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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.

  • MyRepublic, TPG to bid for Singapore mobile license

    MyRepublic, TPG to bid for Singapore mobile license

    Singapore’s Infocomm and Media Development Authority has pre-qualified ISP MyRepublic and Australian telecoms group TPG Telecom to participate in an auction for a fourth mobile license.

    MyRepublic and TPG will bid for a 60-MHz lot of spectrum in the 900-MHz and 2.3-GHz bands, in an auction expected to be complete by the end of the year.

    A third applicant for the auction, airYotta, has been disqualified for failing to meet the required pre-qualification criteria.

    The auction will be followed by a general spectrum auction open to existing mobile operators M1, Singtel and StarHub, as well as the winner of the new entrant auction. This second auction is expected to commence in the first quarter of next year.

    MyRepublic is a fiber-based ISP with a solid presence in Singapore, and a growing regional reach. The company recently arranged to launch broadband services with speeds of up to 100Mbps in Australia over the national broadband network (NBN), and also has operations in New Zealand and Indonesia.

    TPG Telecom is Australia’s second largest fixed line ISP and largest MVNO. The company has been steadily expanding through acquisitions and organic growth.

    Singapore MVNO Circles.Life has announced it “ welcomes IMDA’s on-going efforts to support competition in the telco space.”

    Circles.Life entered this year as a digital telco and has been aiming to disrupt the market with innovative offers for data-savvy customers, and looks forward to further disruption if a new entrant arrives in the market, the company said in a statement.

  • PCCW Global connects to Djibouti Data Center

    PCCW Global connects to Djibouti Data Center

    PCCW Global, the international operating division of Richard Li-owned HKT, has selected Djibouti Data Center (DDC) to facilitate network expansion and the provision of colocation and undersea fiber cable access services in East Africa.

    The Djibouti Data Center has been built to Tier III data center standards and serves as a major meeting point for undersea fiber cable systems including the new Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) submarine cable designed to connect Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

    The AAE-1 system, of which PCCW Global is a founder consortium member, will employ 100Gbps technology, with a capacity of more than 40 terabits to provide customers with low-latency and direct connectivity around the world.

    The 25,000km-long submarine cable is expected to be ready for service by early 2017, connecting Djibouti with Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.

    “The addition of AAE-1 to PCCW Global’s existing undersea fiber cable assets in the region will enable us to provide even more robust services, along with lower latency and increased diversity, boosting services levels for our customers,” said Jordick Wong, senior vice president of product and vendor management at PCCW Global.

    Wong said the partnership with DDC is an important element of its wider pan-African development and expansion plans.

    It enables PCCW Global to establish cross-connect and colocation facilities directly adjacent to Djibouti Telecom’s cable landing stations. In addition to supporting AAE-1 in the near future, the DDC provides access to fiber-cable systems such as EIG, EASSy, Aden-Djibouti, and Ethiopia-Djibouti, Wong added.

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  • 3HK to offer a year’s free OTT video subscription

    3HK to offer a year’s free OTT video subscription

    Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holding’s mobile division 3 Hong Kong is offering a year’s free subscription to its premium subscription TV and VOD service to all new and existing 4G users.

    The mobile version of the myTV SUPER and TVB Premium subscription VOD service will be made available free of charge. A 12-month subscription has a usual price of HK$380 ($49).

    The operator has also launched the TVB Data Pack subscription service, offering 1GB, 3GB or 6GB of data for HK$20, HK$50 or HK$80 respectively.

    HTHKH COO Jennifer Tan said the company has introduced the offer to help usher Hong Kong into the 4.5G era after converging its FDD and TDD networks.
    “Our smooth and stable network, together with abundant bandwidth from our 4.5G network, provides the capacity needed to build an OTT service platform, so we are now ready to carry all kinds of dynamic mobile apps,” she said.

    “myTV SUPER has become one of the most popular OTT offerings following inception earlier this year – and we are delighted to offer 12 months’ service free of charge to all 3 Hong Kong’s 4G users to help celebrate launch of our 4.5G network.”

    Broadcaster TVB has been expanding the reach of its myTV SUPER subscription TV service. Earlier this month, the broadcaser expended its relationship with fixed line operator HKBN to cover the delivery of more myTV SUPER set top boxes for the company’s fixed line customers.

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  • Vodafone India to launch 4G in 8 more circles

    Vodafone India to launch 4G in 8 more circles

    Vodafone India has revealed plans to roll out 4G services in eight additional telecoms circles by March 2017, giving it a 4G presence in 17 of India’s 22 service areas.

    The operator aims to deploy 4G in 2,400 additional towns over the next four months, in the circles of of Maharashtra and Goa, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh West, Assam and North East.

