In a regular series, Mobile World Live‘s Asia Editor Joseph Waring provides a regional roundup of news snippets:

NTC may set QoS standards for broadband
The telecoms regulator in the Philippines has indicated that it may be forced to prescribe a minimum quality of service standards after widespread complaints about the country’s slow and expensive broadband services.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said during a senate hearing that while it has no power to regulate the price of internet service, it can regulate the quality of service, the Inquirer said.

The agency expressed interest in obtaining the necessary equipment to monitor the quality of broadband service provided by telcos and ISPs to be able to prescribe a minimum speed.

$80 smartphones coming to China this year
China-based vendors are expected to launch CNY500 ($80) 4G smartphones on the domestic market by the end of the year, a China Mobile Device executive told DigiTimes. The models will likely be three-mode versions supporting TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA and GSM, with chips from Taiwan-based MediaTek.

Security flaw forces M1 to halt iPhone pre-orders
M1 was forced to briefly halt iPhone 6 pre-orders on Monday after it found a security flaw on its website that allowed unauthorised access to the personal information of 12 customers.

The company said a security patch was quickly developed and installed. An investigation attributed the breach to the “design of an API in the customer authentication mechanism”. By changing data stored within a website “cookie”, a single individual was able to access other customers’ personal information, such as names and addresses, M1 said, adding that credit card and bank account details were not accessible.

DiGi in talks with MCMC over 900MHz
DiGi said it has had discussions with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) about acquiring 900MHz spectrum and a decision is expected by early next year.

The regulator has not made a decision on how it will refarm 2G spectrum. Options include an auction, beauty contest, direct allocation or a combination of the three. DiGi currently has just 4MHz of 900MHz spectrum compared to Celcom’s 34MHz and Maxis’ 32MHz.

Globe to upgrade 1,200 sites in the south
Globe Telecom has selected Alcatel-Lucent to upgrade its WiMAX networks in Visayas and Mindanao to TDD/FDD LTE technology. The upgrade involves about 1,200 base stations and includes a network management system that manages and controls the equipment on an end-to-end basis from access to the core.