China Mobile spends $27B on capex in 2016
China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the world, expanded its nationwide 4G coverage to 90 per cent of the population and deployed 1.46 million 4G base stations.

With its 4G rollout nearly completed, it reduced its capex last year by 7 per cent to CNY189 billion ($27.3 billion), according to C114.net.

The operator had 510 million 4G subscribers at the end of November, representing 69 per cent of China’s total 4G users. Its investments last year focused on 4G, broadband access and data centres.

Huawei targets top spot in Bangladesh
Huawei aims to capitalise on a 232 per cent jump in smartphone sales in Bangladesh in 2016 by becoming the country’s second largest vendor in 2017 and then taking the top spot in 2018.

The Chinese vendor ranked in third place in 2016 with a 14.5 per cent share of smartphone sales by volume and a 19.1 per cent share by value, according to research company GfK.

Growth was driven mainly by sales of Huawei’s flagship Mate 8 and P9, which were released in the country last June, said Ingmar Wang, director of device business at Huawei Bangladesh.

Huawei P9 and P9 Plus global shipments exceeded 10 million units, making them the first Huawei flagship handsets to break 10 million sales, the company said.

Globe aims for 2M broadband connections by 2020
Philippines operator Globe Telecom said it is on track to hit its target of providing broadband connections of at least 10Mb/s to two million homes by 2020.

The operator announced it installed more than 260,000 home broadband lines to date.

“We are catching up on the deployment of infrastructure for home broadband, after focusing on mobile for many years,” said Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu. It plans to roll out 400,000 broadband lines by the end of the year.

ZTE joins 5G Automotive Association
Chinese equipment and device vendor ZTE joined the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), a cross-industry association formed in September by players in the telecom and automotive sectors.

In October Vodafone Group became the first operator to join the 5GAA. The group was founded by global vendors Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Qualcomm, chip maker Intel and automobile giants Audi, BMW and Daimler, with a pledge to test applications like connected automated driving, ubiquitous access to services and integration into smart cities and intelligent transportation.

Bai Gang, ZTE’s GM for 5G products, said that as an M-ICT enabler, “ZTE will work together with partners to promote the smart internet of vehicles and global cross-industry collaboration”.