Ooredoo Myanmar’s 4G subs hit 500K
Ooredoo Myanmar, the country’s third largest operator, has reached 500,000 4G customers after launching the service in late May in parts of the country’s three major cities.

The operator was the first to offer the high-speed service in the country.

Rival Telenor Myanmar launched 4G service in early July in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw and is testing the high-speed service in other cities.

State-owned MPT is the market leader with a 45 per cent total market share, followed by Telenor (37 per cent) and Ooredoo (18 per cent), according to GSMA Intelligence.

Far EasTone launches iTunes carrier billing
Taiwan’s Far EasTone introduced carrier billing that allows its postpaid subscribers to charge iTunes purchases to their monthly bills.

It is the first operator in Asia to partner with Apple to offer the payment service, which Far EasTone said will help subscribers simplify their payment processes.

China Unicom, ZTE team on 5G, IoT
China Unicom, the country’s second largest operator, and domestic vendor ZTE signed a strategic cooperation agreement covering 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) innovation.

The two firms agreed to conduct joint research on application scenarios, product demand, service applications, market development and other related fields, they said in a statement.

ZTE CTO Xu Huijun said they will “jointly promote the industrialisation process, network development and technological research to help China Unicom enter the era of 5G and IoT.”

Nokia wins 30% of China Mobile’s 100G project
China Mobile contracted Nokia to build a 30 per cent share of its 100G optical network project, which will support the world’s largest 4G network.

Market leader China Mobile has 429 million 4G connections.

The win, part of Nokia’s 2016 frame agreement with China Mobile, will see the vendor deploy a 100G optical transport network and DWDM backbone based on its recently announced 1830 PSS-24X packet optical transport system.

Mike Wang, head of the joint management team of Nokia Networks China and Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, said: “This is a crucial win with our longstanding partner. With our 100G OTN solution, we are able to help China Mobile meet the higher requirements for large-scale 4G construction.”

Domestic vendors Huawei and ZTE are likely to supply much of the remaining 70 per cent of the project.

Foxconn unit to open 2nd India plant soon
FIH Mobile plans to start production at a second handset factory in India later this year – a year after starting operations in Andhra Pradesh.

The second factory, in Maharashtra, will enable a number of Chinese vendors to start local production in India, in line with the Indian government’s push to promote ‘Made in India’ handsets.

FIH, a unit of contract manufacturing giant Foxconn, said some Chinese vendors will look to export entry-level smartphones from India to other Asian countries, the Middle East and Europe next year.