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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.

  • Singtel named a “master of digital experience”

    Singtel named a “master of digital experience”

    Singtel ranks among five operators named “masters of digital experience” in Analysys Mason’s latest Digital Experience Index (DXi).

    Singtel and subsidiary Optus, along with Telefonica, AT&T, Etisalat and Swisscom were the only operators to be classed as entering the “digitalized” stage of digital maturity, with only Swisscom considered to have fully entered this stage.

    The report ranked 50 operators worldwide on their ability to provide a digitalized user experience, graded by criteria including automation in customer support, the presence of unified omni-channel support and the option of new digital channels for customers such as in-app chat, web-to-chat or chat-to-voice.

    Operators’ capacity to provide personalized offers, basic or advanced customer self-service and social media support were also taken into consideration.

    The report also shows that nearly all operators believe that providing their customers with a modern digital experience is critical to their future.

    “Providing a modern digital experience is considered by all operators as critical to their competitive position in the future – especially among young and increasingly tech-savvy consumers whose expectations are being shaped by the newer players such as Alibaba, Amazon and Facebook,”  Analysys Mason partner and head of telecoms software and networks Larry Goldman said.

    He said the digital experience index model represents a way for operators to assess their potential new customer experience improvement projects in all aspects of the customer lifecycle, comprising investigation, buying, onboarding and support of goods and services.

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  • LG Uplus enters strategic partnership with Vodafone

    LG Uplus enters strategic partnership with Vodafone

    South Korea’s LG Uplus has announced a new strategic partnership with Vodafone Group for the South Korean market.

    The agreement, the first strategic partnership between LG Uplus and a global operator, will involve collaboration on both enterprise and consumer operations.

    Vodafone will provide best practices and draw on its global reach to support LG Uplus across all areas of its business, including network strategy and development, as well as customer experience management.

    The two operators will also cooperate to jointly offer unified communications and enterprise services to multinational companies with a presence in South Korea. LG Uplus will meanwhile join Vodafone’s global partner market network.

    “ Vodafone is one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies and close cooperation will enable us to streamline and improve our existing business performance and pioneer new areas.  “Vodafone is the ideal partner to help our drive to become world-class,” LG Uplus CEO Youngsoo Kwon said.

    “Our new partnership will enable LG Uplus to benefit from Vodafone expertise and experience, in addition to access to our global enterprise products and services,” Vodafone partner markets CEO Diego Massidda added.

    “I am delighted that LG Uplus has joined our Partner Market network and I look forward to building on our relationship in the coming years.”

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  • RCom gets seven-month debt reprieve

    RCom gets seven-month debt reprieve

    India’s Reliance Communications (RCom) has been granted a seven-month reprieve from its debt repayment obligations to give it time to complete its proposed merger with Aircel and a planned sale of a stake in its mobile tower operations.

    In a media release, RCom said its lenders have agreed to a standstill on debt servicing obligations until December 2017 in response to the advanced stages of negotiations over the two transactions.

    The merger with Aircel to create an entity which it has been recently revealed will be named Aircom, as well as a sale of a controlling stake in its tower business to Brookfield Group, are expected to reduce RCom’s debt burden by around 60% to around 200 billion rupees ($3.1 billion).

    RCom has also agreed to develop sustainable long term plans to pay off the remaining debt. If the transactions are not completed by this time, lenders will be able to convert their debt into shares, the company said.

    RCom’s proposed merger with Aircel is expected to create India’s third largest mobile operator with a subscriber base of around 186 million. RCom will hold a 50% stake of the combined company, with Aircel’s parent company – Malaysia’s Maxis Communications – owning the remainder.

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  • Singtel gets conditional nod for NetLink Trust IPO

    Singtel gets conditional nod for NetLink Trust IPO

    Singtel has secured conditional approval to list its wholly-owned subsidiary NetLink Trust on the SGX as part of its obligations to the government under the state-owned Next Generation National Broadband Network (NG-NBN) project.

    NetLink trust builds and operates the passive infrastructure for the NG-NBN. As a condition of Singtel winning the NG-NBN tender, Singtel agreed not to have effective control in NetLink Trust. In February, the company announced it has committed to regulator IMDA to divest its ownership to less than 25% by April next year.

