Qualcomm, Meizu resolve patent disputes

Qualcomm and Meizu Technology Company have reached a patent license agreement under which Qualcomm grants Meizu a worldwide royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture and sell CDMA2000, WCDMA and 4G LTE (including "3-mode" GSM, TD-SCDMA and LTE-TDD) complete devices. The royalties payable by Meizu in China are consistent with the terms of the rectification plan submitted by Qualcomm to China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

This agreement resolves all of the patent disputes between Qualcomm and Meizu in China, Germany, France, and the US. Qualcomm and Meizu have agreed to take appropriate steps to terminate or withdraw the patent infringement litigations and respective invalidity proceedings or other related litigations.

"Meizu has offered exciting and innovative products for its fans in the last thirteen years," said Bai Yongxiang, President, Meizu. "Today, we are focusing on our vision with better clarity, and striving to become the top designer brand for high tech products. For this goal, we are determined to remove all obstacles, focus on products and focus on the future. It was a nice coincidence we are able to at this juncture push forward with the equal and fair negotiation with Qualcomm. We are confident this cooperation with Qualcomm will add tremendous value to our user, channels, shareholders and employees."

"Qualcomm is pleased to sign this license agreement with Meizu and to help enhance Meizu's product line and generate strong growth for the company, both in China and globally," said Alex Rogers, Executive VP and President, Qualcomm Technology Licensing. "Qualcomm's standardised technologies are enabling companies to build new products and services across the wireless ecosystem and are transforming people's lives."

posted from Bloggeroid

Singapore Computer Society's Best Tech Company to Work For Award calls for nominations

The Best Tech Company to Work For Award, organised by the Singapore Computer Society and supported by IMDA, WSG and e2i, recognises tech companies that have robust talent development, an enviable corporate culture and innovation excellence.

Eligible companies include those making or offering technological products, solutions and services; as well as those leveraging on technology as their core capabilities in delivering their products, solutions and services.

The Award comprises three categories:

· Large organisations/ multinational corporations (MNCs)
· Mid-sized organisations - 50 to 200 staff
· Startups/ small organisations - defined as those which have been incorporated for five years or fewer, or which have fewer than 50 staff

With this initiative, the Singapore Computer Society aims to honour the best infocomm and media workplaces to join and grow with; inculcate a strong people culture across the industry, as well as advocate the professional and career development of infocomm and media professionals. The association also hopes to encourage innovation as a key enabler for business growth.

Interested?

A winning organisation will be identified for each category. A list of Top Ten organisations will also be identified across the three categories. Nominations for the Best Tech Company to Work For Award 2017 are open till 13 January 2017

Read the award criteria

StarHub makes mobile data roaming easier

StarHub is offering a fuss-free way for its Mobile postpaid customers to roam with a Mobile DataTravel plan that was introduced in early December.

For a flat fee of S$15, with no additional monthly subscriptions or activation fees, StarHub is giving customers 2GB of data that can be used for 30 days within a single country or across multiple destinations. A 3GB DataTravel plan is available for S$5 more.

DataTravel also does away with the need for users to manually search for or lock their phones to a specific preferred mobile network as is normally required for roaming plans. StarHub says it is the only Singapore telco to offer this advantage. Customers will also receive SMS notifications before their DataTravel plan expires or depletes.

Initial or additional 2GB or 3GB DataTravel plans can be activated wherever the customers are. With each additional activation, any unused data will be carried forward for another 30 days of use. If the data has been fully utilised, excess data usage will be charged based on prevailing DataTravel Unlimited or RoamEasy Plans which the customer has subscribed to.

“Our DataTravel customers will be able to enjoy doing what they have come to love on their phones simply and affordably, with a data plan that can be brought across multiple borders and mobile networks. With DataTravel, we are happy to free our customers from the common constraints of overseas data usage, that are cost and accessibility," said Wang Li-Na, Head of Product & Marketing, StarHub.

Interested?

StarHub Mobile postpaid customers can SMS DT2 or DT3 to 6818 to instantly add a 2GB or 3GB DataTravel plan, even while they are overseas. They can also buy DataTravel by dialling the toll-free number *100# at any time.

Supported destinations include Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. More destinations will be supported in the coming months.

Payroll Services Alliance goes global

Australia-headquartered Ascender, a payroll provider in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, has joined the Payroll Services Alliance. The alliance, established by SD Worx and Aditro in 2010 to gather leading payroll companies with the aim of offering consistent multinational solutions, has become global with the addition of Ascender, which offers integrated, multinational payroll solutions.

"By adding Asia, Australia and the Middle East to the Payroll Services Alliance reach, we strengthen the position of the Alliance in the global payroll market and challenge our competition. Most importantly, we offer our clients the best of both worlds: global governance with local expertise, with a consistent level of services across countries," says Steven Van Hoorebeke, CEO of the SD Worx Group and cofounder of the Payroll Services Alliance. 

With Ascender joining the partnership, the Payroll Services Alliance has a strong leadership presence in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Payroll BPO Services. Ascender, SD Worx and Ceridian are all positioned in the top quadrant, representing three of the five leaders in this analysis. 

The Ascenders cloud-based platform enables the company to tackle very large, complex clients that require process re-engineering, process standardisation and automation, and extended payroll solutions. Ascender also offers learning solutions to their clients, focusing on new methods such as adaptive learning and gamification. The company is a leader in online learning in Australia.

Rishabh Mehrotra, CEO of Ascender added, "We are excited to be part of the Payroll Services Alliance as we continue to scale our business to be the leading payroll provider in Asia Pacific. We see a lot of opportunity to deliver increased value to our clients through this alliance of regional experts, which is disrupting the typical force-fit model that can be experienced from many global payroll providers."

The Payroll Services Alliance now services 130,000 clients with over 32 million employees via Ascender (Asia-Pacific and Middle East region), Aditro (Northern Europe); Ceridian (US, Canada); Elanor (Central and Eastern Europe); F2A (Italy); SD Worx (Western Europe); Seresco (Southern Europe); and Trianon (Switzerland). The Payroll Services Alliance also delivers services in Africa and Latin America through a network of subcontractors.

Internet TV service iflix to leverage Adobe Marketing Cloud for enhanced customer experiences

Adobe, in conjunction with iflix, the Internet TV service for emerging markets, have partnered for the long term. Over the next few years, the agreement will see the rollout of Adobe Marketing Cloud, comprising a suite of analytics, campaign management and audience optimisation solutions, as iflix continues its expansion globally.

Founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2014, iflix is Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing Internet TV service, offering content from over 160 of the world’s top studios and distributors. Adobe’s solutions will enable iflix to offer customers an unparallelled experience in mobile video-on-demand (VOD) consumption. The scalability offered by Adobe will be a huge advantage to iflix as it continues to cement its leadership in the emerging markets.

Adobe Marketing Cloud will help iflix gain a deeper understanding of their customers, enabling the marketing team to effectively design, plan, execute, manage and optimise cross-channel marketing campaigns that will deliver an exceptional customer experience. The implementation involves Adobe’s data-driven solutions – Adobe Analytics for deeper, real-time insights into customer interactions via iflix’s web, mobile apps and video platforms, Adobe Audience Manager for a better understanding of each subscriber’s preferences, as well as Adobe Media Optimizer for a clear overview of campaign performance. Adobe Campaign rounds off the suite, enabling the iflix team to generate loyalty with highly targeted customer engagement.

David Goldstein, Head of Asia for iflix Group said, “Our aim is to create truly personalised experiences – whether it is suggesting shows in line with the programmes users already love or engaging them via email. Adobe’s technology gives us the capability to build unified customer profiles and to get to know our subscribers’ preferences. Ensuring that our users get recommendations that match their specific viewing preferences is absolutely critical. Adobe provides us all the important customer information in a single view, so we can effectively engage with customers in shorter turnaround times. With a world-class technology suite that offers stability and scalability unlike any other, we are confident that Adobe will be a steadfast partner in our endeavour to bring top-quality content to more consumers in Southeast Asia.”

VR Srivatsan, MD, Adobe Southeast Asia said, “Customers today expect great experiences, and being able to consistently deliver on that will set iflix apart from the rest in the market. Adobe is excited to be a strategic partner to iflix on their fast-moving expansion roadmap, and we are working closely with the iflix team to deliver the right customer experiences with the help of data and segmentation.”

“There is a generation shift in the way people consume content on their mobile devices today. Both iflix and Adobe understand the need to address this transformation by providing rich, relevant and personalised experiences on every device, and yet be able to consolidate data from these fragmented journeys into a complete, single view. Adobe will provide the pivotal tools and support to accelerate iflix’s dynamic growth in years to come,” added Manzar Imam, Adobe Senior Account Executive for iflix.

Interested?

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post on iflix's partnership with Celcom Axiata

Volvo cars to support Skype for Business

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, will introduce Skype for Business, Microsoft's collaborative productivity app, to its new 90 Series cars. Volvo Cars is the first carmaker to launch such an in-car productivity tool.

"We've all been there. Sitting in the car trying to join a conference call. You either fumble with or drop your phone while trying to connect or you forget the long pin code to join. It's not the best way to start an important call in the car. On top of all that your attention is not where it should be - on the road. With the addition of Skype for Business all that goes away," said Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, VP, Consumer Connectivity Services at Volvo Car Group.

Skype for Business is actively used by millions of people at work around the globe. In Volvo's 90 Series cars people will be able to view their upcoming meetings and participant details, and join meetings with one click via the large centre display.

"Skype for Business represents another big step forward for our in-car connectivity and communication offer. With the dawn of autonomous cars we see a future where flexible in-car productivity tools will enable people to reduce time spent in the office. This is just the beginning of a completely new way of looking at how we spend time in the car," said Tylman-Mikiewicz.

Volvo Cars' approach to the application of technology in their cars is grounded in the desire to make their customers' lives easier and safer by using the latest relevant technology in a smart way.

Volvo's partnership with Microsoft also includes the exploration of using Cortana, Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant, with the intention of adding seamless voice recognition and contextual insights to support peoples' lives.

"Volvo Cars is leading the way in its recognition that the nature of work is increasingly mobile. People need to be productive from anywhere - including their cars," said Ben Canning, Director of Product Management for Skype for Business at Microsoft. "We're thrilled to extend modern meetings to Volvo cars."

Working together with Microsoft and Ericsson, which provide cloud-based solutions for Volvo Cars, the Swedish car company intends to develop and provide more services and features for its customer base.

"In-car communication is something that we have worked with for years at Volvo. From the built-in handsets of the 1980s and early 90s through to our standard Bluetooth handsfree functionality, we have understood the importance of making life easier for people on the move while keeping a firm focus on safety and minimising driver distraction," added Tylman-Mikiewicz.

posted from Bloggeroid

Asian entrepreneurs share their predictions for 2017

Operating in markets with booming startup scenes, Telenor Group has surveyed technology buffs to better understand key startup trends for 2017 and the challenges and views of entrepreneurs in Asia. The survey was conducted over Facebook and LinkedIn with 215 respondents aged 15 to over 55 years old from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries*.

Said Johanna Staaf, Director of New Ventures, Telenor Group, “We wanted to further enhance our understanding by reaching out to Asia’s budding entrepreneurs; what gets them out of bed in the morning, what are their focus areas, and where we might see some exciting new disruptors in the next year.”

Robotics to take centrestage in 2017

Respondents were asked to share their views on the development of the 2017 Asia startup landscape and which sectors would be the most ready for disruption in 2017. Nearly half of all respondents chose robotics as the sector most ready for disruption in 2017. With the number of industrial robots deployed worldwide to increase to around 2.6 million units by 2019** and automation becoming increasingly important across industries, robotics would indeed be a priority focus for businesses in 2017.

A distant second, 20% of respondents chose consumer banking, 14% believe that healthcare will experience the most disruption in 2017, 12% see real estate as ripe for disruption, while 9% predict that the air travel industry will experience disruption in 2017.

Will 2017 be the year of the self-driving car?

On the technology front, autonomous vehicles were crowned as the most disruptive technology of 2016 by about 40% of respondents, with nearly the same amount (37%) picking it as 2017’s most likely disruptive tech trend. With Asia leading the world in the race towards fully autonomous vehicles by setting milestones like the launch of the world’s first self-driving taxis in Singapore this August, 2017 might just be the year we see self-driving cars becoming the norm.

The most disruptive technologies of 2016

Ranking	Technology	Percentage of respondents	Key developments in 2016
1	Autonomous vehicles	40%	World’s first self-driving taxi, from Nutonomy, debuts in Singapore in August 2016
2	Fintech	23%	More has been invested in fintech than in Europe and the US combined
3	Augmented reality	20%	Pokémon Go brought augmented reality to the attention of the whole world, setting a record for 50 million downloads on Android in the first 19 days of its release, says Sensor Tower. Watch live statistics
4	Virtual reality	9%	The launch in 2016 of consumer-ready hardware (HTC Vive, Sony VR and upgraded Oculus Rift) and applications that finally enabled users to leverage the full scope of virtual reality brought VR into the mainstream.
5	Medtech	8%	The Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed) was named Official Liaison member of the Asian Harmonization Working Party (AHWP), and will represent medtech companies and startups in promoting the harmonisation of medical device regulations in Asia.

