Networking

ProtonVPN has long been a good Virtual Private Network (VPN) system. But, now that it’s sped up its connection by up to 400%, it demands your attention.

This new speed boost “VPN Accelerator,” is enabled by default on all ProtonVPN paid accounts and with all the ProtonVPN apps. It also works with all of ProtonVPN and is available for all users. VPN Accelerator will give you its speed boost no matter which VPN protocol you use:  OpenVPN TCP, OpenVPN UDP, Wireguard, or IKEv2 VPN protocols.How? By making a variety of improvements. For example, to give the popular OpenVPN and other single-threaded protocols a kick in the pants, ProtonVPN has re-written OpenVPN so that multiple OpenVPN processes per server now run to take advantage of multi-core processors. That’s a good start, but to further improve it, since by itself this doesn’t properly load-balance OpenVPN processes, other code changes make sure the OpenVPN load is properly distributed between the multiple processes. Similar techniques were applied by other VPN protocols.TCP, the internet’s fundamental network protocol, overall throughput is inversely proportional to latency and packet loss. In English, the more slowdowns and data loss there is in a connection, the slower the connection will go. In practical terms, the farther away a server is from you, the more likely it is you’ll have poor latency and lose data packets. The result is lower network speeds. This isn’t a VPN problem, it’s just the nature of the internet. But, VPNs tend to amplify this program by increasing the distance of the end-to-end path from your device to the final server. As Andy Yen, ProtonVPN’s co-founder explained, “To give an extreme example, if you were in Switzerland, connected to a server in New Zealand, and visited a website in the US, your traffic would travel most of the way around the world, resulting in approximately 600 ms of round trip delay (RTD) latency.”To address this issue, ProtonVPN breaks up the 600 ms path into shorter paths. This gives you much faster throughput along each of the shorter paths. The net result is better-combined performance over the entire connection. To squeeze even more speed from the connection, VPN Accelerator also uses the TCP delay-controlled flow control algorithm BBR on longer paths or congested networks, which suffer from packet loss. BBR recovers faster and ramps up quicker once a data transfer starts. 

How important is this? According to Yen, “For high latency servers, or when there is packet loss, the performance increase can be game-changing. … Even with just 1.5% packet loss, BBR provides a 100x performance improvement compared to other congestion control algorithms.” That’s impressive.ProtonVPN also did some tuning on Linux’s TCP congestion algorithms and protocol-specific issues that can lead to networking socket stalls. The program also now circumvents the normal packet processing path for “known traffic.” This significantly increases speed while decreasing latency. Finally, as before, ProtonVPN doesn’t use virtual machines (VM)s or containers. Instead, its entire infrastructure runs on bare-metal servers. This eliminates forwarding encrypted packets between VMs or containers and their host machines. This also reduces latency and boosts speed.When you put it all together, as a user you’ll see the greatest gains when you access a site located far away from you. When you connect to a server that’s close by, you may not see significant speed improvements. But, you don’t have to worry about that. ProtonVPN does all this invisibly and automatically. In practice, I found ProtonVPN delivered the speed goods when I used it from my home office in Asheville, NC to connect with sites in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan, and New Zealand. The speed increase wasn’t as noticeable, however, when I used it to connect with sites in the States. If this sounds like ProtonVPN’s developers really know their networking stuff it’s because they do. The company was founded by CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) engineers and scientists who wanted to protect activists and journalists with the best possible technical protection. Besides technology, ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland with its very strong privacy laws.ProtonVPN will run on pretty much any platform you want to use it on. It comes with a variety of service levels and prices. It also has a free tier.

I usually recommend avoiding free VPN services, but I’ll make an exception for ProtonVPN. While this service only offers 23 servers in 3 countries with a single speed-limited VPN connection, it doesn’t throttle your traffic. You can use it for free all year round. Next up is ProtonVPN Basic. This costs $5 per month or $4 a month on the $48 annual plan. With this tier, you can use 350+ servers in 40+ countries. P2P and BitTorrent file sharing are also allowed at this tier and you get access to the NetShield adblocker.At the top, you’ll find the ProtonVPN Plus plan. For this level of network protection, you’ll pay $10 a month or $8 a month with a yearly $96 plan. With this plan, you can use 1200+ servers in 55 countries with over 10 simultaneous VPN connections. It also supports internet speeds of up to 10 Gbps. I wish I could get speeds like that! This level also supports streaming services. Finally, it also includes Secure Core VPN, which bounces your traffic across ProtonVPN servers to make it even harder to track, and TOR over VPN, which uses the TOR network to further hide your online tracks. In addition, for $288 a year, the Visionary plan gives you everything you get with Plus and a ProtonMail Visionary email account. This is a high-security email plan. It provides you with end-to-end encryption and zero-access encrypted email. Only you and the people you send messages to can read your mail. No one else can, including Proton.  So, if you’re really serious about security and you want good VPN performance as well I recommend you give ProtonVPN a try. They’re, in a word, impressive. 