    The structural separation arrangements formed part of the IMDA’s open access requirements for the NG-NBN project.

    Singtel said Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) has issued a conditional eligibility-to-list letter for NetLink Trust.

    The listing will be contingent on market conditions, obtaining the required regulatory and other approvals as well as other prerequisites, Singtel said.

    Once up and running, market watchers expect the IPO to raise at least S$2 billion, making it one of the largest offerings in Singapore in years. Singtel has appointed DBS Bank, Morgan Stanley and UBS to advise on the IPO, which could be complete as early as July, according to recent reports.

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  • IOX Cable to build new Indian Ocean cable

    IOX Cable to build new Indian Ocean cable

    IOX Cable Ltd and Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks last week announced plans to build the IOX Cable System in the Indian Ocean.

    The new submarine cable will connect the eastern coast of South Africa with the eastern coast of India, hooking up the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues along the way.

    It will span 8,850km and offer a planned total design capacity of 13Tbps per fiber pair via ASN’s 1620 SOFTNODE and ROADM gear.

    IOX is based in Mauritius, and clearly local access for the island and its neighbor to the east is a key driver for the plans. Rodrigues is new to me, and is apparently a part of the Republic of Mauritius as well. Its 42 square miles are home to just 42,000 or so people.

    But they also clearly hope to cut latency between South Africa and India, and thus bring in some traffic that otherwise would have to hug the coastline past the Middle East and East Africa.

  • SKT launches five-band CA, 4X4 MIMO

    SKT launches five-band CA, 4X4 MIMO

    SK Telecom has announced the launch of five-band carrier aggregation (CA) and 4X4 multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technologies as part of its ongoing evolution to 5G.

    The operator has made five-band CA LTE-A Pro available in the main areas of 53 cities across South Korea, supporting data rates of up to 700Mbps.

    The five-band CA service utilizes SK Telecom’s 10MHz of 800-MHz spectrum, 20MHz in the 1.8-GHz band, 10MHz in 2.1-GHZ as well as a 10MHz and 20MHz carrier in the 2.6-GHz bands.

    SK Telecom has meanwhile launched 900Mbps LTE-A Pro in the CBDs of six cities by combining existing three or four band carrier aggregation with 4×4 MIMO. The six cities are  Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon and Ulsan.

    Among SK Telecom’s handset line-up, currently only the Samsung Galaxy S8 supports these new services, and will require an over-the-air firmware upgrade to do so. But the operator said it anticipates that more upcoming premium smartphones will support the services.

    SK Telecom has set a target of having the two services combined cover more than 50% of the Korean population by the end of the year.

    The operator also plans to launch 1Gbps LTE-A Pro services in the first half of next year by combining five- or four-band CA with other technologies such as 4X4 MIMO.

    “SK Telecom’s LTE-A Pro services represent an early application of 5G technologies that support Gbps-level data speeds and massive network capacity,” SK Telecom SVP and head of infrastructure strategy Choi Seung-won said.

    ““SK Telecom will continue to offer differentiated mobile communications quality through LTE-A Pro service, while utilizing the network to gain a valuable edge in the 5G era.”

  • Ncell launches 4G despite PAC directive

    Ncell launches 4G despite PAC directive

    Nepal’s Ncell has announced the launch of 4G services, despite reports that the company is to have its 4G license withheld due to a tax dispute.

    In a statement, Ncell said it has launched 4G in Kathmandu, Nagarkot, Banepa and Dhulikhel, and has set a target of rolling out 4G to 15% of the country by the end of the year.

    Ncell will allow customers to replace their existing SIMs with a 4G compatible USIM for free at Ncell stores, and will provide 1GB of bonus data with a three day validity to celebrate the launch of 4G.

    The company said customers can expect download speeds of between 10Mbps and 37Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps to 18Mbps.

    The statement made no mention of the recent directive from the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Ncell be prohibited from launching 4G until the dispute is resolved over capital gains tax associated with the sale of TeliaSonera’s indirect controlling stake in Ncell to Malaysia’s Axiata in 2015 for $1.03 billion.

