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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.

  • SK Telecom unveils AI smart speaker

    SK Telecom unveils AI smart speaker

    SK Telecom has revealed plans to launch a new AI voice activated digital assistant named NUGU Nemo.

    NUGU Nemo is an AI speaker with a 7-inch display that contains a range of free video and learning content for children.

    This includes Pinkfong from SmartStudy, which comes with a range of video and audio content as well as games aimed at helping kids learn Korean, English and mathematics.

    The device uses video recognition technology to protect children’s’ eyesight by advising them to move back from the screen if they move within 15cm of it.

    For adults, the device displays information on its screen including stock information, real-time foreign exchange rates and a Korean-English dictionary to enhance user experience.

    The device will be priced at 199,000 won ($175) and be available to preorders from April 23, SK Telecom said.

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  • US DOJ likely to reject T-Mobile and Sprint merger

    US DOJ likely to reject T-Mobile and Sprint merger

    One year after US operators T-Mobile and Sprint finally finished the preliminaries and announced a merger, the proposed deal is under fire. Few ever thought the deal would get through regulators unscathed, but now we’re finally getting to the details.

    DOJ has told the two carriers that it is ‘unlikely’ to approve the deal as currently structured, or at least people at the DOJ involved in the approval did, as this doesn’t appear to be a formal thing. The news adds to a growing list of regulatory objections from the states and from the FCC.

    T-Mobile CEO John Legere is disputing the reports, and there is certainly sufficient motivation to adjust the deal enough to push it through. However, there is enough doubt right now that the markets didn’t take it well and sent the stock of both companies falling.

    Perhaps like AT&T did for the Time Warner deal they will at some point take things to the courts.

  • Intel pulls out of 5G smartphone modem market

    Intel pulls out of 5G smartphone modem market

    Intel has announced plans to exit the 5G smartphone modem business hours after Apple announced it was settling its legal battles with Qualcomm over modem patent licensing.

    Apple and Qualcomm announced they have reached an agreement whereby Apple will sign a six year patent licensing deal and agree to buy Qualcomm chipsets, in return for ceasing all litigation.

    Apple had ceased using Qualcomm chips for its smartphones and replaced them with Intel chipsets after accusing Qualcomm of using its patents to maintain a monopoly on the modem chip market, and Qualcomm countered by accusing Apple of violating its patents.

    But with Apple seemingly throwing in the towel, Intel announced it no longer expects to launch 5G modem products for smartphones.

    The company pledged to continue to meet current customer commitments for its existing 4G smartphone modem product line, and said it still intends to invest in its 5G network infrastructure business and assess opportunities for 4G and 5G modems for PCs, IoT devices and other data-centric devices.

    “We are very excited about the opportunity in 5G and the ‘cloudification’ of the network, but in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns,” Intel CEO Bob Swan said.

    “5G continues to be a strategic priority across Intel, and our team has developed a valuable portfolio of wireless products and intellectual property. We are assessing our options to realize the value we have created, including the opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world.”

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  • China Mobile Hong Kong moves 5G innovation center

    China Mobile Hong Kong moves 5G innovation center

    China Mobile Hong Kong has relocated its 5G innovation center – known as the Hong Kong Open Lab – to Hong Kong Science Park.

    The relocation is aimed at accelerating the development of Hong Kong’s 5G ecosystem and catering to the needs of local business partners.

    China Mobile first founded its 5G innovation center in Kwai Chung in 2016, and opened the center in March last year.

    The new Hong Kong open lab will provide a larger space to allow the company to develop a 5G network environment and larger co-working space for local partners to trial 5G network applications and conuct 5G research and development.

    China Mobile will also use the relocated lab to continue its 5G+ Project aimed at complementing Hong Kong’s existing 4G networks with 5G infrastructure, and to promote the adoption of various applications for 5G technology.

    To mark the relocation, China Mobile Hong Kong showcased various 5G applications including an autonomous vehicle, an intelligent robot controlled over 5G in real time, drone technology, and live streaming of high-resolution photos and video.

