Retail News CRM

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.

  • Alibaba Cloud to open new data centers

    Alibaba Cloud to open new data centers

    Alibaba Cloud has announced plans to open four new data centers by the end of 2016 in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and Japan.

    The new centers are expected to boost its data center network to 14 locations, covering key economic centers around the world. The data center in the Middle East, located in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, commenced initial operations today.

    Alibaba Cloud’s expansion aims to provide customers in Asia and worldwide with improved latency and greater access to diverse offerings, including data storage and analytics services, enterprise-level middleware, and cloud security services. The new data centers are expected to support Alibaba Cloud’s growing client base beyond the current 2.3 million.

    Extending its global footprint in the Asia-Pacific, Alibaba Cloud will open a new data center in Sydney, Australia by the end of 2016.

    Alibaba Cloud will bring its most popular cloud services in data storage and processing services, enterprise-level middleware, and cloud security services to the Australian market. A dedicated team will be based in Australia, and build up a cloud ecosystem with local technology partners to drive cloud and big-data business in the region.

    The planned new Japan Data Center, hosted by SB Cloud Corporation, a joint venture between Softbank and Alibaba Group, will meanwhile provide Japanese enterprises with public cloud computing services from Alibaba Cloud.

    With the joint venture, Alibaba Cloud will further expand its cloud computing service platform by leveraging SoftBank’s extensive enterprise customer base in Japan.

    “Alibaba Cloud has contributed significantly to China’s technology advancement, establishing critical commerce infrastructure to enable cross-border businesses, online marketplaces, payments, logistics, cloud computing and big data to work together seamlessly,” Alibaba Cloud president Simon Hu said.

    “We want to establish cloud computing as the digital foundation for the new global economy using the opportunities of cloud computing to empower businesses of all sizes across all markets.”

    Lees ook:

  • Huawei launches cloud VPN integration service

    Huawei launches cloud VPN integration service

    Huawei has launched a new service which it says can resolve problems in enterprise leased line services that have affected telecoms operators, such as slow provisioning, lack of services, and difficult operation.

    According to Huawei, the CloudVPN Integration Service Solution can quickly meet the customized ICT needs of enterprise and enable operators to boost enterprise revenue by delivering a variety of value-added services.

    “A lot of operators are starting to think how to carry out CloudVPN business to market for their customers. But when they started this journey, they faced a lot of challenge,” said Bruce Xun, vice president of Global Technical Services Department at Huawei.

    By integrating a variety of value-added services, combining cloud, leased line, and value-added services, operators can provide one-stop CloudVPN for their enterprise customers, Xun noted.

    The CloudVPN Integration Service provides accurate network planning, helping carriers reduce time to market for new services over the overlay network architecture. Multi-vendor ICT resource orchestration allows enterprises to use cloud and network resources on demand and in real time, shortening the services provisioning time to minutes.

    Operators can reduce service delivery time from a month to 15 minutes with the CloudVPN Integration Service solution.

    The solution can meanwhile accurately identify the network bandwidth bottlenecks based on enterprise service prospects, optimizing networks accordingly to ensure services quality.

    At the launch, Huawei also announced it completed integration and certification with 20 ecosystem partners, including Fortinet, Check Point, Citrix, Red Hat, Riverbed and Infoblox, via its Cloud Open Labs. The company aims to expand the number of partners to 30 by the end of the year.

    Xun said Huawei’s Cloud Open Labs gives operators access to a range of third-party value-added services that have been pre-integrated by its partners.

    The agile integration capability of the CloudVPN Integration Service solution allows operators to add new VAS in just seven days.

    Huawei is planning to enhance its multi-vendor integration tool by increasing the development and testing team with 60 more senior engineers to support multi-level multi-vendor integration tool development.

    The service is expected to be commercially available by the end of the year.

  • Fujitsu develops technology to boost virtual networks

    Fujitsu develops technology to boost virtual networks

    Fujitsu Laboratories has developed automatic analysis technology to boost communications performance and quality in virtual networks.

