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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.

  • Virgin Media picks Netcracker for revenue management

    Virgin Media picks Netcracker for revenue management

    Virgin Media has expanded its relationship with Netcracker by selecting it as the managed services provider of choice for its Revenue Management solution.

    By using Netcracker’s Managed Services, Virgin Media will be able to scale more flexibly while reducing the cost of operations.

    This multiyear managed services engagement with Netcracker will open new opportunities for Virgin Media to deliver customized services for its business customers and improve scalability in terms of meeting increasingly complex customer demands.

    “Our longstanding relationship with Netcracker is built on trust and its proven ability to deliver and support complex business programs, which drove us to select it for this important initiative,” said Duncan Macdonald, executive director of technology and transformation at Virgin Media.

    “Netcracker has demonstrated and validated its managed services capabilities around the world and we are happy to extend our partnership in order to meet our objectives,” said Macdonald.

    Sylvain Seignour, chief customer officer at Netcracker, service providers are constantly evolving to meet new customer needs, which create complexities that can be mitigated through the use of managed services.

  • Japanese telco taps Redknee for 4G service upgrade

    Japanese telco taps Redknee for 4G service upgrade

    A Tier 1 communication service provider in Japan has awarded Redknee Solutions has won a multi-million dollar.

    The operator is experiencing increasing demand for 4G services while its subscriber base expands rapidly. The solution will upgrade Redknee’s integrated policy and charging solution to support more than 30 million subscribers.

    The solution will also add support for new capabilities such as Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). The win will see Redknee scale its solutions to meet the needs of a growing Tier 1 CSP while supporting 4G service offerings that require an agile and innovative approach to achieve customer satisfaction and success.
    Consumers are increasingly using data rich services such as HD voice and multimedia services, and this is prompting CSP’s to invest in new technologies that support increasing volumes of data and traffic. VoLTE is quickly being adopted because it can deliver faster onboarding, shorter call setup times, and improved spectral efficiency.

    “Redknee understands the importance of customer success. Redknee’s agile and scalable solutions support new technologies and service offerings, such as VoLTE, which allow our customers to improve quality of service, drive innovation, and deliver successfully to all of their subscribers,” said Danielle Royston, Redknee’s CEO.

  • ZTE, China Mobile complete NB-IoT field trial

    ZTE, China Mobile complete NB-IoT field trial

    ZTE and China Mobile have announced they have completed the operator’s first narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) field test in Guangzhou.

    The trial involved the validation of core network, service, terminals and wireless equipment for NB-IoT with both single mode and multi-mode networking.

    Testing concentrated on performance, including users’ data rate, delay and coverage enhancements. ZTE provided all the equipment for the trial, including virtual core network, 2T4R base stations and terminals using a ZTE custom-developed chip.

    China Mobile is conducting NB-IoT trials in four provinces – Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Fuzhou, and is working with only one vendor in each of these provinces to allow it to deeply study and verify various NB-IoT features.

    Guangdong Mobile’s field test is the largest-scale among the four provinces with nearly 200 sites constructed. ZTE said this trial was also the only field test to accomplish specified test items dedicated to the NB-IoT protocol, including all combinations of uplink channels and services specified in NB-IoT protocol standards.

    The trial also exclusively supported the sub-carrier interval of 3.75KHz and 15KHz simultaneously, marking the world’s first 3.75KHz test.

    ZTE separately announced it has completed verification for its emergency communication solution based on drone technology, in collaboration with the Quanzhou branch of China Telecom.

    The lightweight (15 kilogram) solution comprises a drone equipped with a ZTE Pico base station and customer premises equipment that can be easily transported and deployed to a rescue scene.

    The test demonstrated that the drone can complete preparation and be in the air within 10 minutes, and can deliver a downlink peak data rate of 30Mbps and a VoLTE speech quality mean opinion score of 3.3.

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  • Jio accuses rivals of “unfair and deceptive” practices

    Jio accuses rivals of “unfair and deceptive” practices

    India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm has called on the market’s telecoms regulator to penalize incumbent operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for allegedly violating regulations covering mobile plans in an attempt to prevent more customers from porting to the new operator.

    Reliance Jio has accused the operators of using “unfair and deceptive” methods to retain customers, including by offering custom retention offers for subscribers thinking of porting to Jio.

