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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.

  • China Mobile and ZTE complete first URLLC live network verification

    China Mobile and ZTE complete first URLLC live network verification

    ZTE together with China Mobile Research Institute, the Guangdong branch of China Mobile, and MediaTek, has completed all the test items of URLLC key technologies in Guangzhou, China. This is the first URLLC (ultra-reliable low-latency communication) verification on the live network in the industry.

    The verification, by virtue of ZTE’s end-to-end network equipment and MediaTek’s M80 chip platform, was conducted on the commercial 2.6GHz 5G network, including all items like low bit rate MCS/CQI form, R15 mini-slot, slot repetition and PDCP (packet data convergence protocol) duplication. The test results show that the air interface delay is reduced by about 20%, and the reliability of the locations with medium and good signal strength is up to 99.999%.

    URLLC is one of the three basic applications of 5G. As a key factor for entering the industry verticals, URLLC accelerates the development of 5G network. In the future, with wide 5G industrial applications, URLLC can be applied in various scenarios such as AR/VR, smart grid, remote driving and industrial control, which have special requirements for low-latency and high-reliability connections. The verification has passed laboratory IODT (interoperability development testing), Beijing Information Port laboratory acceptance, and Guangzhou commercial outfield testing and acceptance, proving that ZTE’s base station equipment and technical solutions can meet URLLC requirements for low latency and high reliability in terms of both functionality and performance. In addition, through the flexible combination of standard technologies and implementation solutions, the 5G wireless network capability system for URLLC scenarios is formed to meet the differentiated requirements of industries, laying a solid foundation for the applications of URLLC in industry verticals and boosting the rapid development of digital economy.

    Moving forward, ZTE and China Mobile, together with other industry partners, will strengthen cooperation to explore diversified application scenarios to enhance the ultimate low-latency and high-reliability capability of 5G network. All of them will actively promote the application of URLLC in industries, and facilitate the digital transformation of industry verticals and the development of innovative services in China.

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  • Tencent’s WeTv to grow new content partnership in Southeast Asia

    Tencent’s WeTv to grow new content partnership in Southeast Asia

    WeTV, Southeast Asia’s leading video-on-demand (VOD) and over-the-top platform (OTT), has announced plans to aggressively ramp up its presence in Southeast Asia in 2022 and is welcoming local brands and advertisers in the region to join forces in reaching out to WeTV viewers.

    WeTV is a global video streaming platform launched by Tencent Video, one of the largest online video platforms in China. Curated for international viewers, it is one of the largest digital video streaming destinations in several Asian markets, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It is available on multiple platforms including mobile, desktop, tablets, and Smart TV and in 2022, it is set to introduce a list of titles geared towards further engaging viewers in the region. To date, WeTV has attained remarkable achievements in Southeast Asia, with plans to break new barriers with a slew of over 40 locally produced WeTV Originals projects in their 2022 pipeline.

    WeTV has been reaping the benefits of its long-term strategy to produce top-quality original content specifically for Southeast Asian viewers. In 2021, WeTV Originals in Thailand were nominated for 6 awards at the 26th Asian Entertainment Awards, the largest television awards in Asia. This has proven to be a powerful springboard for homegrown talents to achieve fame internationally and for artists to be recognized for brand sponsorships. Along these lines, 2022 will see the continued release of WeTV Originals that were produced locally in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

    In 2021, WeTV achieved a significant milestone of over 60 million downloads globally – a 31% growth as compared to 2020. Additionally, the number of WeTV’s monthly active users (MAU) has been growing exponentially year on year. From 2020 to 2021, WeTV saw a 67% spike in MAU, and an impressive leap of 95% in WeTV VIP users. These demonstrate WeTV’s success in delivering a first-class entertainment experience across an extensive range of genres to its viewers. Renowned international brands and agencies across multiple industries have also tapped WeTV for the purpose of reaching out to their target audiences. These include:

    • Telecommunications: 3BB, Advanced Info Service (AIS) Thailand, DITO Telecommunity, Globe Telecom, Maxis, PT Telkom Indonesia, Smart Communications
    • Agencies: GroupM, Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom Media Group (OMG)
    • Brands: Unilever, P&G, TikTok, Apple, Samsung, LG, OPPO, VIVO Huawei and Xiaomi

    “Since our launch in 2019, WeTV has always sought to support the local creative sector, by offering attractive and customizable advertising and brand solutions to our partners,” said Jeff Han, WeTV director and vice president of Tencent Video. “The past four years have been a ride, and we remain committed to growing not only our global presence but also helping local productions go international. With guaranteed high-quality content and an extensive range of platform offerings to meet the needs of every partner, WeTV aims to become the go-to digital content platform for our partners in the region.”

