Telecom Review Asia hosted a webinar titled ‘Artificial Intelligence: Asia’s Engine for Growth’ on March 26, 2025, bringing together industry leaders to explore artificial intelligence’s (AI) transformative influence on the telecom sector. The session spotlighted AI’s role in reshaping business models, featuring insights into AI-driven innovations, business opportunities, regulatory challenges, and real-world applications.
SoftBank Corp., a member of the E2A Consortium, will begin constructing a new submarine cable system called E2A. This system will connect Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States.
Vietnam has granted SpaceX approval to trial its Starlink satellite internet service in the country. The trial period will run until the end of 2030 with no restrictions on foreign ownership; however, the project must comply with national defense and security regulations.
Early findings show that global telecom equipment revenues in six categories tracked by Dell'Oro Group—broadband access, microwave and optical transport, mobile core network (MCN), radio access network (RAN), and service provider (SP) router and switch—dropped by 11% in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) and Sinar Mas jointly announced that shareholders of PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata), PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk (Smartfren), and PT Smart Telcom (SmartTel) have officially approved the merger of the three companies.
Microsoft is set to launch its first cloud region in Malaysia by mid-year, featuring three data centers in the greater Kuala Lumpur area.
The increasing use of 5G services in Singapore is expected to boost revenue and innovation in the telecom industry, offsetting the decline in mobile voice service revenue. By the end of 2029, the total mobile service revenue in the country is projected to reach USD 2 billion, growing at a steady compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.8% from 2024 to 2029, according to GlobalData.
Thailand has approved investments totaling THB 90.9 billion (USD 2.7 billion) in data centers and cloud services, according to the country's investment board, to support the growing technology sector in Thailand.
The total revenue from mobile services in Australia is expected to grow at a rate of 3.4% annually, increasing from USD 9.6 billion in 2024 to USD 11.3 billion in 2029.
Enterprises are seeing a growing cloud ecosystem that now includes telecoms and networking providers offering application programming interface (API) services, container integration/consulting, and artificial intelligence (AI) network integrations.
