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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.

  • XL Axiata swings back to profit in FY16

    XL Axiata swings back to profit in FY16

    Indonesia’s XL Axiata swung back to a 376 billion rupiah ($28.1 million) profit in 2016, as the company benefited from its $250 million tower sale and a stronger rupiah.

    The sale of 2,500 telecoms towers to local tower operator Protelindo, announced in March, helped the operator recover from a 25 billion rupiah loss the year before.

    But service revenue declined 4% to 19.19 billion rupiah due to the ongoing shift from legacy services to data. As a result of this rebalancing, data grew to account for 53% of the operator’s service revenue as of the fourth quarter, up from 35% a year earlier.

    Data traffic also surged to 515,304 terabytes, up from 196,341 terabytes a year earlier. The surge was driven by a 21 percentage point increase in smartphone penetration among XL’s subscribers to 63%, totalling 29 million customers at the end of FY16.

    During the fourth quarter, service revenue grew for a second consecutive quarter, albeit a slim 1% sequentially.

    XL Axiata’s results show that the company rolled out over 25,000 new base stations during the year, taking its total to 84,484 by the end of the year. Of these, 8,204 are 4G e-Node base stations, 38,731 are 3G node base stations and 37,549 are 2G sites.

  • Telkom Indonesia to launch third satellite this month

    Telkom Indonesia to launch third satellite this month

    Telkom Indonesia plans to launch a third satellite in less than two weeks as part of efforts to reduce its dependence on foreign satellites.

    The state-owned operator will launch the Telkom 3S from the Guiana Space Center on February 14. The satellite was constructed by Thales Alenia Space and will be launched abord Arianespace Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket.

    Once operational the Telkom 3S will carry 24 C band, 8 extended C band and 10 Ku band transponders. The satellite will substitute for the Telkom 3, which failed to reach orbit in 2012, and will take the orbital slot of the current Telkom 2.

    In turn the Telkom 2 will be moved to another orbit, and is expected to remain operational until 2021.

    The Telkom 1 and Telkom 2 satellites have a combined 140 transponders, but according to the report, Telkom said at least 300 transponders are needed to serve the operator’s consumer and business customers. The new Telkom 3S will cut down on the satellite capacity the company needs to source from foreign satellites.

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  • Telenor India said to seek merger with RCom, Aircel

    Telenor India said to seek merger with RCom, Aircel

    Norway’s Telenor is reportedly seeking to get in on the proposed merger between Aircel and Reliance Communications.

    Telenor is proposing to combine its Indian business, customer base and spectrum with the merged Aircel-RCom entity. Under the proposed terms, Telenor would own 10% of the combined company, while Aircel parent Maxis and RCom would each own 45%.

    The report cites a telecoms industry executive as stating that negotiations between the three commenced around Christmas, but have been in limbo after the Supreme Court threatened to revoke Aircel’s license if promoted Ananda Krishnan didn’t appear for a corruption case. As part of the decision the court also issued an interim ban on the sale of Aircel’s 2G spectrum.

    Telenor is also reportedly in parallel discussions with Bharti Airtel, even though Airtel has only offered cash value for Telenor’s spectrum rather than a proposed merger. The sources stated that Telenor is eager to exit India as soon as possible and will take the Airtel deal if it will close faster.

    RCom last year agreed to merge with Sistema Shyam Teleservices as part of the wave of telecoms industry consolidation.

    A combined RCom, Telenor, Aircel and SSTL would have a total subscriber base of around 236 million, making it India’s second largest operator behind Bharti Airtel, which has nearly 260 million customers.

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  • NBTC plans to allocate 380 MHz more mobile spectrum

    NBTC plans to allocate 380 MHz more mobile spectrum

    Thailand’s telecoms regulator NBTC plans to release 380 MHz of additional spectrum to the industry to set the stage for 5G and accommodate burgeoning demand for mobile data and IoT services.

    The regulator is aiming to auction 180 MHz of 2600-MHz spectrum this year as part of this process, citing NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith.

    According to the plan, this will be followed by auctions of 90 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum and 20 MHz of 850-MHz spectrum by March 2018, then 90 MHz of 700-MHz spectrum by 2020.

    While to date up to 420 MHz of bandwidth has been allocated for mobile use, Takorn said this will not be sufficient to keep pace with rapid developments in network technology and online service innovation, let alone the eventual deployment of 5G and the new use cases it will bring.

    The planned auctions will bring the total bandwidth allocated for telecoms use up to 800 MHz, significantly higher than the 700 MHz recommended by the ITU, the report notes.