  • Vietnam to begin 6G technology research and development

    Vietnam to begin 6G technology research and development

    Vietnam will start researching 6G wireless networks in 2022, says Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Manh Hung. Addressing a 2021 telecom review conference last weekend, Hung said Vietnam’s telecom industry should “be in the top group in terms of deploying 5G and developing 6G networks in the world.”

    He said Vietnam will carry out 6G research this year alongside nationwide deployment of the 5G network. According to the ministry Department of Telecommunications, a steering committee for 6G research development has been formed. Vietnam is one of the world’s first ten countries to set up this committee.

    Hung also set a target of 6G frequencies being licensed by 2028 before moving on to its commercial rollout.

    “Telecom networks must quickly transition to cloud-based and software-based architectures, so that the network becomes intelligent and flexible, and can be software-configured into numerous specialized sub-networks. Open RAN will be used as a technology for 5G, 6G development,” he said.

    Vietnamese companies should target to successfully research and manufacture 5G and 6G equipment, transmission equipment, and terminal equipment, he added.

    A representative of the department said that Vietnam will commercialize 5G this year and aim to have 25 percent of the population using the technology by 2025. He said 4G services currently cover 99.8 percent of the country.

    Three major telecom providers VNPT, MobiFone, and Viettel have been commercially trialing 5G services in 16 provinces and cities.

    6G technology is the next step after 5G that is being researched in a few countries including the U.S. and China.

    In theory, 6G could reach speeds of one terabit per second, it has been reported.

    The 6G network is expected to lay the groundwork for an “intelligent era” in which AI and robots become commonplace. However, no technical standards or frequencies for 6G have been agreed upon as yet.

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  • Telenor Group exits Wave Money

    Telenor Group exits Wave Money

    Telenor Group and Yoma Strategic have entered into an agreement to sell Telenor Group’s 51% share of Digital Money Myanmar Limited (“Wave Money”) for USD 53 million to Yoma MFS Holdings Pte. Ltd, a subsidiary of Yoma Strategic.

    This subsidiary is to be funded by a consortium of investors led by Yoma Strategic which remains subject to completion and final funding. When the transaction is concluded, Yoma Strategic will become the largest and controlling shareholder of Wave Money, ensuring that the company continue operations and further extend its leading role in Myanmar’s fintech sector.

    Wave Money is a leading provider of money transfer and digital payment solutions in Myanmar. The company was launched in November 2016 as a joint venture between Yoma Bank and Telenor Group, after the fintech pioneer was awarded a license to become the first non-bank institution to work under Myanmar’s new Mobile Financial Services Regulation.

    In 2020, Wave Money processed a total of US$ 8.7 billion in remittance and payments, which represented around 12% of Myanmar’s GDP. The company runs a network of more than 45,000 active agents or “Wave Shops” in urban and rural areas across 295 out of the 330 townships nationwide. The business has seen a significant recovery in volumes since June 2021 with the trend expected to continue.

    “This acquisition reinforces Yoma Strategic’s desire to build a strong financial and technology ecosystem in the country over the long term. The digitization in the economy, in particular in financial services, has been remarkable for Myanmar. We are pleased that Wave Money has positively transformed the way of life of people in Myanmar, bringing financial inclusion to the mass,” says Melvyn Pun, CEO, Yoma Strategic.

    “Telenor is proud to have been part of Wave Money’s journey to empower the people of Myanmar with country-wide access to financial services. We have worked in partnership with Yoma Strategic to ensure that anyone from anywhere can digitally send and receive money, make contactless and secure payments in-stores or online using the market-leading mobile Wallet App of Wave Money. We are confident that Yoma have the commitment and vision to take Wave Money forward to the next level of driving financial inclusion”, says Lars Erik Tellmann, head of financial services in Telenor Group.

