Retail News CRM

Tag: broadband

  • Undersea internet cable out of action for another three weeks in Vietnam

    Undersea internet cable out of action for another three weeks in Vietnam

    Repair work on the broken international cable won’t start until July 3 and will take at least 10 days to complete. International internet connections in Vietnam are likely to remain slow for another three weeks with repair work to a major internet cable which broke off central Vietnam last week expected to take until July 14, a service provider said.

    The source told us that repair work on the Asia Pacific Gateway won’t start until July 3 and is expected to take 10 days. The cable should be fully reconnected by July 14, depending on the extent of the problem, said the representative.

    The cable snapped on Tuesday afternoon about 125 kilometers off the coast of Da Nang.

    Service providers such as Viettel and VNPT said they have prepared contingency routes to minimize downtime.

    No announcement on the cause of the problem has been made.

    The cable was officially launched on January 3, but was quickly hit by a technical problem that took two weeks to fix.

    The cable cost $450 million and has a capacity of more than 54 Tbps, promising to double internet speeds in Vietnam and ease reliance on the notorious Asia America Gateway, which has ruptured or been shut down for maintenance on numerous occasions since 2011.

    The new system took four years to build, and links Japan with Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Nearly 49 million people in Vietnam, or more than half of the country’s population, are online.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Australia plans to mandate 25Mbps broadband speeds

    Australia plans to mandate 25Mbps broadband speeds

    The Australian government has introduced new legislation that would mandate the supply of broadband services with peak speeds of at least 25Mbps to all premises in the country.

    The proposed Telecommunications Reform Package would require that services provided over the in-construction National Broadband Network (NBN) – even the fixed-wireless and satellite services – would need to be capable of broadband speeds of at least 25Mbps downlink and 5Mbps uplink.

    A draft version of the reforms published last December excluded the fixed wireless and satellite components of the network from this obligation.

    The legislation would also introduce the government’s planned A$7.10 ($5.36) per connection Regional Broadband Scheme, a levy that operators will pay to nbn for each connection capable of download speeds of 25Mbps.

    The levy will be used to defray the expected A$9.8 billion in losses over 30 years that are expected to be accrued by the fixed wireless and satellite components of the network due to the shortage of customers.

    In a concession for smaller players, the first 25,000 connections serviced by a broadband provider will not be subject to the levy for the first five years.

    The new reform package will also mandate the delivery of voice capability over the nbn in fixed line and fixed wireless areas.

    The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)  has welcomed the consumer protection measures of the proposed legislation.
    “The legislation includes big wins for all consumers, especially for regional, rural and remote consumers,” ACCAN CEO Teresa Corbin said.

    “Broadband services are essential for consumers, yet currently, there is no requirement on nbn to connect and provide ongoing services to all premises. We are pleased that consumers can now be reassured that under the proposed legislation all premises must be able to access a broadband network capable of a minimum peak speed of 25Mbps download and 5Mbps upload.”

    But she said ACCAN will also be pushing to ensure that public phones will be provided where they are needed and consumers relying on satellite services have access to reliable telephony and broadband services.

    Lees ook:

  • Hong Kong ranked third worldwide for broadband speeds

    Hong Kong ranked third worldwide for broadband speeds

    Hong Kong has been ranked third worldwide for broadband download speeds, with HKBN named the market’s fastest provider, according to Speedtest results from Ookla.

    Between the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, Hong Kong achieved an average download speed of 142.65Mbps. This speed represents the experience of a typical consumer in the market.

    The fastest broadband speeds were recorded by subscribers to HKBN at 544.18Mbps, followed by Netvigator at 470.43Mbps, 3 Hong Kong at 290.17Mbps and i-Cable Communications at 141.5Mbps.

    Top upload speeds were meanwhile recorded at 544.07Mbps for HKBN, 460.63Mbps for Netvigator, 201.15Mbps for 3 Hong Kong and 27.89Mbps for i-Cable.

    To determine this metric, Speedtest compares the top 10% of each ISP’s speed results to provide an accurate view of their top-end performance.

