iWorld
Airtel goes full throttle with 4G across 296 cities
MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel is gung ho on its 4G service – LTE, which has now been launched across 296 Indian cities, followed by successful trials in select cities.
With the new services, Airtel customers across the country will be able to experience high speed wireless broadband along with uninterrupted HD video streaming, super fast uploading and downloading of movies, music and images.
Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles.
Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said, “With the help of the feedback received from the beta launches, we have now built India’s first commercial 4G network that will make high speed mobile broadband a reality. The national roll-out today is another small step in our journey to be the most innovative and customer focused brand.”
He further mentioned that the new platform is critical to developing an ecosystem that nurtures innovation and enabling access a myriad set of possibilities on their mobile phones. “Our 4G network is built on an open partner ecosystem model that brings together the best in the industry and introduces the market to these never before experiences. Together with our network and device partners, we have enabled a deeper proliferation of 4G in the country and I take this opportunity to thank them for working with us to introduce India to the amazing 4G experience,” said Vittal.
As part of the 4G services, Airtel has also introduced ‘Infinity Plans’ that will offer unlimited voice calls on mobile, along with bundled movies and music for the first time in India.
Continuing its streak of firsts, Flexpage, an automated platform that allows customers to track their data usage and get real time usage alerts, has also been introduced by the company.
Along with a range of strategic initiatives as part of its 4G roll out, Airtel also launched a new carrier agnostic mobile app – ‘Wynk Movies’ – a first of its kind movie mall that will offer a specially curated library of thousands of movies and other popular videos. This follows the recent launch of Wynk Music.
iWorld
Snapchat parent Snap cuts 16 per cent of workforce in AI-driven restructuring
The Snapchat parent is axing around 1,000 jobs and closing 300 open roles to save $500m, as artificial intelligence makes smaller teams the new normal
CALIFORNIA: Snap is snapping. The Snapchat parent has confirmed plans to cut around 1,000 employees, roughly 16 per cent of its full-time workforce, as it bets that artificial intelligence can do what headcount once required. Shares jumped more than 10 per cent in premarket trading on the news, a brisk vote of confidence from a market that has watched the stock shed about 31 per cent this year.
The restructuring, which also closes more than 300 open roles, follows pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which holds an economic interest of about 2.5 per cent in the company and has been loudly pushing Snap to tighten its portfolio and lift performance. The firm got what it asked for, and then some.
Chief executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts would reduce annualised expenses by more than $500m by the second half of the year. The company expects to incur charges of between $95m and $130m related to the layoffs, mostly severance, with the bulk landing in the second quarter. Staff in Snap’s North America team were asked to work from home on the day of the announcement.
The financial backdrop is not without bright spots. Snap expects first-quarter revenue to rise around 12 per cent to approximately $1.53 billion, broadly in line with analyst estimates. Adjusted core profit for the January to March quarter is forecast at about $233m, comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s expectation of $186.8m.
The harder question surrounds Specs, Snap’s augmented reality smart glasses subsidiary, which Irenic has urged the company to spin off or shut down entirely. The unit has absorbed more than $3.5 billion in investment and burns through approximately $500m in cash annually. Snap is pressing ahead regardless, with a consumer product expected later this year, even as Meta leads the market in the segment.
Spiegel is betting that leaner teams, smarter machines and a consumer AR play can restore Snap’s credibility with investors who have run out of patience. The redundancy notices have gone out. The harder restructuring, the one that requires a hit product rather than a headcount reduction, is still very much pending.
