Lanka Bell debuts 4G in Colombo
Sri Lankan operator Lanka Bell has launched 4G services in parts of the greater Colombo area. The operator aims to cover the whole city before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year on April 14. The launch is designed to coincide with the 66th anniversary of Sri Lankan independence this month. Lanka Bell introduced CDMA technology to the nation in 2005, and remains the CDMA market leader.
Bangladesh orders BlackBerry shutdown
Bangladesh's telecom regulator BTRC has ordered two operators – Grameenphone and Airtel Bangladesh – to stop offering BlackBerry services to their customers. In a letter read by theDhaka Tribune, the regulator said it is ordering the moratorium because there is no way to oversee communications over the BlackBerry service through the nation's monitoring gateways. Operators have requested two weeks to find alternatives for their BlackBerry customers. BlackBerry has not complied with a request by the BTRC to route local communications through a switch in Dhaka for monitoring purposes.
Reliance Jio to launch 4G by September
India's Reliance Jio Infocomm reportedly aims to launch 4G services during the September quarter. A source close to the company told the Press Trust of India that the company plans to launch in Delhi and Mumbai first, and will then prioritise the southern part of the country with its national rollout. Reliance Jio is currently the only operator with pan-India LTE spectrum, and plans to offer set-top-box and TV broadcast services as well as mobile broadband services over 4G.
Apple warns of iOS encryption flaw
Apple has warned it has discovered a major security flaw in the implementation of SSL used in iOS that could potentially allow hackers to eavesdrop on encrypted communications including email. Attackers would need access to the mobile user's network, for example by sharing unsecured public Wi-Fi connections. While Apple has issued a fix for the current version of iOS, security experts toldReuters they have discovered the same flaw in current versions of OSX.
Australia has fastest LTE speeds
Australia has the fastest average LTE speeds in the world at 24.5 Mbps, but inconsistent coverage means subscribers only have access to LTE 58% of the time, according to the State of LTE report from OpenSignal. South Korea is only sixth fastest by speed, but the nation's mobile users have access to LTE networks 91% of the time – more than any other nation. Hong Kong is more balanced, ranking third by speeds and time on LTE. See the report and its highlights here.