    “We are proud to know that our outstanding network performance has been duly recognized by independent global leader Speedtest. Our top-notch fiber network, advanced facilities and round-the-clock network operation management ensures that our customers enjoy the best internet experience in this data hungry era,” HKBN CTO Gary McLaren said.

    “Currently, with about one-third of all households in Hong Kong connected to HKBN broadband, we look forward to bringing more top-value services to more people across Hong Kong.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Over 1m new mobile internet subs to be added daily

    Over 1m new mobile internet subs to be added daily

    The telecoms industry is on track to attract more than 1 million new mobile internet subscribers per day between now and 2022, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report.

    The report predicts that there will be 2.6 billion new mobile broadband subscribers added through 2022, with LTE set to become the dominant access technology in 2018, making it the fastest growing mobile technology in history.

    Ericsson noted that it has taken just five years for LTE to cover 2.5 billion people, compared to eight years for 3G. There were 250 million new LTE subscriptions added in the first quarter of 2017 alone.

    Total traffic over mobile networks meanwhile grew 70% over the 12 months ending in Q1 – the fastest year-on-year mobile data growth globally since 2013 – and is set to increase to eight times its current level by 2022, the report predicts. Recent growth has been driven by explosive increases in consumption in India.

    Global growth in demand for mobile data will also drive 5G deployment. The report predicts that there will be more than 500 million 5G subscriptions globally by 2022, not including IoT connections. By this time, 5G is expected to cover around 15% of the world’s population.

  • Qatar Airways taps Inmarsat for in-flight broadband

    Qatar Airways taps Inmarsat for in-flight broadband

    Qatar Airways has become the first major Middle East airline to select Inmarsat’s new GX Aviation in-flight broadband solution for in-flight broadband.

    The Inmarsat solution will initially be available to Qatar Airways passengers on board more than 130 aircraft, consisting of Airbus A350s and Boeing 777s.

    GX Aviation technology has already been equipped on Qatar Airways’ latest Airbus A350s. Installations on the airline’s remaining Airbus A350s, together with the Boeing 777s, will start on a retrofit basis from this summer.

    GX Aviation is touted as the world’s first in-flight connectivity solution with reliable, seamless high-speed global coverage provided through a single operator. Inmarsat says the service allows airline passengers to browse the internet, stream videos, check social media and more during flights, with an on-board connectivity experience “on par with broadband services available on the ground.”

    “Broadband transformation on the ground is already well advanced and we are able to transfer that into the very challenging in-flight environment, working with Qatar Airways to make connectivity a success,” said Leo Mondale, president of Inmarsat Aviation.

    “Our networks are engineered with multiple layers for redundancy and global coverage. Our design philosophy is to scale up capacity over time to fit the route systems of our airline customers and reflect the industry’s real needs.”

    The service will integrate with Qatar Airways’ in-flight entertainment system and ensure that connectivity initiatives, such as its passenger app and aircraft technology, will be strengthened using dependable in-flight broadband. GX Aviation also complements the airline’s latest passenger experience innovations.

    Qatar Airways will connect to the GX network using exclusive JetWave terminals produced by Inmarsat partner Honeywell Aerospace. The terminals are designed for ease of installation and maintenance to assure the lowest downtime for any cabin connectivity solution in the market.

    The selection of GX Aviation follows a separate announcement that Qatar Airways has activated an advanced new space-based system, supplied by Inmarsat, to track all of its flights across the world.

    Inmarsat worked exclusively with Qatar Airways to develop this solution, which uses Inmarsat’s satellite technology to provide the exact real-time location of the airline’s aircraft in latitude and longitude.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • AirAsia steps up broadband co-operation with Inmarsat

    AirAsia steps up broadband co-operation with Inmarsat

    AirAsia has signed a tentative deal with Inmarsat to provide broadband access on Airbus A320s and A330s through the satellite communications specialist’s GX Aviation service.

    The airline currently uses Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband service. It says the new service will provide improved broadband access with “reliable, seamless high-speed global coverage”.

    Passengers will be able to stream films, music and games through AirAsia‘s Rokki in-flight entertainment and connectivity platform, the carrier says. Installations are scheduled to begin in late 2017, with the service set to become available in 2018.