    The PAC has “serious reservations” over the launch, and will call a meeting this week to decide on a formal position over whether to oppose the issuance of Ncell’s 4G license under Nepal’s technology neutrality policy.

    According to the report, Ncell had launched 4G before regulator the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) had a chance to reach a decision over the validity of the 4G license.

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  • Huawei, Henan Unicom develop smart hotel solution

    Huawei, Henan Unicom develop smart hotel solution

    Huawei has teamed up with China Unicom’s Henan branch Henan Unicom to develop a smart hotel connectivity solution based on all-optical access.

    The solution involves the delivery of broadband capability based on a large-capacity converged optical line terminal, fibers routed inside buildings and converged smart gateways.

    Each hotel room will be provided exclusive Wi-Fi access, eliminating issues involving poor coverage or congestion. The converged smart gateways will deliver both wired broadband and Wi-Fi access, and hotel users will be provided dedicated IPTV access.

    The solution also supports centralized managed operation and maintenance (O&M) to eliminate the requirement for dedicated IT support personnel, and delivers an access rate of 10GE. It can support control of lights, home appliances, and curtains using external intelligent devices.

    “Huawei’s all-optical access smart hotel solution has obvious advantages in terms of deployment, service experience, and uniform O&M,” Henan Unicom Zhao Songhui said.

    “This solution enables Henan Unicom to accelerate hotel informatization effectively, and has earned high recognition from both hotels and their guests. In the future, we plan to spread this solution to more hotels and provide users with more intelligent services.”

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  • $14b Intelsat-OneWeb merger falls through

    $14b Intelsat-OneWeb merger falls through

    Satellite operator Intelsat has warned it expects its planned $14 billion merger with SoftBank-backed OneWeb to fall through.

    Debt-land Intelsat disclosed it has failed to get enough of its creditors to accept the deal, which would have required debt investors to accept less than the value of their holdings.

    The terms of the deal were worth approximately $2.85 billion less than the total face value of the debt investments.

    SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had planned to combine the two satellite operators to create a global network of satellites capable of providing internet access worldwide. SoftBank had intended to take a 39.9% share in the combined company for around $1.7 billion.

    With the deal likely to fail, Intelsat has terminated a series of debt swap offers associated with the planned merger.

    According to the report, Softbank has had negotiations with other satellite operators on potential replacement deals.

    The company said in a statement that it remains enthusiastic about OneWeb’s prospects as a standalone entity and plans to continue to work with the OneWeb management teams on alternative paths to growth.

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  • Korea still has fastest average broadband speeds

    Korea still has fastest average broadband speeds

    South Korea retained its position of having the world’s fastest average internet speeds during the first quarter, but it was the only market in APAC to experience a year-on-year speed decline.

    These are among the findings of Akamai’s latest State of the Internet – Connectivity report, which found that South Korea’s average speed was 28.6Mbps for the quarter.

    Hong Kong had the second fastest average speeds in APAC and the fourth in the world at 21.9Mbps, followed by Singapore (seventh globally) at 20.3Mbps and Japan (eighth globally) at 20.2Mbps.

    Vietnam had the highest year-on-year gains in average speeds at 89%, but remained in ninth place among APAC countries and just 58th globally with an average speed of 9.5Mbps. India (87% improvement to 6.5Mbs) and China (78% improvement to 7.6Mbps) also recorded strong gains.

    The Philippines continued to have the slowest average broadband speeds in APAC at 5.5Mbps, despite a 57% year-on-year improvement. The report notes that president Duterte’s up to $4 billion national broadband network project has the potential to turn the market around. Deployment could commence as early as this month.

    By contrast, besides South Korea’s year-on-year decline, Hong Kong had the lowest level of improvement with just a 10% gain.

    In terms of average peak connection speeds, Singapore retained its top spot with a speed of 184.5Mbps, up 26% year-on-year. Singapore was followed by Hong Kong (129.5Mbps), South Korea (121Mbps), Thailand (106.6Mbps) and Taiwain (106.6Mbps), which had global rankings of fourth, fifth, eighth and 13threspectively.