    The agreement between Yoma Strategic and Telenor Group completes the divestment process announced in June 2020. The transaction is subject to various conditions to be completed, among them regulatory approval from the Myanmar Central Bank.

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  • HKT’s digital venture arm partners Google Cloud to up customer experience

    HKT’s digital venture arm partners Google Cloud to up customer experience

    HKT’s loyalty program and digital ventures arm – The Club, announces its strategic collaboration with Google Cloud to develop an innovative hyper-personalization platform, named Copernicus, to integrate into The Club’s digital ecosystem across its business pillars. Combining its strong network and database with Google Cloud’s expertise and state-of-the-art technology, The Club aims to provide customers with a uniquely tailored online digital experience.

    Through closely collaborating with many business partners, The Club has long provided its members with truly unprecedented experiences and a variety of premium services, ranging from lifestyle, shopping, travel, insurance, and much more. This time, The Club looks to Copernicus to achieve a more focused and personalized customer experience, leveraging Google Cloud’s expertise in data security and governance, data analytics and data visualization capabilities to deliver products and services geared specifically to each customer’s specific needs.

    The Club’s Data Science team will develop machine learning and AI algorithms to identify customer needs-based products and services by analysing members’ behaviors and preferences, allowing The Club to take further steps towards enhancing consumer experiences with more personalized offerings.

    Specifically, Google Cloud’s advanced data analytics technology empowers The Club to build Copernicus which enables The Club to understand each individual member’s purchasing behavior and interests more precisely and quickly on one unified platform. This in turn allows The Club to deploy more targeted and personalized marketing strategies for reaching individual members across all touchpoints of the customer journey. The Club members will benefit from tailored recommendations that match their interests and needs through their preferred channels.

    Mr. Alan Tsui, CEO of HKT’s loyalty, digital and analytics, said, “We are excited to announce this ground-breaking collaboration with Google Cloud in Copernicus. This enables us to provide the best services and products at the right time for individual members. In recent times, we have adopted data science technology to tailor exclusive rewards to selected members, piquing their already heightened interests. We firmly believe our unique in-house data capabilities, partnered with Google Cloud’s advanced technology, will lay a strong foundation for our digital transformation journey.”

    Copernicus’ machine learning ability is more than just an analysis of The Club’s extensive database. Copernicus will allow The Club to constantly optimize its performance by forecasting customers’ behaviors with prescriptive information, thereby increasing the customer base by identifying and converting the right target audience segments. The Club hopes to connect more partners and customers to The Club ecosystem. With support from this collaboration which combines HKT’s comprehensive networks with Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure and global network, Copernicus will open a whole new world of opportunities for new and existing partners from across different industries and promises enhanced services and unique experiences tailored to each individual member.

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  • M1 partners with AWS to improve customer experiences

    M1 partners with AWS to improve customer experiences

    M1 Limited (M1), one of Singapore’s leading Mobile Network Operators (MNO), announced its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to launch Maxine, a VoiceBot for M1’s hotlines.

    Maxine is built on Amazon Connect, AWS’s omnichannel cloud-based contact center service that helps improve contact center agent productivity and end-user customer experiences. Powered by AWS Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding, Maxine is able to engage in more lifelike conversations with customers. Combined with M1’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk services for high quality digital voice communication, Maxine will help improve end-user customer experiences by engaging them in open-ended conversations instead of menu-driven interfaces.

    Since Maxine’s rollout in the last quarter of 2021, M1 is seeing an improved performance to the existing call system with the VoiceBot performing sophisticated functions such as authentication of callers with a One-Time Pin (OTP), or sharing the customer’s position in the call queue and estimated waiting time. In comparison with December 2020, M1’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) for December 2021 has seen a marked 40% increase, largely attributed to Maxine’s ability to capture callers’ intentions which then improves call agent productivity by freeing them up to focus on more complex cases.

    The deployment of Maxine is part of M1’s continuous transformation journey to be a digital platform. As a cloud native solution, M1 is able to regularly develop and deploy new and incremental features and capabilities that enhance Maxine’s services.

    The easy to use and quick to deploy solution enables M1 to scale up and down in a short period of time. It also provides call center agents the flexibility they need to work remotely, without compromising the customer experience.

