Huawei unveils smart-city lighting platform
Huawei released what it said is the industry’s first Internet of Things (IoT) lighting platform that uses a GIS-based management system to enable cities to improve the control and performance of every street lamp.

Its Connected City Lighting solution, which it released at CeBIT in Hannover this week, connects street lamps using 6LoWPAN technology, which has lower power consumption, and can automatically diagnose and trouble-shoot problems. Each street lamp is equipped with a power and brightness controller.

The platform provides municipal managers with status information on each lamp, in every street, and enables precise control of on-off switches and brightness of individual street lamps, allowing on-demand lighting and a reduction in energy consumption by up to 80 per cent, the company said.

Viettel launches Google Play carrier billing
Vietnam’s largest operator, Viettel, partnered with Fortumo to allow its users to shop on Google Play and charge purchases to their phone bill.

Viettel said it is the first mobile operator in the country to launch mobile payments on Google Play.

In addition to providing operator billing for global merchants and app stores such as Google Play and Windows Phone Store, Fortumo’s platform is also used by Asia’s leading music and video streaming providers and app developers such as Sony, HOOQ, UCWeb (Alibaba), Tencent and Huawei.

ZTE releases LoRa-based smart meters
Chinese vendor ZTE released three LoRA-based smart meters that meet the requirements for long-distance transmission of small amounts of data.

The three meters – a single-phase unit, a single-phase prepaid device and a three-phase meter – were launched at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, and in addition to LoRa, they support RS485, M-BUS, Zigbee, RF-MESH, PLC and GPRS.

ZTE said they are compliant with IEC 62056-DLMS/COSEM, IEC 62055-STS payment system, and other smart meter protocols.

Airtel offers flat-rate calls to the Philippines
India’s Bharti Airtel is partnering with Globe Telecom to offer flat-rate calling plans to the Philippines using its VoIP app Airtel Talk.

With the partnership, Airtel Talk users can make unlimited VoIP calls to Globe customers in the Philippines for $14.99 for a 30-day period.

Available on both iOS and Android, the app also offers multi-party conferencing, voice message chat, multi-device access, free audio/video app-to-app calling and instant phonebook access.

Ant Financial to raise $3B in new funding
Ant Financial, the online financial arm of Alibaba, plans to raise CNY20 billion ($3.1 billion) in a new round of financing, which will value the company at an estimated $50 billion.

The round, which is expected to be completed next month, will give Ant Financial the funding to support future acquisitions. It recently acquired stakes in Hong Kong-listed lottery operator AGTech and Postal Savings Bank of China, China Tech News reported.

Sources said the financing could lay the foundation for an IPO next year.