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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.

  • Nokia providing IP/MPLS for Malaysia’s first MRT line

    Nokia providing IP/MPLS for Malaysia’s first MRT line

    Nokia has announced it has provided a mission-critical communications network for Malaysia’s first Mass Rapid Transit line.

    The company has supplied the network to systems integrator LG CNS as part of the project to provide railway operational support on the new SBK (Sungaii Buloh-Kajang) line.

    Nokia is providing an IP/MPLS network capable of providing scalable Layer-2 and Layer-3 VPN services for various railway sub-systems. The company is also providing its Network Services Platform for end-to-end network and services management.

    The northern section of the SBK line launched in December, and the southern and underground sections are due to be operational by the end of July.

    Once complete, the line will cover 51km and serve the 1.2 million residents in and around Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

    “Nokia’s IP/MPLS solution for railways is designed to address railway operators’ demanding requirements in terms of performance, reliability and, most importantly, safety,” Nokia head of global enterprise and public sector for APAC Stuart Hendry said.

    “We are pleased to play such an important role in helping ensure safe, on-time and connected journeys for Kuala Lumpur’s residents.”

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  • Huawei to take 16.83% stake in Bakrie Telecom

    Huawei to take 16.83% stake in Bakrie Telecom

    Huawei has arranged to acquire a 16.83% stake in Indonesian operator Bakrie Telecom by converting some of the operator’s debt into shares.

    Debt-laden Bakrie Telecom issued a 7.6 trillion rupiah ($568.1 million) mandatory convertible bond in 2016 as part of a debt restructuring. Huawei has now decided to convert its holdings of the bond into shares.

    With the move, 1.23 trillion rupiah worth of Bakrie Telecom’s debt has been converted into shares.

    Bakrie Telecom president commissioner Anindya Novyan Bakrie told that the conversion will help improve the company’s financial situation for this reason, and therefore the company welcomes Huawei’s move.

    But under Indonesian trading rules, the shares to be converted will not be available for trading for one year.

    While Huawei’s Indonesian subsidiary PT Huawei Tech Investment will also have the right to elect representatives on Bakrie Telecom’s board, Anindya said no decision on this has yet been made.

    The possibility of a debt conversion was first floated last year but at the time it was suggested that Huawei would be taking just a 9% stake, with fellow creditors Protelindo and SUPR receiving shares of 7% and 6.8% respectively.

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  • APAC governments ramping up IoT investments

    APAC governments ramping up IoT investments

    Asia-Pacific governments are investing more in IoT technologies. A poll conducted by IDC indicates that 40% of government organizations in the region will be implementing IoT solutions in the next 12 months. Another 50% will be rolling out solutions in the next 12-24 months.

    “Improving productivity, improving time to market for products/services and improving energy efficiency reducing costs are the top benefits of an IoT solution,” said Shreyashi Pal, Market Analyst, IDC Asia-Pacific Government and Education Insights.

    “IoT enables access to new and granular data sources, empowered by swift connectivity and quick data gathering capability giving access to a wider range of information that enhances the quality of government services at a scale, which previously has been thought to be unattainable.”

    IDC’s 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey, which was conducted in July and August 2016 and includes over 4,500 respondents from more than 25 countries, also reveals that Asia is expected to have 21 out of 37 safe megacities of the world. As a result 50% of government organizations plan to deploy security systems in the region while 48% plan to deploy people tracking devices.

    About 62% of the APAC companies are also considering IoT to create a strategic impact to their organizations while 25% considers IoT to create a transformational impact in their organizations. About 28% of the organizations consider security concern as the major hindrance to deploying IoT solution.

    Gerald Wang, Head, IDC Asia-Pacific Government and Education Insights, said that 2016 has seen a significant change in terms of vendors leading the IoT market.

    “The prominent IT vendors prevalent in hardware, software and network solutions equipped with an integrated cloud and analytics solution are most likely to lead the Internet of Things market. IT hardware vendors as the top players,” he said.

    “We also note that for many enterprises in the region, networking equipment vendors and systems integrators feature prominently as potential leaders while traditional IT hardware vendors are becoming the leading network equipment vendors in the IoT market.”

