Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 20 July 2018
EU ruling against Google opens 'opportunity,' rival says

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and Dollar fine on one of our
RAF CASERT great companies, Google.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European They truly have taken ad-
regulators' latest swipe at vantage of the U.S., but not
the dominance of U.S. tech for long!"
giant Google could open Still, some U.S. politicians
new opportunities for rivals welcomed the fine.
in search and web brows- Democratic Sen. Richard
ers — that is, if cellphone Blumenthal of Connecti-
manufacturers decide cut tweeted that the fine
to make the most of the should "be a wake-up call"
opening. to the Federal Trade Com-
The European Commis- mission and should lead
sion on Wednesday fined U.S. enforcers to protect
Google a record $5 billion consumers. Blumenthal
for forcing cellphone mak- previously called on regu-
ers that use the company's lators to investigate how
Android operating system Google tracks users of An-
to install Google's search droid phones.
and browser apps. It also In its ruling, the EU said
set a 90-day deadline for Google broke the rules by
Google to rectify the prob- requiring cellphone makers
lem or risk further fines. EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a press conference on a Competition Case involving to take a bundle of Google
A remedy could involve Google Android at the European Commission building, in Brussels on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. apps if they wanted any at
unbundling its core apps Associated Press all.
Search, Chrome and Play The EU took issue with
Store from eight other apps contracts prevented it. blocking browser Firefox bundling. Google's payments to wire-
it packages with Android. "Manufacturers could not Focus, said the ruling gives The fine, which caps a less carriers and phone
The company could also launch Fire OS on even a it the opportunity to dis- three-year investigation, is makers to exclusively pre-
decide to reverse its prac- single device," she said. place Chrome as the de- the biggest ever imposed install the Google Search
tice of barring Android Google immediately said it fault browser or be pre-in- on a company by the EU app.
manufacturers from selling will appeal the ruling, argu- stalled alongside it on some for anticompetitive behav- It also said Google broke
devices using altered ver- ing that its free operating phones. It has been in talks ior. the law by forcing manu-
sions of Android, such as system has led to lower- with manufacturers from It could stoke tensions be- facturers that took its apps
Amazon's Fire OS. price phones and created Huawei to Samsung about tween Europe and the U.S., to commit to not selling de-
EU Competition Commis- competition with its chief those possibilities. which regulates the tech vices that use altered ver-
sioner Margrethe Vestag- rival, Apple. It's also possible not much industry with a lighter hand. sions of Android.
er said concerns about Android has "created more will change. Google President Donald Trump The 4.34 billion euro penalty
restricting competition choice for everyone, not Search, Chrome and the tweeted Thursday that the comes on top of a 2.42 bil-
"wasn't just a remote pos- less," Google CEO Sundar Play Store are popular with fine proves his point that lion euro fine ($2.8 billion)
sibility from theory books." Pichai tweeted . consumers and develop- the EU is taking advantage that regulators imposed on
She said Amazon tried to Mozilla Foundation, the ers. Cellphone manufac- of the U.S. He wrote, "I told Google a year ago for fa-
license its Android-based nonprofit group that cre- turers could still choose to you so! The European Union voring its shopping listings in
Fire OS in 2012, but Google's ates the lightweight ad- include them despite un- just slapped a Five Billion search results.q

High-altitude balloons to deliver internet access in Kenya

Google through parent Since Google first launched business and mission," Loon
company Alphabet Inc., the project in 2013, its goal CEO Alastair Westgarth,
says it will work with Telkom has been to connect ev- said in a Medium post .
Kenya to deliver 4G/LTE eryone on the planet. While Westgarth says Alphabet
cellular access to Kenya in getting more people con- marks a significant mile-
2019. nected fits with Google's stone in a journey that be-
The balloons will be tested ambitions of making infor- gan in 2013 when a New
in central Kenya, which mation "universally acces- Zealand sheep farmer be-
has been difficult to ser- sible and useful," it also in- came one of the first to
vice due to mountainous creases the number of peo- connect with Loon test bal-
or inaccessible terrain. The ple who can use Google's loons.
high-altitude balloons have ad-supported services. Facebook has also been
already been deployed in The announcement comes trying to deliver the in-
emergencies in Peru and just a week after Loon ternet via solar-powered
Puerto Rico, where they graduated from Alpha- drones. Last year, it com-
helped regions devastated bet's secretive "moonshot pleted a test flight above
In this photo provided by Loon LLC, a balloon launches from
Loon's launch site Winnemucca, Nev. by floods and hurricanes. factory" known as X. That Arizona, after an earlier
Associated Press Billions of people on Earth means it's considered a full- flight resulted in a crash.
still aren't connected to the fledged company beside But just last month, Face-
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. deal for delivering internet internet. sibling companies includ- book announced it would
(AP) — A Google-affiliated access to hard-to-reach ar- They tend to live in the ing Google and self-driving stop making its own aircraft
company has chosen Ke- eas using high-altitude bal- poorest places with the car developer Waymo. and would support other
nya as the home of its first loons. least infrastructure to sup- "We're excited to take a high-altitude connectivity
announced commercial Loon, which is linked to port it. big step forward for our initiatives.q