    M1 has its 1627 (Bespoke), 1622 (Business) and 1800-843-8288 (Prepaid) hotlines operating on the Amazon Connect platform. This will be progressively rolled out to other hotlines. M1 is also supporting other members of the Keppel Group that are making the transition to adopt Maxine, starting with Keppel Electric.

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  • ZTE and China Unicom jointly complete PoC of computing power network service scheduling

    ZTE and China Unicom jointly complete PoC of computing power network service scheduling

    ZTE and China Unicom have jointly completed Proof of Concept (PoC) of computing power network service scheduling.  This PoC, based on the SDN+SRv6 Policy framework, achieves flexible scheduling of value-added services across multiple resource pools, and completes integrated scheduling of computing power network. Thus, it provides a basis for further exploration into the application of computing power network and lays foundation for future commercial deployments of computing power network.

    The computing power network is a new focus of the development of the digital economy and intelligent society. By introducing new frameworks and technologies, it implements integrated scheduling of computing, storage and network resources, and optimizes resource utilization and user experiences. Therefore, accelerating the development of the computing power networks has become one of the most important strategies of operators.

    China Unicom proposed the concept of “computing power network brings new value” for the first time at Network 5.0 Summit in June 2019. Taking the transport network based on computing and cloud integration as the basic architecture of CUBE-Net 3.0, China Unicom proposed the “ultimate, elastic, intelligent and simplified” computing power network and aimed to build it as the first computing power “engine” of the digital economy.

    ZTE and China Unicom have been jointly promoting cooperation on computing power network, actively exploring cutting-edge technologies and innovations, and continuously investigating deployment scenarios of computing power network, to achieve a win-win of computing power network.

    At CCSA TC3, ZTE and China Unicom developed the industrial standards of the computing power identification system and led the researches in computing power network DevOps and microservice-based SRv6 computing power network.

    In this PoC, the network value-added service scheduling, based on the computing power status perception, was set as the basic scenario. Virtual value-added services were deployed in multiple resource pools, and streaming media AI reasoning services were used based on the computing power network service orchestration system developed by China Unicom Research Institute.

    In this PoC, the unified scheduling of computing power and network in many specific scenarios, including the initial state, service overlapping, intra-resource pool scheduling, inter-resource pool scheduling and service fallback have been verified via the collaboration of the service orchestration system, network controller, cloud management platform, and computing power gateway, so as to achieve prototype service flow stickiness and find the nearest service provisioning location of computing power network.

    ZTE and China Unicom defined the instantiated scenarios, selected value-added service types, designed service flows, and selected overlapped service types to complete end-to-end service demonstration and acceptance.

    Moving forward, ZTE will make further innovations in collaboration with China Unicom. By virtue of the CUBE-Net 3.0 architecture, ZTE will continue to promote the evolution of networks from basic connections to computing power network integration. Also, ZTE will assist China Unicom in achieving a new computing power network with advanced architecture and high security to deliver high-quality services.

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  • Maxis to power Ranhill’s voice and cloud connectivity

    Maxis to power Ranhill’s voice and cloud connectivity

    Maxis has been selected by integrated water supply company Ranhill SAJ Sdn Bhd (Ranhill) as their voice and cloud connectivity provider. Maxis will leverage its extensive portfolio of converged solution offerings and capabilities to support Ranhill’s digitalization journey focusing on greater operational efficiency and customer service excellence.

    With its industry-leading next-generation enterprise-grade network, Maxis will be connecting 77 of Ranhill’s sites across Johor including their headquarters and water treatment plants through its SD-WAN. Higher bandwidth and a resilient network will also enhance Ranhill’s workforce management capabilities with the latest applications. They will then have real-time visibility of their data and be able to make decisions to increase the productivity and efficiency of their 2,000 employees.

    “We are pleased to be selected by Ranhill as their connectivity, voice, and cloud solutions provider. Through our unique capabilities and experience, we are able to offer Ranhill a fully managed service portfolio from onboarding right up to 24/7 support with greater cost-effectiveness and flexibility.  As their partner, we want to ensure that their connectivity needs are met so that they can operate efficiently and have the peace of mind of being well prepared for their digital transformation journey and to Always Be Ahead in a changing world,” said Paul McManus, chief enterprise business officer, Maxis.

