TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Asia’s Carriers Are Way Ahead In LTE Implementation

By TechTaffy Desk

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

In 2002, Asia-Pacific mobile operators lagged behind their North American and European counterparts in terms of service development. Fast forward to the present day and the situation is very different. Out of 110 networks, 10 operators (9%) have commercial 4G LTE networks up and running. Another 58 (53%) either have specific plans to roll out LTE or are conducting trials, says ABI Research.

Jake Saunders (Vice president, Forecasting): We estimate total Asia-Pacific mobile capital expenditure to reach $53.3 billion by the end of 2012. 62% is still very much earmarked for radio access network deployment. Other key investment areas include EPC and gateway upgrades to the core network at 9%, as well as improving in-building wireless coverage into dense urban centers at 5.7%.

Evidence for this equipment spend can be seen in a number of markets:

  • In China, 4G licenses have yet to be issued, but that has not stopped China Mobile from making plans. In 2Q-2012, China Mobile announced that it had completed a six city TD-LTE trial. The 655 million subscriber operator plans to ramp up its TD-LTE base station count to over 20,000 TD-LTE base stations by December and 200,000 by 2013.
  • Heavy RAN investment has been taking place in India. A number of operators are jockeying for position in a very competitive marketplace. On April 10, Bharti Airtel became the first operator to launch 4G LTE services in India, in Kolkata. Bharti Airtel hopes to launch 4G services in Bangalore before June 2012. Equipment spend is not just occurring in 4G. The Indian operator, Idea, has continued to roll out 2,270 2G cell sites and 1,176 3G cell sites in the past year.
  • Southeast Asia has seen a strong commitment to 4G, with commercial networks up and running in Malaysia (likely WIMAX over LTE), Singapore, and the Philippines.

Just in

Series A

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
Around the web

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 
Fundings

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.
Around the web

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 
IT

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.