    At a media briefing during the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg today, AirAsia X chief executive Benyamin Ismail indicated that the system would initially be installed on the group’s A330s, with supplemental type certification for the widebody targeted for November. He adds that the new service will be rolled out “over time” across the entire fleet.

    Inmarsat Aviation president Leo Mondale says the partnership is of strategic importance and describes AirAsia as a “leading digital airline in Asia” as well as “one of the most important airlines in the world”.

    Lees ook:

  • UN calls for “new deal” on mobile broadband

    UN calls for “new deal” on mobile broadband

    The UN Broadband Commission has called for a “New Deal” involving fresh industry collaboration and public-private partnerships to help connect the 5 billion people who lack mobile broadband access.

    At the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development’s 2017 Spring Meeting in Hong Kong yesterday, participants debated the need for a new deal between all broadband stakeholders to work towards full global connectivity and digital transformation.

    Discussions had a particular emphasis on remote and rural areas – especially in the UN’s list of Least Developed Countries – which represent the biggest challenge for the industry.

    The Commission underlined the need to build an ecosystem with government, with all ministries and the private sector working together for more efficient investment and taxation, as well as issues associated with the cost of spectrum auctions in markets with the widest digital divides.

    “Our central conviction is that broadband and ICTs are critical if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” ITU secretary general and Broadband Commission co-vice chair Houlin Zhao said.

    “ICTs underpin vital achievements and modern services in many sectors, and governments and industry must increasingly work together to create the conditions so badly needed to facilitate the growth of broadband for sustainable development.”

    Lees ook:

  • APAC widens lead for average broadband speed

    APAC widens lead for average broadband speed

    Asia-Pacific further increased its lead in the fourth quarter in terms of the average bandwidth of residential broadband services, as well as the best value for money in terms of cost per megabit, according to Point Topic.

    The research firm said average bandwidth in the region jumped 28% year-on-year during the quarter to 419Mbps, well ahead of the global average of 118Mbps.

    Globally, the average monthly cost for residential broadband services declined by $2 to $98. Costs have been decreasing for several quarters. In APAC by comparison, the average monthly cost is roughly $50.

    The 118Mbps global average bandwidth provided to residential subscribers was up from 112Mbps in the previous quarter, in a result Point Topic attributes to the accelerated rollout of Docsis 3.1 cable networks capable of 1Gbps speeds.

    The global average price per Mbps accordingly fell to $0.83 by the end of the Q4, from $0.89 at the end of the previous quarter. The average cost per Mbps of a copper connection reached $7.07, compared to $0.58 for cable and $0.45 for fiber.

    Lees ook:

  • IMDA investigating Singtel broadband outage

    IMDA investigating Singtel broadband outage

    Singapore’s Infocomm and Media Development Authority (IMDA) is investigating Singtel over a recent nearly 24-hour broadband outage islandwide.

    Singtel announced the outage commenced at around 8:45am on Saturday and services were fully restored at 8:25am on Sunday, although some customers were still reporting connection problems.

    The operator said on social media that its engineers are still tracing the cause of the outage, which was associated with servers being unable to assign IP addresses to customers’ modems. TV, fixed phone and mobile services remained unaffected.

    Engineers have so far ruled out a DDoS attack, indicating that the company did not face a Mirai-linked attack of the kind that left a significant portion of customers of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom without services late last month.

    Singtel announced it will provide affected broadband customers with a 10% discount on their month’s bill, and the company will waive mobile data charges accrued over the weekend for its joint broadband and mobile subscribers.

    In a statement, the IMDA said the regulator takes service outages seriously and will be investigating both the cause of the incident and the service recovery measures taken by Singtel.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • VMware, Taiwan’s III join Broadband Forum

    VMware, Taiwan’s III join Broadband Forum

    VMware, Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III) and the USA’s Methode Electronics have become the latest members of the Broadband Forum.

    The latest additions highlight recent developments within the Broadband Forum to address the constantly changing technological landscape and increase the focus of its work.

    The industry body is also working to collaborate more with open source communities and increase the amount of work it does in the software space.

    VMware, III and Methode Electronics will complement this, with all three companies having backgrounds in virtualization, electronics and R&D.

