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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.

  • Idea swings to first net loss since 2007

    Idea swings to first net loss since 2007

    India’s third largest mobile operator Idea Cellular has swung to its first annual loss since its IPO in 2007, as the company felt the pressure being inflicted on the mobile industry by the entry of disruptive newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm.

    The company reported a net loss of 4.07 billion rupees ($63.5 million) for the full-year ending in March. This compares to a 23.78 billion rupee profit for the previous year.

    Total revenue fell 1% to 355.75 billion rupees, marking the first revenue decline since the IPO. Revenue from established service areas fell 1.8% to 329.58 billion rupees but revenue from new service areas up 9.5% to 26.17 billion rupees.

    India’s mobile industry has been struggling since Jio burst onto the scene in September with an aggressive strategy of offering services for completely free for a six-month promotional period.

    “The October to April 2017 interval can be best described as ‘Period of Telecom Discontinuity’, permanently changing mobility business parameters. Consequently, the revenue KPIs & financial parameters for all mobile operators have sharply declined in [2H17],” Idea said in a statement announcing its results.

    “For the first time in its history, the flourishing Indian mobility industry is trending towards an annual revenue decline of ~2% in FY17. With the new entrant starting to charge for its services, albeit very slowly, the sector is expected to return to growth in the next financial year.”

    During the March quarter, revenue fell 6.2% sequentially to 81.26 billion rupees, even as the company added 6.2 million new customers to 198.3 million.

    The operator also strengthened its revenue market share for calendar year 2016 by 0.4% to 19% and maintained a subscriber market share of 19.4%.

    Idea Cellular meanwhile announced that it is making progress with its planned merger with Vodafone India, a deal expected to create the market’s largest telecoms operator.

    The two companies have initiated the steps required to gain regulatory approvals for the merger, including filing a joint notification with the Competition Commission of India.

  • DoCoMo plans major leadership shake-up

    DoCoMo plans major leadership shake-up

    Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has announced significant proposed changes to its management team as part of efforts to “further grow and develop the company.”

    The operator revealed that one executive director, one director, two audit and supervisory board members and four senior vice presidents are planning to resign, mostly to take up new positions at DoCoMo subsidiaries or affiliate companies.

    In their places there are two new candidates for the board of directors, two new candidates for the audit and supervisory board and seven new senior vice president candidates.

    The changes to the executive positions will be put up for approval at the shareholders meeting, the board of directors meeting and the audit & supervisory board meeting scheduled on June 20, 2017.

    If the changes are approved, DoCoMo’s new board will include executive vice presidents Hirotaka Sato, Kiyohiro Omatsuzawa, Hiroshi Tsujigami, Kouji Furukawa and Kyoji Murakami, as well as senior vice presidents Hiroshi Nakamura and Hozumi Tamura.

    The top leadership team will consist of president, CEO and board member Kazuhiro Yoshizawa, senior executive vice president, CIO, CISO, chief privacy officer and board member Hiroyasu Asami, and senior executive vice president for global business, corporate and CSR and board member Toshiki Nakayama.

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  • Cellcos to spend $21b on 5G NR by 2025

    Cellcos to spend $21b on 5G NR by 2025

    Mobile operators will spend more than $21 billion on standardized 5G NR (New Radio) infrastructure by the end of 2025, according to SNS Research.

    Despite the lack of sufficient LTE coverage in parts of the world, mobile operators and vendors have already embarked on R&D initiatives to develop 5G.

    According to the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), in the first quarter alone at least 25 operators from 15 countries have demonstrated 5G technologies, or announced 5G tests or trials.

    Last week, South Korea’s KT said it is in the final stages of testing for the 5G trial network that will support next year’s Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, while Japanese counterparts KDDI and China Mobile also announced trials on pre-5G technologies.

    With pre-standard 5G network deployments well underway, the research firm in March released an estimate, predicting mobile operators worldwide will spend more than $250 million on pre-standard 5G network rollouts by the end of 2017.

    Although 2020 has conventionally been regarded as the headline date for 5G commercialization, the very first standardized deployments of the technology are expected to be commercialized as early as 2019 with the 3GPP’s initial 5G specifications set to be implementation-ready by March 2018.

    Between 2019 and 2025, SNS Research expects the standardized 5G NR infrastructure market to aggressively grow at a CAGR of approximately 70%, eventually accounting for over $21 billion in annual spending by the end of 2025.

    The market will be complemented by additional investments of over $7 billion on NextGen (Next Generation) core and transport (fronthaul/backhaul) networking infrastructure, the research firm estimates.

