Mobile telecommunications

The number of text messages sent by people in Greece who want to leave their houses during the lockdown measures put in place to halt the spread of the new coronavirus ranged between 1.3 and 1.8 million per day from March 23, when the system was introduced, to March 26, authorities said.

The numbers do not include messages that were either in the wrong format or rejected.

Telecoms market leader Cosmote is set to launch the modernization of its cellphone network next month, based on the new contract it has signed with Ericsson. Cosmote will also begin working on the creation of Greece's first fifth-generation (5G) network.

Turks spend on average some two hours and 48 minutes on social media on a daily basis, while the time they remain glued to the tube is two hours and 44 minutes, according to a study jointly carried out by the Association for Mobile Communication Devices and Information Technologies Businessmen (MOBİSAD) and Istanbul University.

The number of mobile subscribers in Turkey increased to 82.9 million as of the third quarter of 2019, rising from 80.1 million at the end of 2018, data from the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) have shown.

The mobile subscriber penetration rate also climbed to 101.1 percent as of end-September from 99 percent in 2018.

President Trump's government has announced that it is extending Huawei's provisional license for another 45 days (to allow US companies to find alternatives to the Chinese telecommunications giant, which was considered a security threat to the United States, France Press reported.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei on Wednesday welcomed the European Union's 5G guidelines that are likely to limit its business in Europe, but which fall short of a US call for a total ban.

"This non-biased and fact-based approach towards 5G security allows Europe to have a more secure and faster 5G network," Huawei said in a statement.

[Reuters]

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he would make a decision on Huawei's role in 5G networks that would give consumers the benefits of the new technology without compromising national security.

EU countries can restrict or exclude high-risk 5G providers from core parts of their telecoms network infrastructure under new guidelines to be issued by the European Commission next week, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The Greek government is waiting for the European Commission to publish its report on the development of fifth-generation cell telephony (5G) networks before deciding on a provider, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierakakis said on Thursday.

Vodafone Greece announced on Thursday that its cellphone network subscribers will have unlimited data usage for just 2 euros each throughout this month, after all three of Greece's major operators offered free internet access for a period of seven to 10 days over Christmas.