    With the spread of virtualization technologies, such as the cloud, software defined networking (SDN), and network functions virtualization (NFV), there is demand for the ability to flexibly set up and operate high performance virtual infrastructure.

    In order to set up and operate virtual infrastructure for operations that require high performance, it is necessary for experts with knowledge of both hardware and software to take time to analyze bottlenecks and set up the virtual infrastructure appropriately. This results in high operating costs with frequent changes to the system structure or usage situation.

    To address this issue, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a technology that, with a low load, captures communications packets passing through virtual infrastructures. The system uses this information to identify communication bottlenecks and automatically recommend configurations to improve communications speed and to reduce packet loss and other measures to raise virtual network quality.

    These technologies have been confirmed to roughly double communication speeds of virtual networks.

    Fujitsu said that with this technology, high communication performance and quality can be maintained, even in environments where the system structure and usage situation frequently change, such as virtual infrastructure for the cloud or telecommunications carriers.

    Lees ook:

  • Reliance Group launches dedicated IoT venture

    Reliance Group launches dedicated IoT venture

    Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, parent company of Reliance Communications (RCom), has teamed up with Cisco Jasper to launch a new dedicated IoT venture in the market.

    The new venture, UNLIMIT, will provide enterprise customers throughout India with a service that combines the RCom mobile network with Cisco Jasper’s IoT connectivity management platform.

    As part of the partnership, Cisco will also improve its IoT engineering talent base in India by hiring more expert staff for its Cisco Innovation Center in Bangalore.

    Indian customers seeking to expand their IoT services to new overseas markets will be able to take advantage of Cisco Jasper’s partnerships with operator groups representing more than 120 mobile networks worldwide.

    The new service is also expected to play a key role in supporting the government’s Digital India project, which aims to transform 100 cities across the nation into smart cities.

    “IoT is a critical enabler for India’s growth, and businesses throughout the country are already utilizing its huge potential to help deliver innovative new services to their customers, while reducing cost and increasing revenue,” commented Juergen Hase, CEO of Reliance Group’s Unlimit IoT business group.

    “We are delighted to partner with Cisco Jasper, and this strategic partnership will strengthen the market position of UNLIMIT significantly.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • India smartphone sales reach 32.3m in Q3

    India smartphone sales reach 32.3m in Q3

    India’s smartphone market crossed the 30 million unit shipments milestone for the first time in the third quarter, research firm IDC said.

    IDC’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that the 32.3 million units sold during the quarter represent 17.5% growth over the previous quarter.

    Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India, attributes the growth to the channel preparation for the festive season, mega online sales and early import of smartphones owing to Chinese holidays in October.

    Online smartphone shipments increased to 31.6% with impressive 35% Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth due to a strong performance by key online players primarily from China-based vendors.

    IDC noted that the Lenovo Group, which accounts for almost one-fourth of total online smartphone shipments, continues to lead online channel followed by Xiaomi.

    Karthik said Lenovo’ sales were primarily driven by its K5 series and Motorola’s G4 series models. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 and newly launched Redmi 3S also fuelled the online shipments to a large extent.

    In addition, 4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8% over the previous quarter. IDC noted that 7 out of 10 smartphones shipped in Q3 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphones sold by online retailers were 4G.

    Overall, despite the recall of Samsung’s flagship Note 7, the Korean handset manufacturer leads the Indian smartphone market with a 23% share, recording 8% sequential growth and 9.7% growth from the same period last year.

    The Lenovo Group (including Motorola) climbed to second place with 9.6% share of smartphones. Motorola’s volume almost doubled Quarter-on-Quarter driven by newly launched E3 Power and G4 models. K5 series continues to be lead runner for Lenovo accounting for over 40% of its total volume.

    Meanwhile, Xiaomi makes its debut in top 5 as its shipments doubled over the previous quarter. With the primary focus on online and minimalistic product portfolio, the company has grown more than 2.5 times over the same period last year.

