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Category: Telecom

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Telecom & Telco news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Ericsson, Fraunhofer Institute demo industrial 5G for jet engine

    Ericsson, Fraunhofer Institute demo industrial 5G for jet engine

    Ericsson is partnering with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology to explore and develop industrial applications for 5G.

    The first example is producing so-called blade integrated disks, or blisks, for Germany-based jet engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines.

    Blisks are high-tech components where the disk and blades are produced as a single piece and serve the purpose of compressing the air inside jet engines. They are milled out of solid pieces of metal and have extremely high requirements towards accuracy and surface integrity.

    Typically the milling process takes 15-20 hours and the total lead time is around three to four months, including the coating processes and quality checks.

    At the trial Ericsson has built a 5G trial system operating on 3.5-GHz, which is connected to an acceleration sensor mounted directly on the blisk in the production machinery.

    Vibrations are transmitted in real time via 5G to the evaluation system. The very low latency of 5G technology helps correlate the vibration to the tool’s position and enable prompt adjustment of the production process.

    “Applying 5G in the manufacturing industry has many important benefits in terms of costs, quality, and flexibility. The ultra-low latency and very high bandwidth make it possible to control machines in real-time, reducing manufacturing costs and improving the quality of products,” Ericsson said.

    The Swedish vendor said the 5G-enabled production process can help a single factory save €27 million ($32.7 million) per year in efficiency. It also helps cut CO2 emissions – from both the production of blisks and their operation in jet engines – by some 16 million tons annually on a global basis.

    These efficiencies and benefits would be impossible if using fixed line technology because of the complexity of production, the vendor added.

    Ericsson said the Blisk project, which was presented at the Hanover Fair in Germany late April, is the company’s first published tangible case study.

    “The Blisk project is a perfect example of what is possible in the industrial context with 5G in the future. Ultra-low latency of 5G makes this industrial use case feasible,” said Arun Bansal, Ericsson’s senior vice president and head of market area for Europe and Latin America.

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  • 5G-ACIA created to promote 5G in industrial production

    5G-ACIA created to promote 5G in industrial production

    A number of key players from the telecoms, automation and manufacturing sectors have banded together to create a new alliance that aims to promote adoption of 5G in industrial production and to design it for industrial capability from the outset.

    The 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA), which was formed at the ZVEI in early April, brings together 26 leading companies including Ericsson, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Bosch, Huawei, Infineon, Intel, Mitsubishi, Nokia, Siemens, Vodafone, and Yokogawa.

    The 5G-ACIA is contributing to the standardization and regulation of 5G technologies. At the same time, the alliance is working to identify and analyze possible use cases and the associated requirements from the perspective of the industrial domain.

    Dr. Andreas Müller, chairman of 5G-ACIA, said the key objective of 5G-ACIA is to ensure the best possible applicability of 5G technology and 5G networks for connected industries, in particular the manufacturing and process industries.

    The alliance brings together important players in the fields of IoT and smart factories for the first time and will make it possible to align 5G with the needs of industries worldwide, Muller said in a statement.

    “5G will become the central nervous system of the Factory of the Future and will have a disruptive impact on industrial production,” he said. “There are many advantages to 5G, including a very powerful wireless networking technology that is suitable even for critical industrial applications.”

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  • SAP expands innovation footprint in APJ with the launch of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore

    SAP expands innovation footprint in APJ with the launch of SAP Leonardo Center Singapore

    SAP  today announced the launch of the SAP Leonardo Center Singapore, established to help customers, partners and the broader ecosystem of universities and start-ups across the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region to deliver faster innovation with less risk. This launch expands SAP’s innovation footprint in the region, adding to the three Innovation Centers and four SAP Labs in APJ. Globally, SAP spent €3,352 M on Research and Development in 2017.

    According to World Economic Forum, Singapore is the most competitive economy in Asia Pacific and third globally. The SAP Leonardo Center Singapore is the fifth in the global network of SAP Leonardo Centers. It is designed to serve as the “front-end” for APJ customers and partners to accelerate their digital innovation journeys using the capabilities of SAP Leonardo and Design Thinking. SAP Leonardo brings together Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data, Analytics and Data Intelligence on SAP Cloud Platform. It also applies SAP’s leading technology capabilities and deep knowledge of 25 industries, in a live technology-delivery environment to deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for every customer.