    “Selecting Maxis as our service provider and partner is an integral step to realizing our vision of becoming a world-class water utility company. By connecting all our sites with the latest technology from Maxis, we will be better equipped to support the people of Johor through efficient management of quality water supply. We now have the necessary infrastructure and platform to unlock the benefits of digitalization as part of our ongoing effort to further enhance customer experience,” said Nor Ifuan Md Nor, chief executive officer, Ranhill SAJ.

    Maxis’ managed SD-WAN services runs on Cisco Meraki technology, and enables operational tasks such as configuration, management, and maintenance to be significantly simplified. There are significant benefits of SD-WAN as enterprises look to become more agile through automation and intelligence. They will have access to a converged connectivity solution that is flexible, scalable, and cost-effective. The built-in security in SD-WAN also enables end-to-end secure communications and the implementation of security policies across the network.

    “Connectivity has always been important but even more so today, as more customers are using multi-cloud environments, and this continues to increase. Together with Maxis, Cisco is proud to be providing Ranhill with secure and optimized access to business-critical resources. This partnership speaks volumes on how we are able to come together to deliver a solution to Ranhill that will allow secure and optimal access to workloads.

    Through this collaboration, customers can securely connect to the cloud with the signature simplicity they have come to expect from Cisco Meraki,” said Vicki Batka, vice president of Asia Pacific, Japan & China partner sales, Cisco.

    Future Opportunities in the Pipeline

    In addition to boosting Ranhill’s fixed and wireless connectivity, Maxis is also able to address their voice communications needs. Prior to this deployment, Ranhill had various challenges in getting high quality voice services, particularly at their rural sites. With Maxis’ voice solutions now extended to the underserved areas of Ranhill, their customers and employees gain access to seamless voice services.

    Maxis and Ranhill are also exploring collaboration in the future for initiatives related to Internet of Things (IoT), cloud services, and cybersecurity. This will be part of Ranhill’s next phase of digitalisation in their organisation.

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  • European carriers seek to block one key iPhone privacy feature

    European carriers seek to block one key iPhone privacy feature

    Last year Apple announced one new key privacy feature for iOS called Private Relay. This new feature is currently in beta in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, and it is available only for users enrolled in the Apple beta software program.

    Even though the feature is still in beta, some major European telecom operators have signed an open letter to protest its future rollout. Carriers including Vodafone, Telefonica, and T-Mobile have voiced concerns that “Private Relay cuts off networks and servers from accessing vital network data and metadata” thus having “significant consequences in terms of undermining European digital sovereignty”.

    The open letter has raised more than a couple of eyebrows since its publication, mainly because Private Relay is a feature not much different from a regular VPN, and those have been around for ages. But let’s see what Private Relay is in more detail.

    When you browse the internet some information can be seen and recorded by your network provider – this includes DNS records, IP addresses, and more. Normally this information is used to build a profile of your browsing activity to be potentially used at a later date (usually for advertising purposes).

    The Private Relay feature is designed to hide all this information from third parties when you browse the net on your Apple device (you must use Safari browser for the feature to work, though). According to Apple, no single party – not even Apple itself – can see both your IP address and the sites that you’re visiting.

    This is done by using two internet relays – the first encrypts your DNS records (the sites you’re visiting), and the second generates a temporary IP address to connect you to the site you want to see. The first relay doesn’t have your DNS records, and the second relay doesn’t have your IP address.

    By using such a method Apple is able to effectively protect users’ privacy from third parties while still managing to offer a fast browsing experience. At the moment, you need to be enrolled in the Apple Beta Program to be able to use this feature. Follow the instructions on the site in order to participate. If you’re already a beta member, you can turn on Privacy Relay by following the next steps.

    How to turn on Private relay on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

    • Go to Settings
    • Tap on [your username]
    • Select iCloud
    • Then tap Private Relay.

    Private Relay is off by default in all beta releases so far but Apple has officially announced that when the feature reaches the final rollout phase it will be switched on by default. You can always turn off the Private Relay feature for specific networks by following the next steps: on you iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi, then tap the More Info button next to the Wi-Fi network, then tap on “Turn off Private Relay.”