    IDC expects 2016 to end with a higher single-digit annual growth, considering the smartphone performance in Q3.

    “The entry of the new vendors have extended the feature phone supply since past few quarters. However, with expected entry of Jio in the feature phone market, a category is expected to grow significantly. This, in turn, might further slow down the feature phone to smartphone migration,” commented Navkendar Singh, senior research manager, IDC India.

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel expands ReadyRoam to 26 countries

    Singtel expands ReadyRoam to 26 countries

    Singtel has expanded its ReadyRoam mobile data roaming service to cover multi-destination roaming across 26 countries in Asia, Europe and North America.

    The ReadyRoam 1GB for 30 days service will allow customers to use the same pool of data while traveling between any of the supported countries.

    The base service supports roaming between 11 Asian markets – China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand – for S$20 ($14).

    For customers traveling further afield, ReadyRoam USA and Europe supports roaming to the above countries, as well as Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.

    Excess usage will be charged at S$0.019 per MB or S$0.034 per MB depending on a customer’s plan.

    “It’s the holiday season and many of our customers and their families will be traveling,” Singtel VP of mobile marketing consumer Singapore Diana Chen said.

    “Our enhanced ReadyRoam 1GB for 30 days will allow them the convenience of remaining contactable via their Singtel SIM card number while roaming seamlessly across multiple destinations.”

  • India to become handset component hub

    India to become handset component hub

    India is on track to manufacture $80 billion worth of mobile phone components over the next five years, new research suggests.

    This will help India become a global manufacturing hub, the study conducted by IIM Bangalore and market research firm Counterpoint Research has revealed.

    This presents a significant opportunity from the domestic demand perspective to manufacture mobile phones in the country and source local components, driving the government’s Make in India initiative and reduce dependency on imports.

    “India can potentially be the world leader in mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem and this has to be done in a phased manner,” said Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and IT, government of India, at an event here where the study findings were released.

    India has beaten the US to become the second largest global smartphone market in terms of users in early 2016 and is on track to cross half a billion smartphone users mark within the next five years.

    The contribution of domestically manufactured mobile phones has increased from 14% in 2014 to 67% in 2016 and is further estimated to reach 96% by 2020. However, 67% of the handsets manufactured in India contribute to just six per cent of the true local value addition with most of the OEMs still importing Semi Knocked Down components (SKDs).

    “Out of 50 facilities from original equipment manufacturers to original design manufacturers and electronics manufacturing services to component suppliers involved in manufacturing of mobile phones in India, almost three-fourth are Indian manufacturers, followed by Taiwanese with 10% and Chinese with 10 %,” the study revealed.

    “Under the proposed plan, we estimate that more than $15 billion worth components will be sourced locally over the period of five years through 2020 creating over a million direct and indirect jobs in India.”

  • ITU Telecom World Awards 2016 winners announced

    ITU Telecom World Awards 2016 winners announced

    ITU today announced the winners of its prestigious ITU Telecom World Awards, which recognize excellence and innovation in ICT solutions with social impact. The Awards were announced by ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao at a buzzing ceremony in the presence of H.E. Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Digital Economy and Society, Air Chief Marshal Thares Punsri, Chairman NBTC and ITU elected officials at the close of ITU Telecom World 2016. 

    “It is tremendously exciting to see so many ideas, innovations and so much talent and creativity all in one place,” Zhao said. “I hope that winning our Award and having their innovative solutions recognized by global experts will help these talented innovators grow and scale up their businesses, contributing fresh ideas and vision to our digital economy. I wish them every success.” 

    “We are making education accessible to all children around the world,” said Alex Masika, head of business development at BRCK, the maker of rugged wireless and mobile wifi devices in Kenya and the winner of Telecom World 2016’s Global SME Award. “I am happy that the impact we are making has been recognized.”   

