China Telecom’s 4G base hits 85M
China Telecom has added 26 million 4G users this year, with growth steady at five million per month over the five months, taking its LTE base to nearly 85 million or 41 per cent of total mobile connections.

The country’s third largest operator said it increased its mobile user base to 205.5 million at the end of May, up from 199 million at the end of 2015.

It lags market leader China Mobile by a large margin, but maintained its lead on number two China Unicom, which has about 70 million 4G connections, accounting for nearly 27 per cent of its user base.

Kakao Pay hits 10M users in Korea
South Korea’s mobile messenger operator Kakao said its mobile payment platform Kakao Pay has more than 10 million users, less than two years after launching in the country.

KakaoTalk, the country’s most popular mobile messaging app, has 38 million users.

US agency invests $250M in Myanmar tower firm
A US government development finance institution is investing $250 million in Myanmar’s Apollo Towers, its first investment in the country.

US-based Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) is providing a loan to the tower company, which owns about 1,800 towers in Myanmar and whose customers include state-owned MPT and Ooredoo. It reportedly plans to build 2,000 towers.

Apollo Towers is a joint venture between Tillman Global, TPG Growth and Myanmar Investments.

China Unicom cleared to trial FDD-LTE on 900MHz band
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has given China Unicom approval to conduct FDD-LTE trials on the 900MHz band in 14 provinces, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. The objective is for the operator to use its spectrum resources more efficiently.

MIIT recently gave China Telecom the go ahead to operate an LTE network on the 800MHz band.

Chinese investors buy NXP Semiconductors unit
NXP Semiconductors, which merged with Freescale Semiconductor last year, is selling its standard products division to a group of Chinese investors for $2.75 billion.

Beijing Jianguang Asset Management and Wise Road Capital will be the new owner of the unit, which makes diodes, transistors and other basic parts and had revenue of $1.2 billion last year. NXP will transfer about 11,000 employees to the new company that is to be called Nexperia, the Taipei Times said.

The acquisition is part of China’s efforts to boost its chip manufacturing capabilities and reduce its dependence on imports.