1.
Privately held company
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More ambiguous terms for a privately held company are unquoted company and unlisted company. Though less visible than their publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the worlds economy. In 2008, the 441 largest private companies in the United States accounted for US$1,800,000,000,000 in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to Forbes. In 2004, the Forbes count of privately held U. S. businesses with at least $1 billion in revenue was 305, cargill, Koch Industries, Bechtel, Publix, Pilot Corp. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Hearst Corporation, Cox Enterprises, S. C, johnson, McWane, Carlson Companies, and Mars are among the largest privately held companies in the United States. In the broadest sense, the private corporation refers to any business not owned by the state. This usage is found in former communist countries to differentiate from former state-owned enterprises. In the United States, the privately held company is more often used to describe for-profit enterprises whose shares are not traded on the stock market. In countries with public trading markets, a privately held business is taken to mean one whose ownership shares or interests are not publicly traded. Often, privately held companies are owned by the company founders and/or their families, sometimes employees also hold shares of private companies. Most small businesses are privately held, Private companies may be called corporations, limited companies, limited liability companies, unlimited companies, or other names, depending on where and how they are organized and structured. In the United States, but not generally in the United Kingdom, privately held companies generally have fewer or less comprehensive reporting requirements and obligations for transparency, via annual reports, etc. than publicly traded companies do. For example, in the United States, unlike in Europe, in addition, private company executives may steer their ships without shareholder approval, allowing them to take significant action without delays. There is a requirement for large proprietary companies, which are required to lodge Form 388H to the ASIC containing their financial report. In the United States, private companies are held to different accounting auditing standards than are public companies, other companies, like Sageworks, provide aggregated data on privately held companies, segmented by industry code. Privately held companies also sometimes have restrictions on how many shareholders they may have, for example, the U. S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, section 12, limits a privately held company, generally, to fewer than 2000 shareholders, and the U. S. Investment Company Act of 1940, requires registration of investment companies that have more than 100 holders, in Australia, section 113 of the Corporations Act 2001 limits a privately held company to fifty non-employee shareholders. Private enterprises comprise the sector of an economy
2.
Telecommunication
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Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
3.
Internet access
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Internet access is the process that enables individuals and organisations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, mobile devices, sometimes via computer networks. Once connected to the Internet, users can access Internet services, such as email, Internet service providers offer Internet access through various technologies that offer a wide range of data signaling rates. Consumer use of the Internet first became popular through dial-up Internet access in the 1990s, by the first decade of the 21st century, many consumers in developed nations used faster, broadband Internet access technologies. By 2014 this was almost ubiquitous worldwide, with an average connection speed exceeding 4 Mbit/s. Use by a wider audience came in 1995 when restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic were lifted. LANs typically operated at 10 Mbit/s, while modem data-rates grew from 1200 bit/s in the early 1980s, initially, dial-up connections were made from terminals or computers running terminal emulation software to terminal servers on LANs. These dial-up connections did not support use of the Internet protocols. Broadband connections are made using a computers built in Ethernet networking capabilities. Most broadband services provide a continuous always on connection, there is no dial-in process required, made broadband Internet access a public policy issue. In 2000, most Internet access to homes was provided using dial-up, while many businesses, in 2000 there were just under 150 million dial-up subscriptions in the 34 OECD countries and fewer than 20 million broadband subscriptions. By 2004, broadband had grown and dial-up had declined so that the number of subscriptions were roughly equal at 130 million each, the broadband technologies in widest use are ADSL and cable Internet access. Newer technologies include VDSL and optical fibre extended closer to the subscriber in telephone and cable plants. In areas not served by ADSL or cable, some community organizations, Wireless and satellite Internet are often used in rural, undeveloped, or other hard to serve areas where wired Internet is not readily available. Newer technologies being deployed for fixed and mobile broadband access include WiMAX, LTE, starting in roughly 2006, mobile broadband access is increasingly available at the consumer level using 3G and 4G technologies such as HSPA, EV-DO, HSPA+, and LTE. Some libraries provide stations for physically connecting users laptops to local area networks, Wireless Internet access points are available in public places such as airport halls, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Some access points may also provide coin-operated computers, various terms are used, such as public Internet kiosk, public access terminal, and Web payphone. Many hotels also have public terminals, usually fee based and these services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A Wi-Fi hotspot need not be limited to a location since multiple ones combined can cover a whole campus or park
4.
Slough
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Slough is a large town in Berkshire, England,21 miles west of London,3 miles north of Windsor,6 miles east of Maidenhead,12 miles south-east of High Wycombe and 20 miles north-east of Reading. The A4 and the Great Western Main Line pass through the town, in 2011, Sloughs population was the most ethnically diverse in the United Kingdom outside London. With the highest proportion of adherents in England. Slough is home to the Slough Trading Estate, the largest industrial estate in single ownership in Europe. Blackberry, McAfee, Burger King and LEGO have head offices in the town, the Slough Trading Estate provides over 17,000 jobs in 400 businesses. The town is approximately 9.1 miles to the west of Heathrow Airport, the name, which means soil, was first recorded in 1195 as Slo. It first seems to have applied to a hamlet between Upton to the east and Chalvey to the west, roughly around the Crown Crossroads where the road to Windsor met the Great West Road. The Domesday Survey of 1086 refers to Upton, and a wood for 200 pigs, during the 13th century, King Henry III had a palace at Cippenham. Parts of Upton Court were built in 1325, while St Mary the Virgin Church in Langley was probably built in the late 11th or early 12th century, though it has been rebuilt and enlarged several times. From the mid-17th century, stagecoaches began to pass through Slough and Salt Hill, by 1838 and the opening of the Great Western Railway, Upton-cum-Chalveys parish population had reached 1,502. In 1849, a line was completed from Slough railway station to Windsor and Eton Central railway station, opposite Windsor Castle. In April 1920, the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd, repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925, when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company to establish an industrial estate. Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK, during the Second World War, Slough experienced a series of air raids, mostly in October 1940, and an emergency hospital treating casualties from London was set up in Slough. Local air raid deaths and deaths at the account for the 23 civilian lives recorded lost in the borough area. After the war, several large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London. In the 21st century, Slough has seen major redevelopment of the town centre, old buildings are being replaced with new offices and shopping complexes. Tesco has replaced an existing superstore with a larger Tesco Extra, the Heart of Slough Project is a plan for the large-scale redevelopment of the town centre as a focus and cultural quarter for the creative media, information and communications industries. It will create a complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks
5.
Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
8.
Chairman
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The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officers duties include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world. In some organizations, this position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker. The term chair is used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U. S, president George H. W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as chairman, the Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times, the National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using chairperson. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman, the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, rather than chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the forms are gaining ground. It advocates using chair to refer both to men and to women, the word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be in the chair and is referred to as the chair. Major dictionaries state that the word derives from chair and man, some authorities, however, including Riddicks Rules of Procedure, suggest that the second part of chairman derives from the Latin manus, and thus claim gender-neutrality for the word. Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president, note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong, Chairman Mao. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting. In some organizations that have titles, deputy chairman ranks higher than vice chairman, as there are often multiple vice chairs
9.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
10.
