Nokia and Ooredoo Myanmar have announced completion of network rollout and launch of what they claim to be the first LTE (4G) service in Myanmar. The two companies have also extended their existing managed services agreement to incorporate the LTE network.
Network News
Hong Kong Broadband gets into mobile telephony
Fixed broadband network operator, Hong Kong Broadband Network has been granted a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) license by the Office of the Communications Authority. It has signed a MoU with China Mobile Hong Kong, and says it is in discussions with two other local mobile network operators, with a view to launching mobile services to both the residential and corporate markets. It expects to soft launch the service in August.
Indosat Ooredoo and Fortumo enable mobile payments
Indonesian mobile operator, Indosat Ooredoo '” a subsidiary of Qatar based Ooredoo '” and mobile payments company Fortumo have formed a partnership to enable Indosat Ooredoo subscribers to charge purchases to their pre or postpaid mobile account, without the need to use a credit card.
US Government pledges $400m for 5G development
The US Government has taken a significant step to securing the nation's leadership in the rapidly developing 5G mobile industry, announcing of a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative led by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enable the deployment and use of four city-scale testing platforms for advanced wireless research over the next decade.
Telstra bumps up capex by $A1b per year for three years
Australian carrier Telstra has announced plans to increase capital investment by $A3 billion ($US2.3) over the next three years with the investment going into its network, digitization and customer experiences.
Ericsson teams with China's Inspur for infrastructure, TV/media and IoT
Ericsson has signed a MoU with Chinese data center equipment manufacturer, Inspur Group, to collaborate on cloud infrastructure, TV and media and IoT.
Crowd-funded LoRaWAN IoT network extended to China
The Things Network, a Netherlands-based crowd-funded initiative to create open access LoRaWAN IoT networks around the world has been extended to China, and rival LP WAN technology, Sigfox is launching in Taiwan.
Fujitsu and Oracle team to take Japanese companies to the cloud
Fujitsu and Oracle have formed an alliance to help organizations in Japan, and their subsidiaries around the world, move their enterprise workloads to the cloud.
Sigfox leverages Taiwan for global IoT network expansion
Sigfox, the French company promoting a proprietary low powered wide area network technology for IoT, has announced the launch of a network in Taiwan along with an IoT test bed, saying the move will help its global expansion plans.
Grameenphone 3G reaches 90 percent of Bangladeshis
Bangladesh mobile network operator, Grameenphone, says it has completed the installation of 10,000 3G cell sites and now provides 3G cellular coverage to 90 percent of the population.