Simultaneous Connections: Depends on the plan.Kill Switch: YesPlatforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, routersLogging: None, except billing dataCountries: 55Servers: 1,200+Trial/MBG: 30 day

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NBN announced on Friday that it has hit 100% coverage on the Australian mainland, Tasmania, as well as “large islands and hard to reach remote locations” that include Christmas Island, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. The company said this was an increase of 7 percentage points on the 93% of eligible businesses it could previously offer. It added that it has also reduced its Layer 3 Business Satellite Service Access Bandwidth Service wholesale pricing to retailers by 40% when they sign up to “extended contract terms” with NBN. The service offered is claimed to deliver “consistent wholesale speeds” up to 50/13 Mbps. “Whether to connect remote health facilities, mining operations, or large-scale agriculture, these enhancements help make the business NBN satellite service more accessible for eligible businesses and government organisations even in the most remote parts of continent and we look forward to delivering new capabilities to further improve the service in the future,” NBN chief development officer for regional and remote Gavin Williams said. Earlier this year, the Elon Musk-fronted SpaceX told an Australian parliamentary committee that the company could begin to offer its Starlink broadband services to the nation’s external territories as early as 2022. “Certain more proximate islands within the external territories, notably the Ashmore, Cartier, and Coral Sea Islands, could be served by early 2022, when SpaceX has more fully populated its satellite constellation with ongoing launches and with the establishment of gateway earth stations at proximate mainland locations,” it said. While geostationary satellites, like the Sky Muster ones used by NBN, have latency in the order of 600-800ms, those in low Earth orbit can provide 20-40ms of latency. Starlink users last year saw internet speeds of 134Mbps.

During the same hearing, the Norfolk Island Regional Council pushed for the island to return to the way it was, which means restoring a cable connection to the island, despite the island having its own NBN Sky Muster spot beam. The council spent AU$8 million over five years on satellite connectivity, and for its money, it now gets a 113/37Mbps primary link with a 20/4Mbps redundant link. Norfolk Island previously had a cable connection, but it was cut. The island still has a cable landing station, and in 2003 the Australian government paid to have an “extensive underground” fibre to the node network installed, which now uses satellite backhaul. On Thursday, NBN said it would provide AU$5.2 million in the form of a “COVID-19 relief credit payment” to cover overage charges paid by retailers due to bandwidth spikes caused by lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Related Coverage More

The Internet Isn’t OptionalThe internet is no longer a service that’s useful to have. It’s a necessity, especially for students of all levels. Many schools embrace technology in and out of the classroom and even provide students with the hardware to complete assignments. While this addresses one issue, it entirely ignores another: internet connection. According to a federal study, 70% of American teachers assign homework that has to be completed online and 90% of students report they are given online assignments at least a few times a month. This becomes problematic when you factor in that 15% of the households with high school-aged children lack a high-speed internet connection, as reported by the Pew Research Center U.S. census data.

