Page 108 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

China Unveils Global Data Security Initiative

China announced an initiative on Tuesday for technology firms to prevent the detail the nature of the initiative or say
(Sep 8) to establish global standards creation of so-called backdoors in their whether any other country had joined.
on data security, saying it wanted to products and services that could allow "Global data security rules that reflect the
promote multilateralism in the area at data to be obtained illegally, as well as for wishes of all countries and respect the
a time when "individual countries" were participants to respect the sovereignty, interests of all parties should be reached
"bullying" others and "hunting" companies. jurisdiction and data management on the basis of universal participation by
The announcement, by State Councilor rights of other countries. It also calls for all parties," Wang said. "Some individual
Wang Yi, comes a month after the United participants to not engage in large-scale countries are aggressively pursuing
States said it was purging "untrusted" surveillance of other countries or illegally unilateralism, throwing dirty water on other
Chinese apps under a program dubbed acquire information of foreign citizens countries under the pretext of 'cleanliness',
"Clean Network". China's initiative calls through information technology. It did not and conducting global hunts on leading
companies of other countries under the
pretext of security. This is naked bullying
and should be opposed and rejected."
China tightly controls and censors its
own cyberspace through the popularly
dubbed "Great Firewall", which has for
years restricted access to firms such as
US majors Twitter, Facebook and Google
owner Alphabet. The administration of
US President Donald Trump has taken
aim at Chinese giants such as Huawei
Technologies, Tencent and TikTok owner
ByteDance, citing concerns over national
security and the collection of personal
data, which the companies have rejected.
It has blocked US exports to Huawei
and plans to ban TikTok in the United
States this month unless ByteDance sells
TikTok's US operations.

DCMS Confirms Completion of Program to Clear 700MHz Band for 5G

A major program to vacate the 700MHz tors and other ‘innovative companies’ to tors were said to have spent more than two
band for 5G and rural mobile coverage use 5G to develop new high data usage million hours clearing the spectrum. Un-
has been completed, according the UK’s technologies and services to boost sec- der the programme, changes were made
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & tors such as manufacturing, transport and to more than 1,200 television transmitter
Sport (DCMS). In a press release regard- healthcare. Further, it has suggested that sites ‘in some of the farthest flung reaches
ing the matter, the body said that Digital the low frequency of the 700MHz spectrum and on top of some of the tallest structures
Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman is band is ideal for carrying wireless signals in the country’. The last part of the infra-
expected to confirm the milestone com- into buildings and over long distances – structure works is understood to have tak-
pletion of the four-year GBP350 million including the countryside. As such, it said en place in Kendal, Cumbria and on the Isle
(USD467 million) infrastructure program the spectrum band clearance will increase of Man on 19 August, where channels were
when speaking later today (3 September) capacity in 4G networks, bringing greater switched to the new frequencies in the last
at 5G World, as part of London Tech Week. mobile coverage and improved reliability to of 57 ‘clearance events’. Commenting on
Until now, the 700MHz spectrum band has rural communities. Releasing the 700MHz the matter, Philip Marnick, Spectrum Group
been mainly used for digital terrestrial TV airwaves is expected to increase the total Director at Ofcom, said: ‘This is a major
broadcast, as well as for professional ra- amount of the radio spectrum available for milestone for improving mobile services
dio microphones used in music studios, mobile services in the UK by nearly 20%. across the UK … The airwaves will now be
theatres and outdoor events. Following Around 1,000 workers from organizations available to use immediately after our up-
the clearance program, however, it will be including local telecoms regulator Ofcom, coming spectrum auction, bringing better
exclusively available for mobile use. The Arqiva, Digital UK, Digital Mobile Spectrum mobile and innovative new services a sig-
development will enable mobile opera- Limited (DMSL) and the multiplex opera- nificant step closer.’

108 SEP-OCT 2020