Facebook plans on hiring 10,000 Europeans to work on the metaverse

Facebook is planning on recruiting the assistance of 10,000 workers across Europe to help build its metaverse vision.

The metaverse was first coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, where humans interact with each other and software agents as virtual avatars in a persistent 3D space. Since then, the idea has come up in further popular books like William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player Two.

Online games such as Second...

18 October 2021 | Digital Twin

The IoT could help the UK cut 17.4M tonnes of CO2

A report from Vodafone and WPI Economics has found that emerging technologies like the IoT and 5G could help the UK cut 17.4 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Earlier this year, the UK enshrined in law a target to slash carbon emissions by 78 percent by 2035 as part of a bid to achieve net-zero by 2050. Achieving the UK’s target, and hopefully exceeding it, will require taking advantage of every possible tool.

Susanne Baker, Associate Director, Climate, Environment and...

14 September 2021 | 5G

Road to Success: Ericsson’s connected car report highlights ‘significant’ opportunities

Ericsson has released a connected car report highlighting a number of “significant” monetisation opportunities for car manufacturers.

The report – Connected Cars: Succeeding in the midst of economic and societal transformation – also examines some of the challenges faced by automotive OEMs as they seek to secure their place in a world that’s rapidly changing.

Statista forecasts the connected car market to reach $166 billion by 2025 while some other...

2 September 2021 | 5G

Didi halts plans to launch its robotaxis in the UK and Europe

Didi has decided to halt its plans to deploy robotaxis across the UK and Western Europe.

The Chinese tech giant intended to offer its services in major cities around the region as part of significant expansion plans.

While it hasn’t disclosed the reason for its decision, it likely has something to do with the increased pressure it’s facing from both Beijing and Western governments.

Didi has been targeted by Chinese authorities following its $4.4 billion...

24 August 2021 | Connected Vehicles

Citymesh acquires Sigfox IoT network operator to offer services ‘from 0G to 5G’

Belgian telecoms operator Citymesh has acquired local Sigfox IoT network operator ENGIE M2M to enable it to offer services all the way “from 0G to 5G”.

Sigfox is a 0G network ideally suited for IoT deployments because of its ultra-low power consumption and long-range. In Belgium alone, the Sigfox network connects over 250,000 devices.

Jeremy Prince, CEO of Sigfox, said:

“We have had the pleasure of working with ENGIE M2M for the past six years in Belgium....

25 June 2021 | Hot Topics

Robotics4EU wants input to guide Europe’s robot future

A three-year EU project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme called Robotics4EU wants input from the community to guide Europe’s robot future.

Robotics4EU aims to boost the adoption of robotics in Europe across a continent that is becoming increasingly sceptical of autonomous systems.

The initiative has released two surveys aimed at different stakeholders:

Robotics development community: https://www.research.net/r/3VQ6VXLPolicy and decision-makers:...

22 March 2021 | Enterprise

BICS partners with French telco SFR to expand NB-IoT network

Telecoms solutions provider BICS has expanded its NB-IoT network to France in partnership with local carrier SFR.

BICS operates one of the largest NB-IoT/LTE-M networks in the world, with coverage in 30 countries.

IoT devices embedded with an eSIM can also access 2G, 3G, and 4G connectivity through partnerships with over 700 mobile operators around the world.

Mikaël Schachne, VP of Mobility & IoT at BICS, said:

“We are leveraging our leading...

22 January 2021 | Applications

Frankfurt Airport is using IOTA to verify COVID-19 test results

Frankfurt Airport is using the IOTA DAG (Direct Acyclic Graph) to securely and privately verify the COVID-19 results of passengers.

COVID-19 is set to continue causing disruptions to our lives for the best part of this year, or potentially longer. Fortunately, technologies are emerging which are hastening the return to some form of normality.

Spending long periods under “stay-at-home” restrictions has many people craving for some extended time outside their four...

11 January 2021 | Healthcare

The EU is set to approve Google’s acquisition of Fitbit this week

While most eyes are on the close-to-collapse Brexit negotiations, another notable European decision is finally expected this week.

Google’s proposed $2.1 billion takeover of Fitbit naturally caught the attention of the European Union—which continues to tighten its screws on “big tech” over privacy concerns.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the EU will grant conditional approval for Google’s historic takeover this week.

We don’t know what...

7 December 2020 | Consumer IoT & Wearables

Opinion: 5G is not the cure for the economic downturn

The Spanish government has announced that its recovery plan will prioritise the digitalisation of cities, companies and the rural environment as it looks to reform the country's economy in the wake of the pandemic. In this spirit, European recovery funds will be aimed at meeting the challenges of improving digitalisation, which are not exclusive to Spain but to all members of the European Union. Across the continent, there is a common agenda: fight against depopulation, transition to a...

13 November 2020 | IoT