NEWS

The new submarine cable network will span from Hong Kong to Singapore, with branches to China, Brunei, and the Philippines

Today, a consortium of Southeast Asian telecoms operators has announced its intention to build the Asia Link Cable (ALC), a new submarine cable system to provide the region with improved connectivity and greater data route diversity.

The $300 million ALC system will be roughly will be roughly 6,000km long, stretching between Hong Kong and Singapore, with branches extending to Hainan in China, Tungku in Brunei, and two locations in the Philippines: Luna and Bauang.

The consortium itself comprises six of the region’s largest telcos: Singtel, China Telecom Global, Globe Telecom, DITO Telecommunity, Unified National Networks, and China Telecommunications.

According to the consortium, the cable system will comprise eight fibre pairs and deliver a data transmission rate of 18 Tbps per pair.

HMN Technologies has been contracted the supply and deploy the infrastructure for the system.

“ALC is a great accomplishment of Asian carriers which overcame difficulties of Covid impacts, and it is also the only subsea project with zero face-to-face meetings from the MoU to the C&MA (construction and maintenance agreement) signing in the industry,” explained ALC Co-Chair Chang Weiguo. “ALC consortium adopts an open and inclusive principle and will attract more investors in the near future to make it more cost-effective, which will reinforce the resilience of interconnectivity in Asia and better serve digital economy in the region.”

The ALC system is expected to be ready for service in Q3 of 2025.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is developing rapidly, with research from Google, Temasek Holdings Pte, and Bain & Co. last year suggesting that the online economy will double in value to $363 billion by 2025. The meteoric rise of e-commerce appears to be the key driving factor here; the report suggests that the region’s online spending increased by 49% $174 billion in 2021, fuelled in no small part by the increase in both fixed and mobile internet access in the region.

Naturally, as this increase in data traffic continues to boom, the deployment of high-quality submarine cable infrastructure will only become more crucial.

How has the submarine cable landscape evolved over the last year? Join the industry in discussion at the upcoming Submarine Networks EMEA event

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BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post Southeast Asian telcos team up for $300m Asia Link Cable first appeared on Total Telecom.

The rural Wilbraham (Great Wilbraham and Little Wilbraham) community in Cambridgeshire (England) is celebrating today after an alternative network ISP, Cambridge Fibre, was able to successfully rollout a multi-gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the village. We haven’t heard much from Cambridge Fibre since they deployed a new full fibre network across parts of […]

A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch during October 2022, has unsurprisingly found that 81% of respondents think mid-contract price increases by broadband ISPs and mobile operators are “unfair” and 80% want more providers to offer fixed price contracts. The UK communications regular, Ofcom, recently warned that providers should […]

Ambition North Wales, which is a partnership comprising the six Local Authorities in the region and several Universities, has worked with UK consultancy firm FarrPoint to conduct a survey that measured 4G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage across the region’s main transport routes. Suffice to say, there are some problem areas. The survey follows a 2021 […]

Openreach (BT) has today announced the launch of an unusual supermarket style offer for UK ISPs that make use of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and other fibre-based broadband products, which involves selling their 10Gbps Cablelinks on a “Buy Three Get One Free” basis at wholesale. The Cablelink (Ethernet) solutions are how Openreach provide data capacity for […]

UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) has today soft launched their first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband packages over Cityfibre’s network, which marks the first time that they’ve offered products on an alternative platform to Openreach’s national infrastructure. In case anybody has been living under a rock for the past few years. Cityfibre is a large […]

NEWS

The Lebanese telecoms group has been unveiled as the buyer of MTN’s Afghan unit, three months after the deal was struck

MTN Group has announced that the buyer of their Afghanistan unit is M1 New Ventures, with deal being valued at $35 million.

MTN announced it would be exiting the Middle East back in 2020, saying that the company would focus instead on its core markets in Africa. Since then, the operator group has gradually withdrawn from its holdings in the region, including Syria and Yemen last year.

Selling its Afghanistan business proved more difficult, with potential buyers wary of becoming involved in a country currently undergoing major upheaval, including a new government led by the Taliban.

However, a deal was finally announced back in August, with the buyer left unnamed.