    Vodafone’s SuperNet 4G service already covers nine circles – Mumbai, Delhi and NCR, Kolkata, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East and West Bengal.

    Vodafone was the biggest winner of India’s recent $9.8 billion spectrum auction, securing 2x 82.6MHz of FDD and 200MHz of TDD spectrum across the 1800-MHz, 2100-MHz and 2500-MHz bands. The auction gave the company 4G capability in 17 of India’s 22 telecoms circles.

    Now the company plans to leverage this spectrum to expand its 4G network. This will allow Vodafone to better compete against disruptive new pan-India 4G operator Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has been shaking up the market with its mobile data focused approach. Jio’s unlimited voice and SMS plans threaten to further cut into existing Indian mobile operators’ low margins.

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  • DoCoMo to trial 5G self-driving vehicle monitoring

    DoCoMo to trial 5G self-driving vehicle monitoring

    Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo and mobile portal and online service provider DeNA Co have teamed up to trial a 5G communications system for remote monitoring of autonomous vehicles.

    The trial will involve connecting a vehicle and a remote center via a 5G network capable of data rates beyond 10Gbps.

    For the initial trial, high-resolution video images captured with HD cameras mounted on the vehicle will be transferred to the monitoring center in real time, to allow the center to check for any driving irregularities and assist passengers when needed.

    The trial will be demonstrated at the DoCoMo R&D Open House 2017, which will take place at the DoCoMo R&D Center in the Yokosuka Research Park near Yokohama on November 17-18.

    For the event, DeNA’s Robot Shuttle driverless bus will be used to showcase the transmission of live video from a connected vehicle via a demonstration 5G network.

    The collaboration is combining DoCoMo’s 5G technologies and DeNA’s experience building services for connected vehicles. DoCoMo is closely involved in the development of LTE and 5G systems for vehicle-to-everything communications.

  • PLDT profit falls 20% in 9M16

    PLDT profit falls 20% in 9M16

    The Philippines’ PLDT has reported a 20% drop in net income for the first nine months of the year to 21.7 billion pesos ($442 million) due to higher capex costs and declining revenues.

    Revenue fell 2% year-on-year to 125.4 billion pesos, but remained stable when excluding the impact of international and national long distance as well as interconnection costs.

    Fixed line revenues grew 7% to 46.8 billion pesos, driven by demand for data and broadband, which grew to account for 59% of fixed line revenues.

    But wireless revenues shrank 8% to 71 billion pesos, despite a 22% increase in wireless data and digital platform revenues. SMS and cellular domestic revenues by contrast declined 15%, and international voice revenues were 24% lower.

    PLDT’s consumer wireless business reported a 5% decrease in subscribers due to aggressive unlimited voice and SMS offers from the competition, the company said.

    PLDT has set aside 48 billion towards a network improvement program covering both fixed and mobile networks, and made major improvements in the coverage and capacity of mobile unit Smart’s mobile network during the nine-month period.

    Based on the operator’s results thus far, PLDT has reduced its projected full year ebitda by 4 billion pesos to 60 billion pesos. The company is accordingly projecting a consolidated core net income of 28 billion pesos.

    “We are making this adjustment, anticipating that while data and broadband will keep posting steady growth, toll, cellular voice and SMS revenues will, however, continue to wane,” PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said.

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  • Verimatrix boosts access to subscriber intelligence

    Verimatrix boosts access to subscriber intelligence

    Verimatrix has made available its quick-start evaluation program for Verspective Operator Analytics, which promises to help operators better understand how to securely and rapidly collate data from various sources in video services and demonstrate the benefits of actionable analytics across multiple departments in their organization.

    Through the availability of this program, service providers have the opportunity to expand their analytics capabilities with more census-based data sources and complement traditional network monitoring analytics to get a comprehensive view of subscriber intelligence and network performance.

    Implemented in the cloud, the Verspective Operator Analytics evaluation program consists of a pre-configured, software-based analytics platform that can quickly integrate with an operator’s key sources of operational and consumption data, including VOD, CDN or client device sources. Service providers also receive a set of report templates that help analyze data and determine return on investment (ROI) potential.

    “We have recognized the need to provide a secure entry point that service providers can use to adopt a centralized analytics approach that ties together insights from operations, product development and marketing,” said Steve Oetegenn, president of Verimatrix.

    “The Verspective Operator Analytics evaluation program provides that point of entry, plus the confidence knowing that data is both secure and compliant with appropriate privacy regulations,” said Oetegenn.

