Handset shipments drop 7% in Japan
Handset shipments in Japan dropped 6.6 per cent last year to 35.7 million units – its third consecutive annual decrease, according to MM Research Institute.

Smartphone shipments fell 0.4 per cent to 27.5 million, while feature phones declined 22.6 per cent to 8.2 million units.

Apple accounted for 53 per cent of the smartphones shipped in 2015. Sony Mobile Communications shipped 4.96 million handsets, Sharp 4.26 million units and Kyocera 3.83 million units.

HTC targets 10% of India smartphone market
Taiwan’s HTC aims to capture a 10 per cent share of India’s smartphone market this year by focusing on handsets priced at INR10,000-30,000 ($147-$440).

The company acknowledged that while smartphones priced at INR10,000 account for 70 per cent of the market, it is targeting the INR10,000-30,000 segment to boost its profitability, Central News Agency reported.

Indian operators oppose 512kb/s minimum speed directive
Indian operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and SST have challenged the telecoms regulator’s directive for fixed broadband operators to maintain a minimum download speed of 512kb/s at all times, the Economic Times reported.

Market leader Bharti Airtel said in a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that operators should be able to throttle speeds to 64kb/s once a customer has reached the data limit. “If broadband has to become affordable, the authority should not mandate any broadband speed after exhaustion of [data] quota,” the company said.

RCom also argued that operators should have “the freedom to throttle speeds after the assigned data limit to prevent misuse of fixed broadband services”.

The Department of Telecom defines broadband as a “data connection able to support interactive services and is capable of a minimum download speed of 512kbps to an individual subscriber”.

LG Uplus unveils 1Gb/s cable service
South Korea’s third largest operator LG Uplus has launched 1Gb/s internet service over cable in Seoul, with plans to cover the nation by the end of the year.

The service also offers Wi-Fi connectivity with speeds of 867Mb/s.

The service will be available to subscribers of the firm’s IPTV streaming and smart home services, who will receive discounts of up to KRW5,000 ($3.75) if they subscribe to both its multimedia or smart home service and the internet service. The base fee for the high-speed internet service with a three-year contract is KRW28,000 ($21).

Snapdeal raises additional $200M
Indian online marketplace Snapdeal has raised $200 million in a fresh funding round, which follows $500 million raised last August.

The latest round was led by Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The August round was led by Alibaba, SoftBank and Foxconn.