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  • Colt Asia Cloud PBX Service to launch in April

    Colt Asia Cloud PBX Service to launch in April

    Colt Technology Services has announced it will launch its Colt Asia Cloud PBX Service for enterprises in the region starting in April.

    The company will offer an all-in-one solution combining PBX functionality, IP phones and remote access connectivity to the office.

    The service is aimed at alleviating customers from the need of purchasing their own PBX. Instead customers will use the PBX system installed within Colt’s data centers in exchange for a a small upfront cost and monthly fee.

    Calls made using the service within the same organization will be treated as internal extension numbers and be placeable for free.

    Numbers provided by the company will be able to use the full set of PBX features including call transfer, hold and conference calling.

    “Cloud computing is already a standard in today’s IT environment. This reality also applies to voice communications, including telephony, that are indispensable to corporate business,” Colt CCO for Asia Kenji Hioki said.

    “With this service, Colt is dramatically reducing the cost of acquiring PBX and corporate telephony, in turn reducing the associated maintenance and overhead expenses that come with a communications network spanning multiple sites.”

  • Singtel announces tie-up with polytechnics to help F&B businesses go digital

    Singtel announces tie-up with polytechnics to help F&B businesses go digital

    Singtel has announced a new initiative with the two Singapore-based polytechnics — Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP) — in Singapore to help F&B and retail businesses go digital.

    First, it will collaborate with the NYP – Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS) to help these SMEs hire digital professionals who will offer their expertise in e-commerce, retail analytics and digital marketing solutions such as SEO and Search Engine Marketing.

    These digital professionals will comprise of professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) who have been re-skilled.

    SMEs which sign up for this scheme will be able to claim up to 90 per cent in government subsidies.

    In addition, they can also seek additional support on social media marketing, online merchandising and analysis of online consumers from students and lecturers at the NYP’s Customer Experience and Analytics Centre.

    Next, Singtel will work with an integrated team of business, IT and communication students from SP to help F&B owners showcase their offerings on the 99% SME website — a portal set up by DBS and Singtel in 2015 which provides digital tools and resources to SMEs to boost productivity.

    Additionally, the SP students will help these businesses adopt Singtel’s Connected Restaurant solution. This solution offers an online reservation and pick up service.

    SP students will also offer recommendations and develop a suite of solutions to boost businesses’ products and digital and marketing capabilities.

    “Through the 99% SME movement, our collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic and the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies are three-fold. First, it helps SMEs improve productivity, reduce costs, gain new revenue and scale their businesses,” said Andrew Lim, Managing Director, Business Group, Group Enterprise at Singtel, in an official press statement.

    “Second, PMETs are being re-skilled and re-employed while using their skills to help SMEs in their digital journey. Third, the students will acquire deep skills and develop entrepreneurial spirit, which prime them for their career development in the digital field.”

    Last week, Singtel and Lazada announced the launch of 99% SME e-marketplace – a dedicated portal hosted on Lazada Singapore’s website for SMEs to advertise their offerings and tap on a wider online customer base.

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  • New Zealand’s Chorus extends managed services deal with Nokia

    New Zealand’s Chorus extends managed services deal with Nokia

    New Zealand infrastructure provided Chorus has extended its managed services agreement with Nokia for another three years.

    With the contract extension, Nokia will remain the operator’s sole managed services partner.

    The contract is based on Nokia providing fully managed end-to-end operations services aimed at improving the customer experience, operational efficiency and the quality of Chorus’ nationwide fixed line network.

    The initial managed services contract was signed in 2014. Under the agreement, Nokia is providing real-time end-to-end operations and network management from its Global Delivery Center in India.

    “Our decision to extend the existing agreement reflects our satisfaction with Nokia operations and support services,” Chorus CTO Ewen Powell said.

    “We need a partner that understands our business and can deliver simplicity over complexity, helping us launch innovative offerings to our partners and their customers while improving the overall reliability of our networks. Nokia has proven its capabilities to do that, so the extension was very straight forward.”

    Chorus was spun out of the infrastructure arm of former state-owned operator Telecom New Zealand as part of the demerger agreement that was a condition of its participation in New Zealand’s Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) state broadband project. The retail division was spun out into what is now called Spark.