    “We are very excited for the expansion and relocation of the China Mobile 5G Innovation Centre and Hong Kong Open Lab to the Hong Kong Science Park, and for the opportunity to join the local innovation and technology ecosystem in there to further develop 5G mobile service applications and carry out the 5G+ Project,” China Mobile Hong Kong director and CEO Sean Lee said.

    “We will continue to complement the existing 4G network with 5G infrastructure, to promote 5G technologies along with new communication technologies — for example, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud, Big Data and Edge Computing — to develop comprehensive 5G ecosystems in accomplishing the digitalization of lives for Hong Kong citizens and to enter the new era of 5G together.”

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  • Vietnam telcos ready to pilot mobile money

    Vietnam telcos ready to pilot mobile money

    Vietnamese operators MobiFone, VNPT and Viettel have all submitted proposals to participate in pilot mobile money services.

    Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has directed the telecommunications ministry and the State Bank of Vietnam to develop a project that will allow operators to pilot mobile money services not linked to customers’ bank accounts.

    The three operators have submitted applications to launch mobile money services that will allow customers to transfer money using mobile phones, including Vietnam’s unbanked population.

    According to the report, the operators believe they have the capital, infrastructure and user base necessary to launch mobile money services and contribute to the development of non-cash payment in Vietnam.

    The market could represent a promising avenue for expansion for the operators – Vietnam’s fintech market is set to reach $8 billion in 2020, with digital payment solutions accounting for around 89% of the market. Meanwhile only around 40% of the population have bank accounts, but mobile penetration is well above 100%.

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  • First 5G smart hotel launched in China

    First 5G smart hotel launched in China

    InterContinental Shenzhen, Shenzhen Telecom Engineering and Huawei have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to create the world’s first 5G smart hotel.

    By introducing the hotel industry’s first end-to-end 5G network with integrated terminals and cloud applications, the project will enable InterContinental Shenzhen to provide guests with an innovative luxury experience and open the door for digital transformation of entire hotel industry through 5G technology.

    Shenzhen Telecom is deploying Huawei’s 5G network equipment in the InterContinental Shenzhen to achieve continuous indoor and outdoor 5G coverage, which will serve as the platform for a new generation of hotel services.

    Guests will experience 5G hotel applications through 5G smartphones and customer-premises equipment (CPE) terminals, including 5G welcome robots, 5G cloud computing terminals, 5G cloud games and 5G cloud virtual reality (VR) rowing machines.

    For the project’s kick-off ceremony, Shenzhen Telecom and Huawei jointly deployed a 5G Digital Indoor System on the hotel’s first floor and in the presidential suites.

    In the hotel lobby, guests can access the 5G network through CPEs or their smartphones to experience high speed 5G downloads and uploads. Service efficiency is improved with 5G intelligent robots that provide services including guest information, destination guidance, and delivery.

    The presidential suites covered by the new network provide guests with 5G hotel services such as cloud VR rowing machines, cloud games and 4K movies.

    Dr. Peter Zhou, chief marketing officer of Huawei Wireless Solution, said: “5G is here – from the 4K ultra high-definition live broadcast of CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala early this year to today’s 5G entertainment and business transformation of the InterContinental Shenzhen’s presidential suites, 5G technology has penetrated into different industries.”

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  • Singapore is APAC’s top Smart Fiber City

    Singapore is APAC’s top Smart Fiber City

    Singapore is the top Smart Fiber City in Asia-Pacific, according to a new ranking released at the FTTH Council Asia Pacific Conference in Wuhan, China.

    The inaugural Smart Fiber Cities ranking list Singapore as the region’s Champion, due to the city’s 93% FTTH/B coverage, 100% 4G coverage and its over 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots.
    For the regional rankings, FTTH Council Asia-Pacific evaluated cities with high FTTH/B coverage based on the innovative and useful solutions that have been developed to take advantage of this infrastructure.

