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Philippines still ranks near bottom for 4G LTE speeds and availability

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OpenSignal released its latest crowdsourced 4G LTE report for June, and the data doesn’t look good for India and the Philippines. South Korea is doing better than ever, however.

Compared to the data we looked over last November, 4G LTE mobile data has been experiencing greater availability and speeds around the world, but that’s a given with the growing ubiquity of the technology. Check out the graphs below to see how each country ranks worldwide:

Click the image for a closer look

Based on data collected from over 550,000 devices from January 1 to March 31, 2017, there’s no beating around the bush on how to approach these findings.

Here are our most noteworthy observations for Asian nations:

South Korea continues to dominate

Ranking on top for 4G availability (96.38 percent) and second for 4G speeds (43.46Mbps), South Korea is once again the destination for nationwide mobile data convenience. Only Singapore was able to best South Korea with slightly faster connectivity (45.62Mbps), but remember that the former has only a tenth of the latter’s population, making the airwaves less congested.

The Philippines ranks in the bottom five for both

The Southeast Asian archipelago is once again near the bottom for both 4G availability (52.77 percent) and average speed (8.59Mbps). This is no better than the showing the Philippines had last year, when it was also at the bottom of the barrel for each chart. However, there are still marginal improvements: The republic previously had an availability of only 44.8 percent and average speed of 7.27Mbps.

India improved in one aspect, failed the other

The most interesting information is India’s rise and fall for each statistic. The country now has a 4G availability of 81.56 percent, which is a great improvement over the 71.6 percent from last November. Unfortunately, the average 4G speed didn’t experience the same boost. In fact, the average speed went down to 5.14Mbps from the 6.39Mbps we saw last time — you can barely call that faster than the average 3G speed of 4.4Mbps.

4G LTE is steadily improving, but 5G is fast approaching

It’s easy to forget, but 4G LTE came out when 3G and its advancements didn’t fully mature yet. The same case may be happening soon, with companies like Qualcomm and Google already testing 5G connectivity in the United States. We have to hope that 4G and LTE technologies don’t go through the same fate, and that local mobile service providers maximize them before jumping on the newer generation.

SEE ALSO: LTE-A Explained

[irp posts=”2500″ name=”LTE-A Explained”]

Source: OpenSignal

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AMD poised to lead agentic AI era with high-performance CPUs

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AMD is prepared to lead the industry in its agentic AI era with their high-performance CPU strategy.

As the industry pivots from simple AI models to agentic AI systems that are capable of independent planning and decision-making, the CPU is reclaiming its role as the critical “head coach” of the data center.

This was noted by AMD CEO and Chair Dr. Lisa Su during the AMD Advancing AI event last year. The rise of autonomous agents has transformed inference into a complex and multi-step workflow that demands sophisticated logic and orchestration.

And while high-performance GPUs are necessary to generate insights in real time, the surrounding infrastructure is just as important.

This is where CPUs enter the picture. Their performance and efficiency are more important than ever in the overall performance of modern AI infrastructure.

And AMD delivers an advantage with their offerings. In recently published data, a 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPU-based system is estimated to perform up to 2.1x better per core against an NVIDIA Grace Superchip-based system.

The same system AMD-based system also delivers up to 2.26x uplift on SPECpower, measuring operations per watt.

The x86 CPU architecture gives customers the advantage of a broad, proven software ecosystem that can run existing workloads natively.

This avoids the costly refactoring and code-base duplication often required when switching to Arm-based alternatives.

Looking ahead, AMD is doubling down on the balanced system philosophy. Future architectures such as the “Venice” CPUs will power the “Helios” rack-scale AI design.

By integrating EPYC CPUs with Instinct GPUs and the ROCm software stack, AMD aims to maximize cluster-level performance and lower the total cost of ownership in the agentic era.

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Nintendo sues the United States

The Japanese company wants a refund for illegal tariffs.

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What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? After a year of wrestling through tariffs from the current American administration, Nintendo has decided to sue the United States.

Last year, the Trump administration was trigger-happy with implement tariffs on countries everywhere. Though the controversy mostly circulated around geopolitics, major corporations also found themselves on the receiving end of Trump’s ire. All over the world, the tariffs sparked product delays and price hikes.

Nintendo is no exception. As a result of the fiasco, the company had to delay the launch of the Switch 2, in anticipation of disruptions caused by the tariffs. First reported by Aftermath, the Japanese gaming giant is now going after the American government over refunds associated with the tariffs.

Now, the tariffs aren’t a big issue anymore. Notably, the Supreme Court scratched off the White House’s implementations that the former found illegal. While a big sigh of relief for future business, corporations like Nintendo have already paid duties and deposits in the past. As a result, Nintendo is now looking for recompense for what they paid before.

Nintendo isn’t the first company to seek restitution over the illegal tariffs. Others, including FedEx and Revlon, are also asking for refunds. However, the Japanese giant is certainly one of the biggest names to cross the government’s path. After all, the company is notoriously litigious over anything it considers as an affront to its business, including small streamers using Pokémon on their broadcasts.

With all its global resources, Nintendo likely won’t just give up without a fight.

SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch is now Nintendo’s best-selling console ever

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Paramount wins bid for HBO Max, plans to merge streaming apps

It’s all part of the deal to acquire the Warner Bros. library.

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Last year ended with the bombshell announcement that Netflix might buy the entire Warner Bros. library. However, after some finagling and a rocky start, Paramount has now emerged as the main suitor for the lucrative library.

At the end of last year, it seemed all but confirmed that the gigantic Warner Bros. library was coming to Netflix as part of a huge buyout deal. This became even clearer when Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount’s initial bid to counter Netflix. However, Paramount recently revised its offer to an astounding US$ 110 billion, or US$ 31 per share, which Warner Bros. Discovery signed off on. Netflix passed on the opportunity for a counteroffer, making Paramount the sole bidder.

Today, Paramount has announced that, if the deal pushes through, they will merge Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service. This means that Paramount’s CBS, Comedy Central, and MTV will be under the same roof as DC, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Mission: Impossible.

The value of the above names alone makes this into one of the most lucrative deals for Paramount. However, it’s not without its drawbacks. The combined entity will reportedly carry US$ 79 billion in net debt for both purchasing Warner Bros. and refinancing the newly purchased property.

Currently, the deal is expected to go through regulatory approval ending in the second half of 2026.

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