    SNS Research notes that 5G is expected to provide a single network environment to deliver not only existing mobile broadband and internet of things services, but also new innovations such as self-driving cars, cloud robotics, 3D holographic telepresence and remote surgery with haptic feedback.

    The 3GPP agreed in March to accelerate some elements in the 5G NR timeline to allow operators to speed up deployment of 5G services.

    The standard body set a December 2017 deadline to complete the non-standalone 5G NR specification process and finalize the spec by March next year. The move means non-standalone 5G NR products could be launched as early as 2019.

    Non-standalone 5G NR mode will be designed to anchor a connection in LTE, using 5G NR carriers to improve data rates and reduce latency.

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  • India’s game-changing rocket to launch next month

    India’s game-changing rocket to launch next month

    India is planning to launch Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III, the country’s most powerful rocket, in June.

    The rocket is capable of transporting a heavier 4 ton (3,628.7 kg) communications satellite and described as a game-changer in the first-of-its-kind space mission.

    With this rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is aiming for a greater share of the multi-billion dollar global space market and to reduce dependency on international launching vehicles.

    A successful launch of this rocket will be another major step towards being self-reliant in the country’s space program.

    The Isro currently has the capability to launch payloads of up to 2.2 tonnes into the intended orbit and for anything above that it had to tap foreign launch facilities.

    “GSLV Mark-III is our next launch. We are getting ready. All the systems are in Sriharikota. The integration is currently going on,” Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar said.

    GSLV Mark-III will be India’s most powerful launch vehicle built to lift the heaviest Indian communications satellites to space. Its 4 ton capacity is double the weight that the current GSLV-Mark-II can lift.

    It will also enable Isro to launch from India heavier communications spacecraft to geostationary orbits of 36,000 km. Because of the absence of a powerful launcher, Isro currently launches satellites above 2 tons on European rockets for a big fee.

    Noting that communications satellites built beyond the capacity of 2.2 tons have to be launched from foreign soil, Kiran Kumar said efforts are on to launch satellites up to four tonnes and even beyond in India itself.

    The GSLV Mark-III is intended to launch satellites into geostationary orbit and as a launcher for an Indian crew vehicle. It features an Indian cryogenic third stage and a higher payload capacity than the current GSLV.

  • Nokia drives T-Mobile’s 5G plans

    Nokia drives T-Mobile’s 5G plans

    Nokia said it was playing an integral role in T-Mobile’s plans to launch nationwide 5G coverage in the United States by 2020.

    Forthcoming 5G networks will bring many benefits to service providers and consumers, with exponential increases in bandwidth and massive throughput, along with advancements in vertical industries and new entrants — just a few of the myriad possibilities of these next-generation networks.

    T-Mobile’s announced plans to use all of its spectrum resources align strongly with Nokia’s strategy of multi-radio platforms and advanced antenna technologies.

    Specifically, this will bring 5G radio air interface improvements — particularly spectral efficiency — to low bands such as 600MHz, thus allowing for enhanced coverage benefits. Additionally, Nokia will look to enable the 5G network capabilities where 600MHz spectrum is the preferred coverage layer.

    One of the key benefits of 5G is enhanced mobile broadband that will allow users to consume content when and where they desire. Nokia, along with T-Mobile, will provide a multi-layer, cross-spectrum blueprint for how the networks of the future will come into existence.

    “Nokia and T-Mobile share a vision of innovating in mobile networks to deliver real benefits to consumers,” said Marc Rouanne, president of mobile networks business group for Nokia.

    “This collaboration to maximize spectrum is a very exciting development, and is a strong example of Nokia’s commitment to supporting its customers’ ambitions to create new capabilities to make 5G a reality, connecting everything to everything,” said Rouanne.

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  • Samsung, Cisco, Verizon to pioneer multi-vendor 5G Trials

    Samsung, Cisco, Verizon to pioneer multi-vendor 5G Trials

    Samsung Electronics America and Cisco are working with Verizon in what they described as the successful deployment of the first multi-vendor end-to-end 5G field trial, which took place in Detroit, Michigan.

    Earlier this year, Verizon announced plans for customer trials of 5G technology for home broadband service (Fixed Wireless Access). Five US cities are scheduled to begin trials in the second quarter of 2017, with pilot trials in a total of 11 markets expected by midyear.

    Each location offers a unique set of test parameters, including vendors, geographies, population densities and demographics, and the Ann Arbor location in Detroit was the first to tackle a multi-vendor deployment of 5G.