    Chorus owns the majority of telephone lines and exchange equipment in New Zealand and is responsible for building around 70% of the UFB.

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  • Equinix to raise $2.8b ahead of Verizon asset purchase

    Equinix to raise $2.8b ahead of Verizon asset purchase

    Equinix revealed plans yesterday to raise at least $2.875 billion in public offerings over the next few weeks. The data center giant is lining up the necessary funds to make their previously announced purchase of a selection of US operator Verizon’s data center footprint.

    The assets include the former Terremark business and consist of 29 data centers spanning 2.4 million square feet across 24 sites and 12 metro areas.

    The footprint is mostly North American plus Sao Paolo down in Brazil. Nine of those metro areas already have Equinix facilities, while Houston, Culpeper, and Bogota will be some new turf for them.

    Equinix will be selling $1.75 billion of common stock, with underwriters having the usual 30-day option on another 15%, or $262.5 million.

    At the same time they will be selling $1.125B in senior notes due 2027. And they’ll be using $1.053 billion from their existing term loan B borrowings to make up the remaining piece, covering the $3.6B purchase price plus other fees and such.

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  • PT Telkom’s profit grows 24.9% in FY16

    PT Telkom’s profit grows 24.9% in FY16

    Indonesia’s PT Telkom has reported a 24.9% increase in net profit for FY16 to 19.35 trillion rupees ($1.45 billion), on the back of a strong performance in the company’s data and internet businesses.

    Total revenue grew 13.5% to 116.33 trillion rupees, with revenue from the company’s data, internet and IP business growing 31.5% from 2015 to account for 37% of total revenues.

    Fixed broadband subscribers grew 8.8% to 4.3 million, which includes 1.6 million subscribers to its IndiHome fiber broadband services.

    Wireless subsidiary Telkomsel, in which Telkom owns a 35% stake, reported a net income of 9.79 trillion rupiah, up from 7.818 trillion in 2015. Total users grew 13.9% year-on-year to 173.92 million, with mobile broadband users up 37.1% to 60 million.

    Telkom’s capex grew 10.6% year-on-year as the company spent heavily on fixed and mobile network expansion, mainly focused on access and backhaul infrastructure.

    The company said it had deployed nearly 25,000km of terrestrial and subsea fiber during the year, including with its participation in the recently-completed SEA-ME-WE 5 subsea cable project, which links 16 nations in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

  • ‘Super 7’ accelerate cloud, says TBR

    ‘Super 7’ accelerate cloud, says TBR

    A report identified the seven largest (“Super 7”) technology firms which are best positioned to provide access to cloud services for global firms.

    Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent also view their cloud businesses as critical to their growth over at least the next five years, a report from Technology Business Research (TBR) said.

    Chris Antlitz, a telecom senior analyst at TBR, said “All of the Super 7 companies are aggressively building data center footprints globally and are baking in significantly more capacity than they currently need in anticipation of future data traffic growth.”

    “However, despite the addition of extra capacity upfront, capex growth will remain robust through the next five years as workloads increasingly move to the cloud and as the digital ecosystem flourishes worldwide,” the analyst said.

    Of the $16.9 billion in capex spent by the “Super 7” on ICT in 2016, TBR estimates around 75% was for data center infrastructure, with the balance of ICT capex spent primarily on optical transport, routers, switches, software and broadband access initiatives.

    The report said the Super 7 are investing heavily on not only data centers to support the internal operations of their core businesses, but also for their external cloud services businesses, which are growing much faster than their core digital businesses.

    Some vendors are gaining traction with webscale companies, with revenues increasing and the scope of engagements widening. Generally speaking, vendors that align their portfolios and innovation road maps with webscale requirements stand to win the most business from webscale companies.

    TBR’s Webscale ICT Market Landscape tracks the ICT-related initiatives of the seven largest webscale companies in the world. The report provides a market assessment, deep dives into company strategies and analyzes capex trends, particularly as they pertain to ICT. Vendors are also covered from the perspective of relative opportunities with webscale companies as customers.

