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Saudi Arabia Participates in Global Forum on Technology in Paris

The Kingdom’s participation at the forum aimed at exchanging expertise and views on the developments in the IT sector.
The Kingdom’s participation at the forum aimed at exchanging expertise and views on the developments in the IT sector.
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Saudi Arabia Participates in Global Forum on Technology in Paris

The Kingdom’s participation at the forum aimed at exchanging expertise and views on the developments in the IT sector.
The Kingdom’s participation at the forum aimed at exchanging expertise and views on the developments in the IT sector.

Saudi Arabia has participated in the Global Forum on Technology held by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

The Kingdom’s participation at the forum, represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), aimed at exchanging expertise and views on the developments in the IT sector at the national and global levels.

Participating in a panel session titled “digital technology gap,” Daniah Orkoubi, the Undersecretary of MCIT for Technological Foresight & Digital Economy, reviewed the procedures the Kingdom has taken to lay the foundations of an efficient digital infrastructure under the targets of the Saudi Vision 2030.

She also reviewed the Kingdom's programs to empower Saudi women and support digital talents.

Orkoub pointed out that the Kingdom also has the largest number of digital talents in the region, with 340,000 male and female workers in the communications and IT sector.

She highlighted the Kingdom’s efforts to bridge the digital gap through several initiatives, chiefly the Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) Program, in a way that contributes to achieving inclusiveness and prosperity of human communities.

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Skype's Final Call Set for May as Microsoft Prioritizes Teams

FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Skype logo is placed in front of a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Skype logo is placed in front of a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Skype's Final Call Set for May as Microsoft Prioritizes Teams

FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Skype logo is placed in front of a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed Skype logo is placed in front of a keyboard in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Skype will ring for the last time on May 5 as owner Microsoft retires the two-decade-old internet calling service that redefined how people connect across borders.
Shutting down Skype will help Microsoft focus on its homegrown Teams service by simplifying its communication offerings, the software giant said on Friday.
Founded in 2003, Skype's cheap audio and video calls quickly disrupted the landline industry in the early 2000s and made the company a household name boasting hundreds of millions of users at its peak. But the platform has struggled to keep up with easier-to-use and more reliable rivals such as Zoom and Salesforce's Slack in recent years.
The decline was partly because Skype's underlying technology was not suited for the smartphone era.
When the pandemic and work-from-home fueled the need for online business calls, Microsoft batted for Teams by aggressively integrating it with other Office apps to tap corporate users — once a major base for Skype.
To ease the transition from the platform, its users will be able to log into Teams for free on any supported device using their existing credentials, with chats and contacts migrating automatically.
With that, Skype will become the latest in a series of high-flying bets that Microsoft has mishandled, such as the Internet Explorer web browser and its Windows Phone. Other big tech firms have also struggled with online communication tools, with Google making several attempts through apps including Hangouts and Duo, Reuters reported.
It was not clear how many users or employees would be impacted by the move. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for the figure.
When Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion after outbidding Google and Facebook — its largest deal at the time — the service had around 150 million monthly users; by 2020, that number had fallen to roughly 23 million, despite a brief resurgence during the pandemic.
Microsoft said on Friday "Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications".
"We are honored to have been part of the journey."