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  • South Korea’s Race To 100% Internet Access

    South Korea’s Race To 100% Internet Access

    The proliferation of smartphones in the hands of the entire population — but mostly the elderly and children — are the main cause of these rising internet implementation rates. It’s been reported that senior citizens are one of the larger user groups surfing the web. Dubbed “silver surfers,” those above the age of 60 are mainly using the internet as a means of communication in instant messaging apps.

    From map navigation to shopping, banking, cloud usage and more, nearly every connected area imaginable is rising in South Korean user activity. Data shows three-fourths of respondents were utilizing maps, and over half were playing online games three to four times per week. Of particular interest is the popularity of instant messaging, as survey results show 88.3 percent are using some form of a messenger app.

    Now, although internet connectivity is normally seen as a good thing, there’s always a not-so-shiny side. It was found that 99 percent of respondents go online at least once per week, where they spend an average of 14.3 hours. Teenagers have shown signs of internet addiction, and parents are now enrolling their children in rehab centers for treatment. Given our world’s continual increase in connected devices and services, receiving help for this particular type of addiction may be a very tough road ahead for us all.

    As more people get online to communicate with one another, we just may see internet addiction rehab centers popping up all over.

  • Thai MVNOs must use fingerprint SIM registration

    Thai MVNOs must use fingerprint SIM registration

    Thailand’s MVNOs will need to implement a new online fingerprint ID registration system for both prepaid and postpaid mobile SIMs by March, after regulator the NBTC declined to exempt them from complying with the new registration regime.

    The online registration system is being introduced as a requirement for both mobile operators and MVNOs as part of an NBTC decision from late last year.

    But MVNOs had been calling on the regulator to exempt them from the order on the grounds that it will impose additional costs that may make it difficult for them to compete with the major operators.

    NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith as stating that the regulator has decided that consumer interests must be put first, and a fingerprint system will be required to ensure greater security in mobile banking as Thailand moves towards becoming a cashless society.

    He also said operators will be able to deduct the costs of implementing the system from their annual universal service obligation fee.

    The new online fingerprint ID system will complement the existing compulsory SIM registration system. While operators are required to implement access to the system, end-users will choose whether to submit their fingerprints.

  • Telstra launches Gigabit LTE in key CBDs

    Telstra launches Gigabit LTE in key CBDs

    Australia’s Telstra has launched the world’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network in the central business districts of key state capital cities.

    The operator’s LTE-A network in these CBDs has been upgraded to support 4X4 multiple input multiple output (MIMO), three carrier aggregation and 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) on the downlink.

    The network also supports 64QAM and two carrier aggregation on the uplink for a peak upload speed of 150Mbps.

    Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Netgear jointly developed the first Gigabit-class commercially ready LTE network and Gigabit-class mobile device in October.

    Netgear’s Gigabit LTE device, the Nighthawk M1, will launch in Australia late this month, which will allow customers to use the Gigabit LTE service. The Nighthawk M1 utilizes 4×4 MIMO to support 4-way receive diversity.

    “Gigabit LTE is also an important step on our journey to 5G and demonstrates Telstra’s commitment to delivering Australians a world class network now and into the future,” Telstra group managing director for networks Mike Wright said.

    “We are well placed to evolve our 4G network and are putting the building blocks in place for Australia to be ready for 5G – this will deliver more bandwidth and lower latencies which are critical for emerging applications such as downloading 4K video, IoT, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality and shared virtual reality.”

  • Indonesian govt to embrace IoT

    Indonesian govt to embrace IoT

    By 2019, 20% of local and regional governments in Indonesia will use IoT devices to turn infrastructure like roads, street lights, and traffic signals into assets instead of liabilities, IDC predicts.

    This year, however, it said 90% of Indonesian cities will fail to take full advantage of smart city data and digital assets due to a lack of process, project management, and change management skills.

    “In Indonesia, digital transformation is still not adequately represented within the enterprise, and this disparity in leadership will lead towards a delayed response towards market changes that will adversely impact business,” IDC Indonesia country manager Sudev Bangah said.

    Timing is critical, and archaic thinking of riding out trying economic times is no longer relevant and should be addressed with process-led innovation.”

    These insights are among the top technology predictions announced recently by IDC Indonesia at the IDC FutureScape Media Briefing.

    The research firm highlighted that digital transformation will attain macroeconomic scale over the next two to three years in the country, changing the way enterprises operate and reshaping the global economy. IDC calls this as the dawn of the “DX Economy.”