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Lack of Internet Creates a Barrier to EducationAccessibilityIn the United States, two in three teachers use technology in their classrooms, and it’s not hard to see why. Technology is a convenient way to assign work and can provide access to various resources that enhance students’ academic experience. For students of low-income families, the classroom’s dependence on technology poses an issue not considered by teachers and policymakers. The average cost of internet is around $60 a month, which is not an affordable option for many.Thankfully, families can save sometimes as much as $50a month through government-funded programs and options from internet service providers. These options are generally underused, oftentimes because families are not aware of them.Public internet useSome students turn to public internet use to complete the required online assignments. While using a library’s or a restaurant’s WiFi is an option for some, students who don’t live close to a hub like that would have to regularly pay transportation fees to get there. Depending on how long it takes them to get somewhere with an internet connection, it could take up a large chunk of the time they could spend studying. What happens if they forgot something at home? What if they forget to turn something in and already are back home? Having internet access in their home takes away the stress of last-minute changes to a project or the need to scramble to find WiFi to turn something in.Data privacy on public WiFi12% of students say they use public WiFi to complete homework. It can be risky to use public WiFi, as the security on these networks is generally relaxed if present at all. Data security should always be a concern when connecting to an unprotected public network. Some of the risks associated with blindly using public networks are:Malicious hotspots: To unsuspecting users, malicious hotspots seem like legitimate networks. Though once connected, attackers have access to any information you’ve entered on webpages – like your login information or personal data.Unencrypted networks: Secure networks are encrypted, meaning any information sent between your computer and router are “encoded” so that no one can read it. By default, routers are shipped with the encryption turned off and it must intentionally be turned on. When dealing with public networks, you cannot be sure if it’s enabled or not.Man-in-the-middle attacks (MitM): This common threat makes what you thought was private available to attackers. Your computer communicates with the website you are accessing and in a MitM attack, an attacker intercepts and can even alter your communications.Mobile hotspotsWhile mobile hotspots allow users to share their phone’s internet connection and connect devices to it, your phone’s mobile hotspot is an inadequate long-term substitute for home internet. Though it’s a great tool for every once in a while, generally hotspots are slow and inconsistent. Hotspots use your phone’s data and depending on your phone plan, this can become expensive. Home internet offers an opportunity to avoid overage fees and free up your phone’s data, and you could even decrease your data plan if you are not reliant on your for internet access.Challenges for students1-to-1 laptop initiatives are the start of addressing the technological barrier present in schools. Half of U.S. teachers have one device for each of their students. However, 17% of students say they often or sometimes can’t complete the tasks assigned to them because they don’t have reliable access to the internet, regardless of having a computer or not.

Some research supports that teens who don’t have access to the internet are less likely to graduate from high school, compared to the students who do. A contributing factor could be that the lack of home internet creates obstacles for parent-teacher interaction. Technology provides an easy way to set up conferences and communicate with your student’s teacher through email. Parents without internet may have a harder time monitoring their child’s grades and talking to their children’s teachers.Internet Programs for Low-Income StudentsThe type of assignment at hand will place different levels of stress on your internet. For example, using email or basic computer functions may only use around 3-4 Mbps, though video calls for group projects require at least 10 Mbps. College students who collaboratively work on Google drive require adequate internet speed to edit, upload, and download files that are required for their courses. Long papers or media-intensive projects will take longer than average to upload, so making sure your internet can handle it is imperative to college success.Addressing what your household internet use will be and what your student’s needs are will help you pick the best internet service for you. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) suggests that households with multiple users and frequent online streaming choose plans that support internet speeds of 12-25 Mbps. Assess the following assistance programs in terms of their speed, price, and how they relate to your needs.Government-funded programs and nonprofitsEveryoneOnEveryoneOn is a nonprofit that connects low-income families with affordable internet options through their provider partnerships. Since 2012 they have helped more than 700,000 people find an internet option that fits their needs. Not only are they a great resource, but they also offer digital skill training classes and help families get computers. EveryoneOn does not directly offer internet services, but you can use their offer locator tool to find internet options in your community.LifelineLifeline offers a discount of $9.25 a month on either your phone or internet costs for families that are at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines. The discount is limited to one service only. If you are interested in applying for Lifeline, you must apply through the National Verifier application system. This centralized system is used to verify the eligibility of the applicant and then recertify their qualifications yearly. The national verifier will allow you to choose a phone or internet option and sign up for a company’s services within 90 days of applying. Programs that qualify for Lifeline:MedicaidSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)Federal Public Housing Assistance (EPHA)Veterans Pension and Survivors BenefitSupplemental Security Income (SSI)Tribal assistance programs for Lifeline:Food Distribution Program on Indian ReservationsTribally Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)Bureau of Indian Affairs General AssistanceHead StartHuman I-THuman I-T is a nonprofit that has partnered with Frontier Communications and its Affordable Broadband program. Instead of recycling electronics, Human I-T reuses donated technology to close the digital divide. They offer an affordable internet connection of 18 Mbps at $14.99 per month. To qualify you must participate in at least one of the following:Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramTemporary Assistance for Needy FamiliesNational School Lunch Program (NSLP)Section 8 voucherMedicaidSupplemental Security IncomeProvider programsGovernment-funded programs are not your only option. Many internet providers have low-income options that will help you secure reliable internet in your home. Most do require that you take part in at least one federal assistance program to qualify. Here are the most common options and details of what they offer.How To Save Money If You Don’t QualifyUnless you are already participating in a low-income assistance program, it’s unlikely you’ll be approved for these special internet deals. So what about families who don’t qualify? Thankfully, there are still tricks you can do to save money on your internet bill and ways to reduce costs.Additional things you can do to save money:Buy your own router. Providers charge $5-$10 a month to rent your equipment, which surpasses the price of a router.Read your bill carefully to catch any mistakes or instances where you can cut backShop around for other options and arm yourself with competitor pricesNegotiate your current plan with your providerTake advantage of bundle offers, if you can.Assess your internet speed and make sure it lines up with what you’re paying for.Opt for slower options if you don’t utilize the high-speed perks.The Bottom LineHaving an internet connection is a vital part of your student’s success. Mobile hotspots and trips to the library are unreliable ways for students to complete work and turn in assignments. The programs and services available through local providers and the government ease the burden of needing something you can’t afford. More

