� STC The Saudi Telecom Company managed to raise a staggering $ 966mn from an initial public offering of its Arabian Internet and Services company ( Solutions ).

HEY XIAOMI …

So , Xiaomi ’ s done a not so smart thing . Oh yeah ? Yeah , just try typing any number of “ dangerous ” things into one of their phones . " Voice of America ," " Democratic Movement " and " Long Live Taiwan Independence " might all be blocked . Wait , no they weren ’ t . Try it again in Chinese Characters . Oh dear . Yeah , man . It ’ s not great . A recent investigation by Lithuania ' s National Cyber Security Center found that Xiaomi ’ s devices filter content for 449 keywords or keyword groups - just like Huawei . What ’ s Xiaomi got to say about it ? They fervently deny restricting or blocking “ any personal behaviours ” of their users . It ’ s a very tense time between Lithuania and Beijing . There are ambassadors being recalled over Lithuanian recognition of and aid to Taiwan , and this certainly isn ’ t helping matters as far as Lithuanian security services are concerned . Oh ? More than 4,500 employees and officials of various Lithuanian state agencies apparently use Xiaomi phones . Oh dear .

� TIM The Italian telecommunications company officially has the fastest 5G in Europe , according to OpenSignal , with average 5G download speeds of 296.5 Mbps . That ’ s over 1,000 % faster than 4G speeds , something only six MNOs worldwide have been able to pull off .

� GOOGLE AND APPLE In the first of what look to be many such rulings , the South Korean government recently declared that Apple and Google were no longer allowed to prevent app developers from redirecting their users to third-party payment platforms .

� RINGTONES In news that should come as a shock to exactly no one , millennials are killing the ringtone industry . UK users installing ringtone-related apps decreased by a full 20 % over the past few years - from 4.6 million in 2016 to just 3.7 million last year . Now that ’ s what I call progress .

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