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  • CenturyLink launches ‘multi-cloud’ management strategy

    CenturyLink launches ‘multi-cloud’ management strategy

    CenturyLink has launched CenturyLink Cloud Application Manager, a new orchestration platform designed to simplify deployment of enterprise workloads, managed services, and third-party cloud resources.

    The tech firm said this cloud-agnostic management platform enables companies to better manage applications and workloads across hybrid hosting environments – in customer private clouds, colocation centers and public cloud environments.

    In a business climate where companies need to simplify management and governance of applications across multiple cloud infrastructures without sacrificing control or visibility, Cloud Application Manager delivers flexibility that enterprises need to quickly provision, deploy and migrate workloads to the environment that best matches business requirements, the company said.

    “Many of our customers and partners struggle with the business challenge of determining the best execution venue for their business applications. We designed Cloud Application Manager to give our customers a wide variety of infrastructure options across diverse public and private cloud environments,” David Shacochis, VP of hybrid IT product management at CenturyLink said.

    “Cloud Application Manager helps companies avoid vendor lock-in, automate application deployments, scale workloads across disparate hosting environments, and optimize their costs over time. These benefits are available in a self-service model, or one that is actively managed by CenturyLink team members,” the executive said.

    Users can consume Cloud Application Manager via the cloud version (SaaS) or the data center version (a virtual appliance that runs on-premises in their data center). This usage-based platform allows customers to consume the value-added services they need with a consolidated bill and a simplified, yet powerful, interface, the company further said.

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  • 21b IoT devices to ship with embedded RTOS by 2022

    21b IoT devices to ship with embedded RTOS by 2022

    IoT faces new computing challenges, notably with deployment and scaling, and its future will rely in part on using embedded real-time operating systems (RTOS), according to ABI Research.

    The research firm has forecast that 21 billion IoT devices will ship with embedded RTOS by 2022.

    RTOS support many IoT application features, such as small size, constrained processing resources, low power consumption, limited maintenance, and real-time computing.

    “The tremendous expansion of the IoT revived the embedded RTOS market, with open source platforms springing up rapidly to jostle long-established proprietary players,” ABI Research research director Michela Menting said.

    “While industrial demand for RTOS has a decade-long history, the development of new IoT applications in other segments – such as consumer, digital home, connected car, and smart cities – jolted demand for embedded RTOS.”

    Supported by greater MCU capabilities and lowering price points, the embedded RTOS market is expanding rapidly.

    Some of the most high-profile and innovative RTOS on the market include µC/OS, FreeRTOS, Integrity RTOS, mbed OS, MEOS, MQX RTOS, Nucleus RTOS, PikeOS, QNX, RIOT OS, ThreadX, VxWorks, and Zephyr.

    Many open source operating systems popular with the IoT are increasingly adding real-time capabilities to compete in this lucrative market. Currently, the embedded RTOS market is highly fragmented, with hundreds of different platforms available.

    “RTOS shows immense promise in terms of flexibility and application for all kinds of new IoT markets,” concludes Menting. “Although, developers will need to tackle issues of interoperability and standardization to realize its full potential.”

  • China Unicom Global expands CUniq MVNO to US

    China Unicom Global expands CUniq MVNO to US

    China Unicom Global has extended its MVNO venture into the US, which will allow customers to keep Hong Kong, mainland China and US mobile numbers on a single account.

    The operator’s CUniq MVNO business has expanded to America after launching in Europe late last year. CUniq now allows data sharing across 47 countries and regions including Hong Kong, Europe and the US.

    Customers will be able to use data, voice and SMS services in the 47 countries. The service is supported by a 24/7 customer support service in Chinese, English and Cantonese.

    In the US, CUniq will have three plans, tailored to global businesspeople, American local users and tourists respectively. It will support electronic payment including WeChat Pay, Alipay, Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay.

    China Unicom Global president Shusen Meng said the company plans to continue expanding its CUniq business into more countries and regions in the future.

    CUniq is being developed in collaboration with multi-country cloud-based MVNE Plintron.

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  • SK Telecom, Nokia team on quantum cryptography

    SK Telecom, Nokia team on quantum cryptography

    SK Telecom and Nokia have teamed up to conduct joint research and development in the field of quantum cryptography for network transport.

