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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 Group continues to focus on social value

    SK Group continues to focus on social value

    SK Group is reevaluating its business models in a bid to ensure that all of its affiliates create social value along with economic value. SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and the heads of all SK affiliates discussed ways to renew their business models so that doing business leads to increasing benefits for the public as well as SK shareholders and employees during a three-day meeting on Jeju Island that ended Friday.

    “Creating social value is a way to earn strong trust from our customers and society,” Chey said. “By social value, I mean increasing the benefits of all stakeholders in our business including our customers, shareholders and employees.”

    Chey then ordered the chief executives to think over whether there was any part of their business that they are tricked into believing is sustainable.

    “Rethinking business models that you believe are sustainable is the beginning of a deep change that we are trying to accomplish,” the chairman added.

    SK has been making small steps into realizing Chey’s vision from earlier this year. The group’s oil refining arm SK Energy opened up the idle space at its gas stations so a logistics start-up can move in and use the space as storage.

    However, many other SK affiliates still need to come up with ideas to create social value.

    To renew business models, the CEOs agreed that sharing data and resources between SK affiliates is crucial. The heads also said that all members of SK should be a part of the movement for the vision to materialize.

    The chief executives first decided to improve human resources management policies and the research and development system. Details of the discussion weren’t revealed, but Chey ordered the chief executives to rethink the work environment for employees and to bolster R&D capabilities.

    As SK has businesses in a range of industries, the group is also thinking about business convergence among affiliates.

  • KT’s Kids’ Land is now available on the move

    KT’s Kids’ Land is now available on the move

    KT’s Kids’ Land will soon be available on the move, as the mobile carrier tries to take on YouTube Kids by moving its popular child-friendly content service to smartphones.
    Kids’ Land, which launched in May on KT’s internet-protocol TVs, is now used by 3.6 million customers, according to KT. By creating a mobile app that is connected with the IPTV, the carrier said that kids will now be able to enjoy their favorite content anywhere they want.

    New content was also been added to the service, now upgraded to Kids’ Land 2.0, on Tuesday. While most of the content on the original Kids’ Land was for children, the new version comes with new videos dedicated to parenting, made for KT in cooperation with Dr. Oh Eun-young, a famous figure in the field of child care in Korea.

    Oh’s content will cover 10 big topics in parenting, spanning about 50 video clips, so that parents can easily learn how to behave with their children in specific situations, like when they won’t sleep.

    “There is so much, in fact, too much information on parenting that parents these days can’t really tell between reliable content and those that are not,” Oh said. “KT’s platform offers curated and reliable content that parents can always turn to.”

    Kang In-sik, vice president of the media content department at KT, said KT will be working to provide more original content to beat competition from other platform providers like YouTube. KT is currently contacting experts to make videos specifically targeting infants as well as the elderly and those hoping to learn a new language.

    The new Kids’ Land app will be ad-free and filter out harmful content for children.

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  • Surge in Hong Kong Cybercrime

    Surge in Hong Kong Cybercrime

    Hong Kong has experienced a surge in fraudulent banking websites this year. In August alone, there were 15 reports of such incidents, compared with only two cases of fake websites or phishing attempts in the same month a year ago, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). In September, seven incidents were reported, up from one a year ago.

    And the trend seems to continue, with eight cases reported in October so far. Customers of DBS, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, as well as Dah Sing have been among the targets of the criminals. With the rise of financial technology firms and mobile banking apps, experts predict that novice mobile banking users will become prime targets.

    Digital Banks Attract Attackers

    While the use of digital banking tools is spreading quickly, the technology is also attracting the attention of cybercriminals, said cybersecurity specialist Securelist in a report earlier this year. «We are sure that the world of cybercrime will see increasing attacks against this type of banks and their customers,» Securelist said in its report. 

    Fraudsters have long tried to trick users to visit fake bank website via e-mail messages pretending to be from the bank. On these fake websites, they try to trick account holders into revealing their access credentials. On mobile devices, the connection with the bank is typically via an application, rather than a website.