    Winners, who took turns pitching their innovations during the event, were selected by an expert jury. ITU Telecom World Awards were open to all exhibitors and sponsors at ITU Telecom World in Bangkok. The awards were presented in three different categories: 

    • The Global SME Award, recognising the most promising innovative solution from an SME.
    • Thematic Awards – open to SMEs and large corporations — for the most promising innovative solutions with social impact in eEducation, eHealth, eGovernment and disaster prevention/communications.
    • Host Country SME Award for the best solution chosen by Thailand.

     Recognition of Excellence Certificates were presented for the best innovative exhibitor within each National Pavilion.

    The ITU Telecom World 2016 Award winners and finalists are:

    • Global SME Award Winner: BRCK, Kenya, represented by Alex Masika 
    • Global SME Award Finalist: gnúbila (be|ys group), France, represented by David Manset
    • Global SME Award Finalist: ulalaLAB, Korea, represented by Sophia Park       
    • Thematic Award Winner eHealth: Neofect, Korea, represented by Kyuhee Lee
    • Thematic Award Winner eEducation: Academic Bridge, Rwanda, represented by Mariam M. Muganga
    • Thematic Award Winner eGovernment: Nile Center for Technology Research – E15 Project, Sudan, represented by Elwaleed Bashir Ahmed
    • Thematic Award Winner Disaster Recovery/Prevention: MasterCard, USA, represented by Umar Hashmi
    • Host Country Award Winner Finalist: ServisHero Co.,Ltd, Thailand, represented by Khun Noppol Toochinda
    • Host Country Award Winner Finalist: Anywhere 2 go Co.,Ltd.(Claim Di), Thailand      
    • Host Country Award Winner: PRO-toys Co., Ltd., Thailand, represented by Boonchai Wongbawornkiat

     

    Recognition of Excellence Certificates:

    • Bangabandhu Satellite Launching Project, Bangladesh, represented by H.E. Begum Tarana Halim, Minster for Posts & Telecommunications
    • 3D Factory Co.,Ltd., Korea, represented by Sang Hyun Park
    • Academic Bridge, Rwanda, represented by Mariam M. Muganga
    • BESTCOMP GROUP, Azerbaijan, represented by Najafova
    • Bisa, Ghana, represented by Dennis Addo
    • BRCK, Kenya, represented by Alex Masika
    • Fedironics Intelligent Metering Company, Nigeria, represented by Emmanuel Ifediora Ugochukwu
    • Ministry of Transport, Thailand
    • Protonics, Zimbabwe, represented by Chingore
    • NexTech, Japan, represented by Kento Takahashi
    • Potevio Company Limited, China, Luo Lin
    • Telecommunications Infrastructure Company, Iran, represented by Susan Ayerman 

    The ITU Telecom World Awards will continue to play an integral part at future ITU Telecom events, supporting innovative ICT solutions with social impact. For more information on ITU Telecom World 2016 click here.

    ITU Telecom World heads next to Busan, Republic of Korea, where it will take place from 25-28 September, 2017.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • ITU Telecom World 2016 highlights importance of collaboration across ICT ecosystem

    ITU Telecom World 2016 highlights importance of collaboration across ICT ecosystem

    ITU Telecom World 2016 wrapped up proceedings today at IMPACT Convention and Exhibition Center, Bangkok, following an action-packed programme of showcasing, debate, networking and Awards. 

    The event, which was formally opened in the presence of H.R.H Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Kingdom of Thailand and  General Chan-o-cha Prayut, Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand included big names, countries and SMEs from around the world and welcomed over 8,800 participants.  

    Among the high-level guests in attendance were: H.R.H. Tapouto’a Ulukalala, the Crown Prince of Tonga; Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxemburg; Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, Prime Minister of Vanuatu; Debretsion Gebremichael Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia; and Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General of UNCTAD.  

    Some 250 Exhibitors, including 107 exhibiting tech-SMEs and 60 partners and sponsors took part in the event. Over 330 leaders from 90 countries joined the debates, including top-level representatives from Hungary and the Republic of Korea – past and future ITU Telecom World host countries. 

