Reliance Jio to finally launch 4G in 2H16
India's Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to conduct the long-anticipated commercial launch its 4G services in the second half of the year. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Jio parent Reliance Industries, told reporters that the company plans to go live with a network coverage of 80% of the population. Reliance Jio aims to expand this to 90% in 2017 and achieve full coverage by 2018. The operator commenced 4G services in December, but only as a free service for Reliance Industries employees. It has now been more than five and a half years since the company bid for and won a pan-India wireless broadband license.
Airtel launches LTE-A in Kerala
Bharti Airtel has become the first operator in India to commercially launch LTE-Advanced. The company has deployed carrier aggregation of the 1800-MHz and 2300-MHz bands in the state of Kerala to allow it to deliver data rates of up to 135Mbs. The deployment forms part of Airtel's $9 billion network upgrade initiative Project Leap, which aims to modernize the operator's networks to help usher in the 4G era in India.
TM teams with Vuclip to offer Viu in Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia has entered a partnership with PCCW subsidiary Vuclip to offer the video on demand app Viu in Malaysia. TM plans to offer the service for its high-speed broadband customers. The launch will mark the first time the Viu is made available in Malaysia. Viu offers unlimited streaming of Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese television content. The advertising-based service is currently available in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Globe to offer mobile credit card control app GogoNogo
The Philippines' Globe Telecom, through subsidiary G-Xchange Inc (GXI), has entered a partnership has entered a partnership with First Performance Global to launch mobile security app GogoNogo. GXI is the company that operator's Globe's flagship mobile commerce product GCash. Globe plans to use the alliance with First Performance Global to allow. Through the alliance the company plans to give GCash MasterCard users to turn on and off payment capabilities of their prepaid, credit or debit cards through their mobile phone. Customers will be able to control how their card can be used to prevent the misuse of lost or stolen cards. GogoNogo offers multi-factor authentication, real-time reports and alerts for additional security.
Optus, Huawei conduct live 4.5G trial in Sydney
Optus and Huawei have completed a live trial of 4.5G technology in Sydney, Australia, achieving download speeds of 1.41Gbps. The companies combined technologies including carrier aggregation, higher level modulation and 4X4 MIMO to achieve a peak download speed of 1.23Gbps over the air in live network conditions, and 1.41Gbps in a cabled scenario. Optus is SingTel's wholly-owned Australian subsidiary. SingTel and Optus entered a 4.5G /5G joint R&D agreement in 2014, and this trial represents the latest development to emerge from the collaboration.