    Tricks Of Criminals

    Banks’ usage of chat applications increases the possibility that criminals could try impersonating the bank in social media chats and try to trick users into downloading and installing an «updated» version of the bank’s app. In reality, such an app would be malicious and could help attackers steal credentials from the phone.

    «Other social engineering scams have emerged which try and trick the genuine user into revealing the authentication code for their chat app and hence lose control of the account. Even if this is only temporary, it may allow enough time for a fraud to be perpetrated,» Jackson said in an interview.

    Attacks Focused On Smaller Vendors

    Experts predicts there could be more attacks on fintechs or payment providers going forward. This is due to lower investments into cybersecurity versus traditional banks, and criminals’ evolving technological skills.

    «Large financial organizations invest considerable resources in cybersecurity, thus the penetration of their infrastructure is not an easy task. However, a threat vector that is likely to be actively used by cybercriminals in the coming year is attacks on software vendors supplying financial organizations,» Securelist said. Most of these vendors have a lower level of protection compared with the financial organizations themselves.

    Attacks Via Software

    For the coming year, the cybersecurity experts expect criminals to stage attacks via software for the finance business, including such for ATMs and PoS terminals. «A few months ago we registered the first attempts of this kind, when attackers embedded a malicious module into a firmware installation file, and placed it on the official website of one of the American ATM software vendors,» Securelist wrote.

    Based on a 2017 study by Accenture, the financial services industry posted annual costs of nearly $18.3 million per firm from cyber attacks.

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  • Ericsson posts first quarterly profit since 2016

    Ericsson posts first quarterly profit since 2016

    Corrupt business practices dating back to 2007 have led to the dismissal of 50 employees and will likely result in a “material” fine for Ericsson once the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission complete their investigation into the matter, the Swedish company said Thursday.

    During an earnings call with analysts, CEO Börje Ekholm said the company found evidence of corruption during an internal investigation and reported those findings to authorities. “We don’t know how the discussions will go, but we think it is likely that some measures will be taken,” he said.

    Top executives at the company were allegedly involved in a bribery scandal in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Ekholm said the company has declined to make provisions against the expected financial penalties because it’s unsure of the magnitude of what the ongoing investigation will uncover.

    The tempered admission of guilt on the part of Ericsson overshadowed an otherwise successful quarter for the business, its first profitable quarter since June 2016.

    Investments in research and development along with 18 months of cost reductions are finally contributing to the company’s financial performance, according to Ekholm. The company has laid off 22,000 employees since June 2016 and had a total head count of 95,000 workers at the end of September.

    Strong demand for 5G network equipment in the United States also boosted sales to almost $6 billion during the quarter. “There is strong momentum in the global 5G market with lead markets moving forward,” Ekholm said in a statement. “More work remains, however, to get all parts of the business to a satisfactory performance level.”

    Net sales in North America, the company’s biggest regional market behind Europe, jumped 21% year over year and network equipment sales increased 24% in North America during the same period.

    Ericsson banked a net profit of $304 million during the quarter. Sales in North America reached nearly $1.7 billion during the quarter, representing almost 28% of its entire business. The company forecasts a steady research and development cost during the final quarter of 2018 and says it will primarily focus those expenses in the network division.

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  • Nokia launches Fixed Access Health Index

    Nokia launches Fixed Access Health Index

    Nokia has announced it has developed a new metric for measuring the quality and performance of fixed access networks in a standardized way.

    The Nokia Fixed Access Health Index for service providers uses Nokia’s automation and analytics capabilities to benchmark the performance and health of fixed line networks against those of industry peers.

    It is designed to act as the foundation for network optimization programs, and measure their performance and progress over time through regular performance measurements.

    The index is already in use by multiple operators, including a major Asian service provider that used the tool to optimize the network health and quality of its recently introduced IPTV service.

    “The initial results we saw with our pioneering customers in this domain were so impressive that we decided to go for a ‘standardized’ approach, which can be replicated with other service providers,” Nokia president of fixed networks Federico Guillén said.

    “Based on a series of playbooks, each operator gets a personalized evaluation and improvement plan. To offer this kind of service, we build on our expertise in all 20 of the largest access networks globally, and with more than 300 fixed broadband customers worldwide, which gives us an endless source of knowledge to tap.”