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  • Dialog Axiata revenue grows 19% in 9M16

    Dialog Axiata revenue grows 19% in 9M16

    Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata has reported a 19% increase in revenue for the first nine months of the year to 64 billion rupees ($430.9 million) as a result of a temporary suspension of value-added tax (VAT) and strong growth momentum across the operator’s business.

    Net profit for the period grew 71% to 7.8 billion rupees as a result of improving profit margins and significantly lower forex losses.

    Dialog Axiata increased its mobile subscriber base by 10% year-on-year to 11.3 million, mostly from prepaid services. The company also recorded 43,000 net additions to its subscription TV service.

    Broadband revenue for the nine-month period grew 27% to 6.76 billion rupees, but the broadband segment recorded a net loss of 62 million rupees due to aggressive fixed LTE and fiber expansion.

    Total group capex for the nine months reached 12.7 billion rupees, with the high-speed broadband investments dominating spending.

    Blended ARPU grew 3.8% during the third quarter to 406 rupees, while average minutes of use edged up by 1 minute to 133.

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  • Singapore’s IMDA plans Li-Fi trials

    Singapore’s IMDA plans Li-Fi trials

    The Infocomm and Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore has invited companies to participate in planned trials of Light-Fidelity (Li-Fi) technology.

    The authority will waive frequency fees associated with Li-Fi trials, and will offer companies interested in conducting the trials the ability to use an existing technical trial framework.

    Li-Fi is being developed as a potential Wi-Fi alternative capable of delivering speeds up to 100 times faster than the radio technology. The technology uses the visible light portion of spectrum between 400-THz and 800-THz.

    But unlike WI-Fi, Li-Fi cannot penetrate objects such as walls, so it would most likely serve as a complementary rather than a replacement technology.

    IMDA said there is a growing awareness of and interest in the technology in Singapore. In July, Temasek invested in Edinburgh-based pureLiFi, and companies including StartHub are working with pureLiFi to explore bringing the technology to the city state.

    As well as the potential in home and enterprise networking, Li-Fi opens up significant location-based advertising and navigational opportunities for businesses, IMDA said. Users of future Li-Fi enabled devices would be able to be beamed relevant information based on their locations.

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  • Nokia to deploy first LTE-R network in Korea

    Nokia to deploy first LTE-R network in Korea

    Nokia has secured a contract to deploy the world’s first LTE-R (LTE-railway) LTE network in South Korea.

    The vendor will deploy the network on a railway line between Wonju and Gangneung as part of a line extension to prepare for next year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

    The network will support both operational and maintenance services on a high-speed commercial railway line operating at speeds of up to 250 km/h, providing high-speed connectivity between trains, stations and other railway facilities.

    Nokia said the project is intended to serve as a model for future deployments of LTE-R technology and help further define LTE-R standardization efforts.

    “South Korea has been a world leader in the use of mobile broadband technology to make public services of all kinds safer, more efficient and reliable,” Nokia head of Korea Andrew Cope said.

    “With a thirty-year history in the delivery of GSM-R mobile networking technology for railways, and as a pioneer in the development of LTE-R solutions, we are pleased to partner with KRNA to bring these cutting edge capabilities to the country as they prepare to host one of the world’s premier sporting events.”

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  • Fujitsu Consulting India deploys SDN technology

    Fujitsu Consulting India deploys SDN technology

    Fujitsu Consulting India has deployed an end-to-end SDN infrastructure to support operations at its new 2,000-seat Global Delivery Center (GDC) in Pune and Bangalore.

    Fujitsu Consulting India selected Brocade’s SDN technology, partly due to the vendor’s open standard approach, which Fujitsu felt were critical to fully realizing the benefits of SDN.

    Brocade switches form the campus network core at the new Fujitsu GDC, offering 96 wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports per switch and the capability to integrate up to a dozen switches into a high-performance stack.

    The stack can be managed as a single device delivering up to 5.76 Tbps of aggregated stacking bandwidth.

    “Being successful in outsourced development requires more than just great design and programming talent. It also needs a high-performance IT infrastructure capable of keeping development teams productive 24×7, with the flexibility to emulate clients’ environments, which are of an increasingly hybrid-cloud nature,” Fujitsu Consulting India group head of IT and CISO Mohammed Shahed Khan said.

    “In putting together the specifications for our new Bangalore GDC and upgrade of the Pune GDC, it was clear that we would need to go beyond traditional networking to deliver the capabilities we see as essential to a successful future.”

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  • PT Telkom has added a number of new wifi hotspots in Bali

    PT Telkom has added a number of new wifi hotspots in Bali

    The hotspots are under the network’s “Wifi.id.corner” program, which has users register for accounts and choose from a variety of packages that Telkom touts as affordable. 

    The new Wifi.id.corner spots are split between the island’s capital city, Denpasar, and north Bali city, Singaraja. 

    “In Bali, the fixed broadband services through Wifi.id.corner are spread across 200 locations. 170 of them are in Denpasar and 30 others in Singaraja, Buleleng,” quoted Nusra Suparwiyanto, executive vice president of PT Telkom Region 5 (East Java/Bali), as saying. 

    Suparwiyanto says Telkom is responding to the growing needs of Bali netizens with these 200 hotspots, which can be found in public spaces such as schools, universities, housing complexes, ports, and also city parks.

    Here’s the impressive part though—this wifi is supposed to be pretty darn fast. According to Suparwiyanto, the network is boasting speeds above 100 mbps—a speed we’re sure most of us aren’t familiar with in Bali. 

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  • India’s parliament addresses call drop controversy

    India’s parliament addresses call drop controversy

    An Indian parliamentary panel has taken up the issue of call drops on new mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm’s network.

    The panel met with GSM industry body COAI – representing the market’s incumbent operators – and Reliance Jio to discuss the reasons for the high number of call failures.

    Reliance Jio has been engaged in a bitter dispute with operators over the issue of frequent call drops. Earlier this month, Jio said around 50% to 60% of calls from Jio users to the three largest mobile network operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular were failing or dropping.

    While this has recently contracted to around 25%, this still represents a substantial number of call drops and call failures..

    Reliance Jio has accused the operators of not making enough points of interconnection available to meet the demand for its pan-India mobile services. But incumbents have blamed the company’s strategy of offering free calls, which has led to a surge in network traffic.

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  • Philippines to hold auction for 3rd telco in mid-2017

    Philippines to hold auction for 3rd telco in mid-2017

    The Philippines’ telecoms regulator NBTC plans to hold a spectrum auction for a third entrant into the mobile market in mid-2017.

    The spectrum surrendered by incumbents Globe and PLDT as a condition of their acquisition of San Miguel’s telecoms assets will be bundled together for the auction.

    According to the report, spectrum in the 700-MHz, 2500-MHz, 800-MHz and 3500-MHz bands will be put on the block.

    Several groups have already expressed an interest in potentially participating in an auction to create a third operator. Conglomerate San Miguel had originally intended to fulfil this role, but negotiations with Australia’s Telstra to form a joint venture for the purpose fell through earlier this year.

    San Miguel subsequently sold off all its telco assets to the two incumbent operators for around $1.5 billion. The main motivation was to gain a part of the 700-MHz spectrum band, which San Miguel held the exclusive rights to.

    But as a condition of the acquisition Globe and PLDT were required to relinquish part of the 700-MHz band – as well as spectrum in the 850-MHz, 2500-MHz and 3500-MHz bands – to allow for the potential entry of a third competitor.

    Advocacy groups have expressed concern that the bundle of spectrum due to be put up for auction will not be enough to sustain a major third player, noting that PLDT and Globe between them own nearly 80% of the total available spectrum. Parts of the remaining 20% will be unusable due to the presence of guard bands.

  • Singtel Q2 revenue falls 2.3%

    Singtel Q2 revenue falls 2.3%

    Singtel has reported a 2.3% decrease in group revenue for its fiscal second quarter to S$4.08 billion (2.89 billion), as the company felt the impact of regulatory changes in Australia.

    Australian competition regulator ACCC’s decision last year to cut termination rates from 3.6 to 1.7 cents per minute impacted the performance of Singtel’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus. Excluding this impact, revenue would have grown 2% to S$4.28 billion.

    The impact of the rate cut contributed to Singtel reporting an 8% decline in its group consumer revenue, covering both Singapore and Australia. In Singapore, revenue fell 3% due largely to lower handset sales and a rise in penetration of lower-priced Android handsets.

    Group enterprise revenue by contrast grew 5% on the back of strong demand for cyber security and international data services.

    Net profit fell 6% year-on-year to S$972 million, due to exceptional gains recorded by Indian mobile affiliate Airtel in the previous corresponding quarter.

    Underlying net profit by comparison was stable for the quarter and up 3% for the first half of the financial year.

    Regional mobile associates’ pre-tax profit contributions grew 7% to S$679 million as a result of strong operating results from Airtel and Indonesia’s Telkomsel. The latter’s pre-tax profit jumped 22% as it reaped the results of investments in its voice, data and digital businesses.

    The group’s total customer base – including its mobile affiliates – grew 3% to 629 million subscribers.

    Singtel is currently projecting a low single digit decline in group operating revenue but stable ebitda for the full year.

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