 

Most disruptive technology of 2017

Ranking	Technology	Percentage of respondents	Why it’s hot
1	Autonomous vehicles	37%	Major partnerships and investments continue to emerge with the latest being Samsung Electronics’ acquisition of car tech company Harman while Japan's Robot Taxi has been testing its driverless vehicles
2	Connected devices	19%	IoT spending in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region will reach US$79 billion by 2020, Frost & Sullivan predicts
3	Enterprise mobile apps	19%	Strategy Analytics says the enterprise mobile app market will reach almost US$74 billion in 2016 and grow to US$128 billion by 2022, driven by the increasing mobile workforce (1.45 billion in 2016 to 1.87 billion in 2022)
#4	New services and applications using Bitcoinsand Blockchain	13%	Banks and governments across Asia are exploring Blockchain applications including the region’s first country-wide pilot in Singapore, and ICICI Bank executing India’s first Blockchain transaction.
#5	Mobile medical tech	12%	The APAC medtech market is expected to rise to from about US$88 billion in 2015 to US$133 billion in 2020, says McKinsey.

Each respondent was also categorised by the type of startup they were most likely to create in 2017, based on their responses. A third (38%) of respondents were found to be the most likely to create an IoT startup in 2017, significantly outnumbering the number who would establish medtech startups (22%), on-demand startups (14%), enterprise startups (11%) and fintech startups (10%).

In addition to these 2017 startup trend insights, the survey findings also hint at what Asian entrepreneurs think it takes to succeed in the tough startup world. More than a third of respondents (36%) believe that cybersecurity and data privacy is their number one priority, and keeping their customers’ data safe and secure is the biggest challenge facing Asian startups. One in four also admitted that the lack of business management skills and experience is another major obstacle, and having access to expert guidance would be an important growth factor. Another 16% say they are hampered by public policy frameworks and environments that are not conducive to startups, while 14% say that sustained funding across all stages of startup development would be important. Fewer than one in 10 were seen as were concerned with the challenge of expanding into other markets in the region.

The survey also found that business growth and profit are not the only primary motivators, with 29.3% of respondents stating that helping others gives them a sense of worth and purpose. From a personal perspective, 35% said that they are most interested in augmented and virtual reality, followed closely by artificial intelligence (33%).

*The majority (62%) of respondents fell in the 18-to-34 year old category

**International Federation of Robotics

Taxis linked to booking, mapping systems in Dubai

Source: RTA. Cabs in Dubai are now linked to Dubai city via Makani.

The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)’s Public Transport Agency has completed linking 4,500 taxis from franchise companies operating under the RTA with the Dubai Municipality's Makani System. The system uses unique coordinates, or Makani numbers, to locate buildings.

The move is part of efforts to embody RTA’s initiatives to support the government of Dubai in the implementation of its directives to transform Dubai to the world’s smartest city, which deliver services to the public round-the-clock. This initiative also contributes to achieving one of RTA’s goals, Happiness for People.

Adel Shakri, Director of Transportation Systems, RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said: “Thanks to the sharp accuracy and the easy use of the Makani System as well as its 100% coverage of (the) Dubai Emirate, the system has played a vital role in executing booking and despatch orders by cab drivers. It has made it easy for clients to reach to their intended destinations in Dubai, thanks to its highly accurate positioning feature using interactive e-maps."

Benefits of the new arrangement include being able to make a taxi booking with a Makani number through a call to the Booking & Dispatch Center. The Booking & Dispatch Center can now communicate between the customer and the taxi, receiving booking requests and forwarding them to taxi drivers.

“This initiative brings back multiple benefits to RTA’s Booking & Dispatch System. It facilitates the dispatch of taxicabs to clients using Makani number, and eases the booking process for customers by just citing Makani number. It also reduces the number of complaints related to taxis and cab drivers such as the late arrival, and the poor knowledge of Dubai geographical zones on the part of drivers,” Shakri noted.

“The coverage of (the) Makani System of Dubai Municipality spans the entire Emirate of Dubai. About 137,000 addresses have been registered in the Booking & Dispatch System of taxis and 4,500 taxi cabs have been linked to the system. A number of employees of (the) Public Transport Agency have been trained on the interface of (the) Makani System with the smart taxi meter. They are being groomed to give further training and education to taxi drivers in Dubai Emirate.”

On 19 December, the RTA announced that the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) had signed an electronic partnership agreement with the Cartrawler Company for transporting passengers. Ireland-based Cartrawler is a specialist in passenger transport, serving more than 8 million clients in 147 countries.

The move is part of DTC’s plan to increase the productivity and expand the commercial reach of Dubai Taxi services worldwide. It will also contribute to realising RTA’s strategic goal Smooth Transport for All.

Dr Yousef Mohammed Al Ali, CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, said, “This agreement enables DTC to receive overseas bookings through the smart system of Cartrawler. Prepaid bookings can be made through the system of the company, which will be linked with the booking system of the DTC.

“The main objective of the agreement is to realise mutual benefits through charting out a model of global partnership to enhance the transit means and raise the global profile of DTC in serving a broad spectrum of visitors heading to Dubai. This project is part of a series of projects in support of the electronic and smart transformation at RTA with a view to generating added happiness to clients and residents of Dubai."

NetEase unveils gaming pipeline

NetEase, one of China's leading Internet and online game services providers, has shared its pipeline of PC-client and mobile games during the NetEase Games' 2016 Award Ceremony held on December 27, 2016 in Shanghai, China. The company unveiled 29 games during the event, including updates and expansion packs for popular PC-client and mobile games, as well as 14 new self-developed and licensed titles.

NetEase extended legacy titles such as Westward Journey, which has celebrated its 15th anniversary, with games like Fantasy Westward Journey, featuring new characters, new game play and augmented reality (AR) capabilities. Westward Journey: Rage, an action role playing game (ARPG) version, was also introduced, and an upgraded pocket version.

NetEase also announced plans to introduce new expansion packs in 2017 for games such as New Ghost to follow its December expansion pack, which was well received. Tianxia, Heroes of Tang Dynasty, Revelation and Invincible will be getting expansion packs, while Onmyoji is to be released internationally.

The event also highlighted the launch plans for self-developed mobile games including Land of Glory, which is expected to commence open beta testing on December 29, 2016. This epic real-time 3D mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) jointly developed by NetEase Studio F and NetEase's North America office.

NetEase is bringing games from PC to mobile, and vice versa. To extend the success of its PC-client games, NetEase is bringing its legacy PC title Demon Seals to mobile players on iOS on January 6, 2017.

NetEase will also continue to introduce new PC-client games in 2017 that augment its mobile lineup. The company is planning to bring the Minecraft PC version in conjunction with the mobile version release to Chinese audiences. Another PC-client game to look out for is Open Range, a romantic oriental fantasy.

NetEase is also looking into new channels. Twilight Pioneers is NetEase's first virtual reality (VR) title, which was developed based on Google's Daydream platform and released in November 2016.

Other new games discussed at the Award Ceremony included:

• Mist World: expected in the first quarter of 2017, this is a strategic adventure MMO mobile game developed for global audiences. 
• Eternal Frontier is a self-developed mobile RPG-shooting game set on a large alien planet. : It is expected in early 2017.  
• World of Tanks: Blitz is timed for Q217. This is a free-to-play mobile MMO action game, produced by Wargaming, the developer of World of Tanks. 
• Minecraft will begin open beta testing in 1H17.
• Chu Liu Xiang is a martial arts mobile game based on the best-selling martial arts novel series (楚留香系列) by Gu Long. In the books Chu robs the rich to help the poor.
• Index: a 3D anime, comics, games (ACG) Japanese-style RPG mobile game authorised and supervised by Kadokawa, and developed by NetEase Games.
• Apocalypse Alliance: expected in the first quarter of 2017, NetEase's first mobile team-play shooting game will feature a 2.5D overhead perspective and real-time multiplayer shooting action.
• Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy: a 3D-MMORPG mobile game adapted from the TV series under the same name, which will be launched along with the series in 2017.
• Twilight Spirits: a 3D lock-free PC-client action game with massive fighting scenes and a dodging and attacking philosophy.

Said William Ding, CEO and Director of NetEase: "We plan to continue introducing high-quality games throughout the year to thrill current users and attract new players to the enticing world of online games for PC and mobile devices."

Source: NetEase. Graphic for Onmyoji.

NetEase games have seen international success. The company recently revealed that its Onmyoji game had been named the Best Mobile Game 2016 by Facebook, sharing the accolade with Pokemon GO and Clash Royale. The Facebook Game of the Year rankings recognise games that made an impression on Facebook and the players.

Onmyoji features location-based services (LBS), enabling players to interact with others who are nearby. In addition, Onmyoji enlisted popular Japanese voice actors to dub the voices of game characters for a more immersive audio and gaming experience.

According to App Annie, Onmyoji was the highest grossing app worldwide in October. In December, Onmyojii was recognised as a 2016 Top Ten Game on China’s App Store. Onmyoji is also the highest selling app in Australia and New Zealand.

Alibaba Cloud targets Japanese market with services via SB Cloud

Source: Alibaba Cloud. Yu.

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, launched its services for the Japan market mid-December through a local data centre hosted by SB Cloud. The development means that Alibaba Cloud now has a physical presence in 14 economic centres around the world, including in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the US.

SB Cloud is a joint venture between SoftBank, the Japan-based telecom subsidiary of SoftBank Group, and Alibaba Group Holding. The Japanese data centre is part of Alibaba Cloud’s strategy to expand its global network coverage with new facilities also being opened in Germany, Australia and the UAE.

"The new data centre in Japan will enable us to better serve the needs of existing clients who are expanding globally and require scalable and secure cloud computing services. Our global network will enable customers to truly manage their IT infrastructure in different regions with one global account,” said Ethan Yu, VP of Alibaba Group and GM, Alibaba Cloud Global.

SB Cloud services highlights include:

 Virtual server services offered to Japanese users in a basic package at 1,200 yen per month.

 Near-immediate service delivery as the service goes live in as little as 60 seconds once the virtual server has been set up.

 Anti-DDoS security services are included in the package.

Since its launch, Alibaba Cloud’s technologies have enabled businesses globally, from startups to multinationals, to benefit from the improved operational and cost efficiency that cloud computing can provide. Alibaba Cloud offers a high performance cloud platform that is designed to distribute and handle large volumes of traffic and data for its enterprise customers. The platform recently handled a record peak order volume of 175,000 orders per second during Alibaba Group’s 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. 

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 offers long life version, five-year support option

Red Hat, the provider of open source solutions, has made Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 available. Based on the upstream OpenStack ‘Newton’ release, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution that helps to increase system-wide scalability, ease infrastructure management, and improve orchestration, while also enhancing network performance and platform security.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 delivers a cloud platform built on the enterprise-grade backbone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Integrated with Red Hat’s hardened OpenStack community code, Red Hat OpenStack Platform provides the agility to scale and more quickly meet customer demand without compromising availability, performance, or IT security requirements. Also included in Red Hat OpenStack Platform is Red Hat CloudForms, a hybrid cloud management and monitoring platform to oversee not only OpenStack infrastructure components but also the workloads running on a given OpenStack cloud. Additionally, 64 TBs of storage capacity is provided with Red Hat Ceph Storage.

New enhancements to Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 include:

+A more streamlined user experience driven by an easier-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) reduces the complexities of installation and management.

+Greater scalability through the introduction of customisable services and administration roles using Red Hat OpenStack Platform director. 

+Greater data assurance through new security-related enhancements, such as improved high availability (HA) for large scale deployments. Additionally, optional object storage encryption and ephemeral security tokens improve security measures.

+Improved performance for network-intensive workloads that is comparable to bare metal.

+A new “ready state” hardware certification programme, based on OpenStack Ironic. Dell EMC is the first Red Hat partner to be certified for Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 ready-state, with several more coming soon.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 also introduces distributed continuous integration (DCI) to key partners, such as Dell EMC, NEC, and Rackspace. This collaborative approach to testing can help partners more effectively prepare for new Red Hat OpenStack Platform releases, and provide customers with greater stability and higher quality cloud solutions that have been tested many times over with their uniquely integrated cloud system than previously offered

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 also introduces a new dual support lifecycle model, with optional support up to five years. This new model gives customers the option of standardising on a new 'Long Life' version of Red Hat OpenStack Platform, offering a three-year product lifecycle and an optional additional two years of extended lifecycle (ELS) support available for purchase. Customers can also choose to focus on consuming new feature functionality by using rolling upgrades to follow the latest releases of Red Hat OpenStack Platform every six months to one year. 

Long Life versions of Red Hat OpenStack Platform will be offered every third release, starting with Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10. Versions in between will include one year of lifecycle support.

Radhesh Balakrishnan, GM, OpenStack, Red Hat said, “In just a few short years, OpenStack has moved from simply being an ‘innovation’ for proofs-of-concept and research and development (R&D) testbeds to a foundation for mission-critical private cloud deployments, used by hundreds of enterprises and major telecommunication providers alike to power production operations. Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 drives the enterprise-readiness of OpenStack by delivering a stable, reliable and open foundation for cloud deployments, delivering new innovations like composable services and roles while retaining our commitment to enterprise stability, highlighted by our new Long Life support model.”

Lew Tucker, VP, Cloud CTO, Cisco added, “As one of Red Hat's most committed OpenStack partners, Cisco works closely with Red Hat and the community to drive industry-leading cloud technology platforms, better enabling our enterprise and service provider customers to gain the benefits of an open cloud computing platform. Based on the latest Newton OpenStack release, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 provides significant improvements in networking performance, stability, and scalability. We look forward to helping our customers to succeed on their journey to hybrid cloud.”

Jim Ganthier, Senior VP, Validated Solutions and High Performance Computing (HPC), Dell EMC Converged Platforms and Solution Division noted, “Dell EMC and Red Hat’s close engineering and collaboration efforts continue to help our joint customers to quickly deploy and manage OpenStack powered clouds. We are pleased to have worked closely with Red Hat to both refine and build the new distributed continuous integration partner testing process which accelerates both code testing, validation and the ability to deliver robust software to customers. Red Hat’s new OpenStack Platform 10 lifecycle model for support will also offer more subscription flexibility for mission-critical operations and strengthens our joint ability to support customers throughout the entire lifecycle of their OpenStack deployments.”

Kenji Kaneshige, Director of development department, Linux Development Division, Fujitsu commented, “Fujitsu and Red Hat have been working together over 10 years in open source software development and successfully supported mission critical/enterprise workloads. And now Fujitsu works hand-in-hand with Red Hat to drive several features needed by global enterprises in the upstream OpenStack project. We are so pleased to see the upstream development results delivering a more efficient and advanced cloud infrastructure-as-a-service through (the) Fujitsu Integrated System PRIMEFLEX Family.”

Bryan Thompson, GM, OpenStack Private Cloud, Rackspace said, "The developments included in Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 make it faster and easier for our customers and partners to adopt OpenStack. Forrester Research recently reported that more than half of all Fortune 100 companies use OpenStack, which means these deployments must be scalable, agile and intuitive. The new platform from Red Hat delivers improved performance capabilities and deeper integration with the latest Community projects and code. All of that, combined with support from Rackspace, means enterprise customers using Rackspace Private Cloud Powered by Red Hat will have even more confidence in OpenStack for their managed cloud needs."

Early access version of Sairento VR sparks interest on Steam

Source: Sairento VR website. Players become ninjas in the game.

Mixed Realms, Singapore has announced that the early access release of its first game on Steam, Sairento VR, garnered more than a thousand purchases and received a 98% positive rating, without marketing, within four days.

Fans have complimented Sairento VR for its unique game play and graphical style.  The mission-driven, first-person hybrid shooter and sword fighting virtual reality (VR) role-playing game set in a future Japan has players assume the role of a ninja. They can expect upgradeable weaponry and skills, intuitive controls, and mission-based levels.

"We wanted to treat players to an exhilarating and visceral VR experience, from being able to perform double jumps to taking down foes in a ballet of slow motion gunplay," said Chalit Noonchoo, Creator and Lead Developer of Sairento VR.

Aldric Chang, CEO of Mixed Realms said, "We are very heartened with the positive response we are getting from the international gaming community. We wanted to give players the epic experience of taking down enemies like they are the heroes of a movie. And I think we did it."

Interested?

Watch the video introducing Sairento VR

Download Sairento VR. Players can look forward to the full release version of the game complete with a storyline, more levels, more enemy types, improved graphics and game play around the third quarter of 2017.

SAP reveals what the Southeast Asian digital leadership is like

Nearly one-quarter of Southeast Asian businesses are digital leaders, a new study by SAP and Oxford Economics shows. This is higher than the global average of 16%;, according to the Leaders 2020 study.

This new class of high-performing companies is reporting stronger profit growth, higher employee engagement, and cultures that are more inclusive. The organisations have executives who communicate a company-wide digital strategy, keep management and worker skills up to date, and streamline organisational structure.

An analysis of Southeast Asian firms in the Leaders 2020 study also affirms the business benefits of diversity, showing a correlation between those who are leading in digital transformation and those who have a heightened understanding of the importance of diversity. Digital leaders around the world and Southeast Asian respondents are both more likely to recognise diversity’s positive impact on culture (66% and 62%, respectively), but only digital leaders are more likely to see the benefits in financial performance (37% globally against 25% in Southeast Asia).

Companies have become more diverse in Southeast Asia than in other regions over the past three years. Three-quarters of Southeast Asian respondents saw diversity improvements in the general workforce of their organisation, and 42% saw an increase in board and senior leadership, compared with 67% and 34% globally. However, less than 40% in Southeast Asia state that their company has effective diversity programmes in place, signalling more could be done, especially at the senior executive and corporate board levels.

The Leaders 2020 study also found that only 61% of Southeast Asian executives (55% globally) are making data-driven decisions, a key factor that makes a Digital Leader. Not surprisingly 62% of Southeast Asian executives (59% globally) feel that employees are equipped with the skills necessary to keep up with digital technology.

“A diverse workforce encourages bold, innovative ideas to flourish and in turn, presents insights which are only made possible through that diversity. It is of little coincidence that these two capabilities – leveraging data for decisions and maintaining a diverse workforce – both occur for high-performing organisations,” said Scott Russell, President and MD, SAP Southeast Asia.


Other findings for Southeast Asia included:

· Stronger financial performance: 76% of executives characterised as Digital Leaders report strong revenue and profit growth, compared to 60% of all other Southeast Asian executives.

· Satisfied and engaged employees: Effective digital leadership drives more than financial performance—it also creates healthier cultures. Nearly nine in 10 (87%) Digital Leaders have employees who are more satisfied, compared with just 51% for respondents in Southeast Asia. Three quarters of Digital Leaders also have employees who are more likely to stay in their jobs if given the chance to leave, as compared to 45% in the region.

· More mature talent strategies: Digital Leaders are more likely to invest in talent and have much more advanced strategies for talent recruitment, development and retention. For example, 56% of Digital Leaders mainly fill roles from within the company, as compared to just 33% for the rest of the region.

The study also found that Millennials are quickly occupying corporate leadership positions, as 22% of the executives in the Leaders 2020 study from Southeast Asia are classified as millennials, compared with 17% worldwide. Despite the higher percentage of young executives in the region, only 45% of Southeast Asian executives say leadership works with employees to develop their careers—an important step in cultivating Millennial talent. Young executives are more focused on diversity and its benefits, and they tend to come from companies that value diversity and take steps to build it.

“According to a PwC report Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace, Millennials will form 50% of the global workforce by 2020*. Listening to what young executives have to say may be a shortcut to digital leadership—as long as the experience of their older peers is not ignored in the process. Striking this balance requires generations to listen to each other. Generational diversity is as important as the other forms of workplace diversity. The Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials all bring varying perspectives to the table, which is crucial in sustaining a dynamic organisation. Our belief in working closely with the Millennial generation has resulted in having five unique generations, all working together at SAP to help our customers Run Simple,” Russell added.

“The pace of change in today’s digital economy shows no sign of slowing down, and organisations that do not continually update their approach to digital leadership risk falling behind. Technology continues to remain the key enabler to drive growth, promote innovation, enable transformation and level the playing field for companies of all sizes.”

Despite having a promising digital business landscape, leaders at these companies cannot rest on their laurels—survey results from the Leaders 2020 study indicate that these companies in the region are not devoting enough resources to developing future leadership, employee skills or employee engagement. The research identifies several areas where companies can improve their leadership skills—and their business performance:

· Communicate a company-wide digital vision – sharing a digital direction company-wide is demonstrative of a good leader.

· Continuously update executive and employee skill sets – a necessity to adopt new digital skills in the digital economy.

· Flatten the organisation – reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks.

· Emphasise diversity – cultivating a diverse workforce drives success in a global economy.

· Listen to young executives – as they form the key workforce of the future, their advice is essential for digital transformation.

Interested?

Learn more about the study and the prerequisites for digital leadership

Hitachi Sunway is Tata Communications' new ASEAN partner

Hitachi Sunway Information Systems  (Hitachi Sunway), a one-stop IT services and solutions provider in ASEAN, has partnered with Tata Communications, a provider of a new world of communications. With this partnership, Hitachi Sunway will be able to provide more than 1,000 enterprise customers in ASEAN with access to Tata Communications’ portfolio.

Hitachi Sunway operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar, offering a wide range of services including enterprise resource planning (ERP), product lifecycle management (PLM), IT infrastructure, data centre and cloud solutions, network solutions and more. 

Cheah Kok Hoong, Group CEO and Director of Hitachi Sunway says, “With Tata Communications on board, we will be able to strengthen our network services offerings throughout the region by offering a wide range of globally recognised telecommunication products and managed services. Customers can expect to access a variety of solutions for MPLS*, cloud security and more. At the same time, Tata Communications will be able to extend their influence in the region through our wide network of customers that span across the region.”

Hitachi Sunway customers will now have access to managed network services, managed security services as well as unified communications & collaboration (UCC) offerings from Tata Communications.

Sumeet Walia, Head, Global Enterprise Business, Tata Communications says, “In the past year, Tata Communications has continued to invest in a broad range of service expansions, introducing new advanced managed services built on our strong network presence in the emerging and developed markets. Our strategic partnerships are a key component of this strategy as we deliver dedicated platforms that enable business transformation for enterprises across the globe. Hitachi Sunway’s regional presence and credibility were the reason we picked them as our partner here in ASEAN. We are pleased to be working with them to expand our footprint in the region.”

“Hitachi Sunway has always strived to be the one-stop IT centre for our customers. Customers no longer want to DIY their business needs. They want to be connected and business-ready in the shortest amount of time and that is where Hitachi Sunway excels. Tata Communications’ products will help us complete our product offering to enable us to offer our customers a complete IT suite. For customers, this means Hitachi Sunway is their single point of contact providing end-to-end digital transformation for their business,” adds Cheah.

Tata Communications owns and operates the world’s largest subsea fibre cable network. Today, over 24% of the world’s Internet routes travel over Tata Communications’ network, and the company is the only Tier-1 provider that is in the top five by routes in five continents.

*MPLS, or Multiprotocol Label Switching, is a way to transfer data over a network.

Mature markets in Asia Pacific and Japan are open to the idea of driverless cars

An Intel-sponsored survey conducted in select mature markets in Asia Pacific and Japan has shown that there is a high degree of awareness of driverless cars among respondents.

Over 51% of respondents showed willingness to buy or use a driverless car as a taxi, when available. Non-drivers showed a higher interest in using a driverless car as compared to drivers.

The Autonomous Driving survey, conducted by Intuit Research, polled 1,250 respondents from five countries and territories: Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. The survey was conducted online and covered car owner-drivers as well as non-drivers who use a taxi at least once a month.

In terms of benefits, driverless cars are environment friendly, enable a less stressful commuting experience, easier parking, predictable commute time and can be summoned. Safety aspects, such as the lack of safety standards in place as yet, the possibility that cars may not recognise and work in a new situation, and the possibility of such cars being hacked were the main concerns. Concerns were also higher among non-drivers.

When asked about features they would like in their dream cars, over 60% of respondents wanted their driverless car to be intelligent enough to avoid traffic jams as well as be able to charge on its own using solar energy.

“Driverless cars are one of the most interesting manifestations of technology that we will see in the next three to five years as it will positively impact so many segments of the society. In addition to being environment friendly, these driverless cars have the potential to save human lives by decreasing the number of accidents and allow mobility for the elderly and the disabled. Intel is working with various car manufacturers to help make what was once considered science fiction, a reality,” said Jerry Tsao, VP of sales and marketing group and MD, regional sales group, Intel Asia Pacific and Japan.

Additional country specific survey findings include:
On an average, respondents expect driverless cars to be commonly available in their countries in about six years, with Singaporeans hopeful of seeing them on the road the soonest. In fact, close to 30% of Singaporeans surveyed felt they will have driverless cars commonly available within three years.

Taiwan shows a very high degree of awareness about driverless cars at 94%, a very high inclination to buy driverless cars at 83%, whereas only 24% Australians showed interest in buying them. Among those who would consider a driverless car, 45% would be willing to concede a high degree or full autonomy* to the car.

Forty-seven percent would be willing to pay a premium of over 20% for a driverless car. Willingness to pay a premium is highest in Korea (62%) and lowest in Singapore (37%).

*The definition of a "high degree" of autonomy would be an automated driving system that will handle all aspects of driving, even if a human driver does not respond to a request to intervene. In "full autonomy", an automated driving system will handle all aspects of driving under all road and environmental conditions with no involvement from the human driver.

Fujitsu launches product lifecycle management solution utilising augmented reality

Fujitsu has launched the FUJITSU Manufacturing Industry Solution 3D Superimposed* Product Design Diagnostic, a product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for manufacturers that visualises differences between product component photos and their 3D blueprints. This solution is available initially in Japan.

Source; Fujitsu. Sample screenshots of the 3D Superimposed Product Design Diagnostic in action.

As structures get larger and more complex, the visual and manual processes of accurately and efficiently judging whether a manufactured product aligns with its blueprints will become more challenging. Fujitsu, together with Tomoe Corporation, which operates businesses from general construction to steel towers, bridges and steel frames, combined 3D computer assisted design (CAD) and augmented reality (AR) technology to analyse manufacturing components. 

Since 2015, Fujitsu has conducted joint verification of the technology at Tomoe's Oyama, Japan factory.  In tests, the technology has been able to reduce the time required to perform diagnostics for one manufactured component to one-tenth that of previous methods, cutting processing time to just a few minutes. In the past, each manufacturing component had to be inspected visually or manually.

Fujitsu developed the 3D Superimposed Product Design Diagnostic PLM solution by adding more capabilities for diagnostic preparation and the management of diagnostic results to the CAD and AR technology. In the manufacturing of large-scale structures, the 3D Superimposed Product Design Diagnostic solution enables users to overlay the blueprints of manufactured components created with 3D CAD on a picture of each component taken with a smartphone or tablet using AR technology**, making comparison easy. 

Fujitsu aims to implement the solution at 100 companies by fiscal 2019. Fujitsu's fiscal year ends at the end of March.

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Qatar publishes National Frequency Allocation Plan

Qatar's National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) has been finalised by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA). The plan, which takes into account projects planned in sectors that are critical to Qatar’s economy, has been endorsed by the HE Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti, Qatar Minister of Transport and Communications, and published on the CRA website.

“The finalisation of NFAP is an important achievement for Qatar’s requirements of spectrum usage in the telecommunication, government, aviation, security, energy, information & communications technology (ICT) and other nationally critically sectors as the management of this scarce recourse impacts the country’s GDP,” said Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA, adding, “Moreover, NFAP includes all current and future needs related to major national and international sport championships, and cultural events.

“We have engaged with relevant public and private sector entities to take into consideration their future plans to finalise this document and benchmarked it with international radio regulations,” he added.

The plan, reviewed by the Qatar National Spectrum Coordination Committee (QNSCC), includes the updated National Frequency Allocation Table (NFAT) and provides a transparent, non-discriminatory and predictable approach to spectrum management, including the reservation of appropriate spectrum for future technologies.

It also integrates planning of new mobile broadband technologies, public protection and disaster relief measures, unmanned aircraft systems, global flight tracking, maritime safety, amateur radio, and other areas of focus at the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radiocommunication Conference. It will be subject to periodic revisions to conform with new requirements as imposed by new national and international regulations involving the allocation of frequency bands.

The document is an essential guide for individuals, government agencies, and commercial entities on how radiocommunication services, technologies, and applications are distributed over radio frequency bands in Qatar. It contains information required for applicants for any request for frequency usage (assignment, licensing, authorisation, etc.), before they approach CRA with such requests. Such requests include temporary spectrum assignments regulations for organising events and their media coverage via satellite, radio and Internet broadcast.

The plan also includes list of specific assignments, list of frequency bands for short range device (SRD) applications, frequency allotment plans relevant to Qatar, international agreements, harmonised frequency bands or spots, among other topics.

Interested?

Read the NFAP

Singapore firms seeing traction from IT security investments

A global study* by CA Technologies has revealed that firms in Singapore are reaping business benefits from investing in IT security. Improvements have been reported in customer experience, as well as in business growth and customer satisfaction.

The study, The Security Imperative: Driving Business Growth in the App Economy, polled 1,770 senior business and IT executives - including more than 100 Chief Security Officers (CSOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) - about their attitudes towards IT security practices, and the impact they see it having on their business. Around 800 respondents were from countries in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), including Singapore.

The majority of survey respondents in Singapore felt that IT security, specifically identity-centric security, needs to do more than just protect the business in today’s environment. It needs to help build trusted digital relationships that are critical for competing in the application economy and growing the business.

· More than nine in 10 (92%) respondents said there was a need to balance strong security with enabling their business to enter new markets and deliver services in new ways.

· Close to nine in 10 (88%) said that security was critical to protecting the brand and can be viewed as a competitive differentiator.

· About the same number (87%) said that security needs to be frictionless and not overburden the user.

· Eighty-five percent said identity-centric security was critical to enabling secure access for employees, customers and partners wherever they were, and what device they used.

· More than seven in 10 respondents were using metrics such as number of compliance audit failures, number of breaches, operational or process efficiency, and digital reach.

Investing in IT security has paid off for firms in Singapore, which have seen improvement across 11 key performance indicators (KPIs) for business since implementation.

Source: CA Technologies. Improved KPIs after investing in security.

The survey also found that almost three quarters of firms (74%) in Singapore are guarding against IT security breaches by implementing strong, step-up authentication, followed by increasing investment in security to avoid breaches (63%), and changing their organisation to better align responsibility for security (58%).

“In today’s application economy, it’s important for businesses to view security as a business enabler that drives value and new revenue streams rather than just as a form of control,” said Nick Lim, VP, ASEAN and Greater China, CA Technologies. “We are seeing encouraging signs that Singapore companies’ understanding of security is maturing as consumers are becoming more aware and have greater expectations of how their information is handled. Security lays the foundation for trusted relationships and is integral to successful digital transformation.”

Interested?

Read The Security Imperative: Driving Business Growth in the App Economy

View The Security Imperative infographic

Compare the Singapore findings against those for the Asia Pacific and Japan region, also blogged in TechTrade Asia

*Conducted by Coleman Parkes, the study included 1,770 senior business and IT executives, including more than 100 CSOs and CISOs, from large enterprises across 21 countries and 10 industry sectors. A total of 799 respondents were from APJ; this covered Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The study and data analysis was done from May to September 2016.

Fujitsu promotes FIDO for online biometric authentication

Fujitsu will begin offering a new Fast IDentity Online (FIDO)-compliant service for online biometric authentication. The Online Biometric Authentication Service, one of the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions being developed for the FUJITSU Digital Business Platform MetaArc, will initially be available in Japan from early April 2017.

The launch comes at a time when password-based personal authentication has been criticised for the high risks of harm from identity fraud and unauthorised use of services, such as list attacks, which target repeated use of the same password for multiple services, and key loggers, which record a keyboard's activity to steal passwords. At the same time, biometric-authentication-equipped devices, such as smartphones, are becoming familiar to users.

With this service, Fujitsu will provide companies that offer online services with the servers and software necessary to implement FIDO, services that support the construction of cloud environments, and also software development kits and development support for incorporating FIDO into client-side applications.

Customers can use this service to build online personal authentication systems with robust security and that do not require passwords for a variety of situations, such as online banking and shopping, ticket arrangements, and car sharing. This also reduces the burden of getting online authentication services up and running. In addition, because this service supports facial recognition data obtained through camera-equipped smartphones and other biometrics, the number of supported devices on the client side can be dramatically expanded.

Fujitsu joined the FIDO Alliance, an international organisation which promotes the standardisation of password-less online authentication technology, as a sponsoring member, in August 2016. FIDO is a new authentication method that resolves the vulnerabilities of password-based online authentication by using biometric authentication and public key encryption which do not depend on IDs or passwords. 

With FIDO, users simply register their FIDO-compatible device, such as a smartphone, with the online service they want to use, enabling authentication based on biometric information already stored on their device. Businesses that provide online services can accept authentication from a wide variety of FIDO devices, just by adding support for FIDO to their server and client applications. By adopting an authentication method using public key encryption, they can also reduce their data storage risks because it is no longer necessary to manage the biometric information of the users of their service on their own servers.

Source: Fujitsu. Schematic for FIDO-based biometric authentication.

Going forward, Fujitsu plans to expand the service to cover authentication on a variety of devices. The company aims to provide the service for 10 million IDs by fiscal 2018.

StarHub makes use of new Asia-Pacific Gateway submarine cable network

StarHub has announced the launch of services over the new Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) submarine cable network system to cater for the growing bandwidth demand of corporate and consumer data services in Singapore.

The APG is a 10,900 km submarine cable network system that links nine countries and regions in Asia-Pacific with a capacity exceeding 54Tbps, the highest of any network in Asia. APG has connection points in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

StarHub has partnered telecommunications companies in each country to provide services for its enterprise customers requiring international connectivity to any of these overseas markets. APG has cable landing points in Shanghai, Nanhui, Chongming as well as Hong Kong, operated by major Chinese telecommunications providers. This allows enterprises to benefit from diverse and competitively priced connectivity into China. APG coverage also extends into Indochina, connecting countries such as Vietnam and Thailand that are major trading partners of Singapore.

“Singapore is China’s largest foreign investor. To serve Singapore enterprises expanding to China, we are pleased to provide them with a new international connectivity on APG, catering for the growing economic activities between China and Southeast Asia,” said Benjamin Tan, VP, International Business, StarHub.

APG also enhances StarHub’s international connectivity by providing traffic routing diversity to submarine cable systems such as Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2), Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) and Asia-America Gateway (AAG). This will provide Singapore-based enterprises more options to connect to other parts of Asia Pacific as well as minimise impact of any service disruption resulting from submarine cable damage.

Mobile network operators sign MoU to improve customer roaming

Hand-in-Hand Program (hi-H Program), a global telecom partnership platform, has launched a multilateral roaming quality enhancement project with 14 mobile network operators (MNOs) to jointly optimise the customer roaming experience.

Many MNOs have been working to enhance their network quality and transmission capacity to meet growing demand for international roaming. Individual efforts have not led to significant improvements in global connectivity and overseas interconnection however. The hi-H Program aims to bring global MNOs together to codevelop solutions that maximise of network architecture efficiency. 

A joint declaration and memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony took place in Guangzhou, China, and was signed by 14 hi-H Members including China Mobile Hong Kong, China Mobile International, Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau (CTM), Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, FarEasTone, KT Corporation, Orange, StarHub Mobile, Telenor, True Corporation, Turk Telekom International and Vimpel-Communications Public Joint Stock Company (Vimpelcom).

In order to improve the roaming experience of their respective end customers, the signatories to the MoU have already defined a framework for enhancing international roaming quality of voice, data and SMS services. In these three core areas, the stakeholders will cooperate to optimise routing solutions for high-quality voice services, establish direct or optimal connections connectivity using the Diameter/Signalling Connection Control Protocol (SCCP) standards, and for transferring roaming data with the S8/GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) data traffic protocols. Additionally, all parties will aim to provide customers with fast, stable and reliable transmission of SMS services.

Virtual teams will also be formed to monitor and verify the roaming experience of their end customers on a regular basis by establishing proper communication channels for responding to roaming quality issues. Regular reviews on roaming paths for voice, data and SMS among the parties will be conducted to ensure best practices are realised.

“Hi-H Program has paid much efforts to run various projects to leverage the network capabilities of hi-H Members; this roaming quality enhancement of which is a key joint project of the year to increase user engagement. China Mobile will take the lead to execute the cooperation items in order to provide the end customers of hi-H Program with a 'feel at home' experience while they are roaming aboard”, said Dr Feng Li, Chairman & CEO, China Mobile International and Chairman of hi-H Program.

“To accomplish Telenor’s ambition of being loved by customers, this is an efficient collaborative project to create engaging roaming services for users reached by hi-H Program,” Kim Krogh Andersen, Chief Marketing Officer of the Global Wholesale Unit in Telenor said. Telenor has a direct presence in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as equity in Vimpelcom, which also has an Asian presence.

"Subscriber satisfaction is very much correlated to the service quality of a telecommunications service provider. We believe the expected service improvement will constitute a competitive advantage to the roaming business of all parties who enter into this multilateral collaboration under hi-H Program,” said Mehmet Candan Toros, CEO, Türk Telekom International.

The hi-H Program was initiated by China Mobile International and launched in Shanghai, China in 2015. Since launch, this non-exclusive partnership platform has attracted active involvement from various industry counterparts to acknowledge its main principles of hi-H: Openness, Connection, and Collaboration. The Program aims to form an integrated platform involving and expanding the group of international partners with the intentions of reaching win-win partnership benefits and providing seamless services to customers. Through cross-industry collaboration, it is believed that the global digital work and life experience of individuals and corporates can be further enriched without boundary.