    The new members are already playing an active part in the Forum, with representatives attending the Forum’s most recent Quarterly Meeting, held in Berlin. Moving forward, they will continue to play a full role in activities and Working Groups.

    III believes its membership will enhance the prosperous development of industries and incubate new industries, as well as promote links between local industries and the rest of the world.

    “Actively participating with an international organization like the Broadband Forum is just the beginning for III,” commented Dr Ko-Yang Wang, director general of the III’s Industry Development Augmentation Division (IDAD).

    “Looking into the future, III fully supports the Forum’s new Broadband 20/20 vision and we are fully confident that its realization will be the next big thing for broadband.”

    The developments in Berlin – including the publication of the landmark Network Enhanced Residential Gateway (NERG) Virtualization Technical Report (TR-317), the first finished project in the Forum’s NFV realm – followed on from the Forum’s Special Meeting in Atlanta, where Service Providers gave their views and visions on how the network needs to develop.

    “We’re delighted to welcome VMware, III and Methode Electronics into the Broadband Forum family,” Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said.

    “Our recent meetings have illustrated our ability to keep up with the rapid pace of change within the industry and work together to create a faster and highly relevant Broadband Forum. Welcoming exciting, progressive new members such as these three companies means that we will continue to be the voice of broadband for the industry.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Taiwan’s TBC rolls out new digitized TV platform

    Taiwan’s TBC rolls out new digitized TV platform

    Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC), a multi-system cable operator in Taiwan, has rolled out a newly digitized platform powered by OpenTV 5.

    NAGRA has been a key partner in TBC’s ongoing digitization efforts providing the operator with both OpenTV 5 advanced set-top box software and system integration services required to support a rapid transition to an all-digital platform and the fulfillment of regulatory requirements.

    As part of this effort, TBC shipped close to one million set-top boxes powered by the OpenTV 5 operating system, marking the largest deployment of OpenTV 5 in Asia.

    “We look forward to continued growth and maximizing customer satisfaction by delivering a new generation of high-quality services to our subscribers,” said Jimmy Chen, TBC’s CEO.

    “We congratulate TBC on their successful transition to an all-digital platform and for reaching a significant milestone in the delivery of advanced digital TV services in Taiwan,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, SVP for sales in Asia Pacific at NAGRA. “We look forward to supporting TBC as they continue to grow in a very dynamic market.”

    TBC deployed OpenTV 5 with minimal configuration and customization enabling the operator to transition existing services onto a new hybrid TV platform blending both linear and Internet TV services.

    OpenTV 5 is part of NAGRA’s MediaLive Suite, a set of innovative digital television solutions that provides secure, engaging and intuitive user experiences via a back-end that supports an all-screen connected home scenario. TBC selected NAGRA’s OpenTV 5 operating system in 2015.

    Lees ook:

  • India’s Trai sets 512kbps broadband speed minimum

    India’s Trai sets 512kbps broadband speed minimum

    The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has instructed the market’s fixed line operators to guarantee a minimum download speed of 512kbps at all times.

    In a new directive, Trai set the minimum required speed to be considered broadband at 512kbs and ordered the nation’s operators not to reduce their speeds below this even when throttling customers for excess data use.

    ISPs as well as mobile broadband subscribers have also been told to provide information on data usage limits, connection speeds and capped speeds in any advertisements published in any media covering broadband plans.

    New and existing subscribers must also be informed of this information over email or SMS.

    Finally, operators will need to provide alerts to customers via these channels when their data usage reaches 50%, 90% and 100% of their allocation, and to maintain a portal or website to allow users to access their usage at any time.

    Operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Sistema Shyam Teleservices had urged the regulator to allow throttling to speeds of just 64kbps to prevent misuse of fixed broadband services. With the directive this request has now been rebuffed.

    But on the other hand, the government had previously considered setting 2Mbps rather than 512kbps as the minimum speed.

    Lees ook:

  • HKBN Mobile launches Greater China 4G plans

    HKBN Mobile launches Greater China 4G plans

    Hong Kong Broadband Network’s new Mobile Services MVNO division has launched a line of Greater China 4G plans for corporate customers who frequently travel between mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

    The new mobile plans include data allocations shareable across the four markets via a single SIM. HKBN is using China Mobile Hong Kong’s 4G network to provide the service.

    HKBN secured an MVNO a license in July, and launched mobile services in September, introducing a range of consumer plans including a HK$446 ($57.50) unlimited 4G service.

    The new corporate 4G plans range from HK$198 for 1GB of data shareable across the four markets to HK$448 for 10GB of data.

    Each plan comes with unlimited voice calls and SMS, as well as free call management value added services during the contract period and free use of the MobileOffice Plus app, which allows smartphone users to remotely make and receive calls from their designated business number from anywhere.

    “With increasing business travelling between Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, cross-border data services are in high demand,” HKBN chief commercial officer for enterprise solutions Billy Yeung said.

    “By partnering with CMHK, we are best positioned to offer our customers high-value and cost-effective Greater China service plans.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • New Zealand to extend rural broadband initiative

    New Zealand to extend rural broadband initiative

    The New Zealand government has allocated a further NZ$150 million ($107.1 million) towards improving broadband connectivity in rural areas.

    The government has announced the next phase of the rural broadband initiative (RBI), a project to boost broadband coverage and speeds in the 25% of the population not due to be covered by the concurrent Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) project.

    Under the second phase of the RBI program, improved broadband will be delivered to communities unable to access broadband speeds of at least 20Mbps. The first phase of the program improved speeds for around 293,000 rural users.

    In addition, the government’s mobile black spot fund (MBSF) will improve the availability of mobile services in areas lacking coverage, including state highways and tourist areas.

    There are more than 200 blackspots listed in the government’s request for proposals, but not all locations will received coverage.

    “My aim is to provide high-speed broadband to the greatest number of under-served rural New Zealanders within the funding available, and give regional communities access to high-speed broadband. We also want to improve the reach of mobile services to support safety on State Highways and enhance the visitor experience for tourists,” communications minister Amy Adams said.

    “We’ve set an ambitious goal of ensuring that by 2025, 99% of New Zealanders will have access to broadband peak speeds of at least 50Mbps, and everyone will have at least 10Mbps. We’re interested in seeing how proposals for delivering coverage under the RBI2 and MBSF programmes show an upgrade path in line with this vision.”

    Lees ook:

  • DDoS attacks caused StarHub broadband outages

    DDoS attacks caused StarHub broadband outages

    Singapore’s StarHub has blamed DDoS attacks originating from its customers’ own infected devices for two broadband outages over the past few days.

    At a press conference yesterday, StarHub announced the latest findings of an investigation into the outages on October 22 and 24.

    Both outages lasted for around two hours, leaving many home broadband customers unable to surf the web due to a spike in DNS traffic originating from infected machines.

    Because the traffic originated from StarHub’s own subscribers, it appeared legitimate. But when the attack was detected, StarHub manually filtered out the traffic from the infected devices to restore services for its other customers.

    StarHub announced it plans to send technicians to help customers clean up any infected devices at their homes.

    Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency and the Infocomm Media Development Authority have urged operators to strengthen their defense against DDoS attacks, and noted that this marks the first time Singapore has experienced such and attack on its network infrastructure.

    Darktrace managing director for APAC Sanjay Aurora said operators and ISPs are likely to find themselves increasing targets of attack.

    “The core infrastructure of telecommunications companies is a very desirable target for cybercriminals [but] gaining access is extremely difficult and requires deep expertise in specialist architecture,” he said.

    “What ISPs should be wary of, is the possibility of similar DNS amplification attacks on a more regular basis, given that they require relatively little skill and effort but can cause a large amount of damage. This makes them increasingly popular among hackers.”

    He said DNS-based DDoS attacks can impact networks by saturating bandwidth with malicious traffic, while also increasing volumes of support calls and negatively impacting  the customer experience and ultimately revenue.

    Aurora added that there is a possibility that the DDoS attack was caused by Mirai, the IoT botnet responsible for the recent DDoS attack against US-based DNS service provider Dyn. This attack used infected IoT devices.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook: