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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.

  • M1 launches data-centric mobile plans

    M1 launches data-centric mobile plans

    Singapore’s M1 has expanded its data-heavy mySIM mobile plans to bundle the offers with handset subsidies.

    M1 launched a range of SIM-only plans in 2015 that offered large data allocations for customers who do not need a new handset.

    Building on the popularity of this plan, M1 has unveiled the new mySIMe bundled mobile plans, which start at S$40 for 5GB of local data, 100 minutes of voice calls and 100 SMS. M1 has also introduced a S$70 plan with 15GB of data and a S$90 plan with 30GB.

    The high-end S$118 plan meanwhile offers unlimited local data, SMS and voice, while a S$15 add-on can provide unlimited voice calls for the three other plans in the range.

    In addition, a S$10 Data Passport add-on will allow customers to use their local data bundles across 56 destinations worldwide, and a S$12 per month add-on will allow customers to share their plan bundles across up to three lines – this is not available for the unlimited plan.

    Our SIM-only mySIM plans have proven to be popular with our customers. We are now giving them the option to get their favorite smartphone or tablet at a more affordable price with the mySIMe plans,” M1 CMO P Subramaniam said.

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  • Velox launches cloud PBX in Singapore

    Velox launches cloud PBX in Singapore

    Singapore startup Velox Networks has launched a new VoIP and cloud based private branch exchange (PBX) communications platform.

    Velox said the deployment will allow it to offer end-to-end communications services at a fraction of the costs charged by the incumbents – the company is promising business customers prices up to 95% lower than prevailing rates.

    The company has developed a customizable business communications platform               with functionalities including voicemail to email, groups, IVR and real-time updates on telecoms expenditure.

    The Velox mobile application will route landline calls to data connected mobile phones and customers will be able to port their current DID numbers to the Velox network.

    “Velox Networks aims to remove impediments to free-flowing communications with technological solutions so our customers can focus on relationships, ideas and growth, not on getting technology to work,” Velox founder and CEO Martin Nygate said.

    “With the internet as our network, no physical infrastructure and lean manpower requirements, Velox Networks is raising the bar for quality, inexpensive telecommunication services in Singapore.”

    He said Singapore and the wider region are lagging behind the US and Europe in the adoption of cloud-based PBXs, and are still relying on physical PBXs for their business communications needs.

  • Operators stepping up preparations for 5G

    Operators stepping up preparations for 5G

    Many operators have accelerated preparations for the arrival of 5G, and are increasingly looking to the enterprise as well as the consumer market as potential customers, research from Ericsson indicates.

    A survey of operators that have publicly announced intentions to deploy 5G shows that 78% are conducting 5G trials, up from just 32% during a similar survey last year.

    In addition, 28% of the respondents plan to deploy 5G next year. Operators have meanwhile further evolved their business strategies for 5G services to extend beyond the consumer market.

    “In the 2016 survey, 90% of the respondents pointed to consumers as the main segment in their 5G business planning,” Ericsson head of 5G commercialization Thomas Noren explained.

    “This year, it is an even split between three segments and operators have identified business opportunities not only in the consumer segment but also with enterprise users and specialized industries.”

    With operators considering the consumer market to be becoming saturated, 5G planning has been more evenly distributed across specialized industry segments (58%), business users (56%), and consumers (52%).

    The industry segments considered to have the most potential include media and entertainment, automotive and public transport, with energy and utilities as well as healthcare being considered other attractive potential markets.

    The survey also found that a clear majority of operators believe that the IoT will play an important role in the 5G ecosystem.

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  • Singtel, Ericsson to establish 5G CoE

    Singtel, Ericsson to establish 5G CoE

    Singtel and Ericsson have announced plans to jointly establish Singapore’s first 5G Center of Excellence to spearhead Singapore’s evolution to 5G.

    The center will receive co-funding from both Singtel and Ericsson, with the companies committing an initial $2 million investment for the next three years.

    It will seek to train 100 Singtel engineers in the critical competencies involved in designing and operating a 5G network, with Ericsson conducting workshops, field testing and providing hands-on experience.

    The center will also be open to Singapore’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus as well as its network of minority-owned regional mobile associates in Asia and Africa.

    “This is a critical next step in our journey to 5G. We’re pleased to partner Ericsson to enhance our 5G core competencies and create a robust 5G ecosystem that will allow Singtel and our enterprise customers to benefit from the anticipated growth opportunities 5G will bring,” Singtel group CTO Mark Chong said.

    “We invite customers in various verticals, such as transportation, port operations and next-generation manufacturing, to start shaping their new digital business models with us.”

    Singtel also plans to conduct 5G demos from its Comcentre headquarters to showcase potential future 5G applications such as immersive augmented reality experiences, haptic feedback for surgical operations and remote medical training.

    Next year Singtel also plans to deploy a 5G test bed to allow it to conduct live 5G field trials with enterprise customers, and engage research and tertiary institutions on potential collaborations to test 5G radios and use cases.

  • Airtel to buy Tata Group’s consumer mobile business

    Airtel to buy Tata Group’s consumer mobile business

    India’s Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire Tata Teleservices’ consumer mobile businesses as part of the wave of consolidation sweeping the sector.

    Under the agreement, Airtel will absorb Tata Teleservices’ consumer mobile businesses across 19 of India’s 22 telecoms circles, the Economic Times reported.

    The acquisition has been approved by the boards of Airtel, Tata Sons, Tata Telervices and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra.

    It will cover all customers and assets of Tata’s consumer mobile business, including 178.5 MHz of spectrum across the 850-MHz, 1800-MHz and 2100-MHz bands. It will also provide Airtel with a right to use part of Tata’s fiber network.

    According to the report, the merger is being conducted on a debt and cash free basis, but Airtel will assume part of Tata’s unpaid spectrum acquisition debt.

    The deal is a lifeline for Tata Group, which had been considering shutting down Tata Teleservices altogether due to ongoing losses. The company will split off and retain ownership of Tata Teleservices’ enterprise fixed line and broadband business.

    The company is in initial stages of exploring combining this enterprise business with Tata Communications and its retail fixed line and broadband business with Tata Sky. Tata also plans to retain its stake in tower company Viom Networks.

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  • Orange Business, Microsoft sign IoT partnership

    Orange Business, Microsoft sign IoT partnership

    Orange Business Services and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver large-scale, end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for the manufacturing sector.

    The Orange modular IoT solution, Datavenue, accompanied by Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, aims to help enterprises transition to Industry 4.0 and optimize the entire manufacturing value chain.

    Through this collaboration, companies can take advantage of the combined expertise of Orange and Microsoft regarding data protection, as well as device and data management.

    This includes the opportunity to leverage Orange Business Services’ many IoT connectivity options, in particular LoRa. Use cases range from supply chain and smart inventory management to digital operations, such as predictive maintenance, employee safety and facility and equipment management.

    For its long-term customer e.l.m. leblanc, Orange delivered a customized IoT platform on Microsoft Azure, which provides a tailored solution for remote monitoring, along with curative and predictive maintenance.

    A subsidiary of the Bosch Group, e.l.m. leblanc manufactures gas boilers and water-heaters since 1932. The company is a major player in the French housing and industrial markets for heating and cooling systems and hot water for sanitary use.

    “Using the Azure Cloud allows for high-level scalability and efficient machine learning solutions with reasonable costs,” of e.l.m. leblanc CEO Philippe Laforge said.

    The remote monitoring solution collects the boiler’s data and alerts technicians of any malfunction. This allows for more efficient maintenance intervention, with fine-tuned predictions on the probable causes of failure based on real-time data analytics.

    Preemptive alerts can also be raised by the platform through predictive maintenance algorithms. Benefits include optimization of intervention processes, and increased end-customer satisfaction, thanks to innovative and responsive customer support.

