Orange

For nearly 90 years, anyone in France needing to know what time it is down-to-the-second could ring up the Paris Observatory and get an automated, astronomy-based response.

But the final countdown for the world-first service has begun.

The Romanian government is examining the sale of OTE subsidiary Telekom Romania to French group Orange.
The Romanian landline telephony company, formerly known a Romtelecom, is a 54 percent subsidiary of Greece's OTE Group, with the Romanian state controlling 46 percent.

The Competition Council handed down fines worth a total of 435 million lei (93 million euro) in 2018, this being the second year with the highest fines in the history of the institution, President of the Competition Council Bogdan Chiritoiu told a news conference on Tuesday.

By comparison, in 2017, there were handed down fines worth 123 million lei.

The National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority (ANCOM) last year handed down fines worth a total of 2.43 million lei (rd 530k euro, ed. n.) to several electronic communications and postal service operators, and conducted some 4,000 checks in the sector, the communications watchdog said in release on Monday.

Four international companies have submitted requests to Kosovo's Ministry of Economic Development about the privatisation of  Kosovo Telecom - although the bidding process has yet to start.

"Several international companies have shown interest in the privatisation of Telecom: A1 Telekom Austria, Orange, Rockaway Capital I PFF Group and Artiller One," the ministry told BIRN.

Bulgarian software developer QuarkVR said on Tuesday that it has attracted two new investments worth more than 500,000 levs (3,000/256,000 euro) in total, as it won the trust and support of local investor CEO Angels Club, reports SeeNews. 

The startup's most pressing issue currently is the expansion of its team of specialists, QuarkVR said in a statement.  

Due to the first serious snow, alarm codes for dangerous weather were announced throughout the country, announced the Bulgarian National Television. 

Orange code is valid for 6 districts in Eastern Bulgaria - Burgas, Varna, Dobrich, Shumen, Razgrad and Targovishte.

Snow and wind are expected and there is a danger of icy roads.

Average download and upload speeds in Romania via landline internet connections increased by 18pct in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to statistics released on Tuesday by the National Authority for Communications Administration and Regulation (ANCOM) based on tests conducted on Netograf.ro - the ANCOM application for testing Internet service quality.

A man armed with a knife who had barricaded himself in his van was fatally shot Sunday night in Orange following a bizarre standoff in which police and firefighters used a hose to force him from the vehicle. A woman who identified herself as his sister said he was Michael Anthony Perez, 33, a father of six whose birthday would have been Wednesday.

Through technology trend forecasts, analysis and idea exchange on thriving in the new economy Rudy de  Waele has helped diverse global brands such BMW, IBM, Coca-Cola, Google, Intel, Louis Vuitton, Orange, PayPal, Samsung, Telefonica, Vodafone and the World Bank.