That the buyer should now be revealed to be M1 Group should not come as much of a surprise. Historically, M1 has shown little reticence for working in country’s dominated by authoritarian regimes; indeed, M1 recently agreed to buy Telenor’s beleaguered Myanmar unit, which was under major pressure to impose service blackouts by the military junta.

For MTN, the sale of its Afghanistan unit will be the penultimate step its Middle Eastern exodus, with the Group still holding a 49% stake in the Iranian operator, Irancell.

After some speculation as to the unit’s future, earlier this year MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita described Irancell as the company’s most stable investment in the Middle East, saying the company would not be looking to divest of its stake.

Whether this will remain Mupita’s stance on the matter for long, however, remains to be seen. Ongoing protests in Iran, trigged by the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for wearing an ‘improper’ hijab back in September, have greatly destabilised the country and its economy.

With the government already responding to these protests by demanding internet blackout and widespread restrictions on social media, MTN’s future with Irancell could soon be up for debate once more.

Also in the news:
Remaining competitive in an evolving telco landscape
Wi-Fly: Could AFC improve rural connectivity?
BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post MTN finally offloads Afghan unit to M1 first appeared on Total Telecom.

NEWS

In a town hall meeting this morning, SK Telecom (SKT)’s CEO, Ryu Young-sang told employees that AI will be integral to the company’s growth, targeting a market capitalisation of roughly $28.46 billion by 2026

In the telecoms industry’s never-ending quest for improved efficiency and new revenue streams, AI capabilities and integration are quickly emerging as major catalysts for telco transformation.

For SKT, however, it appears that AI is becoming more than just a useful tool in the telco’s arsenal, but rather the mainstay of their business strategy.

This morning, celebrating the one-year anniversary of having taken up the mantle of CEO, SKT’s Ryu Young-sang told employees of his desire to turn the company into a world-leader in AI, going far beyond the scope of a traditional telco.

“We will leap into SKT’s version of a distinguished AI company that combines AI with connective technologies based on our main business of telecommunications,” said Ryu.

Ryu said that the company would seek out new investment and M&A opportunities in the AI space, aiming build on their existing AI capabilities to launch new products and services to consumers and enterprises. In the short term, this includes the launch of an AI-incorporated media player to manage SKT’s various TV and IP-based media assets, as well as enhancing the company’s mobile virtual assistant, A., which was launched earlier this year.

According to Ryu, this new focus would help the company achieve a market capitalisation of roughly $28.46 billion by 2026, almost four times that of its existing market cap of around $8.1 billion.

It should be noted, however, that AI is not the only area in which SKT is doubling its efforts, as the company continues to evolve beyond the bounds of a traditional telco.

Eschewing the partnership-based strategy adopted by most telcos when it comes to consumer content, SKT has instead been pushing for more direct control over its content offerings. In recent months, the company has increased investments in content creation, investing directly into numerous production studios, as well as further developing its metaverse platform, Ifland, even signing a deal with Deutsche Telekom to offer it in Germany.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, SKT announced a new agreement with e& (formerly Etisalat), aiming for SKT to develop metaverse service that directly fits the need of e&’s Middle Eastern customers.

As traditional telco revenues continue to dry up around the world, SKT – and, indeed, the company’s South Korean rivals, LG U+ and KT – are heavily investing in new revue streams, especially products that can be exported to international markets.

Also in the news:
Remaining competitive in an evolving telco landscape
Wi-Fly: Could AFC improve rural connectivity?
BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive

The post SK Telecom seeks AI supremacy for future growth first appeared on Total Telecom.

Three UK appears to have shunned Ofcom’s recent pleas for broadband ISPs and mobile operators to consider whether “large price rises can be justified at time of exceptional financial hardship” (here). Instead, the operator has adopted the same CPI (inflation) linked policy of huge hikes on their Pay Monthly plans as other operators. First, a […]

Alternative UK broadband ISP Zzoomm has announced that they’re extending their existing build of a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in the West Yorkshire (England) town of Hemsworth to include the neighbouring mining village of Kinsley. The build in Kinsley, which comes only days after Quickline announced that their alternative fibre-fed fixed wireless “ultrafast broadband” […]