    The solution includes a 5G virtualized packet core as part of the Cisco Ultra Services Platform with Cisco Advanced Services and Samsung virtual RAN solutions (vRAN), paired with Samsung’s 5G Radio base stations and 5G home routers that will deliver broadband services to Verizon’s trial customers.

    Based on Verizon’s 5G Technical Forum specification, the three companies followed a series of comprehensive network vendor interoperability tests (NVIOT) that demonstrated seamless interworking between core network, radio edge and user devices that showcased a core principle of next-generation network virtualization via multi-vendor support.

    This trial demonstrates that service providers can deploy 5G networks specialized to their unique market needs by selecting individual network infrastructure components from a selection of multiple vendors.

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  • Cobham debuts 5G network test solution

    Cobham debuts 5G network test solution

    Cobham Wireless has made available of its new network test solution dubbed TM500 which can validate 5G network performance.

    Touted as an industry first, the TM500 provides operators and network equipment manufacturers with a scalable system to test network performance as experienced by end users.

    The TM500 5G test solution simulates multiple devices connecting to a 5G network, modelling real world conditions. When used in combination with Cobham Wireless’ application emulation and security performance solution, the company is providing a complete, end-to-end 5G test solution to the market.

    “Cobham Wireless’ 5G test solution directly addresses the immediate KPIs for 5G, helping the industry accelerate the development and deployment of next generation mobile and broadband services,” said Ian Langley, SVP and GM at Cobham Wireless.

    “Developing and validating their 5G networks using the TM500 will give our customers the confidence to deploy the infrastructure needed to support next generation technologies, such as mobile edge computing,” said Langley. “This will offer reduced latency and faster processing for new services, expediting the commercial roll-out of IoT applications such as connected cars, smart healthcare devices, and advanced AR and VR.”

    Easily incorporated into a user’s existing workflow, the TM500 solution facilitates the transition from legacy to future standards, in line with the industry’s progression to 5G.

    With flexible deployment options, it allows the user to upgrade or adapt functionality and test parameters, tailoring the solution to specific scenarios and requirements.

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  • A 100ms website delay can turn away customers

    A 100ms website delay can turn away customers

    Website performance is critical to maintaining customer attention and completing online transactions, research from Akamai indicates.

    The company’s latest State of Online Retail Performance report finds that a mere 100-millisecond delay in website load time can hurt conversion rates by 7%.

    The data, gathered by SOASTA (now part of Akamai), represents one month’s worth of anonymous user data from top online retailers, equating to approximately 10 billion user visits. The team applied data analytics to generate insights into the intersection of IT, business, and user experience metrics.

    Half of consumers browse for products and services on their smartphones, while only one in five complete purchases using those phones. The study showed that a two-second delay in web page load time increases bounce rates by 103%. More than half (53%) of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Bounce rates were highest for mobile phone shoppers, while tablet shoppers had the lowest bounce rate.

    “Since my days as Executive Director at Shop.org I have seen how e-commerce businesses are impacted by performance challenges, yet struggle to identify and treat the root cause,” said Scott Silverman, co-founder of GrowCommerce and the Global e-Commerce Leaders Forum. “This research clearly shows the link and provides a methodology for retailers to systematically assess and address those issues.”

    The report identifies ways that high-performance web pages are different from poorly performing pages, looks at third-party scripts and other outside factors that can impact performance, and provides the reader with practical, actionable guidance on how they can compete in an ever-changing e-commerce landscape.

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  • Hitachi deploying IoT solution for Curtin Univeristy

    Hitachi deploying IoT solution for Curtin Univeristy

    Australia’s Curtin University has selected Hitachi to deploy an IoT solution to advance its vision of a smart campus that enhances the student experience, improves classroom learning and ultimately attracts more industry to collaborate on data-driven research.

    Curtin will partner with Hitachi to co-create solutions that harness IoT data through advanced analytics to provide insight into the daily running and utilization of the campus.

    Curtin University has more than 60,000 students and 4,000 staff. It is Western Australia’s largest and most culturally diverse university, and has one of Australia’s largest international student populations.

    Ian Callahan, chief operating officer of Curtin University said: “Understanding our campus operations and building utilization has become a major factor in Curtin’s smart campus initiative. With the Hitachi IoT solution, we can collect data using a variety of sensors to gather information on building trends, study patterns, and course attendance that can ultimately be used to improve student experience and enhance learning.”