Internet is as essential nowadays as water, electricity and gas. But figuring out your options or how much your internet should cost per month is not easy. Let’s break down what’s available, the average cost of internet and how you can save on your monthly high-speed internet costs.What is high-speed internet?The FCC defines high-speed internet, also known as broadband, as internet that’s always on and is faster than the average dial-up connection.Types & Speeds of Internet ConnectionsHigh-speed Internet TypeSpeedAverage Price Per MonthCable10-200 Mbps$58DSL1-80 Mbps$43Fiber Optic30-100 Mbps$56Satellite12-25 Mbps$91High-Speed Internet ProvidersHigh-speed Internet TypeSpeedAverage Price Per MonthCable10-200 Mbps$58DSL1-80 Mbps$43Fiber Optic30-100 Mbps$56Satellite12-25 Mbps$91What factors contribute to internet cost?Equipment rental – Most ISPs rent their equipment to customers for around $10. Rented equipment primarily consists of modems and routers.Installation/activation fees – Installation and activation fees cost about $100 on average. Not all companies charge an installation fee, but they are common.FCC Universal Service Fund fee – This is a fee placed upon telecommunication companies, and it is used to keep their services affordable for Americans. While the FCC doesn’t require ISPs to pass this cost on to their customers, it is permitted and done.. The current FCC UFSF fee is set at 19.6%.Late Payment fee – Late payment fees vary by provider but tend to range from $9 to $25 per late payment. The average late payment fee is around $12.Cancellation fee – If an ISP requires a contract for their internet plans, then there is likely a cancellation fee for those who want to exit the contract early. Some companies charge a flat-rate cancellation fee of around $100-$150, sometimes reducing the cost by a small amount per month of contract completed. Other ISP companies charge a cancellation fee based on the number of months remaining in the contract—often in the range of $10-$20 per month left on the contract.How much should you be paying for internet?For those wondering how much is the cost of internet, Americans are expected to pay an average price of $79 per month in 2020. In 2018, the average American household used 290 gigabytes of data per month. There are four main types of high-speed internet: cable, DSL, Fiber Optic, and satellite. Cable uses coaxial cables, like cable television, and costs an average of $58 per month. DSL uses the same wires as traditional phone lines and costs an average of $43 per month. Fiber Optics are a newer technology that requires fiber optic cables be installed and costs an average of $56 per month. Satellite internet relies on satellites and satellite dishes to transmit internet data and costs an average of $91 per month.The internet can be costly, both to purchase and to run. Even so, as can be seen by the numbers above, high-speed internet has become an integral part of U.S. life, quickly becoming a necessity of the modern world.Ways to lower your internet cost per monthSwitch Providers annually – When you sign up as a new customer with an internet provider, you can often gain discounts and other deals on your internet plan.Negotiate – Despite appearances, few company policies and prices are truly set in stone. Talk to your ISP agent, and you may be able to negotiate a better rate.Use your own equipment – Monthly rental fees can make up a significant portion of your internet bill. Supplying your own modem and router can keep these rental fees off your account.Choose a lower speed – Internet plan prices closely reflect their offered speed. Choosing a plan with a lower speed will often save money.How to choose the best internet serviceWhich internet provider is best for you is going to depend on certain contextual factors. Ask yourself: What do you plan to use the internet for? How many devices do you plan to have simultaneously connected to it? How many people are likely to be using your network regularly? What deals and promotions are offered in your area? Although it can be frustrating, the more choices you have to make, the more opportunity you have to assemble the best deals. If these questions feel overwhelming, don’t worry, below is a step-by-step walkthrough of how to choose the best internet service for you.Determine what you need from your internet. Decide how many devices you plan to have connected to your home network at a time. Look at what you use your devices for and determine what level of internet speed makes sense. This guide provides a reference for which internet speeds are suitable for different types of activity and can be a useful tool in determining what speeds will meet your needs.Assess what is available. Available internet plans and services vary by location. Speed and availability are the main factors affected by locale, but the price can be impacted as well. For this step, you can click here to find out which providers and plans are available at your location.Shop around. Look at the details of plans offered in your area and compare speed, price, data caps, contracts, fees, deals and discounts, and bundling options. The goal here is to determine which provider will offer you the best of what you want for the most reasonable price. Ask yourself, “of the available providers who fit my needs, who has the best of these things.”Make your selection. With the data collected, it is time to decide. Once you have gone through the previous steps, you should arrive at a provider that stands out above the rest for you. Now, all that’s left is to contact them and schedule an appointment.Consider the cost of internetInternet pricing can sometimes surprise you, especially when you consider all of the different costs that might get factored into your bill. Below are some  common features and add-ons that might up your internet bill.Overage charges – Plans that have data caps will see charges added to your account if you go over your allotted data amount.Unlimited data add-on – Many internet plans that have data caps can have an unlimited data add-on purchased alongside them, removing the data cap but increasing the monthly price.Determine the speed you needCable – Cable internet is newer than DSL. It delivers roughly two times the speed, although it is still significantly slower than fiber. Cable is best for people who have moderate to high internet speed requirements. The average monthly cost of cable is $58.DSL – DSL is the earliest of high-speed internet types and still accounts for a significant number of users. While cable and fiber are faster, DSL is still capable of delivering speeds that are fast enough for most residential internet activity. DSL is best for people who have low to moderate internet speed requirements. The average monthly cost of DSL is $43.Fiber – Fiber Optic internet has the least availability, being a new technology that requires specialized lines. Fiber is currently the fastest form of commercial internet. It is best for people who have very high internet speed requirements. The average monthly cost of Fiber Optic is $56.Satellite – Satellite is significantly slower than other forms of high-speed internet, but is available nearly everywhere, as it does not use landlines but instead relies on satellites and dishes. The average monthly cost of satellite is $91. It costs significantly more than other forms of high-speed internet as it depends on much more expensive technology. What are the options in your area?

