APAC operator capex rose 4.2% in 2014
Global telecoms operator capex growth outpaced revenue growth last year, with capex expanding 2.9 per cent to $352 billion while service revenue inched up 0.4 per cent $1.99 trillion, according to IHS Infonetics.

Strong spending on 4G in China more than offset spending declines in Japan and South Korea to drive Asia Pacific’s capex growth up 4.2 per cent in 2014.

IHS forecasts worldwide telecoms capex to peak at $1.8 trillion in 2019.

Acer expands IoT partnerships
Taiwan’s Acer is partnering with US chip-maker Marvell and Chinese device maker Hipad to expand their Internet of Things (IoT) offerings.

As part of its build your own cloud (BYOC) ecosystem, Acer’s cloud services and mobile apps will be integrated with Marvell’s IoT chipset, which can enable Hipad’s smart home devices to monitor, control and collect data, the China Post said.

Acer is also working with UK software developer Canonical on a range of the IoT and cloud projects, including a smart home surveillance solution that is powered by Canonical’s Snappy Ubuntu Core OS.

Smartphone prices continue to fall
Chinese vendors at Computex in Taiwan last week showed off new low-cost smartphones for a little as $35.

A 5-inch entry-level model with Android 4.4, a quad-core processor and 4GB storage was quoted at $35 (ex-factory price), DigiTimes reported.

Chinese makers are also offering devices using the SoFIA platform jointly developed by Intel and Rockchip. With Intel providing subsidies to makers to use SoFIA, demand has increased.

Robi opts for AlcaLu support systems
Bangladesh’s third largest operator Robi Axiata selected Alcatel-Lucent to deploy its latest operations support systems (OSS) portfolio in the second half of the year.

Alcatel-Lucent said Robi will be the first customer to implement its Motive OSS portfolio, which uses cloud technologies to reduce costs and enhance services.

The vendor’s Motive Dynamic Operations platform is designed to give a complete view of network performance and enable operators to automate operations and proactively improve the consumer experience.

It will be deployed throughout Robi’s data centres for centralised management and monitoring of the network.