    Cities were raked in two categories – champs and challengers. Champs have almost complete fiber coverage city-wide and have reached maturity in smart projects that have been deployed. They also generally have a comprehensive smart city framework in place and smart projects already in operation.

    Challengers meanwhile are actively deploying fiber infrastructure to meet their smart city ambitions, but their fiber-based smart services are usually limited to specific domains.

    Behind Singapore in the Champs category are Tokyo in Japan and Seoul in South Korea with roughly 90% FTTH coverage, followed by Hong Kong, Busan in South Korea, and Melbourne in Australia.

    Chinese cities meanwhile took the first three spaces in the Challenger category, with Shanghai on top with round 90% FTTH/B coverage, followed by Hangzhou and Wuhan. Runners up included Malaysia’s Selangor, Jakarta in Indonesia, Bhubaneswar in India and Ho Chi Minh in VIetnam.

    “The research into Smart Fiber Cities shows that we are just at the beginning of these developments. Across APAC, we see many mature projects in areas such as e-government and security, with 5G-based applications in, for example, transport and disaster management coming up,” FTTH Council Asia-Pacific president Venkatesan Babu said.

    “We have great expectation for the large numbers of pilots in areas such as healthcare, smart grids and autonomous traffic. We look forward to closely follow new developments in the coming years.”

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  • IoT to drive BLE market to 1.6b devices by 2023: ABI

    IoT to drive BLE market to 1.6b devices by 2023: ABI

    ABI Research forecasts that Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices will exceed 1.6 billion annual shipments by 2023. Growth in segments like smart home, beacons and asset tracking, emerging IoT applications, alongside growth in existing key markets and the emergence of audio over BLE will enable the technology to achieve a CAGR of 27% between 2018 and 2023, tripling in size.

    Andrew Zignani, senior analyst at ABI Research, says the growth in BLE stems from continued technical enhancements that take advantage of opportunities arising from growing number of applications in various vertical markets.

    “BLE’s ubiquitous support in mobile devices, combined with its ability to support mesh networking, beacon functionality, and most recently, centimeter level location accuracy with the introduction of Bluetooth 5.1 and radio direction finding (RDF), is enabling BLE to be increasingly leveraged within smart consumer devices, larger scale home and commercial building automation environments, and RTLS deployments with more stringent accuracy requirements,” says Zignani.

    By 2020 Bluetooth is anticipated to enable high-quality audio streaming over BLE, providing a boost for the existing headset market and the emerging True Wireless audio device market.

    Zignani cites announcements at CES2019 such as Dialog Semiconductor demonstrating an audio over BLE proof of concept utilizing their SmartBond SoCs. “From 2020, we expect the Bluetooth audio market to take advantage of upcoming enhancements to better support truly cable-free earbud experiences while enhancing the battery life and user experience, though it may take some time for the standardization process to translate to wider mobile and ecosystem support,” explains Zignani.

    BLE chipset providers continue to innovate to provide further improvements in power consumption, further extending battery life and enabling support for battery-free devices via energy harvesting.

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  • Docomo to cut mobile rates by up to 40%

    Docomo to cut mobile rates by up to 40%

    Japan’s NTT Docomo has announced a new simplified mobile service fee structure that the operator says will reduce mobile charges by between 20% and 40%.

    The operator plans to completely separate handset and service fees and unify voice, SMS and data charges in response to criticism that its existing plans have been too complicated and hard to understand.

    The new plans are divided into two categories – a “Gigalight” plan which will charge based on data consumed, and a flat rate “Gigaho” plan for heavy data users.

    Docomo also plans to start offering family discounts of 500 yen ($4.46) per month for contracts covering two family members, and 1,000 yen per month for contracts with three or more members.

    Docomo’s new fee structure is also a response to pressure from the Japanese government on operators to reduce mobile service fees to bring them in line with prices in comparable markets.

    The operator expects that the new fee structure could reduce its income by as much as 400 billion yen ($3.6 billion) per year.