    “The SAP Leonardo Center in Singapore will showcase the art of the possible in digital innovation and help our customers scale quickly, easily and effectively,” said Scott Russell, President, SAP APJ. “Together with our customers and partners, we aim to leverage the SAP Leonardo Center Singapore as a think tank to drive purpose-led innovation that will ultimately improve the lives of one billion people and deliver the Intelligent Enterprise for over 70,000 customers in APJ by 2022. The SAP Leonardo Center in Singapore will play a key role in realizing our growth strategy and drive customer success in the new Intelligence era.”

    Collaborative business environment

    The SAP Leonardo Center Singapore aims to foster a collaborative environment for businesses, start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises to experiment and innovate. One of SAP APJ’s first SAP Leonardo customers in Korea is Hanon Systems. Headquartered in South Korea, Hanon Systems is a global leader in automotive thermal and energy management solutions, and an early-adopter of SAP Leonardo in APJ. With insight into the benefits of digital manufacturing, the company identified manufacturing performance and equipment health as areas of measurement to pilot the Leonardo platform at one of its plants in Europe. Robert Oh, Chief Information Officer and Business Transformation Executive at Hanon Systems, believes a supplier’s ability to compete in today’s automotive market is no longer measured by just its product offering. “At Hanon Systems, we believe our digital transformation can change the way we manufacture in a positive way to improve our productivity, increase our overall efficiency and further strengthen our customer relationships.”

    Hub for Ecosystem

    The SAP Leonardo Center Singapore also serves as a hub for SAP’s broader digital technology ecosystem including universities, startups, tech communities and accelerators. SAP APJ prepares the next-generation innovators with knowledge and skills for the digital future through the SAP University Alliances program, which exposes 1.7M students in educational institutions in APJ to innovative technologies. SAP APJ has established 13 Next-Gen labs in APJ with plans to open more in the future. SAP India designed a modular offering called i360 forAjeenkya DY Patil University, which includes SAP Leonardo IoT, SAP Leonardo Machine Learning and SAP Open SAP Learning. India has seen an increase in the uptake of modular offerings that focus on Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities. Demand for talent in India with skills in IoT, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Big Data and Analytics is high. Educational institutions have found merit in collaborating with technology firms to close this gap.

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  • MobiFone refunded after failed pay TV investment deal

    MobiFone refunded after failed pay TV investment deal

    The telecommunications giant has not repaid AVG investors. MobiFone has confirmed to authorities that it has been refunded in full from a private pay TV firm after the deal between these companies fell through.

    The state-run telecommunications giant said that a total of VND8.9 trillion ($390 million), equivalent to a 95 percent stake in Audio Visual Global JSC. (AVG), had been returned to the company on April 26.

    MobiFone has yet to return shares to AVG shareholders, and is now waiting for government inspectors to confirm the transfer before proceeding, the statement said.

    In early 2016, MobiFone announced that it was breaking into the pay TV market through the acquisition of a 95 percent stake in AVG, without revealing any information about the deal.

    After investigating the deal, the Government Inspectorate concluded that MobiFone’s deal to acquire AVG had violated investment laws and caused a loss of about VND7 trillion ($307 million) to the state.

    Multiple ministries, including the information ministry, were also found responsible for a number of wrongdoings relating to the deal.

    The canceled acquisition was brought up last week when Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said at a committee meeting that the government was determined to fight corruption without exception.

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  • Telenor Velocity hosted Pakistan’s first ‘IoT Hackathon’ in Lahore

    Telenor Velocity hosted Pakistan’s first ‘IoT Hackathon’ in Lahore

     

    Pakistan’s first ever Internet of Things (IoT) based Hackathon successfully concluded by Telenor Velocity in Lahore on 5th May. The two day event brought together innovators, key industry players, startups and experts to witness and participate in the historic event where Telenor Velocity partnered with Plan9 and DIY Geeks to provide passionate developers the opportunity to innovate and present one click digitized solutions for everyday problems.

    The IoT Hackathon took place at Arfa Software Technology Park, the province’s hub of technological innovation. At the event Waqar Nayyar, Head of IoT at Telenor Pakistan, introduced the new IoT Platform and IOT products to the participants along with sharing Telenor Pakistan’s vision of fostering a digital revolution in the country and the company’s extraordinary initiatives in the IOT ecosystem. Hackathon was attended by Ayub Ghauri – CEO Netsol, Ather Osama – Member Science & Technology and ICT at Planning Commission, Kashif Moin – CEO Zigron, Barkan Saeed – Chairman P@SHA, Dr. Umar Saif – Chairman PITB, Burhan Rasool – GM PITB, Atif Mumtaz, Director PITB and officials from Telenor Pakistan and Plan9.

