Uber suspends services in Abu Dhabi

Uber suspends services in Abu Dhabi

Taxi-hailing company Uber has suspended its service in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Rival service Careem has also put its service there on hold, after some of its cars were stopped by authorities.

Uber, which has been operating in the Emirates since 2013, did not explain why it had suspended its service, but did say the move was "temporary".

An Emirates newspaper, The National, reported that as many as 50 drivers had been arrested over the weekend.

The report quoted one industry source as saying there was confusion as to why the drivers had been detained.

In a statement Uber said: ""This is a temporary suspension and we will let you know of any further updates."

Both Careem and Uber said that services in neighbouring Dubai were operating as normal.

Uber has been investing heavily in the Middle East, helped by a recent $3.5bn investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

But the company's international expansion has been hampered by legal battles:

    # In the UK two drivers have taken the company to an employment tribunal, saying that they should be offered holiday and sick pay

    # In Taiwan Uber is facing a ban after officials said the firm was not operating lawfully

The company also sold its business in China earlier this month.

Uber's service allows customers to book journeys and pay via a smartphone app.

Better 3G service in Bangladesh than in India, Pakistan: Report

3G service in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has secured better position among the countries of South Asia for the availability of mobile broadband or 3G connection, says a report.

Sri Lanka is leading the region with 78.42 percent 3G or better availability followed by Bangladesh 68.71 percent, Pakistan 63.47 percent, Nepal 59.50 percent and India 56.10 percent.

London based research firm OpenSignal published the report "Global State of Mobile Network" this month conducting survey in 95 countries including Bangladesh from May 1 to July 23.

"We examined 12.3 billion measurements taken by 822,556 OpenSignal users in an 84 day period," said the firm.

In the report, four separate rankings have been published on the basis of four categories -3G/4G availability, overall speed, stacked up in speed versus availability and proportion of time users connected to Wifi.

In the category at overall speed, South Korea had the fastest overall speed of 41.3 Mbps, while the slowest average was 2.2 Mbps in Afghanistan.

India is leading the region with 5.30 Mbps speed followed by Sri Lank 4.28 Mbps, Bangladesh 3.75 Mbps, Nepal 3.75 Mbps and Pakistan 3.33 Mbps.

On the other hand, time on wifi comparison category, Nepal was in the top position with 40.53 percent in South Asia followed by Pakistan 34.12 percent, India 29.82 percent, Bangladesh 25.47 percent and Sri Lank 18.22 percent, according to the report.

"LTE may have become the dominant mobile data technology in countries like South Korea, Japan and the US, dozens of countries have yet to launch their first 4G service and many others are only in the infancy of their LTE rollouts," said OpenSignal, adding, "3G still forms the backbone of mobile data services in many places, and in some developing regions 2G still reigns supreme."

On September 8, 2013, four private cellular phone operators -Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel in an auction collected a total of 25 Megahertz (MHZ) airwave for 3G mobile services. Later, in the same year, Grameenphone launched 3G service in commercially on October 7, Banglalink on October 21, Robi on October 30 and Airtel on November 7.

China's Xiaomi smartphones launched in Bangladesh

China's Xiaomi smartphones launched

Smartphone maker Xiaomi has launched three smartphones in Bangladesh for the first time in collaboration with the country's top largest cell phone operator Grameenphone.
According to a statement released by the Grameenphone on Thursday, the launching event was held at the Grameenphone Corporate House in Dhaka on Wednesday with the presence of... Read More bbarta24.net