O2 (UK)
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Telefónica UK Limited is a telecommunications services provider in the United Kingdom, owned by the Spanish multinational Telefónica. It is the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom after EE Limited, O2 was formed in 1985 as Cellnet, a 60,40 joint venture between BT Group and Securicor. In 1999, BT Group acquired Securicors 40 per cent share of Cellnet, in June 2000 BT Cellnet launched the worlds first commercial General Packet Radio Service. BT Cellnet, together with BT Groups mobile telecommunications businesses in Germany, Ireland and this was spun off from the BT Group in 2002 to form a new holding company, mmO2 plc, which introduced the new O2 brand for the businesses. MmO2 plc was subsequently renamed O2 plc, O2 plc was purchased by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica in 2006 for £18 billion. Under the terms of the acquisition, Telefónica agreed to retain the O2 brand, between 1985 and 1989, John Carrington was the CEO of British Telecoms Mobile Division and the Chairman of Cellnet. The equipment used was primarily a Motorola system initially designed for the American Advanced Mobile Phone System and had to be adapted for the British system, in the early days of the system, mobile calls cost £1 per minute. After months of rumours and speculation, Peter Bonfield publicly announced on 27 July 1999 that BT had agreed to buy Securicors 40 per cent share of Cellnet for £3.15 billion, Cellnet had five million customers at the time of its acquisition. The company was rebranded as BT Cellnet, and it became a part of BT Wireless. BT announced on 3 September 2001 that the BT Wireless business would be spun off from the group as a newly listed holding company, mmO2 plc. Shareholders approved the plan at a general meeting on 23 October 2001. BT Cellnet relaunched as O2 on 18 June 2002, along with other former BT subsidiaries, Esat Digifone in Ireland, Viag Interkom in Germany and Telfort Mobiel in the Netherlands. The rebranding was supported by a European advertising campaign, which began on 16 April 2002, across all four countries, the main launch campaign ran from 18 June and was developed by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, working alongside brand consultancy Lambie-Nairn, creators of the O2 brand identity. On 30 November 2005, O2 agreed to a takeover by Telefónica and it went through finally in 2006. According to the announcement, O2 retained its name and continued to be based in the United Kingdom. The merger became unconditional on 23 January 2006, Telefónica chose to keep its existing mobile phone operations in the rest of the world under the brand Movistar. This name is used in Spain and in most of the Latin American countries, on 15 July 2009, O2 entered the financial services industry with the launch of O2 Money, which was the first step in the process of incorporating financial services into mobile phones. Future plans included manufacturing Near Field Communication technology in mobile phones in the United Kingdom, O2 and Vodafone signed a deal in June 2012 which will see the two companies pool their network technology, creating a single national grid of 18,500 transmitter sites
11.
BT Group
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BT Group plc is a holding company which owns British Telecommunications plc, a British multinational telecommunications services company with head offices in London, United Kingdom. It has operations in around 180 countries, BTs origins date back to the founding of the Electric Telegraph Company in 1846 which developed a nationwide communications network. In 1912, the General Post Office, a government department, the Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation. British Telecommunications, trading as British Telecom, was formed in 1980, British Telecommunications was privatised in 1984, becoming British Telecommunications plc, with some 50 percent of its shares sold to investors. The Government sold its stake in further share sales in 1991 and 1993. BT has a listing on the London Stock Exchange, a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. BT controls a number of large subsidiaries, BT announced in February 2015 that it had agreed to acquire EE for £12.5 billion, and received final regulatory approval from the Competition and Markets Authority on 15 January 2016. The transaction was completed on 29 January 2016, BTs origins date back to the establishment of the first telecommunications companies in Britain. Among them was the first commercial service, the Electric Telegraph Company. As these companies amalgamated and were taken over or collapsed, the companies were transferred to state control under the Post Office in 1912. These companies were merged and rebranded as British Telecom, in January 1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his recently developed telephone to Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. John Hudson, with his premises in nearby Shudehill. As the number of installed telephones across the country grew it became sensible to consider constructing telephone exchanges to allow all the telephones in each city to be connected together, the first exchange was opened in London in August 1879, closely followed by the Lancashire Telephonic Exchange in Manchester. From 1878, the service in Britain was provided by private sector companies such as the National Telephone Company. In 1896, the National Telephone Company was taken over by the General Post Office, in 1912 it became the primary supplier of telecommunications services, after the Post Office took over the private sector telephone service in GB, except for a few local authority services. Those services all folded within a few years, the exception being Kingston upon Hull. Converting the Post Office into an industry, as opposed to a governmental department, was first discussed in 1932 by Lord Wolmer. In 1932 the Bridgeman Committee produced a report that was rejected, in 1961, more proposals were ignored
12.
Mobile telephony
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Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations. Both networks are interconnected to the switched telephone network to allow any phone in the world to be dialed. In 2010 there were estimated to be five billion mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. S, public mobile phone systems were first introduced in the years after the Second World War and made use of technology developed before and during the conflict. The first system opened in St Louis, Missouri, USA in 1946 whilst other countries followed in the succeeding decades, the UK introduced its System 1 manual radiotelephone service as the South Lancashire Radiophone Service in 1958. Calls were made via an operator using handsets identical to ordinary phone handsets, the phone itself was a large box located in the boot of the vehicle containing valves and other early electronic components. Although an uprated manual service was extended to cover most of the UK and these cellular systems were based on US Advanced Mobile Phone Service technology, the modified technology being named Total Access Communication System. In 1947 Bell Labs was the first to propose a cellular telephone network. In 1956 the MTA system was launched in Sweden, both problems were solved by Bell Labs employee Amos Joel who, in 1970 applied for a patent for a mobile communications system. However, a consulting firm calculated the entire U. S. As a consequence, Bell Labs concluded that the invention was of little or no consequence, the invention earned Joel induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008. The first call on a mobile phone was made on April 3,1973 by Martin Cooper. Bell Labs went on to install the first trial cellular network in Chicago in 1978. This trial system was licensed by the FCC to ATT for commercial use in 1982 and, as part of the arrangements for the breakup of ATT. The first commercial system opened in Chicago in October 1983, a system designed by Motorola also operated in the Washington D. C. /Baltimore area from summer 1982 and became a full public service later the following year. Japans first commercial service was launched by NTT in 1978. The first fully automatic first generation system was the Nordic Mobile Telephone system, simultaneously launched in 1981 in Denmark, Finland, Norway. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming, the Swedish electrical engineer Östen Mäkitalo started to work on this vision in 1966, and is considered as the father of the NMT system and some consider him also the father of the cellular phone
13.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
15.