    Speaking at the event, Dr. Saad Ghazanfar Kiyani, Head of Digital Partnerships, Telenor Pakistan said, “Telenor Pakistan has always been at the forefront of digital innovation and technology in the country and firmly believes in its power to deliver greater empowerment for our societies. The IoT Hackathon is Telenor Pakistan’s investment in the future and we hope to bring great minds together to build it.”

    Innovators were invited from across the country for the Hackathon to devise innovative solutions for day to day problems and promote socioeconomic progress and wellbeing. Participating developers pitched their ideas before a panel of judges on the last day while they worked collaboratively to bring the products and solutions to life over the past two days. Their ideas were mentored by top-industry experts, developers, and investors to help them leverage the full potential of Telenor’s IoT platform for potential up scaling.

    The judges panel comprised of Sophia Hasnain – CEO linked things, Faizan & Arsalan – co-founders Wattie.io, Ehtisham Rao – CEO and founder ServUp, Usama – CEO DIYGeeks, Waqar Nayyar – Head of IoT, Telenor Pakistan – Dr. Adnan Jabbar, Consultant IoT and Muhammad Azm Saeed Dar, Head of IoT partner solutions. The panel evaluated pitched ideas and reviewed finished products to announce the winners. ‘Smart Mirror’ was declared the winner of the event and secured a slot in Telenor Velocity’s next cohort along with prize money of PKR 125,000. ‘JF Labs’ and ‘Design IT’ were announced as the runner ups who received prize money of PKR 50,000 and PKR 25,000.

    Telenor Pakistan will continue to work with the winners of the Hackathon to help them refine and scale their products and solutions. The event also provided developers the opportunity to connect with similar startups, likeminded entrepreneurs and investor for potential future collaborations.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Airtel sell 25% of its African unit

    Airtel sell 25% of its African unit

    India’s Bharti Airtel reportedly plans to raise up to $1.5 billion through a public listing of Bharti Airtel International, the holding company for its African operations.

    The operator plans to dilute a 25% stake into the holding company for roughly $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

    The public listing is expected to take place in early 2019, the sources said. At the upper end of the estimate, Bharti Airtel International would be valued at $6 billion.

    Netherlands-registered Bharti Airtel International is the holding company of Airtel’s operations in 14 African markets – Nigeria, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.

    Airtel’s African operations have finally started making profits seven years after Airtel entered the African market with the $9 billion acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain’s African assets. The African operations reported their first full year of profit for the financial year of around 18.27 billion rupees ($273.4 million).

    A global listing for Bharti Airtel International is expected to help the parent company get better value for its African operations, deleverage its balance sheet, and help it raise funds to invest in its core Indian mobile business to help it better compete in a tight market.

  • Telstra outage leads to 000 disruption

    Telstra outage leads to 000 disruption

    Australian incumbent operator Telstra has repaired a damaged fiber cable that led to intermittent disruptions to the nation’s 000 emergency call service in half of the nation’s states.

    The operator said a preliminary investigation indicates that the disruption was caused by fire damage consistent with a lightning strike.

    The disruption commenced at around 2am on Friday, and persisted until impacted routers were restored at about 4:50am, after which services progressively returned to normal. The cable was fixed at around 11am.

    While most call traffic was diverted to alternative cable and equipment, an issue occurred with the routing of some traffic which resulted in intermittent disruptions to 000 calls.

    The disruption impacted some callers in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The Queensland Ambulance Service has identified 11 emergency calls that experienced delays calling through its operations centers as a result of the disruption, while a NSW Ambulance commissioner complained that the operator did not inform it about the outage.

    Other representatives of emergency services departments have stated that it is difficult to ascertain how many emergency calls failed to get through, or if anybody died or was harmed as a result of the outage.

    The damage also reportedly caused disruptions to other telephony services as well as EFTPOS machines and street lighting.

    The federal government has revealed it will conduct a formal investigation into the outage, including the cause of the fire and the failure of Telstra’s contingency plans. The operator may face significant financial penalties as a result of the investigation.