    Jio said these custom offers are being offered on a one-off basis to existing customers, and as such are not advertised publicly as required by the regulations.

    The operator has further argued that the custom offers violate regulatory norms limiting the number of prepaid and postpaid plans allowed to 25.

    Finally, Jio has accused the operators of providing “false and malicious” information regarding the quality of Jio’s network to customers via call center interactions.

    The operator is requesting that regulator Trai issue a ceast and desist order prohibiting the operators from continuing with the alleged actions.

    But Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India strongly denied to the Press Trust of India any allegation that they are in violation of the regulations.

  • IPC, 1-Net plan interconnected data center network

    IPC, 1-Net plan interconnected data center network

    Philippines cloud services and data center provider IPC (IP Converge Data Services) has teamed up with 1-Net in Singapore to provide its customers with an interconnected data center network.

    This collaboration enables both organization to extend their data center capacity for faster access and deployment of customers in the countries.

    IPC and 1-Net are both data center providers who operate carrier-neutral and telco-grade internet data centers in Philippines and Singapore respectively.

    This strategic partnership will strengthen the data center services of both providers, ensuring that customers’ data is securely stored. This will also enable enterprises to run mission-critical systems in our facilities while they grow their businesses in the two countries.

    The partnership will enable both IPC and 1-Net to deploy customers in both Philippines and Singapore with a single contract, allowing quicker deployment without the need to renegotiate service level agreements and contracts.

    “Our partnership with 1-Net virtually expands the data center footprint of both companies. Gaining access to data center facilities in Singapore enables our enterprise customers to extend their network into the more mature market in Singapore, and likewise offers the same benefit to regional players present in Singapore who are looking to expand into our bustling Philippines economy for business expansion,” said IPC Chief Executive Officer Reynaldo R. Huergas.

  • Cyient, Amdocs to implement GIS for NetLink Trust

    Cyient, Amdocs to implement GIS for NetLink Trust

    Cyient is collaborating with Amdocs to implement GE’s Geographical Information System (GIS), Smallworld, as part of the next-generation business/operations support system (NGBOSS) project for NetLink Trust.

    The NGBOSS project aims to improve the user experience for NetLink Trust’s customers with faster deployment of new fiber networks while reducing fault repair and outage times, as well as delivering improved service quality.

    As part of the overall solution, Amdocs will deliver a comprehensive BSS/OSS suite that includes an online portal, billing, order orchestration and service order management, workforce management, and service assurance components.

    Amdocs will assume the role of solution provider and will also act as the prime system integrator of third-party software and hardware. Cyient will install and configure GE Smallworld 5.1 GIS, enabling NetLink Trust to plan and design modules to model fiber to the x (FTTx), including homes and businesses.

    The project includes end-to-end operations support planning, operations, fulfillment and assurance teams, consolidation, as well as migration of the business processes and network data from existing systems to new systems without disturbing the current operations.

    Ongoing maintenance and support of the GIS subsystem/component will also be provided by Cyient in the effort to ensure that the implemented solution continues to provide NetLink Trust’s customers with an uninterrupted service.

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  • Viu OTT service users hit over 6m in 14 markets

    Viu OTT service users hit over 6m in 14 markets

    PCCW Media said its Viu OTT video service has reached over 6 million active users in one and half year after launch and is driving 3G/4G acquisition and mobile data consumption for its telco partners in the region.

    Speaking at Broadband Forum Asia in Hong Kong Tuesday, Helen Sou, senior vice president and digital media head of OTT at PCCW Media, said Viu is now available in 14 markets in Southeast Asia, Middle East and India and the company is expected to continue to see strong growth in its user base.

    As of February, Viu had 6 million monthly active users, 80% of which were Generation-X with high disposal income and millennials who were receptive to digital ads. These users, Sou said, are highly engaging and valuable viewers, consuming an average of 1.8 hours of content per day or 12 videos per week.

    “These 6 million users are very sticky and consistent. They are not just coming in and leave in two months, they view video quite often and consume quite a long while,” she said.

    “They are valuable users for us, our advertisers and telco partners, because they are willing to spend money, consume data, pay for content and be responsive to digital advertisements.”

    Sou said Viu service has also created quantifiable value for its telcos partners in the region, driving up mobile data usage and 3G/4G customer acquisition in the markets where the service is available.