Every internet provider has a disclaimer posted along with their service plans. This disclaimer lets potential customers know that plans, speeds, and prices may vary by location. While this can be frustrating, it is primarily due to the nature of the American telecommunication infrastructure. In general, the more urban and densely populated an area, the more internet service options there will be. For an in-depth look at what is available in your area, take a look at our review of the best internet providers.

How much does wifi cost?

Average monthly internet bills in the United States are expected to be $79 in 2020 but this can vary greatly depending on location, plan, and provider. The primary difference between regular internet and WiFi is a piece of equipment called a router. Most providers rent routers to their customers for $5-$10 per month. To figure out your wifi cost per month, add the cost of a router to the cost of your internet plan.

How much should high speed internet cost?

Unless a plan offers certain premium features that you are pursuing, such as top speeds and unlimited data, try to keep the cost of high speed internet below $58 on cable, $43 on DSL, $56 on fiber, or $91 on satellite. Following this guideline will keep you from paying above average for your internet type. Americans are expected to pay $79 per month for their average cost of internet in 2020.

Who has the cheapest internet?

Despite relying on some of the newest technology, Verizon Fios is the most affordable provider out of the ones reviewed. The cheapest Fios plan doesn’t deliver speeds beyond what cable internet can achieve, but it is cheaper. More

A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying the British communications satellite Inmarsat-5 F3 blasts off from a launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome on August 28, 2015. 
Image: Getty Images
Satellite connectivity company Inmarsat has taken the wraps off a network it claims will be able to combine 5G, low orbit, and geostationary satellites. Dubbed Orchestra, the company said it would need to invest in the order of $100 million over five years to get the network off the ground, as well as launch a constellation of 150-175 low-Earth orbit satellites. Work will begin on the terrestrial network. “Inmarsat’s existing GEO satellites — both GX and L-band — will continue to provide global coverage, high performance, security and resilience. Terrestrial 5G adds ultra-high capacity in busy ‘hot spots’, such as ports, airports, and sea canals,” the company said. “A small constellation of LEO satellites will layer additional high capacity over further high-demand areas such as oceanic flight corridors.” See also: Best satellite phone and communication gadgets in 2021 Customers will be able to mesh the connectivity between their terminals, with the example put forward being a ship connected to a 5G tower forwarding capacity to other vessels “beyond terrestrial reach”. “By combining the distinct qualities of GEO, LEO and 5G into a single network, we will deliver a service that is far greater than the sum of its parts,” Inmarsat CEO Rajeev Suri said.

The company said new services used by the network could include close-shore navigation for autonomous vessels, emergency safety services for maritime crews, secure and tactical private networks for governments, and direct-to-cloud connections for airlines. Related Coverage More

Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile wireless business is now profitable, and the company added 280,000 new subscribers in the second quarter as the company’s broadband-wireless bundles are resonating. On a conference call with analysts following Comcast’s second quarter earnings report, CEO Brian Roberts said the company is seeing a payoff from reprioritizing wireless across its sales channel. Roberts said the 280,000 wireless subscriber lines are the highest of any quarter since Xfinity Mobile launched. Roberts added Xfinity Mobile was seeing the “fastest sales momentum we ever had” with gains to come due to unlimited plans for families and small businesses.Indeed, Comcast’s wireless business had second quarter revenue of $556 million, up 70.4% from a year ago.  Comcast’s wireless unit runs on Verizon’s network and appears to be working out for both parties. Comcast is using wireless to create new bundles for the 60 million homes and businesses in its footprint. Verizon on its earnings call didn’t mention Comcast by name, but CEO Hans Vestberg noted he was happy with his MVNO customers. For Comcast, the general idea to focus on customer connectivity and using its virtualized network to add services as well as automate. Roberts added:Currently, there are typically 25 connected devices in the home, with 8 active at any one time, and this increases every year. That drives in-home Wi-Fi usage to 15x that of wireless, delivering huge amount of data at consistent speeds and reducing latency is what’s powering our growth. And we’re doing this in a cost-efficient way. Virtualizing our network, combined with our suite of digital tools, also allows us to continue to improve the customer experience while identifying additional cost savings. And the progress we’ve made is evident in our results. During the second quarter, total agent calls decreased by 10% and total interactions were down by 7%. We also saw a 22% reduction in truck rolls, despite an over 5% increase in our customer base.

Add it up and Comcast is faring well with broadband revenue up 14.3% and business services sales up 10%. Even video was up 2.6%. Comcast reported second quarter earnings per share of 80 cents a share on revenue of $28.55 billion, up 20.4% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 84 cents a share compared to Wall Street estimates of 67 cents a share. More

Lundmark stepped in as CEO in March 2020, while company shares were losing value at speed, and a few months later launched a brand-new model to restructure Nokia.  
Bloomberg / Contributer / Getty Images
After a tough few years, Nokia is bouncing back. The company posted some better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of 2021 and a positive outlook for the remainder of the year, largely thanks to a successful operating strategy driven by the company’s new CEO Pekka Lundmark, which resulted in some big wins particularly in the sale of 5G equipment. The Finnish company generated €539 million ($640 million) in the last quarter, up 71% from the same time last year, when profits reached €316 million ($375 million).  