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  • Hawaiki Cable deployment nearly complete

    Hawaiki Cable deployment nearly complete

    The Hawaiki cable is nearly complete, according to the company and TE Subcom. Each of the cable landings is complete, the final splice has been made, and final testing will begin shortly. That puts them on track to officially bring the cable online next month.

    The 15,000km Hawaiki cable Cable System will connect Oregon with Australia and New Zealand, making stops in American Samoa and Hawaii along the way. There are also stubbed branch units for New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga for the future.

    The system’s theoretical capacity is 43Tbps, which will add significantly to that which is available on the direct route down under. It has taken many years and iterations by those involved to make it happen.

     

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  • South Korea to hold 5G auction June 15

    South Korea to hold 5G auction June 15

    The South Korean government has announced plans to hold an auction for 3.5-GHz and 28-GHz 5G spectrum on June 15.

    The government has also decided to go with its first proposed option of distributing the spectrum evenly among the nation’s three operators – SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ – rather than allocating the largest portion of spectrum to the highest bidder.

    Likewise, the government plans to limit bid amounts to stop the auction from being overly competitive and burdening the winners with high spectrum costs.

    With the move, the ICT ministry hopes to set the stage for the commercialization of 5G technology in South Korea.

    South Korean operators are expected to be among the earliest adopters of 5G technology. Currently KT has announced plans to launch commercial 5G services in March, and is expected to be the first South Korean operator to go live with the technology. But both KT and LG U+ have significant 5G rollout plans of their own. The operators already trialed 5G during the recent PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

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  • MyRepublic gets $52m funding injection

    MyRepublic gets $52m funding injection

    Singapore-based ISP MyRepublic has secured a S$70 million ($51.9 million) investment to pursue further regional expansion and establish MVNO operations.

    The investment from the Makara Innovation Fund will be used to expand the company’s geographical footprint and further develop its platform, MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues said.

    “We have been developing our proprietary cloud platform for the past five years, which has enabled us to deploy a single operational platform across countries and break industry records by turning EBITDA-positive within two years of entering each new market,” he said.

    “The investment will supercharge the platform’s development, support our aggressive growth path to expand our regional footprint within a record-breaking timeframe and deliver an even wider range of services.”

    Possible new markets include Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, he said.

    As part of this expansion drive, the company is pursuing launching MVNO operations in each of its four current operating markets – Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand.

    MyRepublic had initially been planning to commence MVNO services in Singapore only by the end of this year, but due to its expanded ambitions launch plans will be held over to the first quarter of 2018.

    MyRepublic is meanwhile targeting MVNO launches in Australia and Indonesia by the middle of next year.

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  • Korean telcos object to universal fare plan

    Korean telcos object to universal fare plan

    South Korean operators are protesting the government’s proposed introduction of a “universal fare plan” that would require the market’s top operator to provide a low-cost plan to help households reduce mobile costs.

    The government is planning to revise the Telecommunications Business Act to require the top ranked operator to offer a plan including 200 minutes of voice calls and 1GB of data for around 20,000 won ($19).

    While the regulation would technically only impact incumbent SK Telecom, rivals KT and LG U+ have complained they would have no choice but to release similar plans to remain competitive.

    The three operators are protesting the government’s plans on the basis that it could be devastating to their profitability – SK Telecom estimates that operating profits for the three companies could be reduced by up to 60% as a result of the move – and that it imposes too much state intervention into their businesses.

    This would be coming at a time when operators will need to make huge investments in 5G infrastructure to support their goals of launching 5G services in early 2019.

    Government and SK Telecom officials failed to reach a consensus during a meeting to discuss the proposed change by the Regulatory Reform Committee late last month, the report states. The committee plans to hold a new meeting next week to continue the discussion.

    Under the proposal, the universal fare plan would be revised every two years. But SK Telecom has argued that the plan would effectively force operators not to conduct marketing activities and eliminate the incentive to compete with each other.

  • MyRepublic signs MVNO agreement with StarHub

    MyRepublic signs MVNO agreement with StarHub

    Singapore fiber ISP MyRepublic has formed an MVNO agreement with StarHub to support its intention of launching mobile services.

    The agreement will allow MyRepublic to provide mobile services despite failing to win the auction for Singapore’s fourth telco license.

    Announcing the agreement, MyRepublic said it was encouraged to continue with its mobile ambitions by the strong response to a request for registrations of interest during its HetNet Mobility Trial in Jurong.

