Indonesia’ tighter registration rules to slow SIM uptake
Indonesia’s more stringent registration requirements for prepaid SIM cards, which will be introduced on 15 December, are expected to reduce the number of SIM cards in circulation.

XL Axiata president director Dian Siswarini said that because retail outlets will tighten their activation procedures, with new users required to show their ID cards, SIM card registrations will fall for the next two years, IndoTelko reported.

Siswarini said in the first phase only new users, not existing customers, will need to verify their IDs.

M1 ties up with Celcom, XL on data roaming
Singapore’s M1 introduced data bundles for its customers on prepaid plans when they travel to Malaysia and Indonesia.

The roaming bundles, which M1 arranged with partners Celcom and XL, range from SGD5 ($3.50) for 1GB of data for thee days to SGD30 for 3GB for up to 50 days.

China Mobile selects Nokia for LTE-A expansion
China Mobile selected Nokia Networks to provide network gear for the third phase of its TD-LTE deployment, which is the world’s largest.

China Mobile, which already has one million LTE base stations, is upgrading and expanding its 4G network to LTE-Advanced with carrier aggregation using Nokia’s Flexi Multiradio 10 base stations and small cells in 18 provinces and cities including Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai.

Nokia, which said it is the operator’s largest non-Chinese vendor for the third year, is also supplying carrier aggregation software for both macro and small cells to efficiently combine the various spectrum bands for faster data transmission.

Viettel expands into Tanzania, 10th market
Vietnam’s largest operator Viettel launched mobile and internet services in Tanzania under the Halotel brand.

Viettel invested $736 million in the network in one year, launching service to all 26 provinces and claiming 81 per cent population coverage. It said its infrastructure includes 18,000 km of optical cable and more than 3,000 base stations.

The company aims to provide free internet connectivity to 450 public schools over the next three years. In addition, it provided optical cable to 150 public hospitals, 150 police stations and 65 post offices in the first half of the year.

The operator, which is run by the military, now operates in 10 markets. This year it has expanded into four new markets – including three in Africa — and acquired a smaller player in Cambodia.

Telstra to launch TV streaming device
Australia’s largest operator Telstra will introduce a TV streaming device on 27 October.

Telstra TV will allow the operator’s home broadband customers to access their favourite TV series, movies and content directly to their televisions. The service will provide access to 15 services including apps for Presto and Netflix, as well as a number of television catch-up services.

Users can also rent blockbuster films from BigPond Movies.