    “We’ve heard a lot of good things from partners, especial telco partners…In some markets, there are users afraid of buying data plans or either buy low-end data plan, but because of Viu they upgrade their data plans or their smartphones, and in some cases, some extend their Wi-Fi plans from hourly to weekly or migrate to the mobile network,” the executive said.

    Citing statistics from telco partners from one unidentified country, she said the Viu service has helped telcos achieve 3.5GB average monthly mobile data consumption per user and 25% incremental data revenue and APRU growth in three months.

    Launched in October 2015, Viu targets emerging markets with strong potential growth for 4G, where there are expected to have 600 million 4G users in 2020, according to the GSMA.

    The company is currently working with 20 telco partners in the region, including U Mobile, Maxis, TM, Indosat, AIS, Vodafone, Airtel, Digi, Idea Cellular and Singtel.

    According to Sou, OTT video revenue, including subscription revenue and advertising revenue, is expected to grow tremendously in these emerging markets next four years, with Middle East growing at CAGR 33%, India CAGR 62.8% and South East Asia CAGR 27.3%.

    There is also strong potential for OTT video, which is expected to account for around 75% of mobile data traffic, generating 69 exabytes in 2020, compared to 8.5 exabytes of mobile data traffic in 2016, she added.

    Sou said Viu is now a dominant OTT player in the region, attributing its success to good product, localization and good content for the success.

    Instead of Hollywood content, the company started with premium Asian video content – Korean, Bollywood, Japanese and Chinese dramas – and variety shows from over 200 content partners. The company also differentiates with fast local subtitling by promising viewers to deliver popular content as fast as 8 hours after local telecast.

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  • Huawei pushing into public cloud market

    Huawei pushing into public cloud market

    Huawei is entering the public cloud market, placing the company in competition with AliCloud, AWS and other major global public cloud providers.

    At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen yesterday, Huawei said it will work with industry partners to promote ten scenario-specific cloud services covering HPC Cloud, SAP Cloud, IoT Cloud and other common scenarios.

    “Cloud technology is becoming the new growth engine as digital transformations accelerate,” Huawei president of cloud business unit and IT product line Zheng Yelai said at the event.

    “Huawei has continued to step up its R&D, one result culminating in the cloud service offering. Huawei has become the preferred partner for many of the world’s top customers and will continue to provide high-quality cloud services with our partners as we persist in building a healthy ecology in the sector.”

    The vendor is establishing a dedicated cloud division with 2,000 staff and last month launched 54 full-stack public cloud services in ten categories. Huawei said since the launch it has attracted customers in China, Europe, North America, Latin America and the South Pacific.

    Huawei is also working with operators including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica to provide tailored public cloud services to their respective customers.

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  • Singtel’s Amobee completes acquisition of Turn

    Singtel’s Amobee completes acquisition of Turn

    Singtel has enhanced its digital marketing capabilities with the acquisition of marketing technology platform provider Turn.

    Singtel’s Amobee digital marketing arm has acquired Turn to provide the ability to offer an end-to-end advertising and data management platform for marketing companies worldwide.

    The platform will cover all channels, formats and devices and also provide access to Amobee Brand Intelligence analytics and insights.

    “The acquisition of Turn underscores Singtel’s commitment to grow and scale Amobee to become a global digital marketing leader,” Singtel Group Digital Life CEO Samba Natarajan said.

    “The powerful combination of Amobee and Turn addresses the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape. Together, we will bring marketers the most innovative, efficient, and data-driven approach to better understand and reach their customers, and enhance the way they engage them on a global scale,” added Amobee CEO Kim Perrel.

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  • Australia’s TPG to enter local mobile market

    Australia’s TPG to enter local mobile market

    Fast-growing Australian fixed line operator TPG Telecom has bid A$1.26 billion ($944.8 million) to acquire 2×10 MHz of valuable 700-MHz spectrum, and plans to build its own mobile network using the bandwidth.

    TPG has revealed plans to spend A$600 million over three years to deploy a mobile network that covers 80% of the Australian population.

    As well as its imminent 700-MHz holdings, TPG also holds spectrum in the 1.8-GHz and 2.5-GHz bands. The operator plans to deploy a network consisting of around 2,000 to 2,500 sites, and use its extensive 21,000km fiber network as backhaul.