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  • China raids Ericsson after license fee complaints

    China raids Ericsson after license fee complaints

    Last Friday, Chinese investigators raided Ericsson’s offices in Beijing after receiving complaints about the licensing fees that Ericsson charges phone makers.

    Amid the background of increased global tension over Chinese vendors’ 5G technology being banned by the US and other countries, officials from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) are looking into Ericsson’s patent licensing practices after receiving complaints.

    In an email to FierceTelecom, an Ericsson spokesman confirmed that the company was under investigation by SAMR.

    “Ericsson can confirm that the Chinese SAMR has formally initiated an investigation due to complaints against Ericsson’s IPR licensing practices in China. Ericsson is fully cooperating with the investigation and will refrain from further comments while it is ongoing.

    “At Ericsson, we license our industry leading patent portfolio on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) terms and conditions and have always been committed to these FRAND principles.”

    Last month Ericsson claimed to have 49,000 patents, while Huawei counted 87,805 in its 2018 annual report.

    The Wall Street Journal said that roughly 20 SAMR officers raided Ericsson’s Beijing offices on Friday. Earlier this year, Chinese mobile phone makers complained about Ericsson’s licensing practices. Chinese media reports implied that licensing fees paid to Ericsson would increase with the rollout of 5G technologies and services.

    China’s People’s Posts and Telecommunications News said in an online report that Chinese smartphone vendors were concerned that Ericsson would impose 5G patent fees on top of the current fees for 3G and 4G technologies.

    China-based Huawei is battling Apple as the world’s second-largest smartphone maker behind Samsung.

    Last month, Huawei filed a lawsuit against the US government challenging a recently passed law that bans federal agencies from buying Huawei products.

    Huawei was the top vendor globally in the wireless packet core (WPC) market last year while rivals Ericsson and Nokia rounded out the top-three spots. A February report by Dell’Oro said that Huawei was the largest global equipment service provider last year with more than a 30% market share.

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  • Indians bought 50% more 4G devices in 2018 says CMR

    Indians bought 50% more 4G devices in 2018 says CMR

    The latest CMR report, the Annual 4G LTE Devices India Market Review Report 2018, revealed that Indian consumers purchased 50% more 4G LTE devices in 2018 year-on-year, with shipments surpassing 200 million units. 4G devices include mobile phones, tablets and data cards. In 2018, 4G devices had a 64% market share.

    While 4G LTE enabled mobile device shipments crossed 60%, the 4G LTE tablets accounted for 44% of the total tablet shipments. 4G LTE contributed for 100% of the data cards shipped in calendar 2018.

    “4G is enabling Indians everywhere to raise above their social and economic challenges and connect with new possibilities. The 4G device penetration in India continues to gain traction, with 4G mobile phone and 4G tablet shipments on the rise. Reliance Jio Infocomm has been the X-factor,” said Prabhu Ram, head – Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR.

    During the year, LYF led in the 4G LTE mobile handset segment with 33% market share, while Lenovo dominated the 4G LTE tablet market with 40% market share. LYF is the only Indian brand in the leaderboard shipping 4G LTE mobile handsets.

    Narinder Kumar, lead analyst-IIG, CMR, predicts 4G adoption will continue in CY2019 driven by 4G feature phones and bundled offerings at the entry level contributing to growth in 4G device shipments. Video and music streaming will fuel this 4G growth. “Over the long run, we anticipate 4G to play a major role in smart cities, and especially smart homes,” said Kumar.

    CMR analysts see 4G continuing to dominate the Indian market until 2024. That said, 5G should see a spike in adoption in India by 2023. CMR anticipates a modest spike for 5G by 2023, with CMR internal estimates pointing to 5G smartphone shipments in India to top 140M by 2025.

    “At CMR, our internal research estimates point to the 5G enabled devices contributing to 3% of the total smartphone shipments by 2021, and potentially reaching 16% by 2025. The course of 5G in India will be driven by how Jio plays its cards,” added Prabhu.