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  • Globe interconnects with DE-CIX

    Globe interconnects with DE-CIX

    The Philippines’ Globe Telecom has enhanced its peering capacity in Europe through a new agreement with Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange (DE-CIX). DE-CIX is the world’s largest internet exchange point with a peak traffic of over 6.4Tbps. Globe has peered at the company in Germany via its location in Frankfurt. The carrier neutral DE-CIX exchange interconnects more than 800 member networks, and provides peering and interconnection services to over 1,500 network operators, ISPs and content providers from more than 100 countries.

    The company offers peering and interconnection services from 13 locations in India, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

    “This initiative will further complement existing infrastructure and enable users direct access to European content. At the same time, it functions as alternate internet gateways to the Philippines from that region as the internet is two-way,” Globe CTO Gil Genio said.

    “Improvements may also be observed in reaching networks that are part of the exchanges as the set-up will avoid the traditional via US traverse.”

    He said Globe Telecom now has connections to 23 internet exchange providers worldwide.

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  • India’s Reliance Industries to invest in two MSOs

    India’s Reliance Industries to invest in two MSOs

    India’s Reliance Industries, parent company of operator Reliance Jio Infocomm, has announced strategic investments in two multiple system operators (MSOs) to accelerate the planned JioGigaFiber rollout. The company plans to invest 22.9 billion rupees ($311.48 million) to take a 66% stake in Den Networks Limited, India’s largest cable TV distribution company and a provider of high-speed broadband services in 100 cities nationwide.

    Reliance Industries will also invest 29.4 billion rupees for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited, a cable TV company providing high speed broadband in 21 cities.

    The company intends to make open offers for DEN and Hathway shares as well as two Hathway subsidiaries, as required by Indian takeover regulations.

    Announcing the planned investments, Reliance Industries said the acquisitions will accelerate Jio’s efforts to bring the JioGigaFiber service to a potential 50 million homes across 1,100 Indian cities and towns as quickly as possible.

    Jio will work with Hathway and DEN to bring the JioGigaFiber services to the two companies’ 24 million existing cable customers.

    Jio plans to use the JioGigaFiber network to offer high-speed broadband, ultra high definition video streaming, multi-party video conferencing, VR gaming, smart home and AI virtual assistant and fixed mobile convergence services.

    Reliance Industries chairman and MD Shri Mukesh said the acquisition is also expected to benefit the 27,000 local cable operators (LCOs) that are aligned with Hathway and DEN by enabling them to participate in India’s digital transformation. Indian LCOs provide coaxial cable connections on a per-neighborhood basis.

    “With Local Cable Operators now as part of the Jio ecosystem, we look forward to bringing Jio’s advanced JioGigaFiber and Smart Home Solutions to more Indian homes, even quicker,” he said.

    “We look forward to welcoming other MSOs and LCOs to be part of this partnership. This will result in growing wireline data connectivity in India and making state-of-the-art high-speed affordable internet and digital services accessible to the widest population in the shortest possible time.”

  • StarHub offering free local calls to prepaid customers

    StarHub offering free local calls to prepaid customers

    Singapore’s StarHub has started offering prepaid customers free outgoing local calls as long as they have an active data plan. The company will continue offering prepaid customers free local calls for the duration of their data plan, even if they run out of data.

    StarHub offers customers a choice of six prepaid data plan over its Happy Prepaid app, starting at S$2 for 30MB of data and free outgoing calls for three days. An S$8 mid-tier option adds 1GB and free calls for seven days, while an S$25 plan offers 5GB of data and free calls for 30 days.

    “Just by being on our new prepaid data plans, customers can enjoy the best of two worlds – surfing on Singapore’s fastest 4G network and chatting with family, friends and co-workers easily and affordably,” StarHub VP of marketing Donovan Kik said.

    “Simplicity is key and we will continually enhance our services to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to customers.”

