Globe signs 5-year upgrade deal with Huawei
The Philippines’ second largest operator Globe Telecom awarded a five-year contract to Huawei to upgrade its 3G and 4G networks.

The agreement covers the deployment of LTE carrier aggregation, expanded indoor coverage, a core network upgrade and expansion of the operator’s fibre footprint.

The vendor also will work with Globe to create a “mobile innovation centre” to develop new products and services for the digital age.

China Telecom launches 4G service in Macau
China Telecom Macau introduced 4G service and claims to have 95 per cent population coverage of the city.

It plans to invest MOP260 million ($32.6 million) in its network by the end of the year, the Macau Business Daily reported.

China Telecom Macau, along with CTM, SmarTone and Hutchison (3 Macau), received their 4G licences in March. Market leader CTM launched 4G service in October and SmarTone launched this month.

LG Uplus enters content deal with ABC
South Korea’s third largest mobile operator LG Uplus signed a deal with ABC to distribute the US broadcasters’ programmes to its mobile customers.

The agreement covers 29 programmes, including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, according to Yonhap news agency. The programmes will come with English subtitles.

LG Uplus signed a similar deal with NBC Universal in September and had about 1.5 million views a month of its dramas.

XL expands 4G service, targets 3M subs
Indonesia’s third largest operator XL Axiata rolled out 4G service in 11 additional cities and towns.

The operator’s ‘Super HotRod 4G’ service, delivering peak download speeds of 150Mb/s, which it says is the country’s fastest, is now available in Pekanbaru, Batam, Palembang, Purwakarta, Cirebon, Tegal, Pekalongan, Pacitan, Madura, Banjarmasin and Manado.

Its 4G service is supported by more than 3,000 4G base stations on the 900MHz and 1.8GHz bands.

XL had 1.6 million 4G connections at the end of September and aims to double that by the end of the year.