    The operators are collaborating to achieve interworking between SK Telecom’s Quantum Key Distribution System (QKD) and Nokia’s next-generation optical transport system by the second half of 2017.

    The first prototype from the collaboration – the Quantum Transport System – was shown off at Nokia’s booth at Mobile World Congress 2017 last week.

    SK Telecom said quantum cryptography is expected to replace existing security mechanisms in all areas at risk of data hacking, including national defense, finance, autonomous vehicles and the IoT.

    In line with this projection, SK Telecom and Nokia have also agreed to cooperate in the area of quantum random number generation, which will be required to apply quantum cryptography to IoT devices.

    SK Telecom has developed a quantum random number generator within the world’s smallest CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) based silicon, measuring just 5x5mm. The company expects to tape out engineering samples of the chip in the second quarter and commercially launch it by the end of the year.

    “Since opening Quantum Tech Lab in 2011, SK Telecom has been making constant efforts to develop quantum cryptography technologies,” SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho said.

    “Based on the cooperation with Nokia, SK Telecom will create a new paradigm and ecosystem in the field of ICT.”

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  • Indian telcos to start their 5G journeys this year

    Indian telcos to start their 5G journeys this year

    India’s plan of utilizing 5G technology to keep up with the rest of the world may soon become a reality.

    Indian operators will start the process of upgrading to 5G technology from this year. According to Huawei India CEO Jay Chen, 5G technology in present form can deliver up to 1Gbps download speed.

    “I can tell you Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology (part of 5G technology) will go to India this year. We have had discussions with leading telecoms operators who are interested and right now it is only available with Huawei for commercial deployment,” Chen said in an interview. Wide-scale commercial deployment of 5G is expected to start in India in the next three years.

    Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal had earlier said that the MIMO technology available with Huawei and ZTE can increase current capability of spectrum by up to 8 times at an additional cost of only about 20%.

    Chen said that 5G standards are expected to be firmed up next year when wide scale commercial deployment of 5G will begin.

    “We have already deployed 4.5G networks in 13 circles across India which with minor upgrades can be transformed to 5G. With 4G subscriber base in India increasing, the download speed will reduce for which operators will need to begin start 4.5G services,” said Chen.

    5G will bring advanced technology which will change the way network coverage is provided to subscribers.

    “At present, subscribers runs to connect with the network. We are ready with pilots for multi MIMO technology that will follow subscribers. Dedicated spectrum frequency (beam forming) will connect with device of the subscribers and follow them wherever they go,” explained Chen.

    He added that the Indian industry is improving significantly with consolidation in the sector and end of spectrum shortage which provides good opportunity for telecoms equipment companies.

    “Earlier their was spectrum scarcity in India. There were 13 operators who were involved in tariff war. Since last year we have not seen operators complaining about spectrum scarcity. Availability of spectrum gives them opportunity to deploy latest technologies like 5G. With Huawei we see this a very positive move. Our growth has also improved in India in last two years,” Chen said.

    He said that Indian operators are now moving in the direction where they can catch up with rest of the world.

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  • Telstra forms SDN alliance with VeloCloud

    Telstra forms SDN alliance with VeloCloud

    Australian operator Telstra has entered a strategic partnership with US-based Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN company VeloCloud to help accelerate the adoption of SDN in enterprise networking.

    The partnership, which includes an investment from Telstra Ventures into VeloCloud, will enhance Telstra’s SDN and NFV capabilities in the APAC region.

    As part of the agreement, Telstra’s Chinese joint venture Telstra PBS will add VeloCloud SD-WAN solutions to its product suite.

    Telstra Ventures managing director Mark Sherman said the investment is consistent with Telstra’s overall network strategy, which reflects the increasing role SDN and NFV are playing in enterprise networking.

    “We expect SDN will continue to transform enterprise networking around the world and VeloCloud SD-WAN can help companies achieve more agile and responsive networks as well as reduce costs,” he said.

    “We are excited about the opportunity to work with VeloCloud on solutions for our enterprise customers, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where their technology can help businesses manage their networks in dynamic environments across multiple locations. Our first step will be to offer VeloCloud technology to customers in mainland China.”