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  • Telkomsel to adopt Kinetica analytics platform

    Telkomsel to adopt Kinetica analytics platform

    Indonesia’s Telkomsel has arranged to adopt the Kinetica advanced analytics platform to help it transform the customer experience for its users.

    The operator will use the Kinetica engine and NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to enable real-time analytics, location-based visualization and AI capabilities.

    Telkomsel plans to use thee capabilities to deliver data-driven customer experiences and to enable real-time financial and business reporting.

    “The rapid growth in mobile devices, digital users, and the micro-services nature of prepaid across the Indonesian market has led to exponentially more data generated than ever before,” Telkomsel CIO Montgomery Hong said.

    “This influx of extreme data presents a massive opportunity to develop new, personalized, digital lifestyle experiences for Indonesian consumers. Unlike traditional database solutions, the Kinetica engine is purpose-built for extreme data and provides real-time data analysis and location intelligence across our business, from prepaid and postpaid mobile, to digital lifestyle services (video, gaming, music), to mobile financial services, and digital advertising for starters.”

  • BSNL helping to transform Nokia’s Chennai factory

    BSNL helping to transform Nokia’s Chennai factory

    Nokia and Indian state owned operator BSNL have announced a collaboration to use LTE technology to improve operational efficiency at Nokia’s Chennai manufacturing plant.

    The project, which the companies are billing as India’s first real world application of the Industry 4.0 concept, will see Nokia’s Chennai factory adopt advanced technologies to enhance operations and increase productivity.

    These technologies will include augmented and virtual reality, connected robotics, AI, big data analytics and IoT capability.

    Nokia deployed the LTE network using its Micro Core Network and Multi-access Edge Computing platform.

    Nokia and BSNL aim to use the project to demonstrate the ability to leverage automation across industries, and how the experience can be replicated in sectors such as oil and gas, mining, public safety and disaster management.

    BSNL has undertaken several initiatives to ensure India keeps pace with 5G evolution globally. Nokia is already one of our key partners in developing the 5G ecosystem, and now we are exploring use cases such as Industry 4.0 that can benefit tremendously with 5G,” BSNL chairman and managing director Anupam Srivastava said.

    “This network deployment for Industry 4.0 at Nokia’s Chennai factory that can be scaled to 5G demonstrates our preparedness to take advantage of new opportunities that will emerge with 5G and IoT in India.”

  • StarHub pursuing network sharing to cut costs

    StarHub pursuing network sharing to cut costs

    Singapore’s StarHub has revealed it is pursuing network sharing arrangements to further cut costs, after announcing a planned 12% reduction in the operator’s workforce.

    The operator could reach a commercial network sharing agreement shortly and be reaping financial benefits by the end of next year, the company’s CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos.

    The company’s new CEO, who took his position in July, said sharing of facilities is a necessity once an industry hits maturity.

    StarHub and smaller rival M1 have already indicated that they are evaluating further collaboration on mobile infrastructure sharing to reduce costs.

    Earlier this month, StarHub announced it will cut 300 jobs as part of cost reduction efforts aimed at saving S$210 million ($152.3 million) over the next three calendar years.

    According to the report, Kaliaropoulos believes StarHub needs to be leaner and more agile and focus its resources on growth areas such as its enterprise business.

    The company is under particular pressure due to the recent entry of Australia’s TPG as Singapore’s fourth mobile operator. Kaliaropoulos warned that the Singapore market may not be large enough to sustain four mobile operators, hinting that the smallest player may find it difficult to survive.

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  • SISCC taps XSite Modular for subsea cable landing stations

    SISCC taps XSite Modular for subsea cable landing stations

    Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company Limited (SISCC) has contracted prefabrication consultant and critical infrastructure building design builder XSite Modular to build four modular cable landing stations in the Pacific nation.

    The new cable landing stations will be deployed in Honiara, Auki, Noro, and Taro, and will form part of the Solomon Islands’ planned new subsea cable network infrastructure.

    This network will include the Coral Sea Cable System, a 4,000km cable system linking the Solomon Islands with Papua New Guinea and Australia. The network is being funded by the Australian government and will be operated by Australia’s Vocus Group. It will be the first subsea cable to directly reach the Solomon Islands.

    In addition, the 730km Solomon Islands Domestic Network (SIDN) will connect Taro, Noro and Auki with SISCC’s international hub in Honiara. This cable is also being funded by the Australian government as part of its development assistance program.

    SISCC has agreed to provide the landing party infrastructure for the two cable projects as part of the agreements between the Australian, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea governments.

    “XSite’s modular approach made design and construction of the structures easily customizable and able to meet both the strict delivery and budget demands of this ambitious project,” SISCC CEO Keir Preedy said.

    “Most crucially, XSite provides best-in-class and proven building techniques that offer the safety and reliability guarantees that are simply without compromise. We’re pleased to have them as our partner in developing and implementing this critical infrastructure for the Solomon Islands.”

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  • Zong 4G Continues The Momentum of F-16

    Zong 4G Continues The Momentum of F-16

    Pakistan’s No. 1 Data Network, Zong 4G has risen to earn the distinguished title of being the “F-16 of Pakistan” on account of its fastest 4G speed and matchless connectivity. The genesis of the F-16 lies in its unmatched speed, precision and accuracy and so are the underlying features of Zong’s 4G network that offers blazing speed at the same reliability level of F-16 to more than 8 million subscribers. With the manoeuvrability like F-16, Zong 4G is enabling people to reach new heights and accelerating the tech-empowered young people to adopt digital lifestyle on the go.

    In telecommunication arena, network coverage outreach and speed are two key characteristics for being a market leader, particularly in 4G domain. Zong 4G is equipped with both these attributes; it is the largest 4G operator in Pakistan having widest network coverage ensuring seamless data connectivity.

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  • Docomo invests in semiconductor startup QD Laser

    Docomo invests in semiconductor startup QD Laser

    Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo, through its subsidiary NTT Docomo Ventures, has invested in QD Laser for an undisclosed amount.

    QD Laser – which was founded in 2006 as an offshoot of Fujitsu Ltd with funding from Mitsui Ventures – develops and manufactures semiconductor lasers, retinal scanning laser eyewear, and other products based on quantum dot laser technology.

    By leveraging its nanocrystal technology, the Kanagawa-based firm achieved mass production of quantum dot lasers capable of operating stably even at high temperature.

    In 2018, QD Laser applied its technology to incorporate a compact laser projector with extremely small output into a spectacle-type device, and commercialized what was claimed to be the world’s first retinal scanning laser eyewear that directly projects an image onto the user’s retina for image display.

    The technology for projecting a direct image onto the retina using a laser does not require the user to focus their eyes to see an image, so it is expected to improve the quality of life of patients with ametropia or corneal opacity and weak-sighted individuals.

    The technology can also be applied for realizing natural-looking augmented reality (AR) that people with normal vision can experience.

    Docomo said it has high expectations for potentials of the retinal scanning laser eyewear developed by QD Laser for resolving various social issues and contribute to creating new services through AR.

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  • SKT, Samsung complete 5G NSA call

    SKT, Samsung complete 5G NSA call

    SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics have completed a 5G call using 3GPP non-standalone new radio standards and commercial 5G new radio equipment. The trial at SK Telecom’s 5G testbed at its Bundang office building used end-to-end solutions jointly developed by the two South Korean companies. It utilized 100MHz of 3.5-GHz 5G spectrum and 5G NR, LTE radio and 5G non-standalone core infrastructure.

    The 5G non-standalone new radio architecture has been designed to allow 5G to be supported by legacy LTE infrastructure, allowing mobile devices to be connected to both 4G and 5G for data traffic, and to use the 4G network for non-data traffic  such as exchanging signals for mobility controls.

    This configuration is expected to be one of the promising 5G architectures for initial deployments.

    Sasmsung announced last month that it has secured a contract to deliver 5G equipment including core and RAN technologies for SK Telecom’s 5G deployments, which will commence later this year.

    The companies have been collaborating on 5G development since 2014, and jointly completed the first successful interworking of LTE and 5G new radio utilizing both 3.5-GHz and 28-GHz spectrum during a trial last year.

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