    “From its high-level Forum debates to the activities on the show floor, ITU Telecom World has successfully moved towards becoming the truly inclusive international platform connecting tech-SMEs with global governments and industry leaders,” said ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao. “The dialogues, showcases, networking and other activities I have joined this week have given all our community and stakeholders – be they senior government officials, international organizations, leading corporate players or SMEs – the chance to examine issues vital to accelerating ICT innovation, and explore the many ways in which ICTs can help meet the SDGs.” 

    “Thailand is pleased to be the host of the very successful ITU Telecom World 2016,” said Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Digital Economy and Society. “I have received positive feedback from Thai participants that the event has been extremely useful in showcasing Thailand’s thriving digital economy and society and, importantly, demonstrating innovations and entrepreneurship which are key drivers for national development today. The event and speakers have provided many lessons and case studies on how the government’s forward looking and inclusive digital economy policies are being turned into action by the private sector including SMEs and start-ups.” 

    The Exhibition featured the types of technology driving our digital economy, from 5G and cloud computing to smart devices, smart city solutions and national broadband plans, as well as investment and partnership opportunities from around the world. 

    Reflecting the significance of ICT across key verticals, ITU welcomed new vertical sectors to the event, such as MasterCard, Honda or Toyota, joining debates in sessions such as the Connected Car or Cashless Future. 

    Leadership Summit & Forum debates 

    162 speakers from 55 countries took part in plenaries, panel debates, workshops, high-level roundtables and networking sessions in the Forum and at the Leadership Summit. Speakers spanned heads of state and governments from across the globe, leaders from the ICT industry and key verticals, SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators to international organizations and academia. They provided truly global perspectives and viewpoints from developed and developing countries alike. 

    Discussions launched with the Leadership Summit, on 14 November, which brought highly influential participants together to share views and explore why working together is so important for growing the digital economy. Forum sessions delved into an exciting set of topics such as AI, how ICTs can meet the UN’s Sustainable development goals (SDGs), the connected car, digital financial inclusion and fiscal incentives and taxation in the industry. 

    Other debate highlights included the B2G and B2B dialogues, which brought together tech-SMEs and large companies for an open exchange; the Ministerial Roundtable on the crucial role of governments in advancing digital economy; Economic and Industry Roundtable, bringing together global ICT consulting firms, R&D entities, regional and international organizations; and the Asia Pacific Exchange on Broadband Regulation and Policy (co-hosted with Huawei).  

    The event showcased sponsored sessions on topics spanning 5G, reaching the next billion, digital financial services, towards a digital Nigeria and enabling third network services for the digital economy. Key players included Huawei, KT, Japan’s MIAC, GTI, China Mobile and TDIA, Intel, MasterCard, GSMA/GSA, Nigeria and MEF.  

    Panel lunches hosted by the Smart Africa Alliance and CITRA, helped facilitate networking and discussion, along with high profile networking occasions, such as the Leaders Lunch, sponsored by Huawei, or Korea night sponsored by ITU Telecom World 2017 host, Republic of Korea’s MSIP. Networking breaks sponsored by Rohde & Schwarz and URCA of the Bahamas helped ensure conversation continued between Forum sessions. 

    Global Platform 

    As the international platform connecting ICT SMEs with corporations and governments, it was no surprise that high-level participants used the opportunities and influential audience that the event offered to conclude many important agreements between business and business (B2B), business and governments (B2G) and business and governments to UN, as well as launching new reports.  

    ITU Telecom World Award 

    The Event Closing and ITU Telecom World Awards Ceremony brought ITU Telecom World 2016 to a close on the final day of the event and also saw the much-awaited announcement of the winners of the ITU Telecom World Awards. During the week of the event, finalists pitched their ideas and innovations to judges and a global audience. In keeping with ITU Telecom World’s focus on SMEs and their role within the broader ICT ecosystem, these Awards recognized excellence and innovation in ICT solutions with social impact from SMEs and corporations alike. The winning entries included: 

    • Global SME Award: BRK, Kenya
    • Host Country SME Award: ServisHero, Kingdom of Thailand
    • Thematic Award (eGovernment): Nile Center for Technology Research (NCTR)
    • Thematic Award (eHealth): Neofect, Republic of Korea
    • Thematic Award (eEducation): Academic Bridge, Rwanda
    • Thematic Award (Disaster Prevention/Recovery Communications): MasterCard, United States 
    • ITU co-hosted events  
    • The event also welcomed perspectives from across ITU and its membership and partners, who used the international platform which the event provides in order to hold a series of important co-hosted events. A series of closed meetings took place a day before the official opening. These were the advisory boards meetings of the Smart Sustainable Development Model Initiative (SSDM) and m-Powering Development Initiative, 7th Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers (CRO) meeting, 8th Chief Technology Officers (CTO) Meeting.  
    • For the first time this year, the event proposed an extensive program engaging with academia in the global debate. Activities included the ITU Secretary General Academia Consultation, 2nd Brainstorming Meeting of Impact Study on ICT4SDGs, ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference 2016, World Standards Cooperation Academic Roundtable, organized in cooperation with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).  
    • Important side-events working on technical standards included the 4th APT and ITU Conformance and Interoperability (C&I) event – IPTV Testing, Third ITU Test Event on Compatibility of Mobile Phones and Vehicle Hands-Free Terminals, and showcasing of the implementation of recommendation ITU-T X.1255 promoting interoperability of heterogeneous systems via digital labelling. A strong gender equality agenda focused events, such as EQUALS: the Inaugural Meeting of the Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, Mentorship Sessions: Promoting Women’s Digital Entrepreneurship, and the Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Technology (GEM-TECH) Awards, a joint ITU/UN Women prize recognizing outstanding efforts in using the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to empower women and girls was conferred during a prestigious ceremony at Telecom World. 

    Event Baton passes to Republic of Korea 

    For 2017, ITU Telecom World will head to Busan, Republic of Korea, focussing on the creative digital economy and fostering SME growth. Telecom World 2017 will take place from 25-28 September. ITU warmly invites Member States, regulators, and heads of international organizations, global media, digital experts and visionaries, leading ICT corporations and cutting-edge tech-SMEs from the region and across the globe to save the date and prepare to join us at the event. 

    Key Telecom World 2016 Statistics

    • Over 8,800 Participants
    • 250 exhibitors, including 107 exhibiting SMEs, 60 partners and sponsors from 37 countries
    • 162 speakers from 55 countries in the Leadership Summit and Forum
    • 338 Leaders from 95 countries, split between public and private sectors
    • 7 Agreements/Contracts signed during the period of ITU Telecom World 2016 between Governments, Regulatory Bodies and Private Entities.
    • 235 accredited media attended from 17 countries
    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Globe Telecom to secure controlling stake in Taodharma

    Globe Telecom to secure controlling stake in Taodharma

    Globe Telecom Inc is securing a controlling stake in Taodharma Inc, a unit of holding company Tao, all partners of Australia-based phone retail store Allphones. The Ayala-led telco disclosed its board of directors approved over the weekend the firm’s increase in stake in Taodharma from 25 per cent to 67 per cent.

    “Accordingly, the change of our stake in Taodharma shall be reflected in the pertinent regulatory reports,” Globe Telecom said in its statement. Taodharma does buying, selling, distributing, marketing all kinds of goods, including mobile communication devices and accessories.

    It is also engaged in establishing, operating and maintaining retail stores in the Philippines that sell telecommunications or internet-related services, gadgets and devices.

    Globe Telecom partnered with Allphones Australia, and Taodharma’s parent firm Tao Corp in 2014 to boost its postpaid customer base by expanding its sales distribution channels. This gave birth to Allphones Philippines, a national reseller of mobile phone solutions across multiple carriers.