    Ultimately, these data insights allow Curtin University to generate contextual information about the lifecycle of the student, the day to day reality of a staff member, the activity pattern of a lecture theater, and the dynamics and environmental health of a library.

    Callahan added: “We are effectively creating a living laboratory that is an open invitation to our own researchers and scientists from other universities to use our campus to discover and innovate with data-driven research. Hitachi demonstrated not only technology leadership but approached us with a very open mind, to participate in that living environment and collaborate with others.”

    With the Hitachi solution, the university will be able to combine video data with operational data across its campus facilities to provide analytics that support a smart campus. This is achieved through the integration of Hitachi Visualization Suite, Hitachi Video Analytics, Pentaho, Live Face Matching and Hitachi Data Systems Infrastructure and Compute. The single analytics dashboard provides the real-time knowledge the university needs to make informed decisions about their classes, operations and future requirements.

    “Curtin University is a prime example of forward-thinking organizations that have challenged Hitachi to develop its video analytics solutions to go beyond surveillance and public safety. They are effectively pioneers of digital transformation,” said Mark Jules, vice president of public safety and smart city solutions at Hitachi Insight Group.

    “We’re excited to be co-creating a comprehensive IoT-enabled solution with them and we look forward to working with Curtin University and their research partners to accelerate future innovation through our ongoing collaboration.”

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  • Globe signs deal to link Palau to SEA-US cable

    Globe signs deal to link Palau to SEA-US cable

    The Philippines’ Globe Telecom and Indonesia’s Telin have signed agreements to  interconnect the Republic of Palau in Micronesia with the SEA-US cable.

    Globe and the Belau Submarine Cable Corporation (BSCC) have signed an agreement to interconnect a fiber spur under construction from Palau will be interconnected wit the SEA-US for onward transport to Guam.

    A similar agreement has been signed between representatives of Telin and the Federated States of Micronesia during a signing ceremony witnessed by Palau president Tommy Remengesau Jr.

    “We are excited about the commissioning of the SEA-US Cable because of its immense benefits to the Philippines. Additionally, we are proud to be able to provide the Republic of Palau with first world internet connectivity through this interconnection agreement,” Globe CEO Ernest Cu said.

    The interconnection agreements provide for five 100Gbps wavelengths between Palau and Guam, more than 1,000 times the current available capacity.

    “The submarine fiber network will be critical to so many aspects of our life in Palau, from healthcare to education, from social networking to business. With the BSCC network expected to be in service before the end of the year, Palau is on the move,” president Remengesau said.

    The $250 million SEA-US cable system will span 14,000km between California, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Indoesia. Construction commenced on the cable in March 2015 and the system appears to be nearing completion.

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  • ZTE completes 3D-MIMO test in Jiaxing

    ZTE completes 3D-MIMO test in Jiaxing

    China Mobile and ZTE announced they have completed the deployment and pre-test verification of Pre5G Massive MIMO technology 3D-MIMO in Jiaxing, a prefectural city in northern Zhejiang province in China.

    The testing, conducted in collaboration with China Mobile Zhejiang and the China Mobile Jiaxing Branch, included verification tests in scenarios including large-traffic scenarios in universities or 3D  in-depth coverage in high-rise residential buildings.

    It builds on the completion of the world’s first 3D-MIMO field verification conducted by the two companies in 2015.

    The 3D-MIMO technology increases downlink capacity by 3-5 times and uplink capacity by 4-6 times over traditional 4G networks, helping to address issues caused by the exponential growth in demand for traffic and growing 4G user base in dense areas such as universities.

    Using three carriers on a 3D-MIMO site downlink rates reached 1Gbps while uplink rates reached a peak of 237Mbps.

    Testing showed that 3D-MIMO increased uplink and downlink spectrum efficiency of small-packet services by 2-3 times on average compared to co-frequency eight-transmit macro base stations. The test involved up to 800 concurrent commercial users.

    The 3D beamforming technology also helped to suppress interference, enhance connections on cell edges and increases user traffic in the coverage area.

    Last year, China Mobile and ZTE completed 3D-MIMO pre-commercial verification in 29 provinces and 50 cities as part of their collaboration on the technology.

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  • TOT ready to take over True’s fixed operations

    TOT ready to take over True’s fixed operations

    Thai state-owned operator TOT is ready to take over concessionaire True Corporation’s fixed line operations upon the expiry of the concession agreement in October.

    TOT has spent months preparing the operational procedures that will be needed to take over the provision of services to around 1.2 million customers.