Looking at the first half of 2021, the boost to profits is even more striking: with €914 million ($1.08 billion), Nokia performed 153% better than the €348 million ($413 million) generated in H1 2020. “We are already seeing the benefits of our new operating model which helped us to deliver such a strong financial performance,” said Lundmark. “Overall, I am very happy with the progress made in the first half,” he continued, citing constant currency net sales up 9% year-on-year and a comparable operating margin of 12.8%. Nokia sustained double-digit growth in network infrastructure, but Lundmark stressed that the highlight of the second quarter was with the mobile network division of the company, which is dedicated to mobile network products, network deployment and technical support services, with a focus on 5G, ORAN and vRAN. In 5G particularly, Nokia is competing against telecoms giants the likes of Ericsson, Huawei and Samsung. The Finnish company has, to an extent, gained from the geopolitical tensions surrounding Huawei, which have led a number of countries to drop contracts with the Chinese company for the deployment of critical 5G infrastructure.  

This has provided an opportunity for competitors like Nokia to step in. For example, the UK’s largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services BT recently picked Nokia to build more 5G networks across the country, after a long-established partnership with Huawei. In addition to favorable geopolitical circumstances, Nokia has also benefitted from a new operating strategy implemented by Lundmark last year.Lundmark stepped in as CEO in March 2020 and a few months later launched a brand-new model to restructure Nokia in three phases, with the objective of better positioning the firm for changing markets and better respond to customer needs. This involved cutting up to 10,000 jobs to save €600 million by the end of 2023 – to be re-invested in the firm’s 5G networking business, but also into new products and research and development. Only four months into the execution of Lundmark’s re-structuring plans, it seems that the bet is paying off.  “The drastic changes and improved performance under Pekka’s stewardship are clearly evident,” Paolo Pescatore, analyst at PP Foresight, tells ZDNet. “Opportunities in 5G, misfortunes of others and focus on key products have helped reignite the business.” “Nokia’s latest and greatest 5G RAN kit will put it in good stead for future growth, which will help further cement its turnaround strategy.” The company effectively published an outlook for 2021 that was revised upwards, expecting net sales to reach up to $22.7 billion ($27 billion), up from the originally anticipated €21.8 billion ($25.9 billion).  Nokia nevertheless recognized that there remain headwinds in what is an increasingly competitive industry with few leading players, which is likely to build up pressure on the company to accelerate product roadmaps and cost competitiveness through additional 5G investments. “A Nokia resurgent is good and very much needed in an industry dominated by very few players,” says Pescatore. “However, it cannot rest on its laurels given the cut-throat nature of the networks business.” The pace of the economic recovery following the COVID-19 crisis was also cited as an element of concern; as well as the on-going shortage of semiconductors, which has the potential to cause trouble when it comes to procuring certain standard components.  More

I’ve been a Google Chrome user for, oh, a very long time. I switched to it because the competition had become stagnant and bloated.

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Now I’ve switched away from Google Chrome because, well, it’s become stagnant and bloated. The RAM usage and the way Chrome burns through battery life on laptops is insane and has gone to the point where it’s unacceptable. So, I’ve switched. I’ve switched to Brave. Brave is fast, secure, packed with privacy features, has a built-in ad-blocker, supports most of the Google Chrome extensions available, and there’s even an optional (paid-for premium) VPN. It’s a fully functional browser with everything you’d expect from a modern browser. Must read: Why you need to urgently update all your iPhones, iPads, and Macs – NOW!

Now, there are some downsides to switching to Brave, and I’ve detailed some of them here. These are less related to web browsing itself and more to do with the interface between Brave and the cryptocurrency community. The more I use Brave, the less this bothers me. One thing that I’m happy with about this shift is that I don’t feel like I’m losing much — especially where it comes to browser extensions. Basically, they just work. You go to the Google Chrome web store, find the extension, and download it.   I’ve heard from people in the past who have had problems with certain extensions, but I’ve not come across that. I imagine there are outliers, and if you know of any, let me know. It’s weird how browsing with Brave feels very much like browsing with Google Chrome, except I get far better performance (the speed with which pages load up has to be seen to be believed), better battery life (a good hour on my laptop), and far better privacy protection. Also, switching from Chrome to Brave was a snap. Everything worked, and because the two browsers share the Chromium heritage, everything felt familiar and easy to use. After a day or so, I’d totally forgotten that I wasn’t using Google Chrome. If you’re looking for a change from Google Chrome — or any of the other incumbent browsers — then take a look at Brave. I came to it having heard about it but with low expectations, and now I’m a total convert to the browser. Brave is available for Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, macOS Intel, macOS ARM64 and Linux, and can be downloaded for iOS and Android from the relevant app stores. I highly recommend it. More