    Tao Corp is a community of companies in the Philippines focused on supply-chain services related to health & wellness, distribution and marketing, resources, and financial services.

    Allphones claims to be the largest specialist multi-carrier mobile telecommunications retailer in Australia having over 170 retail outlets. Australia Philippines currently has 46 retail outlets.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Qlik and Esri Singapore join forces to redefine visual analytics

    Qlik and Esri Singapore join forces to redefine visual analytics

    Qlik, a leader in visual analytics, today announced its technology partnership with Esri Singapore, the country’s leading Geographic Information System (GIS) technology provider.

    The collaboration will see Esri Singapore and Qlik working together to educate industries on the benefits of synergising geographic and spatial analytics.

    Smart mapping: making intelligent decisions with geographic information

    Esri’s ArcGIS Online is a collaborative, cloud-based technology platform that allows users to easily create, share and access content rich maps, applications and data. The technology collects location information contained within an organisation’s data and translates static data into useful, intelligent maps. Different locations have unique characteristics, and organisations need to identify, qualify and understand the connections between people, places and events. When mapping analytics is combined with a powerful visual analytics platform, organisations can add a new dimension to the practice of analysing information by translating complex datasets into the universal language of smart maps.

    Additionally, by integrating location information with data in real-time, businesses can unearth relationships, patterns and trends that would otherwise remain hidden. Esri’s ArcGIS Online maps are compatible with both QlikView and Qlik Sense. The Qlik Sense extension is available on Qlik Branch – a collaborative workspace and open exchange that provides customers, developers and partners simplified access to the open and powerful APIs of Qlik solutions. “More than 80 per cent of our business data is location related. From understanding your customer information and their behaviours to managing chronic illness, pandemic patterns, and even business impact due to accessibility of transport networks – location essentially links different sets of business information together to provide executives with better informed decision making.

    Through our partnership with Qlik, we aim to help organisations understand the value of letting users see their data in new and provoking ways, allowing them to develop actionable plans to address real-world challenges, said Thomas Pramotedham, Chief Executive Officer, Esri Singapore. “From retail sales performance to urban planning, being able to seamlessly merge intelligent mapping with visual analytics is critical to smart, data-driven decision-making. Qlik is proud to partner with Esri Singapore to promote the benefits of combining mapping technology and visual analytics for organisations to drive better decision making. We look forward to pursuing more innovative projects together in the future,” said CK Tan, Product Marketing, Qlik Asia Pacific.

    Lees ook:

  • Singapore ranks 2nd in global connectedness

    Singapore ranks 2nd in global connectedness

    Singapore is the world’s most connected and globalized country, according to DHL’s Global Connectedness Index (GCI).

    All but two of the top 10 most globalized countries in the world are located in Europe, with Singapore and the United Arab Emirates as the exceptions.

    The 2016 edition of the report shows that global connectedness, measured by cross-border flows of trade, capital, information and people, surpassed its 2007 pre-crisis peak during 2014.

    In 2015, globalization’s post-crisis expansion slowed, but the data indicate that it did not go into reverse. Currently available evidence — still preliminary in some areas — suggests that the world was about 8% more connected in 2015 than in 2005.

    North America is the second most globally connected region and leads on the capital and information pillars, with the United States as the most connected country in the Americas. Overall the US is ranked 27th out of the 140 countries measured by the GCI.

    North America had the largest gain in overall global connectedness during the past two years,

    followed by South & Central America & the Caribbean. Countries in South & Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa suffered a drop in their average levels of global connectedness.

    Suriname, Jamaica and Fiji were the biggest gainers in terms of rank changes from 2013 to 2015, moving up 23 (112th to 89th), 22 (107th to 85th) and 20 (94th to 74th) places respectively.

    Suriname’s rise was driven by a substantial broadening of its international interactions, whereas Jamaica and Fiji increased on both the depth and breadth dimensions of their global connectedness.