    As part of Thailand’s transition to a licensing regime, the 25-year build-operate transfer concession agreement will be allowed to expire on October 26. True had been paying 18% of its total revenue to TOT under this concession.

    Once the concession expires True will transfer its fixed line network assets and customers to TOT.

    The operator will lose fixed line service revenue of around 2 billion baht ($57.7 million) per year, while TOT expects to be able to realise revenues of 2.8 billion baht per year from the assets.

    TOT plans to start writing to True customers in July informing them of the scheduled takeover of the fixed line operations. The state operator already has its own fixed line business, with around 3.4 million subscribers nationwide.

    According to the report, TOT meanwhile plans to spend around 400 million baht this year on fixed line maintenance and repair.

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  • NEC sets long-haul subsea cable record

    NEC sets long-haul subsea cable record

    Japan’s NEC has announced it has become the first vendor to achieve a transmission capacity of over 50Tbps over a distance greater than 10,000km using a single optical fiber.

    The new development could pave the way for significantly faster subsea cables spanning trans-Pacific distances, helping the industry meet surging traffic demands in the APAC region.

    NEC has demonstrated a speed of 50.9Tbps over a more than 11,000km span of cable using new C+L band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) technology. The company said the performance translated to a record-breaking capacity of 570 petabits per second per kilometer.

    To push the capacity of the cable to close to the Shannon Limit – the spectral efficiency limit of optical communications, NEC researchers developed a new multilevel, linear and nonlinear constellation optimization algorithm.

    With this algorithm, NEC has achieved an optimized 32 quadrature amplitude modulation (32QAM) constellation with a higher nonlinear capacity limit and an unprecedented spectral efficiency over a trans-Pacific distance.

    In addition, NEC researchers developed a new bi-directional amplifier design to help maximize the capacity per fiber pair by reducing effective noise and device complexity.

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  • Chorus commences stage two of UFB rollout

    Chorus commences stage two of UFB rollout

    New Zealand wholesale operator Chorus has commenced the second phase of the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative, which will involve the rollout of the national fiber network to 169 new areas including 18 towns.

    The build has commenced in the coastal town of Kokitika on the West Coast, and will be extended to other towns in the region including Westport, Reefton and Runanga.

    The state-led UFB program will deliver fiber broadband to around 1.3 million premises including households, businesses and schools, representing around 85% of the population – up from the initial target of 75%.

    Up to NZ$410 million ($280 million) in funding has been allocated for the second stage of the project. Chorus was selected as the main private partner for the rollout after agreeing to separate from what is now Spark as part of the break up of the former Telecom New Zealand’s wholesale and retail operations.

    The remaining areas of the country are receiving enhanced broadband under the concurrent Rural Broadband Initiative.

    “Today we’ve taken the first step toward bringing world-class connectivity to Hokitika,” Chorus general manager of infrastructure Ed Beattie said.

    “Fiber provides the broadband equivalent of an autobahn right to the door of homes and businesses, and it will future-proof Hokitika for the anticipated continued growth in data consumption for generations to come.”

  • Softbank Q4 profit surges on Sprint turnaround

    Softbank Q4 profit surges on Sprint turnaround

    Japan’s Softbank has reported a twelvefold increase in net profit for the March quarter as a result of a recovery at US mobile unit Sprint.

    Profit increased to 580.5 billion yen ($5.08 billion), on the back of a nearly 2% increase in revenue to 2.32 trillion yen.

    For the full year, profit grew to a record 1.4 trillion yen, up from 474 billion in the prior financial year, as the result of the divestment of part of the operator’s stake in Alibaba and cost reductions at Sprint.

    Total revenue increased from 8.88 trillion yen to 8.9 trillion yen over the same period, partly due to the addition of revenue from recent acquisition ARM.

    Sprint’s operating income increased to $1.8 billion for the year, from just $300 million in the prior year, while total costs were reduced to $15.9 billion, representing a $3.4 billion reduction over the past two years.

    Revenue from domestic telco operations meanwhile grew to 3.19 trillion yen from 3.14 trillion yen a year earlier. The company added 360,000 mobile subs during the year to take its total to 32.4 million, with FTTH subscribers roughly doubling to 3.59 million.

    SoftBank separately announced plans to collaborate with Qualcomm and Sprint to jointly develop technologies for 5G in the 2.5-GHz band, including developing the 3GPP new radio standard for the band.

    The companies plan to provide commercial services and devices based on the development activities in late 2019.

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