    TPG currently operates as an MVNO over Vodafone Australia’s network, but now plans to invest in deploying its own network. The company estimates it can break even with around 500,000 subscribers.

    CEO David Teoh said TPG expects to have several advantages over incumbent operators Telstra, Optus and Vodafone due to the ability to operate fewer mobile towers and deploy advanced mobile technology on its network, without the requirement to support legacy equipment and networking standards.

    “We believe that our mobile strategy will be complementary to our ongoing fixed line business, with the ability to bundle mobile and fixed services expected to have a beneficial effect on our already low fixed services customer churn,” he said.

    TPG was also recently selected to become Singapore’s fourth mobile operator after bidding S$105 million ($74.8 million) for a license and spectrum, and last week successfully bid S$23.8 million for 10 MHz of 2500-MHz spectrum.

    The Australian 700-MHz auction raised more than A$1.5 billion – significantly higher than the A$857 million reserve price – with Vodafone Australia also securing 2x5MHz of spectrum for A$285.9 million.

    The licenses will commence in April 2018 and expire at the end of 2029.

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  • M1 launches cross-border mobile remittance

    M1 launches cross-border mobile remittance

    Singapore’s M1has launched new cross-border digital mobile remittance supporting transfers to multiple APAC destinations.

    The service named M1 Remit is available to users of M1 mobile phone numbers holding valid NRIC/FIN/Work Passes in Singapore.

    Users of the service can access real time exchange rates and remit funds to their designated recipients anytime, anywhere, through a mobile app or a browser on their smart device.

    Unlike typical remittance services where customers have to queue at a physical outlet to deposit funds, payments for M1 Remit transactions can be made at any one of the 915 AXS machines located in shopping malls, office buildings and other sites islandwide using an ATM card.

    Customers who do not have bank accounts or ATM cards can opt to make cash payment at M1’s IMM and Paragon outlets in Singapore, after completing a one-time verification process.

    Recipients will be able to cash out as quickly as within an hour of the transaction from over 23,000 cash agents and 640 banks available at the various destinations.

    M1 Remit currently offers eight remittance destinations – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Philippines. Thailand, Vietnam, and other remittance destinations will be made available progressively. For a limited time, M1 Remit is also waiving the remittance fee to these destinations.

    “M1 Remit offers a wholly digital experience for money remittance. Nobody likes to queue, and now our customers can skip the queue and make better use of their time with and M1 Remit – Singapore’s most convenient, secure and cost-effective way to remit funds to their loved ones,” M1 chief innovation officer Alex Tan said.

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  • 3 Hong Kong upgrading network to prepare for 5G

    3 Hong Kong upgrading network to prepare for 5G

    Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holding’s mobile division 3 Hong Kong has teamed up with Huawei to upgrade its mobile network in preparation for the 5G era.

    The operator is adopting five component carrier aggregation (5CC CA) using its extensive spectrum holdings across the 1800-MHz, 2100-MHz, 2300-MHz and 2600-MHz bands with both FDD and TDD technology.

    Huawei will also upgrade the network to support 4×4 MIMO and 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology, to enable 3 Hong Kong to provide customers with data download speeds of over 1.2Gbps.

    In addition to these 4.5G technologies, 3 Hong Kong has started planning for the deployment of 4G technologies based on network cloudification.

    The partners have already deployed Huawei’s CloudEdge technology on the 3 Hong Kong core network and are now applying CloudRAN technology to the wireless access network. The operator also plans to adopt Huawei’s CloudAIR air interface cloud technology.

    A Massive MIMO base station has also been built in Causeway Bay to conduct field tests of the 5G technology, and 3 Hong Kong plans to continue the deployment of Massive MIMO in key locations within the year.

    “As we move towards the 5G and IoT era, 3 Hong Kong is actively deploying 5G technologies and upgrading its existing network architecture,” HTHKH executive director and CEO Cliff Woo Chiu-man said.

    “In addition to using CA technology with 5CC, we have conducted research and carried out trials for various technologies, such as small cell installations, network cloudification, NFV and Massive MIMO towards the 5G era. These  efforts will enable the timely launch of services to meet market demand as soon as the 5G  standard and Hong Kong’s spectrum plans are confirmed.”

