Smartfren upgrades to LTE-A in Jakarta
Smartfren Telecom, one of the smallest operators in Indonesia with less than a 4 per cent market share, has upgraded its 4G network in Jakarta to LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) with two-band carrier aggregation.

The operator, with about 12 million connections, said it will roll out LTE-A in 32 cities using both TDD (2.3GHz) and FDD (800-850MHz) frequencies, the Jakarta Post reported.

It has contracted ZTE to deploy the LTE-A network in Central Java, East Java, Sulawesi and Kalimantan, and also plans to expand into eastern Indonesia.

Twitter pushes content partnerships in Asia
Twitter has appointed a Singapore-based executive to establish content partnerships across Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Rishi Jaitly, recently promoted to VP of media for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, will expand Twitter’s team in major markets such as Australia, India and Japan as well as set up operations in Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Jaitly was previously the firm’s marketing director for India and Southeast Asia.

Intelligent transport offers big savings — GSMAi
Thailand could save as much as $1 billion a year by moving to intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in Bangkok, which would reduce travel times, carbon dioxide emissions and road accidents, a study by GSMA Intelligence found.

The report, ‘Building Digital Societies in Asia: Making Transportation Smarter’, outlines how ITS can positivity impact commuter habits and encourage citizens to use safe and environmentally friendly ways of commuting.

Specifically, GSMA Intelligence said ITS in Bangkok could lower travel times by two to four days per commuter per year, cut CO2 emissions contributed by road traffic by 10-20 per cent and reduce the number of road accidents by up to 8,000 per year, possibly saving up to 100 lives or nearly a quarter of the annual road traffic deaths reported in Bangkok in 2013.

HTC to sell Shanghai factory – report
HTC reportedly plans to sell a handset factory in Shanghai and is likely to initiate a second round of staff cuts by the end of the year after announcing a 15 per cent reduction two weeks ago, Next Magazine reported.

The Shanghai factory was built in 2009 and handset production peaked at two million units a month in 2011. The likely buyer will be a China-based handset maker, the Hong Kong-based magazine said.

Alibaba invests in alternative to GPS
E-commerce giant Alibaba has teamed up with China’s largest defense company to offer location-based services using a Chinese satellite navigation system that competes with the US GPS network.

Alibaba and China North Industries Corp (Norinco) recently set up a CNY2 billion ($313 million) 50:50 joint venture, named Qianxun Weizhi, to offer services using Chinese satellite navigation system Beidou, the China Daily reported.