    We made a promise and we want to stand by that promise,” Myrepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues said.

    “We promised that MyRepublic would bring a better kind of mobile service to Singapore, and we believe we can still do that. And we definitely want to thank our friends and supporters for believing in us.”

    The company has been building an MVNO platform in the cloud in advance of the launch of mobile services.

    MyRepublic has revealed plans to target its mobile services at younger and more technology savvy Singaporeans. The company said it plans to launch the services “very soon.”

    MyRepublic has also previously announced plans to pursue MVNO operations across its other operating markets of Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand.

  • Huawei Marine, EGS launch PEACE project marine survey

    Huawei Marine, EGS launch PEACE project marine survey

    Huawei Marine announced Wednesday that the marine survey for the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) submarine cable, which connects South Asia with East Africa, is now underway.

    The PEACE submarine cable system will connect Pakistan, Djibouti, Kenya, Egypt, and other countries along the Red Sea with a total system length of 8,800km.

    Huawei Marine said it is working with its long-term partner EGS Ltd. to conduct a hydrographic and geophysical survey of the seabed along the planned cable route.

    According to Huawei Marine, EGS’ specialized survey vessel the RV Ridley Thomas, has arrived in the region to commence offshore survey operations.

    The PEACE project, signed in November 2017 between Huawei Marine and Tropical Science, is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2019.

    Zhang Hongxiang, project director for Huawei Marine, said the cable system, which is  based on 200G WDM technology, will support the rapid development of the East African regional economy and facilitate connectivity between Asia, Africa and Europe.

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  • T-Mobile and Sprint announce merger plans

    T-Mobile and Sprint announce merger plans

    US operators T-Mobile US and Sprint have announced an agreement to merge in an all-stock combination. The combined company will be named T-Mobile, will initially serve some 127 million customers, and will be led by current T-Mobile US CEO John Legere.

    The deal is an important step toward 5G for both companies, which were facing some big capex bills if they tried to do it alone. While the integration of the two companies’ networks will be quite a task, the fact that they can combine their 5G buildout efforts at an earlier stage will surely help a lot.

    Well, it will if the deal gets approved relatively quickly. So now that the companies have made up their minds, all eyes will turn toward the Trump administration’s regulators and, umm, twitter. The last time T-Mobile US and Sprint were close to a deal, regulators threw ice water on the concept. There are reasons to expect the situation to be different this time, but there is plenty of uncertainty in just what the response will be.

    As for the deal, each Sprint shareholder will receive 0.10256 T-Mobile share per Sprint share, which puts the total enterprise value of the combined company at $146 billion. DT’s share of the company will be about 42%, while Japan’s Softbank would own 27%, the rest being publicly traded. Synergies of about $6 billion in annual cost savings are anticipated.

    One sector that probably would in some ways have preferred to not have a deal is the metro fiber infrastructure space, which would understandably like to build out four 5G backhaul networks rather than three. But on the other hand, what they might see is one effort start earlier with the funding to do it right rather than two efforts trailing the field and cutting corners.

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  • Bharti Airtel launches wholesale voice digital platform

    Bharti Airtel launches wholesale voice digital platform

    India’s Bharti Airtel has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind carrier digital platform for wholesale voice services.

    The new Global Voice service will allow global operators to enter wholesale voice arrangements with Airtel at the click of a button.

    The platform will offer paperless sign-up, quick voice interconnects and real-time traffic analysis for carriers worldwide.

    Customers will be able to buy voice termination services from Airtel and propose sell rates for their target markets.

    Airtel said Global Voice can reduce on-boarding time to a matter of hours. It also offers live rates for routes across the world for faster decision making during traffic exchange.

    Users will also be able to access various real-time online reports based on usage analytics tracking KPIs such as traffic, traffic rates and payments for a selected destination.

    Airtel also plans to soon provision a single window on the digital platform for product discovery, on-boarding, billing, payment, enquiry, and support across multiple B2B products.“

    “This is yet another digital innovation from Airtel to empower our customers, who can now leverage Airtel’s global voice network on a real-time basis with high quality voice termination,” Airtel director and CEO for global voice and data Ajay Chitkara said.

    “The platform will bring enhanced efficiency, convenience, agility and transparency and further strengthen our position as the preferred partner for customers across the world.”

    Airtel’s worldwide network covers 250,000 route kilometers across 50 countries in five continents and already terminates 23 billion voice minutes globally.

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