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  • Microsoft said to be prepping its own AirPods challenger

    Microsoft said to be prepping its own AirPods challenger

    We know that Amazon is working on a pair of wireless earbuds that are supposed to offer better sound at a cheaper cost than Apple’s very popular AirPods. Now, according to Thurrott, it appears that Microsoft will also take a shot at Apple’s AirPods with its own wireless earbuds that could be named Surface Buds. This information comes from sources familiar with the company’s plans. Just as Apple’s AirPods come with Siri integration, and Amazon’s earbuds will be equipped with the Alexa virtual assistant, the Surface Buds will feature Cortana.

    The project has the code name of Morrison, possibly named after the late Jim Morrison who was the lead singer for The Doors. This won’t be the first set of earbuds to be released by the company. Back when Microsoft sold its Zune music player (its Apple iPod competitor), it sold wired earbuds as an accessory for users of the device. Besides being equipped with Cortana, the Surface Buds are expected to feature noise cancellation and technology that will allow users to more easily read content from their phones. We would expect the product to be compatible with both Android and iOS devices.

    If Microsoft is on the ball, it will have the Surface Buds available in time for the holiday shopping season. Besides Apple’s AirPods and Amazon’s upcoming earbuds, Microsoft will also be competing with the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Buds.

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  • Jio raising $3.89b for tower unit spinoff:

    Jio raising $3.89b for tower unit spinoff:

    The fiber network unit Reliance Jio Infocomm is reportedly planning to raise around 270 billion rupees ($3.89 billion) in syndicated loans to help expand the newly created infrastructure business.

    Jio Digital Fiber plans to use the proceeds to expand its business and allow it to serve external customers from the telecom, ISP, power and other sectors.

    Reliance Jio is spinning off its fiber business as well as its tower business into standalone subsidiaries in an attempt to monetize the assets. The tower business is being spun out into Reliance Jio Infratel.

    Reliance Jio received approval for the demerger plan from the National Company Law Tribunal last month.

    Meanwhile Reliance Jio has reportedly also crossed the 300 million subscriber mark after just two and a half years in operation, putting it close to second-placed rival Bharti Airtel, which has around 340.3 million customers.

    According to Indian media, it took Airtel 19 years to pass the 300 million subscriber mark. If Reliance Jio continues its trajectory, it will knock former market leader Airtel into third place. The 2018 merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular created the current market leader Vodafone Idea, which has over 400 million customers.

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  • Vietnam, Ericsson open IoT Innovation Hub

    Vietnam, Ericsson open IoT Innovation Hub

    The Vietnamese government has launched the first IoT Innovation Hub in the nation, in collaboration with Ericsson.

    The new center aims to provide a platform for IoT research and development, as well as commercial startups and IoT-related education.

    It will allow mobile operators, businesses, students, researchers and startups to develop and test IoT applications, and support the commercialization of IoT-based products.

    At an opening ceremony for the new Innovation hub, Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology signed collaboration agreements with state-owned operators Viettel and VNPT, as well as a number of local universities, to support the operation and development of the center.

    Also at the event, Ericsson president of Vietnam, Myanmar Cambodia and Laos Denis Brunetti said the establishment of the center will help promote collaboration with Vietnam and Sweden in building initial platforms for innovation activities in Vietnam.

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  • ZTE, China Mobile, Ericsson conduct 5G-4G VoLTE call

    ZTE, China Mobile, Ericsson conduct 5G-4G VoLTE call

    ZTE, the Guangzhou branch of China Mobile and Ericsson have announced a joint demonstration of a VoLTE voice and video call between 5G and 4G smartphones.

    The successful call, completed at the end of March, utilized non-standalone 5G networks provided by different vendors, as well as China Mobile Guangzhou’s existing 4G network.

    It used ZTE’s 5G and 4G smartphones for the VoLTE voice and video call, as well as network equipment from the two vendors.

    Guangzhou is one of five 5G pilot cities for China Mobile, which is investing the most heavily in 5G among China’s big three mobile operators.