    In order to accelerate the roll out of industrial projects, Azure IoT Suite provides pre-packaged solutions and allows companies to swiftly get familiar with the set-up and explore the most common IoT project scenarios, including remote monitoring, predictive maintenance and connected factories.

    The software environment provided by Microsoft will allow for the use of advanced solutions such as Cortana Intelligence Suite (advanced analytics and AI), Power BI (data visualization) and Mobile Apps (Xamarin) to ensure a flawless mobile user experience.

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  • ZTE, Huawei sign circular design commitment with KPN

    ZTE, Huawei sign circular design commitment with KPN

    ZTE and Huawei have both committed to producing telecoms equipment for Dutch operator KPN that is circular by design by 2025, to reduce waste and emissions and improve energy efficiency.

    A circular design involves minimizing waste, emissions and energy leakage by recycling, repairing and reusing components and employing a long-lasting design.

    Huawei, ZTE and five other KPN suppliers have now signed the KPN Circular Manifesto, agreeing to implement a circular design for products manufactured for the operator by 2025.

    “Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges in our society and it’s time for action, not words.  As the Netherland’s largest ICT provider, we recognize that we have a leading role to play to enable the necessary transition towards a sustainable and increasingly circular economy. That’s why we’re implementing our own circular economy target with a demanding timeline,” KPN CEO Eelco Blok said.

    Huawei said that to achieve its commitment, the vendor plans to incorporate design principles of easy take-bake, maintenance, recycling reuse and maximizing product lifespan.

    “For years Huawei and KPN have been working together successfully to improve KPN’s energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. Now we need to transition from a linear to a circular way of working,” Huawei Netherlands CEO Steven Cai said.

    “It is very commendable that KPN is taking a lead and involving partners in the process. Together with KPN, we’ll take joint responsibility to proactively drive an energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and low-carbon society.”

    KPN was recently recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as the world’s most sustainable operator, after having lowered its annual energy consumption over the past six years. The operator is on track to reduce its energy consumption by 50% by 2030 compared to 2010, despite the anticipated continued exponential growth in data traffic.

  • Myanmar’s Global Technology to deploy LTE

    Myanmar’s Global Technology to deploy LTE

    Myanmar broadband service provider Global Technology Group has revealed plans to roll out LTE-based wireless broadband services in 30 cities starting in April.

    The operator plans offer high-end wireless broadband services to both residential and business customers.

    The rollout will cover cities in the Nay Pyi Taw, Magway, Bagon, Mon, Kayin and Tanintharyi regions, to cater to an anticipated spike in demand for data traffic as a result of the growing popularity of streaming based services.

    Global Technology Group secured a network facilities service license in 2015 and a fiber network license in March. So far the operator has deployed FTTx based broadband services to the Yangon, Mandalay and Bago regions.

    The company competes with state-owned operator Myanmar Post and Telecom (MPT), which commenced an FTTH deployment in August and currently serves over 80% of the nation’s FTTH customers.

    MPT has announced a target of expanding the reach of its FTTH network to cover the entire country in 2018.

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  • Smart to double LTE capacity in two cities

    Smart to double LTE capacity in two cities

    The Philippines’ Smart Communications plans to upgrade its cell sites in Marikina and Quezon City in the latest phase of its network expansion and modernization program.

    The PLDT subsidiary plans to double its LTE cell sites in the two areas, and aims to boost the coverage of its 700-MHz and 1800-MHz based network to both improve indoor coverage and enhance each cell site’s capacity.

    Smart has to date finished its LTE rollout in major urban hubs Metro Cebu and Metro Davao, in the island resort of Boracay, and in Rizal province. Deployment is underway in Metro Manila, and the operator plans to speed up its LTE network deployment to cater to growing demand.

    Smart is conducting the upgrade in stages to minimize disruption, according to PLDT and Smart SVP for network planning and engineering Mario Tamoyo.

