Skip to main content

Indian Outsourcing Hit Hard

Outsourcing has become a major bone of contention in a number of countries. You call for help or tech support and find yourself talking to someone in India. Well, for the moment your probablywon’t.   The undersea communications break that occurred near Egypt on Wednesday is having major repercussions. Not only has it disrupted Internet access to much of the Middle East andIndia, but the associated phone problems have hurt the call center business in India.   According to the BBC, about 50% of India’s bandwidth is down,and when you consider that outsourced business in the country, serving IT and other businesses, is worth $48 billion, that’s a major blow.   "The companies that serve the US eastcoast and the UK are worst affected," Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of India, told AP. "The delay is very bad in some cases. They have to arrange back-up plans or they have to accept the poor quality for the time being until the fibre isrestored."   It could take up to a week for full service to be restored, experts say.

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
PayPal vs. Venmo vs. Cash App vs. Apple Cash: which app should you use?
PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Apple Wallet apps on an iPhone.

We’re getting closer every day to an entirely cashless society. While some folks may still carry around a few bucks for emergencies, electronic payments are accepted nearly everywhere, and as mobile wallets expand, even traditional credit and debit cards are starting to fall by the wayside.

That means many of us are past the days of tossing a few bills onto the table to pay our share of a restaurant tab or slipping our pal a couple of bucks to help them out. Now, even those things are more easily doable from our smartphones than our physical wallets.

Read more
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more