Tesco Mobile
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Tesco Mobile Limited is a mobile virtual network operator in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. It is operated by Tesco, using the O2 network as its carrier except in Hungary, where the operator is Vodafone and Ireland. Network services supported in the UK, Voicemail, Call Waiting, Network services not supported in the UK, Visual voicemail, Conference calling and Call Forwarding. On 30 January 2014, Tesco Mobile started offering 4G service for its Pay Monthly and Sim Only customers at no extra cost, Tesco Mobile Customer Care services are contracted out to O2 Communications Ltd in Bury, Greater Manchester. Device Technical support services are contracted out to LucidCX based in Bristol, device repair services are contracted to A Novo UK Ltd. Tesco Mobile was established in May 2003, it is run on the O2 network in the UK, on 19 December 2006, Tesco Ireland announced that it would enter into a joint venture with O2 Ireland to offer mobile telecommunications services. The service, which is Irelands second MVNO, uses the O2 network and it has been allocated the area code 089. As with Tescos UK mobile service, it has been branded Tesco Mobile, the network commenced operation in 2007. Tesco Mobile has 200,000 customers in Ireland, as a result, Tesco Mobile Ireland were moved from being a MVNO on the O2 Network to being a MVNO on the Three Network. Tesco Mobile Hungary will be a 50,50 joint venture providing Tesco Mobile branded services in Hungary through Tesco stores and on-line, using Vodafone’s technology, the service, which is Slovakias second MVNO, uses the O2 network but operates separately. In May 2013, Tesco Stores ČR a. s. announced that it would enter into a joint venture with Telefónica Czech Republic to offer mobile telecommunications services, the service, uses the O2 network but operates separately
16.
Tchibo
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Tchibo is a German chain of coffee retailers and cafés known for its weekly-changing range of other products. The latter includes, clothing, household items, electronics and electrical appliances, in Germany, Tchibos slogan is Every week a new world. Tchibo has expanded its range and is now selling services such as travel, insurance. With over 1000 shops, Tchibo is one of Germanys largest retail chains, the company is headquartered in Hamburg. The name Tchibo is an abbreviation for Tchilling and Bohnen, during its formative years, Tchibo concentrated on a mail-order service of freshly roasted coffee beans, processed in the companys own roasting facility in the Hamburg district of Hoheluft. In 1977, Tchibo purchased shares of Beiersdorf and in 1980 became the majority shareholder of the Hamburg cigarette producer Reemtsma, the shares were sold in 2002 to Imperial Tobacco for €5.2 billion. After buying its rival Eduscho in 1997, Tchibo became market leader in Germany with 20%. In the 1990s, Tchibo began to expand to countries outside Germany and now has shops in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, entry into the US market was planned in the early 2000s, but later cancelled. Tchibo sold the cigarette brand Davidoff to the UK-based company Imperial Tobacco for €540 mil. in 2006, Tchibo has started distribution of its brand Davidoff café to the US. The company presented a programme to its employees at a staff meeting on 7 December 2007. In the UK, following a period, Tchibo GB decided to close half of its retail stores and re-structure the head office. The UK board was reduced from 11 directors to 4, in November 2008, a Tchibo spokesman announced that the concessions in Somerfield and Sainsburys supermarkets would close in 2009, blaming difficult macroeconomic conditions in Britain. Tchibos lack of success in the British market was summarised by Retail Week as due to it being a glorified pound shop, in early 2009, the company confirmed it would leave the UK market, by selling its leases. All of the Tchibo GB stores were closed by the end of October 2009, the UK online webstore followed on 1 September 2010. Tchibo is owned by Maxingvest AG, which changed its name from Tchibo Holding AG in 2007 and it is 100% owned by three members of the Herz family, Ingeburg Herz, and two of her sons, Michael Herz and Wolfgang Herz. In 2003, they bought out their brother, Gunter, and sister and their brother Joachim died in a motorboat accident in 2008. Maxingvest AG is the largest shareholder of the listed company Beiersdorf, list of coffeehouse chains Coffee portal Official website
17.
G4S
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G4S plc is a British multinational security services company headquartered in Crawley, England. The company was set up in 2004 when London-based company Securicor amalgamated with Danish business Group 4 Falck, the company offers a range of services, including the supply of security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units and secure prisoner transportation. G4S also works with governments overseas to deliver security and it is the worlds largest security company measured by revenues and has operations in around 125 countries. With 618,000 employees, it is worlds third-largest private employer, the largest European and African private employer, G4S was founded in 2004 by the merger of the UK-based Securicor plc with the Denmark-based Group 4 Falck. G4S has a listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index. G4S has its origins in a business founded in Copenhagen in 1901 by Marius Hogrefe, originally known as København Frederiksberg Nattevagt. In 2000, Group 4, a security firm formed in the 1960s, merged with Falck to form Group 4 Falck, in 2002 Group 4 Falck went on to buy The Wackenhut Corporation in the United States. G4S was formed in July 2004, when Group 4 Falcks security business merged with Securicor to create Group 4 Securicor and began trading on both the London and Copenhagen Stock Exchanges. In 2005, Lars Nørby Johansen was succeeded as chief executive by Nick Buckles and, in 2006, in the same year, Alf Duch-Pedersen succeeded Jorgen Philip-Sorensen to become the non-executive chairman of the business. In 2006,2007 and 2008, G4S was the subject of a campaign by union workers alleging that its subsidiaries undermine labour. Some of these groups were organised under the banner of the SEIU-funded Focus on Group 4 Securicor and this group supported protests at Group 4 Securicors annual general meeting in London in 2005. The 2006, US State Department Report on Human Rights in Indonesia, released in March 2006, in July 2006, the Indonesian Securicor workers had a substantial win – but the campaigners continue to support other Group 4 Securicor workers. The company disputed these claims and pointed to its relationships with unions around the world. In March 2008, it was announced that G4S were taking over Scottish Rock Steady Group – who steward at major sporting, Rock Steady events have included Live8 concerts in London, Scottish FA Cup Final & the Download Festival. In April 2008, G4S acquired RONCO Consulting Corporation, one of the worlds premier humanitarian and commercial mine action, ordnance disposal, in May 2008, G4S acquired ArmorGroup International. GSL, a provider of outsourced services, was also acquired by G4S in May 2008. Also, in the month, G4S acquired Serbian company Progard Securitas. In 2008, G4S also acquired Touchcom, Inc. for US$23 million, Touchcom, Inc. is located in the Burlington/Bedford, Massachusetts, area
18.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
19.
O2 (Ireland)
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Telefónica Ireland was a broadband and telecommunications provider in Ireland that traded under the O2 brand. O2 Ireland was previously called Esat Digifone when it was owned by Esat Telecommunications from 1997 to 2006, O2 Ireland became a subsidiary of Telefónica in 2006, after its parent company O2 in the United Kingdom was purchased. In June 2013, Hutchison Whampoa announced it would acquire the Irish arm of O2 for €780m, O2 was merged into Hutchison Whampoas subsidiary Three Ireland in March 2015. The licence was awarded to Esat Digifone, a joint venture between Denis OBriens company Esat Telecommunications and Norways Telenor, which operations in 1997. The Moriarty Tribunal found in 2008 that the awarding of the licence was influenced by payments made to Lowry by OBrien, in 1999, Esat Telecom and Telenor began to dispute how Esat Digifone should be operated. Telenor removed the word Esat from the name, and began the attempted removal of Denis OBrien as chairman of Digifone. Esat Telecom retaliated by threatening to take action against Telenor. In November 1999, Telenor placed a bid for the share capital of Esat Telecom as a way of resolving the conflict. The bid was rejected by the majority shareholders of Esat Telecommunications who voted against the takeover, in January 2000, British Telecommunications counteracted Esat Telecom failed bid by placing its own bid to buy Telenors shares in Digifone. In January 2000, British Telecommunications made an offer for Telenor which was backed by Esat Telecommunications shareholders. Esat Telecommunications became a wholly owned subsidiary of British Telecommunications and was delisted from the stock market, when BT acquired Esat, they began integrating the business along with its Northern Ireland subsidiary, BT. However Esat Digifone was not part of the operations integrated with BTs existing Irish operations, instead, it became part of the BT Wireless division within BT, and was briefly rebranded simply Digifone. This branding lasted for less than six months, in 2001, the BT Wireless division became mmO2 plc, a separate company, through a demerger from BT. British Telecommunications shareholders received 1 BT Group and 1 mm02 share for each British Telecommunications share they held, after the de-merger, most of mmO2s operations, including Digifone, were rebranded O2. MmO2 plc later became O2 plc and remained an independent company until 2005, on 31 October 2005 it was announced that Telefónica, S. A. the Spanish telecommunications company, had made a recommended takeover bid for O2 Irelands parent company, O2 plc. This has been approved by shareholders and O2 was officially purchased in mid February 2006, the O2 brand is now used in several countries for Telefónicas mobile operations outside Spain and Latin America, where Telefónica fixed line and mobile services are branded as movistar. In January 2009, it was revealed that Ireland is nearly the most profitable market in the world for mobile operators like O2. On 23 March 2009 Vodafone and O2s parent company Telefónica announced a deal to share their existing networks in Ireland, on 6 April 2011 it was announced that Telefónica O2 Ireland and Eircom had agreed a new network sharing partnership
20.
BT Ireland
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BT Communications Limited is a telecommunications and internet company in Ireland. It is a subsidiary of BT Group plc, the company was founded in 1990 by a constortium headed by business magnate Denis OBrien and was originally known as Esat Telecom. Esat Telecom applied a number of times for a licence to the Department of Communications and was finally granted a limited one in March 1993. The company officially launched its services on 20 April 1994 and it was the first domestic competitor to Bord Telecom Éireann and, after initially reselling leased lines from that company, used autodiallers to route calls onto its network. These devices proved controversial, with Telecom threatening legal action and the Department contending that these were a breach of Esats limited licence, in 1996, Esat Telecom, in conjunction with Telenor AB, bid successfully for the second GSM mobile telecommunications licence, against five other consortia. This became known as Esat Digifone, the Moriarty Tribunal found in 2008 that the awarding of the licence was influenced by payments made by OBrien to Michael Lowry, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications. On 7 November 1997, Esat Telecom Group plc held a public offering and was listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange. 1,300 customers signed up before it had even launched, in 1999, Esat entered the Internet Service Provider market, initially through the purchase of EUnet Ireland, which became Esat Net. However, it was the acquisition of Ireland On-Line from An Post that year which made Esat the biggest ISP in the country for a time, also in 1999, Esat bid for Cablelink Limited, the cable and television company owned jointly by Telecom Éireann and RTÉ. In 1999, Esat Telecom was the first wholly owned Irish company to lay two optical submarine cables between Ireland and the UK, no other company had achieved such a milestone and since then, only operators from outside the state have managed to install their own optical submarine cables. In 1999, relations became tense between Esat and Telenor over how Esat Digifone, their joint venture, should be operated. Telenor tried to remove Denis OBrien as chairman of Esat Digifone, Esat for its part retaliated by threatening to sue Telenor, and making repeated offers to buy the Norwegian company out. Eventually, in November 1999, Telenor bid for the share capital of Esat Telecom Group plc as a way of solving the situation. The bid was rejected by the Esat board and so became a takeover attempt. In order to defend this, in January 2000, British Telecommunications plc made a takeover offer for the company which was backed by the Esat board. Esat became a wholly owned subsidiary of BT and was delisted from the stock market, when BT acquired Esat, they began integrating the business along with its Northern Ireland subsidiary, BT. The combined unit was registered as BT Communications Limited. The network build phase started in August 1997 and it also leases capacity from its fixed line incumbent, following the companys acquisition by BT, Esat Telecom was rebranded as Esat BT in 2002, and replaced its own logo with the BT piper
21.
Telenor
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Telenor Group is a Norwegian mostly government-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the worlds largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and it has extensive broadband and TV distribution operations in four Nordic Countries, and a 10-year-old research and business line for Machine-to-Machine technology. Telenor owns networks in 13 countries, and has operations in 29 countries if their 33% ownership in VimpelCom Ltd is included, Telenor started off in 1855 as a state-operated monopoly provider of telegraph services named Telegrafverket. Televerket began by connecting Christiania to Sweden as well as Christiania, by 1857 the telegraph had reached Bergen on the west coast via Sørlandet on the south coast, and by 1871 it had reached Kirkenes on the far north coast. Cable connections were opened to Denmark in 1867 and to Great Britain in 1869, the telegraph was most important for the merchant marine who now could use the electric telegraph to instantly communicate between different locations, and get a whole new advantage within logistics. The first telephone service in Norway was offered in 1878 between Arendal and Tvedestrand, while the first international service between Christiania and Stockholm was offered in 1893. Automation of the system was started in 1920 and completed in 1985. In 1946 the first Telex service was offered, and in 1976 satellite telephone connections to oil platforms in the North Sea were installed, in 1980 the first steps to digitalise the telephone network were taken. Televerket opened its first manual telephone system in 1966, being replaced with the automatic NMT system in 1981. Norway was the first country in Europe to get a mobile telephone system. The digital GSM system came into use in 1993, the third generation of mobile technology with UMTS system began full operation 2004. The Opera web browser was created in 1994 by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, Opera Software was established in 1995 after the pair went on to continue development of their browser. Telenor and Huawei Conducted a Successful Test of 5G with 70 Gbps Speeds in Lab environment. The corporation changed its name to Televerket in 1969, in 1994, the then Norwegian Telecom was established as a public corporation. The authorities wanted to deregulate the telecom sector in Norway, an attempt to merge Telenor with its counterpart in Sweden, Telia, failed in 1999, while both still were owned by their respective governments. On December 4,2000 the company was privatised and listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The privatisation gave the company NOK15,6 billion in new capital, as of 2014, the Norwegian government holds 53. 97% of the Telenor shares directly and another 4. 66% through the Pension Fund. Operations in Greece, Ireland and Germany were sold in 1999/2000, in October 2005 Telenor acquired Vodafone Sweden, changing the name to Telenor in April 2006. On 31 July 2006, Telenor acquired 100 per cent share of mobile operator Mobi 63, Telenor offers a full range of telecommunication services in Norway, including mobile and fixed telephony as well as Internet access and content
22.
Telfort
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Telfort B. V. is a Dutch mobile telecommunication company, and a subsidiary of KPN. It operates GSM mobile telecommunications service in the Netherlands and it markets itself as being the cheapest option available, and goes to some lengths to give the appearance of being a no frills operator. The company was formed in 1997 as a joint venture between British Telecommunications and Nederlandse Spoorwegen, in 2000, BT acquired the company. The group became part of the BT Wireless business and after its spin-off as mmO2, however, in 2003, O2 sold the company to Greenfield Capital Partners. It then reverted to the Telfort name, in July 2005 Telfort was sold to telephone company KPN. In October 2007, KPN, which had bought the Dutch operations of Tiscali some months earlier and it has, since then, expanded its operations to include fixed phone lines and digital television subscriptions
23.
KPN
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KPN is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company. KPN started as a public company and is based in The Hague. KPN took on its present form on 1 January 1989 when the PTT was privatised, before the spin-off of TPG, the company also controlled the national Dutch postal services. The Dutch government progressively privatized KPN beginning in 1994, reducing its stake to 6. 4% in 2005, in 2001 KPN tried to merge with the Belgian telco Belgacom. It did not succeed because of the objections of the Belgian government, in 2001, Spanish Telefonica expressed an interest in buying KPN. The Japanese mobile telephone company NTT DoCoMo holds a 2% stake in KPN Mobile NV, from 2002 until 2007 KPN Mobile provided i-mode services on its mobile phone networks. I-mode as introduced by KPNs E-Plus in Germany in March 2002, KPN partly owned KPNQwest, a telecommunications company equally owned by KPN and the American Qwest Communications International. The company was set to bring together the state-of-the-art fibre-optic networks of the two partners and the Internet services expertise and customer base of EUnet International, the company collapsed in a bankruptcy in 2002. KPN also has operational synergies through joint ventures with TDC and Swisscom, in 2007 KPN acquired Getronics N. V. a worldwide ICT services company with more than 22,000 employees, and almost doubled its former size. KPN is still divesting parts of Getronics that didnt meet their core interests, recently they sold a Dutch department of Getronics named Business Application Services to CapGemini for about €250,000,000. In August 2013, América Móvil offered to take over the remaining 70% stake of the Dutch telecommunications company for 7.2 billion Euros, América Móvil currently owns close to 30% of KPN. The Dutch Government has issued a warning on this proposed takeover of KPN by Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim, as part of his ambition to expand his telecom empire. Current main share holders are, Stichting Preferente Aandelen B KPN50. 07% America Movil 14. 86% Norges Bank 3. 09% BlackRock 2. 69% Ontario Teachers Pension Plan 2. 19% JP Morgan Chase & Co 1. The foundation exercised an option to gain roughly 50% of the KPN shares in order to protect KPN against a hostile takeover. This stock has been withdrawn on a special meeting held on the 10th of January 2014. In the Netherlands, KPN has 6.3 million fixed-line telephone customers and its mobile division, KPN Mobile, has more than 33 million subscribers in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain under different brand names. KPN operates a mobile network for 2G and 3G technologies. 4G has recently rolled out and, as of March 2014
24.
Manx Telecom
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Manx Telecom Ltd. is the primary provider of broadband and telecommunications on the Isle of Man. It is a company that trades on the AIM market. In 1985, the Manx Government announced that it would award a 20-year licence to operate the system in a tender process. As part of process, in 1986 British Telecom created a Manx-registered subsidiary company, Manx Telecom. It was believed that an identity and management would be more politically acceptable in the tendering process as they competed with Cable & Wireless to win the licence. Manx Telecom won the tender, and commenced operations under the new identity from 1 January 1987, on 17 November 2001, Manx Telecom became part of mmO2 following the demerger of BT Wirelesss operations from BT Group. It was acquired by Telefónica in 2006, on 4 June 2010 Manx Telecom was sold to UK private equity investor HgCapital, alongside telecoms management company CPS Partners. HG Capital indicated that the value of the deal was £158.8 million. In 2014 it floated on the AIM market, Manx Telecom operates fixed line and mobile networks, and data centres on the Isle of Man. The Global Solutions division operates outside of the Isle of Man through mobile network operator. The cell-phone network operated by Manx Telecom had been used by O2 as an environment for developing and testing new products, in December 2001, the company became the first telecommunications operator in Europe to launch a live 3G network. In November 2005, the became the first in Europe to offer its customers an HSDPA service. BlueWave Communications Sure Wi-Manx Domicilium Communications Commission Communications on the Isle of Man Official website Telefonica Sells Manx Telecom to Private Equity Groups
25.
Enterprise value
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Enterprise value, total enterprise value, or firm value is an economic measure reflecting the market value of a business. It is a sum of claims by all claimants, creditors and shareholders, enterprise value is one of the fundamental metrics used in business valuation, financial modeling, accounting, portfolio analysis, and risk analysis. Enterprise value is more comprehensive than market capitalization, which only reflects common equity, a simplified way to understand the EV concept is to envision purchasing an entire business. If you settle with all the security holders, you pay EV, counter-intuitively, increases or decreases in enterprise value do not necessarily correspond to value creation or value destruction. Any acquisition of assets will increase EV, whether or not those assets are productive, similarly, reductions in capital intensity will reduce EV. EV can be if the company, for example, holds abnormally high amounts of cash that is not reflected in the market value of the stock. All the components relevant in liquidation analysis, since using absolute priority in a bankruptcy all securities senior to the equity have par claims. Generally, also, debt is less liquid than equity so that the price may be significantly different from the price at which an entire debt issue could be purchased. In valuing equities, this approach is more conservative, cash is subtracted because it reduces the net cost to a potential purchaser. The effect applies whether the cash is used to issue dividends or to pay down debt, value of minority interest is added because it reflects the claim on assets consolidated into the firm in question. Value of associate companies is subtracted because it reflects the claim on assets consolidated into other firms, because EV is a capital structure-neutral metric, it is useful when comparing companies with diverse capital structures. Price/earnings ratios, for example, will be more volatile in companies that are highly leveraged. Stock market investors use EV/EBITDA to compare returns between equivalent companies on a risk-adjusted basis and they can then superimpose their own choice of debt levels. In practice, equity investors may have difficulty accurately assessing EV if they do not have access to the quotations of the company debt. Remember, the point of EV is to neutralize the different risks, buyers of controlling interests in a business use EV to compare returns between businesses, as above. They also use the EV valuation to determine how much to pay for the whole entity and they may want to change the capital structure once in control. Most corporate debt is in the form of financing, finance leases. Associates and minority interests are stated at historical book values in the accounts, Unfunded pension liabilities rely on a variety of actuarial assumptions and represent an estimate of the outstanding liability, not a true “market” value
26.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
27.
Movistar
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Movistar is a major telecommunications brand owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and in many Hispanic American countries. It is the largest mobile operator in Spain with 22 million customers and 41. 58% of market share. Its principal competitor in Latin America is América Móvil, the Movistar brand has been in use in Spain since the launch of GSM services in 1995. The name became effective worldwide on April 5,2005 after Telefónica purchased the BellSouth mobile operations branch in South America. Since 2011, Telefónica have sponsored a UCI ProTeam squad in cycling under the name of Movistar Team, and since 2014, the MotoGP team Movistar Yamaha MotoGP.1. Movistar has also used the New Radicals hit You Get What You Give, Two Princes by Spin Doctors and currently Hey, Soul Sister by Train, Movistar Team Moviline, Telefónicas old analog network. Movistar Global Website Movistar España Movistar México
28.
Latin America
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Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas where Romance languages are predominant. It is therefore broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America—though it usually excludes French Canada and it has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km2, almost 13% of the Earths land surface area. As of 2015, its population was estimated at more than 626 million and in 2014, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of 5,573,397 million USD and a GDP PPP of 7,531,585 million USD. The term Latin America was first used in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a further investigation of the concept of Latin America is by Michel Gobat in the American Historical Review. The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao and this term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish. By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero-America and this definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase Latin America, the distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and it may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America, Portuguese America and French America. *, Not a sovereign state The concept of Latin America has been criticized by a number of intellectuals, the earliest known settlement was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents, by the first millennium CE, South Americas vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibcha and the Tairona groups and these groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia, the region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Inca. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, with the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elites power with the help of local groups who had favored the Aztec elite, epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations, intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry formed majorities in several colonies
29.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations
30.
Far East
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The Far East is an alternate geographical term in English, that usually refers to East Asia, the Russian Far East, and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons, since the 1960s, East Asia has become the most common term for the region in international mass media outlets. Far East is often deprecated as archaic and Eurocentric, along with the terms Near East and Middle East. The term Far East came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 12th century, for the same reason, Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th centuries called Western countries Tàixī —i. e. anything further west than the Arab world. Prior to the era, Far East referred to anything further east than the Middle East. In the 16th century, King John III of Portugal called India a rich, the term was popularized during the period of the British Empire as a blanket term for lands to the east of British India. Many European languages have terms, such as the French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian. Significantly, the term evokes cultural as well as separation, the Far East is not just geographically distant. It never refers, for instance, to the culturally Western nations of Australia and New Zealand and this combination of cultural and geographic subjectivity was well illustrated in 1939 by Robert Menzies, a Prime Minister of Australia. Reflecting on his countrys geopolitical concerns with the onset of war, Menzies commented that, what Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the Near North. Far East in its sense is comparable to terms such as the Orient, which means East. Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and occasionally the Indian Subcontinent might be included in the Far East to some extent, for the people who live in that part of the world, however, it is neither East nor West and certainly not Far. A more generally acceptable term for the area is East Asia, furthermore, the United Kingdom and United States have historically used Far East for several military units and commands in the region, British Far East Command RAF Far East Air Force U. S. Far East Air Force The U. S. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations, Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western
31.
South Asia
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Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
32.
Australasia
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Australasia, a region of Oceania, comprises Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. Charles de Brosses coined the term in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes and he derived it from the Latin for south of Asia and differentiated the area from Polynesia and the southeast Pacific. The bulk of Australasia sits on the Indo-Australian Plate, together with India, physiographically, Australasia includes New Zealand, Australia, and Melanesia, New Guinea and neighbouring islands north and east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean. The designation is applied to all the lands and islands of the Pacific Ocean lying between the equator and latitude 47° south. Most of Australasia lies on the portion of the Indo-Australian Plate, flanked by the Indian Ocean to the west. Sometimes the term encompasses the island of New Guinea. Many organisations whose names include the prefix Australasian Society of, limit their scope of operation to just Australia and New Zealand. In the past, Australasia has been used as a name for combined Australia/New Zealand sporting teams, examples include tennis between 1905 and 1915, when New Zealand and Australia combined to compete in the Davis Cup international tournament, and at the Olympic Games of 1908 and 1912. From an ecological perspective the Australasia ecozone forms a region with a common geologic and evolutionary history. In this context, Australasia is limited to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Wallace Line marks the biological divide from the Indomalaya ecozone of tropical Asia – Borneo and Bali lie on the western, Asian side. These three land masses have been separated from other continents, and from one another, for millions of years, all of Australasia shares the Antarctic flora, although the northern, tropical islands also share many plants with Southeast Asia. Mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania are separated from one another by shallow continental shelves and they share a similar fauna which includes marsupial and monotreme mammals and ratite birds. Eucalypts are the predominant trees in much of Australia and New Guinea, New Zealand has no extant native land mammals aside from bats, but also had ratite birds, including the kiwi and the extinct moa. Media related to Australasia at Wikimedia Commons
33.
Personal digital assistant
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A personal digital assistant, also known as a handheld PC, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. PDAs were largely discontinued in the early 2010s after the adoption of highly capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS. Nearly all PDAs have the ability to connect to the Internet, a PDA has an electronic visual display, letting it include a web browser. All models also have audio capabilities, allowing usage as a media player. Most PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi or Wireless Wide Area Networks, the first PDA was released in 1984 by Psion, the Organizer, followed by Psions Series 3, in 1991. The latter began to resemble the more familiar PDA style, including a full keyboard, the term PDA was first used on January 7,1992 by Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton. In 1994, IBM introduced the first PDA with full mobile phone functionality, the IBM Simon, then in 1996, Nokia introduced a PDA with full mobile phone functionality, the 9000 Communicator, which became the worlds best-selling PDA. The Communicator spawned a new category of PDAs, the PDA phone, another early entrant in this market was Palm, with a line of PDA products which began in March 1996. A typical PDA has a touchscreen for entering data, a card slot for data storage. PDAs with wireless data connections also typically include an email client, many of the original PDAs, such as the Apple Newton and Palm Pilot, featured a touchscreen for user interaction, having only a few buttons—usually reserved for shortcuts to often-used programs. Some touchscreen PDAs, including Windows Mobile devices, had a stylus to facilitate making selections. The user interacts with the device by tapping the screen to select buttons or issue commands, typical methods of entering text on touchscreen PDAs include, A virtual keyboard, where a keyboard is shown on the touchscreen. Text is entered by tapping the on-screen keyboard with a finger or stylus, an external keyboard connected via USB, Infrared port, or Bluetooth. Some users may choose a chorded keyboard for one-handed use, handwriting recognition, where letters or words are written on the touchscreen, often with a stylus, and the PDA converts the input to text. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas, such as 1 +2 =, stroke recognition allows the user to make a predefined set of strokes on the touchscreen, sometimes in a special input area, representing the various characters to be input. The strokes are often simplified character shapes, making them easier for the device to recognize, one widely known stroke recognition system is Palms Graffiti. Despite research and development projects, end-users experience mixed results with handwriting recognition systems, some find it frustrating and inaccurate, while others are satisfied with the quality of the recognition. Touchscreen PDAs intended for use, such as the BlackBerry and Palm Treo, usually also offer full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumbwheels to facilitate data entry
34.
Smartphone
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A smartphone is a mobile phone with an advanced mobile operating system that combines features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use. Smartphones can access the Internet and can run a variety of third-party software components and they typically have a color display with a graphical user interface that covers more than 76% of the front surface. In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country, smartphones became widespread in the late 2000s. Most of those produced from 2012 onward have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, in the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell phones in early 2013, devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Nikola Tesla in 1909 and Theodore Paraskevakos in 1971 and patented in 1974, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. Paraskevakos was the first to introduce the concepts of intelligence, data processing and they were installed at Peoples Telephone Company in Leesburg, Alabama and were demonstrated to several telephone companies. The original and historic working models are still in the possession of Paraskevakos, the first mobile phone to incorporate PDA features was a prototype developed by Frank Canova in 1992 while at IBM and demonstrated that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show. It included PDA features and other mobile applications such as maps, stock reports. A refined version was marketed to consumers in 1994 by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator, the Simon was the first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a smartphone, although it was not called that in 1994. The term smart phone appeared in print as early as 1995, in the mid-late 1990s, many mobile phone users carried a separate dedicated PDA device, running early versions of operating systems such as Palm OS, BlackBerry OS or Windows CE/Pocket PC. These operating systems would later evolve into mobile operating systems, in March 1996, Hewlett-Packard released the OmniGo 700LX, a modified HP 200LX palmtop PC that supported a Nokia 2110 phone with ROM-based software to support it. It had a 640×200 resolution CGA compatible four-shade gray-scale LCD screen and could be used to place and receive calls and it was also 100% DOS5.0 compatible, allowing it to run thousands of existing software titles, including early versions of Windows. In August 1996, Nokia released the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a cellular phone based on the Nokia 2110 with an integrated PDA based on the PEN/GEOS3.0 operating system from Geoworks. The two components were attached by a hinge in what known as a clamshell design, with the display above. The PDA provided e-mail, calendar, address book, calculator and notebook applications, text-based Web browsing, when closed, the device could be used as a digital cellular phone. In June 1999 Qualcomm released the pdQ Smartphone, a CDMA digital PCS Smartphone with an integrated Palm PDA, subsequent landmark devices included, The Ericsson R380 by Ericsson Mobile Communications. The first device marketed as a smartphone, it combined the functions of a phone and PDA. The Kyocera 6035 introduced by Palm, Inc, combining a PDA with a mobile phone, it operated on the Verizon network, and supported limited Web browsing
35.
O2 Xda
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The O2 Xda brand was a range of Windows Mobile PDA phones, marketed by O2, developed by O2 Asia and manufactured by multiple OEMs. The first model was released in June 2002, the last models came to market in 2008. The X represents convergence of voice and information/data within one product, the first product released in the XDA range. Intel XScale PXA263128 MB SDRAM,64 MB ROM3.8 Transflective 65,536 colour LCD I/O, cable, IrDA, Bluetooth, SD & Secure HTC codename, HTC Magician The Xda IIi was released in February 2005. Intel Xscale PXA272128 MB SDRAM,128 MB ROM3.5 Transflective 65,536 colour LCD1.3 MP Camera HTC codename, O2 Germany released the device as Xda III. Talk Time, up to 4 hours for the removable and chargeable Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery,1620 mAh Size,79 x 130 x 21 mm approx. Weight, 285g HTC codename, HTC Universal ROM upgrade available at for UK/Irish users, the Xda Mini S was released shortly after the Xda Exec, and was the second Xda to run Windows Mobile 5. Wizard has a squarer cosmetic shell than the Prodigy, the Xda Atom is the latest Model to be released in Asia. It runs Windows Mobile 5 and has approximately the same dimensions as the Xda mini, intel PXA272416 MHz 64 MB RAM,128 MB Flash ROM2. Its shape and size are similar to those of the Xda II mini. Like the Exec, it will have two CMOS cameras - a VGA camera on the front for video calls, and a 2-megapixel camera on the back. Other hardware specifications are similar to the ones of the Mini S. Samsung 400 MHz 64 MB SDRAM,128 MB ROM2.8 Transflective 65K colour LCD I/O, cable, IrDA. This phone has mostly generated average reviews, microsoft Windows Mobile 5.5 mm, Weight with battery, 140g Comes with a slide down number keypad. Built-in Wireless LAN802. 11b/g, Bluetooth, USB1.22.4 TFT LCD display with touch screen 240 x 320 dots resolution, 65K colour screen Manufactured by Gigabyte Communications. The XDA Flame is the first dual processor PDA-phone announced by O2 in late 2006 and contains enhanced graphics, movie playback, photo viewing. It also has Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system, the upgrade from WM5.0, the Zest was released in November 2008. It has a 3. 2Mp camera,802. 11b/g WiFi, HSDPA, GPS, the Xda Serra is an O2 branded version of the HTC Touch Pro handset was released in November 2008. The Xda Ignito is an O2 branded version of the HTC Touch Diamond handset was released in August 2008, the Xda Mantle is an O2 branded version of the HTC P6500 handset and was released in July 2008
36.
Li Ka-shing
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Sir Ka-shing Li, GBM, KBE, JP is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. According to Forbes, as of February 2017 Li is the richest person in Asia and his conglomerate company Cheung Kong Holdings is influential in many sectors of the Hong Kong economy and makes up 4% of the aggregate market capitalisation of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Forbes Magazine and the Forbes family honoured Li Ka-shing with the first ever Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award on 5 September 2006, in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a frugal lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes. He continues to live in the house as he has for decades. Li is also regarded as one of Asias most generous philanthropists, donating over US$2.56 billion to charity, Li is often referred to as Superman in Hong Kong because of his business prowess. Li Ka-shing was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, due to his fathers death, he was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries, from manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1971. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and 1985 respectively, Lis businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to the Internet. The Cheung Kong Groups market capitalisation is HK$1,193 billion as of April 2016, the Group operates in over 50 countries and employs around 300,000 staff worldwide. In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a manufacturing company in Hong Kong with personal savings. Li avidly read trade publications and business news before deciding to supply the world high quality plastic flowers at low prices. Li learned the technique of mixing colour with plastics that resemble real flowers, after retooling his shop and hiring the best technicians he could find, he prepared the plant for a visit from a large foreign buyer. Impressed with the quality of Lis plant, the placed a large order. A few years later, Li grew to be the largest supplier of plastic flowers in Asia, in 1958, recognizing the rents would continue to rise, Li decided to purchase a site and develop his own factory building. An opportunity to acquire land arrived after the 1967 riots were in full swing when many people fled Hong Kong, Li, believing the political crisis would be temporary, and property prices would eventually rise, bought parcels of land at low prices. By 1971, Li officially named his real estate development company Cheung Kong, named after Cheung Kong, Cheung Kong Holdings was publicly listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. During board meetings, Li stated on a number of occasions his goal of surpassing the Jardines-owned Hongkong Land as a leading developer
37.