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  • Australia’s nbn trials Nokia’s universal GPON tech

    Australia’s nbn trials Nokia’s universal GPON tech

    Australia’s nbn, the company in charge of rolling out the National Broadband Network, has achieved 102Gbps aggregate speeds during a lab trial of Nokia’s universal NG-PON fiber technology.

    Universal NG-PON (next-generation passive optical network) combines TWDM-PON (time wavelength division multiplexing PON), XGS-PON (10 gigabit symmetrical PON) and GPON (gigabit PON) technology on the same fiber to support blazing fast speeds.

    It is designed to serve as a simple upgrade path to the current fiber technology used in FTTP deployments, saving the time and additional costs associated with laying new fiber.

    During the trial at Nokia’s Melbourne laboratory, nbn tested TWDM-PON with 40Gbps symmetrical, XGS-PON with 10Gbps symmetrical and GPON with 2.5Gbps, achieving aggregate download and upload speeds of over 102Gbps over a single shared access fiber.

    “Our successful trial of NG-PON2 technology with Nokia is another example of our ongoing commitment to continually develop the capabilities and speed of the nbn network,” nbn CTO Dennis Steiger said.

    “While we continue to deploy the nbn network at pace with over 2 million end-users now receiving nbn services and nearly 5 million able to order a service, we also have a very sharp focus on the future. The NG-PON2 trials we have conducted with Nokia have shown us the huge potential this very exciting technology has in terms of helping us deliver on our future bandwidth and capacity requirements.”

    But the current government’s decision to abandon the previous government’s plan to use FTTP for around 93% of connections, in favor of a multi-technology mix incorporating last-mile copper technology purchased from incumbent operator Telstra, complicates the potential upgrade path to the new technology.

  • Cloud boom fuels demand for identity-as-a-service

    Cloud boom fuels demand for identity-as-a-service

    The rising adoption of cloud computing, especially among small and medium organizations, is fueling demand for new identity and access management business models such as Identity as a Service (IDaaS), Frost & Sullivan said.

    IDaaS will strike a balance between on-premise and cloud identity management, as well as significantly lower the cost of ownership of IAM solutions.

    The research firm noted that IAM challenges are more business-centric than technology-centric. Segments such as administration, authentication and auditing are developing technologies to improve service accuracy and cost efficiency.

    Emerging services like Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) are contributing heavily to the growth of IAM technologies.

    “The shifting of enterprise solutions to the cloud has created a complex architecture that requires more advanced IAM solutions than the ones currently offered by traditional identity management vendors,” noted Frost & Sullivan TechVision Industry Analyst Swapnadeep Nayak.

    “The emergence of IDaaS has proven beneficial to enterprises, as it will assist with regulatory compliance, reduce the expenses involved in extending on-premise solutions to the cloud, and support the same features as enterprises’ legacy systems.”

    As most of the recent IT trends have been mobile centric, IAM solution providers need to ensure their innovations are mobile friendly to attract the attention of enterprises. Supporting cross-platform visualization and advanced analytics, as well as portable biometric technology, will give a huge boost to technology adoption rates.

    “Biometric authentication is a key area that is experiencing significant technology development, especially with regard to accuracy levels of validation and flexibility of usage,” noted Nayak. “Analytics is also growing rapidly due to the emergence of futuristic solutions like neural networks and machine learning.”

  • China Unicom parent seeks private investment

    China Unicom parent seeks private investment

    China Unicom’s parent company China United Network Communications plans to open up to private investors in response to government pressure to reform the ownership structure and competitiveness of the market’s big three operators.

    The company plans to welcome in a strategic private sector investor as part of a pilot designed to evaluate having subsidiary China Unicom operate more like a private company.

    China Unicom itself is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange along with rivals China Mobile and China Telecom, but China United Network Communications owns a controlling 75.9% stake in the company.

    As the least profitable of China’s big three operators – Unicom reported a 94.1% slump in net profit for 2016 – the government has selected Unicom to pilot the mixed ownership reform model.

    The operator has already taken steps towards becoming a leaner, more competitive company. Unicom cut its planned capex budget to 45 billion yuan ($6.52 billion), from 72.1 billion yuan last year, to ensure it has the resources needed to fund its 5G rollout once the technology launches.

    The pilot of a mixed ownership model forms part of the government’s wider plans for state-owned enterprise reform. The government has previously announced that substantial reforms will be needed across seven industries including the telecoms sector.

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