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February 2021 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Analysts surveyed by Vedomosti believe that the Kremlin could attempt to control foreign IT companies, messengers and social networks tighter through their mandatory domestic branches. Currently Facebook and Twitter have no legal branches set up in Russia.
Notably, the daily also reminds that the High Court and the General Prosecutor office by June 1 need to revise making "publicly inciting extremist activities" an administrative offence.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, thousands of protesters took to the streets in central Moscow following a court’s decision to sentence anti- corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny to 2.8 years in jail on February 2.
Nationwide protests erupted on January 23 shortly after Navalny returned to Russia and was promptly arrested at the border. While the demonstrators have demanded Navalny's release, they are as much anti- government protests against the Kremlin’s arbitrary use of the law to suppress political opposition.
Bulgaria to auction frequencies for 5G, setting call price at €2mn
Bulgaria’s Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) said that on March 15 it will hold an auction for three licences for frequencies that will allow the development of 5G wireless networks, setting the starting price at BGN4mn (€2mn).
Development of 5G networks was accepted with controversy in the Balkan state where the local parliaments of three small towns banned it on their territory in a symbolic act that has no legal consequences as the frequencies are distributed at national level.
CRC will grant 20-year licences in the 3.6 GHz spectrum. “The auctions will be for licences with a national coverage for the use of bands in 3,500- 3,600 MHz, 3,600-3,700 MHz and 3,700-3,800 MHz,” it said in a statement.
All three mobile phone operators in the country have expressed interest in acquiring licences for 5G. Vivacom and A1 have shown interest in acquiring the three licences, each for 100 MHz, while Telenor Bulgaria wanted one licence.
Poland plans state telecom to offer 5G services to government and military
Poland is mulling the creation of a state-owned telecom that would offer mobile communications in the 5G standard to the government, parliament, as well as the military and the police, local media reported on January 29.
The plan is part of the new law on cybersecurity currently going through the administration, news website Newseria reported.
The state telecom will be granted 5G frequencies by Poland’s telecommunications market watchdog UKE and use infrastructure of commercial operators. While the state telecom will pay operators for access to infrastructure, it will
not offer any competing services, focusing on “defence, security, and public order”, according to Newseria.
Poland has been building 5G communications network with commercial operators already offering the standard in bigger cities.
In September, Poland proposed that providers
of hardware and software need to be vetted for potential influence from non-EU or non-Nato countries. The vetting would include aspects like human rights or the use of personal data and
is seen as targeting China’s Huawei, one of the leaders in 5G deployment.
Romanian digital infrastructure integrator Datacor expands in Germany
Romanian company Datacor, an integrator of smart infrastructure solutions controlled by