    “By continuously upgrading our networks, we are leading the way toward improving internet and digital services for Filipinos,” he said.

    “From the work that we’ve already completed, our customers are already reporting much improved LTE and 3G experience. They will enjoy progressively better mobile data services in the next few months, particularly for those using LTE devices.”

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  • Tata Tele informs govt of shutdown plans

    Tata Tele informs govt of shutdown plans

    India’s Tata Group has reportedly informally notified the government of plans to shut down its wireless business Tata Teleservices after 21 years in operation.

    Tata Group executives have been meeting with Department of Telecom and other government officials to discuss ways of surrendering or selling off the struggling Tata Teleservices’ spectrum assets.

    According to the report, which cites unnamed sources, the operator will have 60 days to complete the wind-down process once it formally begins. The company will need to give customers 30 days’ notice of its intent to shut down.

    Tata Teleservices was launched in 1996 as a landline company, but moved into mobile services in 2008 under a partnership with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo.

    After DoCoMo decided to enter the loss-making JV in 2014 the company pursued a sale to larger rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, but these talks fell through, prompting parent company Tata Group to consider shutting down the operations instead.

    On the record, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran would not confirm whether a shut down will take place, but said he will have to make a “tough call” surrounding the future of the venture.

    If it takes place, the closure will affect around 5,000 Tata Teleservices employees nationwide.

  • Nokia launches carrier-grade home Wi-Fi suite

    Nokia launches carrier-grade home Wi-Fi suite

    The product portfolio will consist of a line of Wi-Fi gateways and extenders for operators to offer their customers to improve the user experience and decrease Wi-Fi related support costs.

    Operators will be able to offer a managed in-home Wi-Fi solution which aims to reduce the volume of customer support calls related to poor in-home connectivity and reduce churn.

    The portfolio also utilizes a Broadcom WLAN chipset to analyze and avoid interference effects caused by other Wi-Fi and non Wi-Fi devices, minimizing connectivity issues. The Nokia Wi-Fi gateways can identify 17 different interference sources at both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz.

    “Everyone knows how tedious malfunctioning Wi-Fi networks can be. People demand instant connectivity and perfect coverage throughout their homes. Nokia in-home Wi-Fi delivers just that,” Nokia SVP and GM for broadband carrier access Greg Fischer said.

    “Nokia Wi-Fi will be a great tool for service providers to increase customer loyalty and focus on new revenue streams. As they lease the central home gateway and have a trusted relationship with subscribers, they have a key role to play in delivering the Digital Home.”

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  • Huawei, SUSE building mission-critical server

    Huawei, SUSE building mission-critical server

    At SUSECON 2017, Huawei and Linux-based operating system developer SUSE announced a expanded partnership to build a more reliable Mission Critical Server for enterprise customers.

    The server will support memory module hot swap, helping customers slash unplanned maintenance time while keeping their production systems up and running.

    The solution will run on Huawei’s 16-/32-socket KunLun Mission Critical Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. It strengthens both companies’ lineup of enterprise mission-critical offerings.

    The Huawei KunLun Mission Critical Server is specifically engineered for critical workloads such as enterprise database, decision support, and business processing. Supporting 8, 16, or 32 Intel processors with up to 32 TB in-memory computing, the KunLun server is capable of processing massive amounts of data even in large-scale in-memory database systems.

    “Huawei is teaming up with SUSE to jointly launch the in-memory computing hot swap solution built on the Huawei 16-/32-socket KunLun Mission Critical Server and the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server RAS enhanced feature package,” Huawei IT server product line president Qiu Long said.

    “This solution will ensure continuous, stable running of enterprise business-critical applications and reduce unplanned downtime. Supporting memory online maintenance, it reduces unplanned system outage caused by memory faults to almost zero, thereby boosting the reliability of enterprise critical applications.”