    The Telegraph says that telecom operators in the UK also support the open letter, with O2 filing official complaints to regulators in the country. Private Relay is highly dependent on local laws and regulations, and Apple has already restricted the availability of the feature.

    Private Relay won’t be offered in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines. It remains unclear whether any European countries will be added to this list.

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  • Ooredoo appoints new key executives

    Ooredoo appoints new key executives

    Ooredoo announced the appointment of Ahmad Al-Neama as group regional CEO, Bilal Kazmi as group chief commercial officer, and Eyas Assaf as executive director, performance management effective 1 January 2022.

    Ahmad Al-Neama has been with Ooredoo for almost two decades, taking up senior roles, most recently as the CEO of Indosat Ooredoo where he excelled and scored many major achievements for the company. Ahmad’s most notable accomplishments include spearheading Indosat Ooredoo’s business turnaround and signing strategic partnerships with global technology leaders and international organizations. Most importantly, he was behind the company’s sale and leaseback agreement for more than 4,200 telecommunications towers – one of the largest deals of its kind in Asia – and he has seen the launch and roll-out of 5G in Indonesia.

    Ahmad has also led the landmark deal with CK Hutchison that resulted in the merger of the two entities, creating Indonesia’s second-largest mobile telecoms company. He brings a wealth of experience gained over a variety of leadership roles within the company.In his new role as group regional CEO, Ahmad will be responsible for the P&L of six markets, including Indonesia, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Myanmar, and Maldives, setting priorities to drive sustainable growth across key operations.

    Bilal Kazmi was acting group chief commercial officer since July 2021 and has over 25 years of international experience in leadership roles, including P&L accountability across the commercial value chain for a USD1 billion turnover company. He has a strong track record of leading a wide range of commercial functions in the telco arena, such as sales and distribution, customer care, new product development, international business, and the implementation of complex telecoms projects like digital transformation and large-scale structural changes.

    As group chief commercial officer, Bilal will drive Ooredoo’s commercial transformation to accelerate growth across key areas such as customer centricity, sales & distribution and digital leadership.

    Eyas Assaf has rejoined Ooredoo Group, being appointed as executive director, performance management at Ooredoo Group Finance. Prior to this, he was Indosat Ooredoo’s CFO, a key member of the management team responsible for delivering outstanding business performance as well as the merger with CK Hutchison.

    Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo, Managing Director, Ooredoo Group, said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of three of our stellar colleagues to lead the next phase of our company’s success, along with the larger Ooredoo Group team. This is part of our strategy to invest in our greatest talents, as we move forward with our business transformation plan to create a faster, more agile, more inspiring company.”

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  • China Mobile shares rise marginally in Shanghai debut

    China Mobile shares rise marginally in Shanghai debut

    China Mobile Ltd shares debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, soaring to 63 yuan, 9.4% higher than the offer price of 57.58 yuan in early trading, before closing at about 0.52% higher at 57.88 yuan.

    The carrier’s Shanghai shares traded more than 40% higher compared to its Hong Kong-listed shares, which closed 3.33% higher on the same day, boosted by an earlier announcement to buy back up to 2.05 billion shares worth about US$13 billion.

    Raising US$7.64 billion, China Mobile’s public share offering is also China’s largest in a decade.

    China Mobile’s homecoming listing is closely watched. In May 2020, China Mobile exited the New York Stock Exchange when it was added to a growing list of Chinese companies blacklisted by the US. China Telecom and China Unicom were also ousted from the US exchange.

    China Mobile said that proceeds from the offering will be used to expand 5G capabilities, cloud infrastructure, and intelligent ecosystems.

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  • China Mobile shares rise marginally in Shanghai debut

    China Mobile shares rise marginally in Shanghai debut

    China Mobile shares debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, soaring to 63 yuan, 9.4% higher than the offer price of 57.58 yuan in early trading, before closing at about 0.52% higher at 57.88 yuan.

    The carrier’s Shanghai shares traded more than 40% higher compared to its Hong Kong-listed shares, which closed 3.33% higher on the same day, boosted by an earlier announcement to buy back up to 2.05 billion shares worth about US$13 billion.