    “As digital transformation reaches macroeconomic levels, a DX economy will emerge and will become the core of what industry leaders do and operate,” IDC Indonesia research manager for consulting Mevira Munindra said.

    “Essentially, to succeed, Indonesian enterprises must begin to think of the relevancy of their business in 10 years, and how they should react in the face of disruptive forces.”

    In the enterprise sector, IDC’s predictions are as follows:

    1. By 2019, 50% of IT organizations will create new customer-facing and ecosystem-facing services to meet the business DX needs.
    2. By 2018, lack of vision, credibility, or ability to influence will keep 80% of IT executives from attaining leadership roles in enterprise DX.
    3. By 2020, Indonesian firms will use open innovation to allocate expertise to 15% of new projects, aiming to increase their new product introduction success rates by over 50%.
    4. By 2020, nearly 20 percent of operational processes will be self-healing and self-learning — minimizing the need for human intervention or adjustments.
    5. By 2018, online brand ambassadors and social media influencers will have more marketing power than traditional digital advertising, yet this will subside through 2019 and beyond.
    6. By 2019, digital transformation investments will double, drawing funds away from store capital and profoundly changing the retail industry.
    7. By 2019, only 30% of manufacturers investing in digital transformation will be able to maximize the outcome; the rest will be held back by outdated business models and technology.
    8. By 2019, cloud adoption will reduce infrastructure spend by 25% among top-tier banks.
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  • Nokia launches a digital assistant for telcos

    Nokia launches a digital assistant for telcos

    Nokia has announced the launch of MIKA, the first digital assistant customized for the telecommunications industry.

    MIKA (multi-purpose intuitive knowledge assistant) is designed to provide voice-activated access to information for telecoms engineers, to reduce the time needed to find essential information needed to maintain complex multi-technology network environments.

    MIKA is powered by the Nokia AVA cognitive services platform, and provides access to the AVA knowledge library of best practice gathered from Nokia’s network projecs around the world.

    The platform combines augmented intelligence with automated machine learning based on Bell Labs learning algorithms.

    “Finding the right information is a daily challenge for telco engineers tasked with boosting network quality,” Nokia head of global services Igor Leprince said.

    “MIKA taps into the power of the Nokia AVA platform to provide quick and accurate answers, avoiding time wasted on fruitless searches. MIKA is customized to support the specific needs of telecoms, and can deliver recommendations based on experience from networks around the world.”

    Nokia also introduced a new predictive repair service, which will enable operators to reduce costs by predicting hardware failures and recommending replacements up to 14 days in advance. The vendor said the service can achieve up to 95% accuracy.

    Predictive repair will be available to operators using Nokia’s 3G and 4G equipment.

  • Vietnam’s notorious internet cable AAG finally back up to full speed

    Vietnam’s notorious internet cable AAG finally back up to full speed

    Out of the three undersea internet cables that crashed in January, one still remains adrift. The repair work on the notorious Asia America Gateway (AAG) undersea cable system was completed on Thursday, quoting service provider CMC Telecom.

    The same day, another service provider VNPT Telecom confirmed that the rupture-prone AAG is back up to 100 percent of its capacity, just in time before the Lunar New Year holiday.

    In early January, the AAG and two other internet cables, the Intra Asia (IA) and the newly launched Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), all experienced problems and were subsequently shut down.

    The APG was fully recovered on January 23 while the other is expected to be fixed by February 5.

    The AAG is well known to internet users in Vietnam for its frequent ruptures, which even inspired internet memes blaming the issues on “sharks.”

    In 2016 alone, it ruptured three times – in March, June and August – heavily affecting outbound traffic.

    Vietnam has five submarine cable systems. The AAG was connected in November 2009 with a length of over 20,000 kilometers and a design capacity of 2 terabit/second, directly connecting Southeast Asia with America.

    The latest addition is the recently broken and now fixed APG Submarine Cable. It began operations in late December and was officially launched on January 3. The cable cost $450 million and has a design capacity of more than 54 Tbps.

    In addition to submarine cable systems, Vietnam has a land-based system with a capacity of 120 gigabit/second that goes through China, and there are plans to build another one.

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  • Telkom Ready to Face Google Balloons in Indonesia

    Telkom Ready to Face Google Balloons in Indonesia

    PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Persero (TLKM) or Telkom signals it is ready to block the expansion of Google’s hot air balloon as part of Google’s Project Loon across Indonesia, by increasing the number and capacity of its satellite.