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  • Ericsson picks new chair to guide recovery efforts

    Ericsson picks new chair to guide recovery efforts

    Ericsson has nominated former mining equipment provider Atlas Copco CEO Ronnie Leten as its new chairman to assist with the struggling vendor’s recovery efforts.

    Leten will stand for election at a shareholder vote on March 28 as Ericsson’s pick for the successor to Leif Johansson, who announced in July that he won’t make himself available for re-election.

    As well as his role as president and CEO of Atlas Copco, Leten is currently a board member of bearing and seal manufacturer SKF, chairman of home appliance maker Electrolux and proposed chairman of planned Atlas Copco division Epiroc.

    Despite his lack of telecoms industry experience, the chairman of Ericsson’s nominating committee Johan Forssell said the committee believes Leten is the right pick for the job.

    “Ronnie Leten has a very strong track record when it comes to value creation,” Forssell said. Under his tenure, Atlas Copco has seen its shares rise twice as high as the European industrial sector index.

    “Mr Leten is a very skilled businessman, technically savvy and strategically versatile. Furthermore, he has significant experience from digitalization of major operations, which will be beneficial for Ericsson’s focused work together with its customers.”

    The committee has also proposed that Kurt Jofs, the leader of Ericsson’s networks business between 2003 and 2008, rejoin the company as a new board member.

    “With Mr Jofs’ deep knowledge of and background from the telecom and IT-industry, not least from his previous tenure at Ericsson, we believe that he will contribute complementary skills and experience to Ericsson’s Board. With these changes, the Nomination Committee believes that the company is given the right conditions for realizing its long-term potential,” Forssell said.

  • Singtel to be first in SEA to launch Google’s Pixel 2 XL

    Singtel to be first in SEA to launch Google’s Pixel 2 XL

    Singtel has signed on as the exclusive telco partner in Singapore for Google’s planned Pixel 2 XL smartphone.

    The operator will become the first in Southeast Asia to launch the device for customers when it is launched on November 15, Singtel said.

    The Cat 11 LTE compatible Pixel 2 XL will support data speeds of up to 500Mbps island-wide using Singtel’s LTE-Advanced network. It will also support a localized version of the Google Assistant virtual assistant service, which will be launched soon for use with Singaporean English.

    The device is now available for pre-order on Singtel’s website.

    “We’re excited to bring the Pixel 2 XL to Singapore. It is a device that many Android fans here have been eagerly waiting for, and we are sure they will be amazed by its innovative features,” Singtel CEO consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon said.

    “With our extensive 4G network speeds and new Combo plans, coupled with our unlimited data options, customers will enjoy the optimal Google Pixel 2 XL experience.”

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  • NEC completes green energy tower demo in India

    NEC completes green energy tower demo in India

    NEC has completed a demonstration in India involving use of renewable energy management technology at telecoms tower sites with unstable power supplies.

    The project incorporated solar power photovoltaic generation systems and lithium-ion rechargeable battery systems to reduce reliance on diesel generators as backup power sources.

    Indian tower companies are under pressure to reduce fuel consumption by diesel generators due to cost reduction requirements and the conditions outlined in the Indian government’s Green Telecom policy.

    The demonstration project was organized by the Indian government in collaboration with its Japanese counterpart and overseen by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). NEC was selected to implement the project in 2014.

    “NEC is focused on providing solutions for society that are friendly to people and the Earth,” NEC general manager for ESS Michihiro Ezawa said.

    “With approximately 400,000 telecom tower sites throughout India, there is a great deal of promise for these technologies to significantly reduce the impact on our environment, while improving business conditions. Moving forward, we aim to proceed rapidly with the verification of business models that enable effective commercialization of these technologies.”

    He said that through its involvement in the project NEC has demonstrated reductions in diesel fuel consumption, energy costs, CO2 emissions and total costs of ownership, as well as the safety of lithium-ion batteries and the reliability of AI-powered prediction technologies in estimating power failures and recovery times.

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