Penghu, Taiwan. Taiwan detained a Chinese-crewed cargo ship after a subsea telecoms cable was severed off the island, the coast guard said.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 25, 2025
Taiwan detains Chinese-crewed ship after subsea cable cut
It is the latest in a series of Taiwanese undersea cable breakages, with previous incidents blamed on natural causes or Chinese ships.
A Chinese ship, the bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, is anchored and monitored by a Danish naval patrol vessel (unseen) in the sea of Kattegat, near the City of Granaa in Jutland, Denmark. Denmark's navy said on November 20, 2024 it was shadowing a Chinese cargo vessel in the Baltic Sea, a day after Finland and Sweden opened investigations into suspected sabotage of two severed undersea telecoms cables.
WORLD
Feb 25, 2025
Damage to Baltic Sea telecoms cable may have occurred in January
Swedish and Finnish police said they were investigating a suspected case of sabotage of the C-Lion1 cable running along the seabed from Finland to Germany.
Elon Musk's Starlink is facing challenges from a Chinese state-backed rival and another service financed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 24, 2025
Musk's Starlink races with Chinese rivals to dominate satellite internet
China's rush to occupy more of lower-Earth orbit makes Western policymakers worry it could extend the reach of Beijing's internet censorship regime.
Customers walk past an Apple logo inside an Apple store in New York in 2018.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 30, 2025
Apple and SpaceX link up to support Starlink network on iPhones
In an under-the-radar move, the latest iPhone software update now supports Starlink satellite technology.
Swedish Coast Guard vessel KBV033 (right) and vessel Vezhen are anchored outside Karlskrona, Sweden, on Saturday.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025
Sweden seizes ship suspected of sabotage in Baltic Sea
Sabotage has not been confirmed, but many policymakers suggest activity could be malicious.
NATO naval vessel A803 is docked at the Ofelia Plads in Copenhagen Harbor, in Copenhagen on Sunday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 27, 2025
Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage
There have been a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani says the company sees an opportunity in Japan, which has been a laggard in the adoption of digital and artificial intelligence-powered technologies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 21, 2025
Rakuten founder defends costly mobile foray with big AI bet
Rakuten Mobile and its 8 million-plus users help train an AI poised to expand the conglomerate’s business, according to billionaire founder Hiroshi Mikitani.
The oil tanker Eagle S sits anchored near the Port of Kilpilahti in Porvoo, on the Gulf of Finland, on Jan. 7. The vessel is believed to have dragged its anchor for long distances, damaging an undersea cable in late December.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 14, 2025
Baltic Sea cables damage can’t be accident, EU tech chief says
There have been three incidents involving damage caused to underwater power lines, data cables and a gas pipeline over the past 15 months in the Baltic Sea.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic