China operators finalise asset transfer to China Tower
China’s three mobile operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – have officially transferred their tower assets to China Tower.

In October the big three signed an agreement to sell their tower assets to China Tower, which the three companies jointly established last year to reduce redundant construction of telecoms infrastructure.

The operators confirmed the value of the transferred assets: CNY102.7 billion ($15.5 billion) for China Mobile, CNY54.6 billion for China Unicom and CNY30.2 billion for China Telecom.

China Mobile will receive 45.151 billion shares in China Tower at an issue price of CNY1 per share, while the outstanding value of about CNY57.56 billion will be paid in cash in installments by the end of December 2017. Unicom will receive 33.335 billion shares and CNY21.32 billion in cash. China Telecom, however, needs to pay CNY2.97 billion to China Tower in addition to handing over its tower assets in exchange for 33.097 billion shares.

India’s handset production tops 100M
India produced more than 100 million mobile handset last year and the country has attracted 15 new mobile phone factories, according to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Samsung assembles all of its handset sold in India locally. Other vendors producing in India include Bosch, Continental, Flextronics, Mitsubishi, Nidec and Panasonic.

Investments of INR1.14 trillion ($16.7 billion) have created 30,000 jobs in the country, Prasad said.

Celcom, TM expand fibre cooperation
Celcom Axiata and TM (Telekom Malaysia) expanded their existing backhaul agreement and entered into a high-speed broadband (HSBB) access venture that will allow Celcom to offer fixed broadband services.

The HSBB deal enables Celcom to use TM’s fibre network to give business-to-consumer and business-to-business customers fixed broadband access.

Celcom also reached a domestic roaming deal with TM-owned Packet One Networks. P1 aims to improve its offerings as it plans to relaunch services.

Myanmar’s MPT targets 90% 3G coverage
Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) plans to reach 90 per cent of the population with 3G coverage by the end of February.

The incumbent operator, with a 46 per cent market share, covered about 60 per cent of the population last year. It had nearly 17 million mobile connections at the end of 2015, 37 per cent of which are 3G, according to GSMA Intelligence.