    Raising US$7.64 billion, China Mobile’s public share offering is also China’s largest in a decade.

    China Mobile’s homecoming listing is closely watched. In May 2020, China Mobile exited the New York Stock Exchange when it was added to a growing list of Chinese companies blacklisted by the US. China Telecom and China Unicom were also ousted from the US exchange.

    China Mobile said that proceeds from the offering will be used to expand 5G capabilities, cloud infrastructure, and intelligent ecosystems.

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  • ZTE crosses 400 million unit milestone in CPE shipments

    ZTE crosses 400 million unit milestone in CPE shipments

    ZTE Corporation announced it has shipped more than 400 million customer premises equipment (CPE) devices by November 2021.

    “ZTE achieved explosive growth in our CPE business in 2021, with yearly shipments exceeding 60 million units,” revealed Fang Hui, vice president of ZTE. “In the passive optical network (PON) CPE segment, ZTE ranked first globally for both shipments and revenues in the third quarter of the year, according to the Broadband Access & Home Networking Quarterly Report 3Q21 released by the research firm Dell’Oro Group.”

    ZTE’s innovative Mesh+Wi-Fi 6 solution delivers real gigabit speeds throughout the home to enable a full-coverage and seamless-roaming network experience for users. Also, its Mesh+AI (Artificial Intelligence) solution is able to solve the pain points of home network management by implementing visual management of home Wi-Fi and performing intelligent diagnosis and optimization.

    In addition, ZTE’s Mesh+FTTR (Fiber to the Room) solution is the only all-optical networking solution in the industry to support both point-to-point (P2P) and point-to-multipoint (P2MP) technologies. Designed to provide future-ready connectivity, the solution can eliminate the bandwidth bottleneck in the home in one go and meet the home broadband requirements of users in the next 20 years. With this solution, ZTE has won multiple awards and completed commercial trials in over 20 provinces of China.

    To date, ZTE’s high-end 10-gigabit-capable symmetric passive optical network optical network terminal (XGS-PON ONT) and Wi-Fi 6 products have been massively deployed in countries and regions including Japan, Europe, and South America.

    “Moving forward, ZTE will continue to focus on technological innovations and experience upgrades, with an eye to providing high-quality smart home solutions and products, and promoting the digital transformation and upgrades of homes,” said Fang Hui.

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  • Higher telecommunications towers to counter Malaysia flood

    Higher telecommunications towers to counter Malaysia flood

    Minister Annuar Musa had commissioned the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to undertake the task of raising telecommunications towers to ensure that towers do not have equipment at the ground level for areas susceptible to flooding.

    This would ensure that towers are intact even when water levels rise to 10 feet so that residents trapped on the rooftops of their houses can call for help.

    Last week, Musa said that more than 800 telecommunications towers had been affected nationwide, of which more than half had been repaired. While some took a faster quicker to repair, others required a longer time as submerged equipment needed replacement.

    Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang were severely affected by the floods. Telekom Malaysia (TM) resorted to shutting down the power supply and network equipment as a precautionary measure in some of these areas. TM set aside RM13 million to replace free, damaged customer premise equipment (CPE) and network components, on top of providing a 2-week waiver on subscription from customer bills amounting to approximately RM5 billion.

    Meanwhile, Celcom is offering free replacement of damaged broadband equipment for both fiber and wireless broadband services. The free replacement is available until the end of January.

    Maxis has also stepped up on relief efforts, mobilizing teams to mitigate network disruptions, as well as sending food boxes and SIM packs to flood relief centers. In addition, support is provided to dealers whose stores had been affected so that operations can resume earlier.

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  • China’s telecom sector grows 8.1%

    China’s telecom sector grows 8.1%

    China’s telecom sector recorded a strong 8.1% year-on-year growth in the first 11 months of this year.

    According to official figures released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the combined industrial revenue grew by over RMB 1.35 trillion. This represents a decline of 0.1 percentage points for the period from January to October.

    The number of 5G mobile subscribers has reached 497 million by the end of November, representing an increment of 298 million from the end of last year. Of which, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom added over 35 million 5G mobile subscribers in November alone.

    The world’s largest operator in term of subscribers, China Mobile has added a total of 209.38 million 5G subscribers since the start of 2021.

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