    Nigeria, Togo and Nicaragua experienced the largest decreases in terms of overall rank, dropping 28 (67th to 95th), 21 (72nd to 93rd) and 19 (71st to 90th) places respectively.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Telenor launches mobile wallet in Malaysia

    Telenor launches mobile wallet in Malaysia

    Telenor Group has launched a new mobile wallet service in Malaysia targeted at the underbanked segments of the market.

    The service is has been built based on the Malaysian money services business Prabhu, which Telenor acquired in May.

    The service has been rebranded Valyou, Telenor’s mobile wallet brand. While Telenor was forced to shut down its Valyou service in its home market of Norway last year due to lower than expected demand, the service will live on in Malaysia.

    Valyou supports cross-border international mobile remittance including money transfers to seven countries as well as over-the-counter remittance at local retailers. It is open to subscribers from any mobile operator and supports all smartphone types.

    Valyou is currently available as and Android app and will soon be coming to iOS.

    “Malaysia ranges among the regional frontrunners when it comes to digital payments, and we are happy to expand Telenor’s financial services footprint with Valyou,” Telenor SVP and head of financial services Tine Wollebekk said.

    “Our ambition is to explore end to end digital remittance to all relevant corridors, including both Telenor’s own financial services markets – such as Pakistan, Bangladesh or Myanmar – but also to other countries that are important for the local migrant community.”

    Lees ook:

  • Vodafone India boosts 1H revenue by 5.9%

    Vodafone India boosts 1H revenue by 5.9%

    Vodafone India has reported solid revenue growth for the first half of its financial year despite parent company Vodafone’s decision to take a €5 billion ($5.36 billion) writedown of its Indian operations.

    Service revenue for the first half increased 5.9% to 225.79 billion rupees ($3.32 billion), with mobile data revenue up 18.8% to 46.17 billion rupees.

    The operator crossed the 200 million customer milestone during the period, with a 6.7% year on year growth in subscribers to 200.7 million. Vodafone India is the market’s second largest by subscribers after Bharti Airtel.

    Vodafone’s network in India meanwhile grew to around 140,000 cell sites, with a little over half of these being 3G or 4G sites.

    The operator had a revenue market share for the quarter of 22.5% during the first quarter, up 0.6 percentage points year-on-year. But the company reported a service revenue ARPU during the second quarter of just 186 rupees, reflecting the tight competition in the market.

    With the entry into the Indian market of Reliance Jio Infocomm, these competitive pressures are only getting worse.

    In light of this, Vodafone Group has written down the value of its Indian business by €5 billion as the company braces for an expected significant revenue impact.

  • DoCoMo achieves 11.29Gbps in 5G trial

    DoCoMo achieves 11.29Gbps in 5G trial

    NTT DoCoMo and Huawei have achieved a peak speed of 11.29Gbps during a 5G large-scale field trial in the 4.5-GHz band.

    The companies tested a 3GPP 5G New Radio compliant numerology and frame structure using macro cell coverage in a real-world scenario in Yokohama’s busy Minato Mirai 21 commercial district.

    The trial also achieved a sub-0.5ms one way user plane latency. The macro cell was made up of one base station compatible with the 4.5-GHz band and 200 MHz bandwidth, as well as 64 transceivers and 23 user equipment devices.

    According to the test, 11.29Gbps of user throughput was achieved in 24 layers, with each UE receiving two layers. Peak spectrum efficiency reached 79.82bps/Hz/cell.

    “Our success in 5G large-scale field trial in the 4.5 GHz band has brought the whole industry one step closer to 5G commercialization by 2020,” commented Takehiro Nakamura, DoCoMo’s VP and 5G Laboratory managing director.

    “DoCoMo and Huawei have been expanding their collaboration on 5G from R&D to international spectrum harmonization initiatives for 5G since December 2014. Together with Huawei, we will continue to promote 5G both from technical and ecosystem perspective.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook: