iWorld
Airtel expands network in UP West, Uttarakhand for better connectivity
Mumbai: Bharti Airtel has turbocharged its network in Uttar Pradesh (West) and Uttarakhand, providing customers with superior voice and data connectivity across all 40 districts. The company announced on 18 October 2024, that it has successfully deployed additional spectrum acquired in July 2024, enhancing its 5G and 4G network capacities.
The deployment of 5MHz on the 2100 band will significantly improve data speeds and indoor coverage for customers in urban and rural areas. Residents in cities such as Agra, Aligarh, Meerut, Bareilly, Moradabad, and Dehradun can now enjoy faster browsing speeds and improved call connectivity. Airtel’s enhanced services will also benefit those traveling along highways and rail routes, providing broader coverage and meeting the growing demand for connectivity in rural regions.
Bharti Airtel, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, CEO, Sovan Mukharjee stated, “Airtel’s commitment to superior network performance is unwavering. With the integration of this new spectrum, customers across the state can now enjoy enhanced call connectivity, faster data speeds, and an overall improved experience.”
Airtel secured 97 MHz of spectrum during the recent auction, solidifying its position as a leader in India’s telecommunications landscape. This deployment allows the company to expand its sub-GHz spectrum, consolidating fragmented spectrum blocks into a continuous spectrum, and positioning itself to meet growing data demands with its 5G and 4G services.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