    “We continue to add satellites to expand internet services that reach remote rural areas. So, do not let the balloon (Google Loon) over Indonesia,” said Director of Network and IT Solution Abdus Somad Arief.

    Abdus said in addition to continuing to build fiber-optic network infrastructure, Telkom also utilizes satellite technology to equalize communication access across the country. Moreover, he added, Indonesia with 17,000 islands, is unlikely to be completely reachable with optical cable network, Telkom’s satellite then should continue to be developed.

    Still cited by Antara, it is known around mid-2015, Google actively expanded in a number of countries, including Indonesia, bringing Internet networks in remote locations which are difficult to access with optical cable infrastructure, with balloons that acts like a satellite.

    The balloons used in the project fly with solar power, the company plans to expand its worldwide internet network coverage by creating Wi-Fi networks in the air using the balloons.

    Telkom’s efforts to block the Google Loon are reflected from the company’s planned launch of Telkom 3S Satellite scheduled on February 15, 2017, at around 4:39 AM, with launch site at the Guiana Space Center of Kourou, Guyana, France.

    Telkom 3S satellite will occupy an orbital slot of 118 degrees of east longitude which is above Kalimantan and currently is occupied by Telkom-2 satellite.

    With satellite’s active period about 15 years since its launch, Telkom 3S has a capacity of 49 transponders, consisting of 24 C-band transponders (24 TPE), 8 extended C-Band transponders (12 TPE), and 10 Ku-band transponders (13 TPE).

    “If Telkom 3S satellite [is launched], Telkom has three active satellites orbiting, i.e., Telkom 1, Telkom 2, and Telkom 3S Satellites,” he said.

    Abdus added Telkom has experienced in satellite management for 40 years; it is the time to make satellite with its self-produced technology. For Telkom 3S Satellite, in terms of local content, Telkom is no longer user, but it is capable of build its own.

    Telkom since 1976 has been managing satellite, Telkom through a center of excellence, especially in satellite field is ready to take part to build the nation.

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  • Service providers failing to meet enterprise expectations

    Service providers failing to meet enterprise expectations

    Solutions that network service providers offer don’t always meet the expectations of enterprises, a global study commissioned by Tata Communications reveals.

    Conducted by IDC amongst enterprises and service providers across 32 countries in Africa, Americas, APAC, Europe and MENA, the research also shows that enterprise customers rank security (52%), cloud (43%) and mobility (32%) as their top technology priorities.

    Enterprises see partnerships as key in their decision-making process, indicating that by finding the right partners, service providers could win more business from this market segment.

    The global study shows that enterprises consider service providers best equipped to increasing their network capacity or reach (73%), or delivering hybrid networking (66%) services, while around half (48%) of enterprises feel that their network service provider is best suited to address their cloud needs.

    Approximately a third (31%) of enterprises feel that having access to cloud services developed by their service provider would help support them better on their cloud journey.

    “Through the right partnerships, service providers are able to open up new revenue streams in growth areas such as cloud and unified communication and collaboration (UCC), without having to invest in developing their own solutions from scratch,” said James Parker, president of global sales at Tata Communications.

    “By joining forces with like-minded organizations, service providers are best-placed to address their customers’ increasingly complex IT requirements and facilitate their digital transformation.”

    Around three-quarters (76%) of service providers think that supporting employee mobility is key for enterprises’ UCC strategy, yet only a quarter (26%) of enterprises rank this as a top priority.

    While more than a quarter (27%) of enterprises cite lack of employee readiness as a barrier for UCC adoption, the service providers surveyed don’t see this as an issue for their customers.

    The research suggests that close to a half (41%) of service providers don’t have a definite stance on partnering. In contrast, more than half (57%) of enterprises say that when choosing a service provider, it is important that they find the right partners to fill gaps in their offering or extend their reach.

    Additionally, service providers overestimate the importance of reputation in enterprise decision making by a third (30%).

  • China Mobile, Ericsson, Mobike trial IoT in Shanghai

    China Mobile, Ericsson, Mobike trial IoT in Shanghai

    China Mobile Shanghai  has teamed up with Ericsson and bike-sharing service startup Mobike to conduct a cellular IoT trial on the Chinese operator’s live network in Shanghai.

    During the trial, Ericsson’s latest cellular IoT technologies were used to more accurately locate the IoT-enabled bikes of Mobike, providing a more convenient and enhanced bike-sharing experience to Mobike’s users.

    Coverage areas were also extended to places that traditional mobile coverage can hardly reach, such as underground parking lots. The new technologies will also significantly reduce the time to unlock the bikes and users will enjoy “open upon scanning” without waiting.

    Mobike vice president Yang Zhongjie said latest cellular IoT technologies like CAT-M1 and NB-IoT will greatly enhance the user experience in the future and solve existing challenges encountered by Mobike such as coverage in difficult locations.

    “We also expect Chinese operators to complete the nationwide deployment of cellular IoT as early as possible,” Yang added.

    New cellular IoT technologies provide better coverage and faster response time with narrower bandwidth and fewer resources than mobile technology. They also bring energy-saving and deep-coverage features which enable five-to-seven-fold coverage improvements for operators in the same site environment. The battery life also extends to more than 10 years.

    The successful trial marks an important step forward in the large-scale commercial deployment of cellular IoT in China, Ericsson said in a statement.

    China Mobile and Ericsson recently signed an IoT agreement as part of China Mobile’s Big Connectivity strategy.

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  • Telcos turn to machine learning as they drown in data

    Telcos turn to machine learning as they drown in data

    Machine learning in 2017 will become a mainstream tool for communications providers struggling to transform data overload into actionable analytics, according to Argyle Data.

    “The telecommunications industry is drowning in data,” said Padraig Stapleton, VP of engineering at Argyle Data. “Functions like support, billing, customer care and marketing, throwing off large amounts of data as a by-product of their activities, the exhaust fumes of data.”

    Stapleton said fraud and financial analysts alike are overwhelmed by the struggle to control and harness this fire-hose of information into actionable analytics. There is just too much IP traffic going across mobile networks for humans to review, detect and respond to fraud in the traditional ways such as discovering fraud and writing preventative rules.

    Machine learning does all the grunt work for analysts, sifting through data in real time and providing output instantly in understandable, accessible formats,” said Stapleton.

    Based on customer feedback, Argyle Data said the following rank among the top communications service provider (CSP) concerns for 2017 — subscription fraud and dealer fraud; fraud using mobile data services and IP applications; call bypass; mobile voice is going extinct; identifying, analyzing and monetizing IP-based traffic; and the explosion of IoT devices across communications networks.

    “These issues can only be addressed if CSPs have better insight into voice and data traffic passing through their networks,” added Stapleton. “New machine learning algorithms give them the ability to respond rapidly to new trends, anomalies or threats.”

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  • Private cloud can cut IT costs by 25%

    Private cloud can cut IT costs by 25%

    Most large enterprises can save at least 25% on their IT costs over five years by migrating to a private cloud from a legacy IT environment, according to financial analysis from by Nokia.

    The analysis, known as the Nokia Enterprise Private Cloud TCO Model, also demonstrates that enterprises can expect to break even on their private cloud investment in less than three years.

    Advocates of enterprises moving to private cloud have typically focused on the operational and business benefits that this approach can offer, in terms of flexibility, agility and the ability to scale quickly.

    The analysis underlying the Enterprise Private Cloud TCO Model is among the first available in the market that exclusively explores the question that is most critical to IT managers – what are the cost benefits of this move?

    The model shows that the common assumption that private cloud is too difficult or costly to adopt is wrong, and that large enterprises should make the move directly to private or public-private hybrid cloud because it utilizes off-the-shelf components and is less expensive.

    The analysis began with an existing budget for a representative legacy IT environment, and contrasted that with the requirements of a shift to a private cloud model and associated costs.

    More specifically, the analysis takes the overall operational budget of the enterprise data center (eliminating costs that will be largely the same in either scenario such as facilities costs – power, rent, air conditioning/heating), and then provides a high-level breakout by the software or operational tasks performed. The breakout was then used to calculate potential cost impacts – both increases and decreases – for a cloud environment.

    Nokia’s financial model is based on a private cloud, or private-public hybrid cloud architecture that can be built at any large enterprise today, incorporating commercial components from a variety of vendors as well as open source components including OpenStack cloud management software.

    The model also assumes that the cloud architecture is one that does not require ‘forklift’ replacement of the IT environment, but instead sits on top of the existing IT infrastructure as an overlay. As a result, it also assumes a deployment strategy that would minimize changes to day-to-day IT operations.

    Leading industry analyst firm IDC validated the model overall, including the ranges of potential increased and decreased costs by category.

    The cost savings identified by the model were calculated using the most conservative assumptions available, based on the needs of highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. Further, increased costs, such as the costs of migrating legacy applications to the cloud, were calculated at the upper end of a possible range of values. Therefore the overall 25% cost savings can be considered a minimum baseline – actual savings in practice would likely be considerably higher.