Hutchison 3G
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The company was founded in 2002. CK Hutchison Holdings owns direct majority interests in the companies operate the networks that are branded 3. These networks are majority-owned by Hutchison Asia Telecommunications, an owned subsidiary of CK Hutchison. Its operations in Europe are run by a division,3 Group Europe. All 3-branded networks provide 4G and 3G technology, Hutchison Whampoa no longer holds a 3G licence in Israel which was operated under the brand Orange, and in Norway which is not operational yet. As of 30 June 2015, registered 3 customers worldwide numbered over 30.1 million, besides that,3 UK and also 3 Ireland initially made the decision to block direct Internet access from handsets, while 3 Austria allowed access to the Internet since the beginning. In 2004,3 released a PC Card 3G Data Card for Windows-based laptops which allows Internet access through 3s network directly from the computer, accompanied by a range of data, later, more cards and USB modems for HSDPA were introduced. The phones were sold exclusively by 3 on contract and on a prepaid basis,3 also produced an application called Skype on 3 which brought the same functionality to S60 and J2ME-capable phones. 3 does not charge users for calls to this number and this service is available in Australia, Ireland and the UK, it has been discontinued in Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden. A company called iSkoot was behind at least some of the clients and back-end servers and it appears this shutdown initially affected the J2ME version and some Skypephones, but some S60 versions were not affected. Skype have started sending emails indicating the Skype on 3 service will be terminated on 30 September 2014, in spite of Threes original free for life advertising. The recommended clients for smartphones will use the data connection which may be liable to charges, instead of the dedicated access number used by the client. This also allows users to use their free or inclusive bundles and allowances while abroad, however, pre-pay customers do not benefit fully, as they can not yet use each 3 branded network for 3 Like Home. 3 Australia confirm that calls made using 3 Like Home are not included in any cap plan or inclusive bundles and this arrangement is possible because of the roaming agreements between the networks. Each of the networks provides service to other partners networks free of roaming charges. This means that the marginal cost of a call is much the same as a call on the home network. At the end of April 2009,3 UK announced that 3 Like Home would no longer be available to customers of the 3 UK network from 30 June 2009, on 7 April 2010,3 Sweden announced that 3 Like Home would be discontinued on 23 May 2010. No cancellation announcements have yet made for customers of other 3 networks
38.
UMTS
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The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency, UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network, the core network and the authentication of users via SIM cards. The technology described in UMTS is sometimes referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access or 3GSM. Unlike EDGE and CDMA2000, UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations, UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when Evolved HSPA is implemented in the network. Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for Release 99 handsets, since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, sometimes known as 3. 5G. Currently, HSDPA enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s, work is also progressing on improving the uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access. The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a emphasis on telco-provided mobile applications such as mobile TV. UMTS combines three different terrestrial air interfaces, GSMs Mobile Application Part core, and the GSM family of speech codecs, the air interfaces are called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access. All air interface options are part of ITUs IMT-2000, in the currently most popular variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA is used. Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading, while they suggest covering just a channel access method, they are actually the common names for the whole air interface standards. W-CDMA or WCDMA, along with UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels, in contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are criticized for their large spectrum usage, which delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies specifically for 3G services. The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-base, in the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies, in the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, later, W-CDMA was selected as an air interface for UMTS. As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, however, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating their network
39.
High Speed Packet Access
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A further improved 3GPP standard, Evolved High Speed Packet Access, was released late in 2008 with subsequent worldwide adoption beginning in 2010. The newer standard allows bit-rates to reach as high as 337 Mbit/s in the downlink and 34 Mbit/s in the uplink, however, these speeds are rarely achieved in practice. The first HSPA specifications supported increased peak data rates of up to 14 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.76 Mbit/s in the uplink. It also reduced latency and provided up to five times more capacity in the downlink. HSDPA has been introduced with 3GPP Release 5, which accompanies a improvement on the uplink providing a new bearer of 384 kbit/s. The previous maximum bearer was 128 kbit/s, as well as improving data rates, HSDPA also decreases latency and so the round trip time for applications. HSPA+ introduced in 3GPP Release 7 further increases data rates by adding 64QAM modulation, MIMO and Dual-Cell HSDPA operation, even higher speeds of up to 337.5 Mbit/s are possible with Release 11 of the 3GPP standards. The first phase of HSDPA has been specified in the 3GPP release 5, phase one introduces new basic functions and is aimed to achieve peak data rates of 14.0 Mbit/s with significantly reduced latency. The improvement in speed and latency reduces the cost per bit, further new features are the High Speed Downlink Shared Channels, the adaptive modulation QPSK and 16QAM and the High Speed Medium Access protocol in base station. The upgrade to HSDPA is often just an update for WCDMA networks. In general voice calls are prioritized over data transfer. The following table is derived from table 5. 1a of the release 11 of 3GPP TS25.306 and shows maximum data rates of different device classes and by what combination of features they are achieved. The per-cell per-stream data rate is limited by the Maximum number of bits of an HS-DSCH transport block received within an HS-DSCH TTI, so for example Cat 10 can decode 27952 bits/2 ms =13.976 MBit/s. Categories 1-4 and 11 have inter-TTI intervals of 2 or 3, Dual-Cell and MIMO 2x2 each multiply the maximum data rate by 2, because multiple independent transport blocks are transmitted over different carriers or spatial streams, respectively. The data rates given in the table are rounded to one decimal point, further UE categories were defined from 3GGP Release 7 onwards as Evolved HSPA and are listed in Evolved HSDPA UE Categories. Notes, As of 28 August 2009,250 HSDPA networks have commercially launched mobile services in 109 countries. 169 HSDPA networks support 3.6 Mbit/s peak downlink data throughput, a growing number are delivering 21 Mbit/s peak data downlink and 28 Mbit/s. CDMA2000-EVDO networks had the lead on performance, and Japanese providers were highly successful benchmarks for it
40.
Evolved HSPA
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Evolved High Speed Packet Access, or HSPA+, or HSPA, or HSPAP is a technical standard for wireless, broadband telecommunication. It is the phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7. HSPA+ can achieve data rates of up to 42.2 Mbit/s and it introduces antenna array technologies such as beamforming and Multiple-input multiple-output communications. Beam forming focuses the power of an antenna in a beam towards the user’s direction. MIMO uses multiple antennas at the sending and receiving side, further releases of the standard have introduced dual carrier operation, i. e. the simultaneous use of two 5 MHz carriers. The technology also delivers significant battery life improvements and dramatically quicker wake-from-idle time, HSPA+ should not be confused with LTE though, which uses an air interface based on Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access modulation and multiple access. Advanced HSPA+ is an evolution of HSPA+ and provides data rates up to 84.4 and 168 Megabits per second to the mobile device and 22 Mbit/s from the mobile device under ideal signal conditions. Although real speeds are far lower, besides the throughput gain from doubling the number of cells to be used, some diversity and joint scheduling gains can also be achieved. The QoS can be improved for end users in poor radio reception where they cannot benefit from the other WCDMA capacity improvements due to poor radio signal quality. In 3GPP a study item was completed in June 2008, the outcome can be found in technical report 25.825. An alternative method to double the data rates is to double the bandwidth to 10 MHz by using DC-HSDPA, Dual-Carrier HSDPA, also known as Dual-Cell HSDPA, is part of 3GPP Release 8 specification. It is the evolution of HSPA by means of carrier aggregation in the downlink. UMTS licenses are issued as 5,10, or 20 MHz paired spectrum allocations. The basic idea of the feature is to achieve better resource utilization and spectrum efficiency by means of joint resource allocation. New HSDPA User Equipment categories 21-24 have been introduced that support DC-HSDPA, DC-HSDPA can support up to 42.2 Mbit/s, but unlike HSPA, it does not need to rely on MIMO transmission. The support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators deploying Release 7 MIMO to benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8. While in Release 8 DC-HSDPA can only operate on adjacent carriers, later releases allow the use of up to four carriers simultaneously. From Release 9 onwards it will be possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO being used on both carriers, the support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators even more capacity improvements within their network
€ 13.533 billion (2009)[2]