    The slowest average peak connection speed was recorded in India (41.4Mbps), followed by the Philippines (45Mbps), China (45.9Mbps), Australia (55.7Mbps) and Sri Lanka (57.3Mbps).

  • Myanmar cellcos cleared to use 1800 for 4G

    Myanmar cellcos cleared to use 1800 for 4G

    Myanmar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has granted permission to the market’s mobile operators to launch 4G over the 1800-MHz spectrum assigned to them.

    Mynmar Posts and Telecommunications, Telenor Myanmar and Ooredoo Myanmar have been cleared to use 2x10MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum allocated under a 12 year license.

    Operators will be required to pay an $80 million usage fee, the ministry’s Posts and Telecommunications Department has revealed.

    State-owned MPT has announced that with the approval the operator will be expanding its network to 4G, starting with the cities of Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon, and Mandalay. The operator will offer customers the ability to swap their existing 2G and 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM free of charge.

    MPT has teamed up with KDDI and Sumitomo for its mobile operations as part of the liberalization of Myanmar’s telecoms sector.

    Telenor Myanmar and Ooredoo Myanmar will meanwhile be able to use the spectrum to expand their respective 4G operations to more cities and regions.

    Telenor Myanmar launched 4G services in July last year, and now offers 4G in 19 cities. Ooredoo Myanmar launched 4G in May  in Yangon, Mandalay, and Nay Pyi Taw, and has since expanded the network to the Magwe Region.

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  • Singtel to help heritage SMEs adopt digital tech

    Singtel to help heritage SMEs adopt digital tech

    Singtel is working with the Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic universities to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with heritage brands adopt digital technology.

    The collaborations are part of the 99%SME initiative to help SMEs use digital tools to get online, reach out to a wider customer base, and develop e-commerce capabilities.

    An SME is considered to have a heritage brand if it has a compelling success story to share from a cultural or social perspective; the business should have been established for more than 30 years and passed down from the founding generation to the next.

    Singtel and Ngee Ann Polytechnic will focus on helping multi-generational family-owned SMEs, including those managed by the polytechnic’s alumni members, to digitalize their operations using business analytics solutions and improve their efficiency and competitiveness.

    In addition, Singtel and Temasek Polytechnic will engage SMEs in traditional businesses such as provision shops, watch shops, tailors and tea-leaf merchants to provide ideas to keep their heritage brands alive.

    By leveraging digital technology, students from the polytechnic’s School of Business will guide SMEs on using the 99%SME website (www.99sme.sg) to market themselves online without cost.

    “Many SMEs with a long and rich heritage do not have the resources to market themselves effectively online or connect with younger, digitally savvy customers,” Singtel managing director Group Enterprise Andrew Lim said.

    “Through this partnership between the private and educational sectors, we also provide digitally-savvy students the opportunity to gain business insights and entrepreneurship experience while they help in the digitalisation journey of the SMEs,” he added.

    Clarence Ti, Principal of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said, “Ngee Ann Polytechnic is excited to collaborate with Singtel in helping second-generation family-owned SMEs digitalise their processes to gain competitive advantage and business efficiency. Leveraging our expertise, we hope to help the SMEs use business analytics to enhance their e-commerce capabilities and drive results.”

    Peter Lam, Temasek Polytechnic’s Principal and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Over the years, many SMEs have created brands of enduring success and significance. This initiative provides our students with valuable real-life learning experiences that allow them to deepen their knowledge and apply their skills.”

    As part of the 99%SME movement, Singtel’s partnerships with Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic complement the partnerships forged with Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic in March this year, to help SMEs in the retail and F&B sectors digitalise their business.

    Singtel, together with DBS and other partners, launched the nationwide 99%SME movement in 2015, to rally all in Singapore to use products and services offered by SMEs. The highlight of the SME campaign is the annual SME Week in October, where participating SMEs offer special promotions to walk-in and online customers.

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  • 60% of IoT attacks originated from Asia in 2016

    60% of IoT attacks originated from Asia in 2016

    The number of DoS or DDoS cyberattacks doubled from 3% to 6% in 2016, due to the lack of sufficient security controls of IoT devices, according to Dimension Data and NTT Security.

    Of all IoT-based attacks, 60% originated from Asia, 21% from EMEA and another 19% from the Americas.

    Dimension Data’s executive’s guide to the NTT Security 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report,  published earlier this month, finds that the most likely reason for the high volume of attacks from Asia is that technology sourced from the region has historically been susceptible, and compromised infrastructure tends to be reused to perpetrate additional nefarious activities.

    The report was compiled from data collected by NTT Security and other NTT operating companies including Dimension Data, from the networks of 10,000 clients across five continents, 3.5 trillion security logs, 6.2 billion attempted attacks, and global honeypots and sandboxes located in over 100 different countries.

    Global honeypot sensors monitored IoT cyberattacks and their targets over a six-month period. Based on the credentials used by threat actors, it was determined that 66% of attacks targeted specific IoT devices such as a particular model of video camera.

    These attacks appeared to be from compromised IoT devices attempting to find and compromise even more such devices. This would be consistent with an attacker acquiring a large number of devices to use in DDoS and other forms of attack.

    DDoS attacks using IoT devices can impact an organization in multiple ways can prevent customers, partners, and other stakeholders from accessing their organizations’ internet-facing resources, thereby impacting sales and other daily operations.

    They can also prevent employees and internal systems from accessing the internet, disrupting many facets of operations, and affect organizations providing services from the internet, which can cause supply chains to be broken.

    “There’s nothing about a DDoS attack which requires use of IoT devices only, so attackers may look for as many devices as possible regardless of type,” explained Mark Thomas, Dimension Data’s Cybersecurity strategist. He points out that while DDoS attacks are the most recognized threat, they’re not the only potential outcome of an organization’s IoT and operational technology (OT) devices being compromised.

    According to a February 2017 press release by research firm, Gartner Inc, 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017- up 31% on 2016. This number will reach 20.4 billion by 2020. And total spend on endpoints and services will reach almost $2 trillion in 2017.

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  • PLDT, Globe complete SMC acquisition

    PLDT, Globe complete SMC acquisition

    PLDT and Globe have completed the final payment for their joint acquisition of conglomerate San Miguel Corporation’s telco assets, despite the ongoing court challenge from the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

    The final 13 billion peso payment of the 69.1 billion ($1.39 billion) acquisition fulfills the operators’ payment obligations under the acquisition agreement for valuable spectrum assets reached in May last year.

    But the agreement has been a contentious one for Filipino regulators, with the PCC currently petitioning the Supreme Court to lift an injunction blocking a planned review into the joint acquisition on competition grounds.

    The regulator had sought to stop the operators from completing the payment or closing the acquisition while the case is ongoing.

    PLDT and Globe officials both told that the payment is merely fulfilling the operators’ contractual obligations, with Globe asserting that the PCC’s call for the final payment to be postponed was a mere suggestion.

    The operators also plan to continue implementing their newly-acquired spectrum into their operations while the case is ongoing.

    In its petition to the court, the PCC had argued that allowing the operators to proceed with the acquisition will make it harder to unwind the acquisition if the court does find in its favor and the investigation proves that the merger violates competition law.

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  • Rescue plan approved for Hong Kong’s i-Cable

    Rescue plan approved for Hong Kong’s i-Cable

    Minority shareholders in Hong Kong pay TV broadcaster i-Cable Communications have voted to approve a rescue plan that will inject fresh cash into the struggling operator following the withdrawal of support by its majority shareholder.

    Wharf Holdings announced in March that it will stop providing funding for the broadcaster following nine consecutive years of losses, and that it was considering winding down the company after failing to find a buyer for its 73.8% stake.

    But now consortium Forever Top has agreed to step in and be the new majority shareholder, injecting fresh funding into the company.

    i-Cable launched in 1993 as Hong Kong’s first pay TV operator. But the company’s subscriber base has been declining over the past five years, the report notes, and its net losses have been widening.

    Industry experts are urging the company to rebrand and modernize its operations, focusing on providing OTT video services over its website. The company is also being encouraged to expand its operations to outside of Hong Kong.

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