Mobile subscribers for March 2017 (millions):
| Total subs | Added March | 4G subs | Added March |
| | | | |
| China Mobile | 856.485 | 2.787 | 568.074 | 9.471 |
| | | | |
| China Unicom | 266.265 | 0.641 | 122.726 | 6.613 |
| | | | |
| China Telecom | 221.53 | 3.010 | 137.640 | 5.930 |
| | | | |
| Total | 1,344.28 | 6.438 | 828.440 | 22.014 |
There has been a slight acceleration over the last few months in China Mobile's new mobile additions and the March numbers were the highest since 2.831 million in September 2016 and the second highest of the last 15 months. However, the numbers for the first three months of 2017 are surprisingly similar to those of the first three months of 2016, so year on year the collective total for the first quarter was virtually flat. The standout number for the quarter was China Telecom's net addition of 3.01 million, which was not only higher than the China Mobile number for March but also almost 1 million higher than its own previously highest over the last 15 months of 2.02 million.
On the 4G side, while China Mobile continues to lead in new additions the level is now only about 50% of its average monthly additions in 2016. By comparison, China Telecom net additions in March were its second highest for the last 15 months and the China Unicom figure was by far its highest for the same period. Clearly, since both companies' share of net 4G additions during the month are higher than their share of cumulative 4G subscriptions to date both must be gaining share against China Mobile, but the gains are at a very slow rate.
Companies with 61% stake in Singapore telco M1 seeking sale
On April 21st Reuters reported that sources had told it that the three principal investors in Singapore operator MI, namely Malaysia's Axiata Group, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation, which collectively own around 61% of the $1.36 billion valued telco, had been contacting a number of telecoms firms, including China Mobile, and private equity companies, cash-rich business groups in China and Japanese tech firms, to gauge their interest in bidding for their majority ownership of the business.
M1's share price has nearly halved over the past two years due to its weak business performance amid increased competition, which is about to get even more intense once TPG Telecom of Australia, which has been awarded Singapore's fourth mobile licence, launches its services in 2018. Despite being by far the world's largest telco in terms of subscriptions served, China Mobile has historically been very tentative in terms of overseas expansion and so far has focused on investments in operators that serve neighbouring countries to China, i.e., in 2007 it bought a minor operator in Pakistan and in 2014 bought an 18% stake in Thailand's True.
Foxconn, with growing interests in electric vehicles, invests in CATL
On March 30th Taiwan News reported that Foxconn of New Taipei City, Taiwan and the world's largest electronics equipment manufacturing subcontractor with over 1.3 million workers and revenue of $136 billion in 2015, would invest NT$4.4 billion ($147 million) for a 1.19% stake in six year-old Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). CATL is based in Ningde, a 3rd tier city of 252,000 people in the north of the south western coastal province of Fujian, which faces across the Straits of Taiwan to Taiwan.
CATL was founded by Robin Zeng, who has a doctorate in Chemistry and also previously founded Amperex Technology (ATL), also headquartered in Ningde but now majority owned by TDK of Japan, focused on consumer lithium-ion battery development and production for Apple, TDK, Amazon, HTC, Lenovo, Huawei and Coolpad. Under China's 13th 5 Year Plan (with 2020 targets including halving battery costs to below RMB 1 (14.4 cents) per kilowatt hour, and improving energy density by two-thirds), CATL is one of three government-nominated Chinese battery makers (along with Guoxuan and Lishen) that will receive around $15 million in support funding if it meets those targets.
According to a Reuters report, CATL overtook global rival LG Chem of South Korea in battery output in 2016 and is close on the heels of two other international leaders - Japan's Panasonic and Warren Buffet-backed BYD of Beijing. CATL is aiming to grow its battery capacity six-fold by 2020 to 50 gigawatt hours, which if achieved would by then possibly put it ahead of Tesla Motor's Nevada Gigafactory. CATL electric car battery clients include German luxury car brand BMW, Chinese brands Yutong (Xiamen King Long United Automotive) and BAIC Motor.
In addition to its recent investment in CATL, Foxconn has increased its investments in self-driving electric vehicles in recent years, signing, in March 2015, a strategic partnership agreement with dealership chain China Harmony Auto and Chinese Internet specialist Tencent Holdings to launch the joint venture Zhejiang I-car Internet and Intelligent Electric Vehicle in Zhengzhou City, Henan province to develop connected smart electric vehicles.
In November 2016 it was reported that the above start-up had signed an agreement with local government officials to build a $2 billion assembly plant in the Chinese city of Shangrao in the south eastern province of Jiangxi, with the capacity to build up to 300,000 electric vehicles annually, as well as a production line to assemble battery packs for EVs.
Tencent, Harmony Auto and Foxconn have also formed a partnership to establish another EV start-up, China Future Mobility, to develop connected and automated electric cars. According to China Harmony Auto's financial report released in mid-2016, Future Mobility expected to unveil its first model next year and put it on sale in 2019. In late January 2017, it was reported that Future Mobility planned to invest RMB11.6 billion ($1.7 billion) to build a new factory in 2019 in Nanjing (the capital of Jiangsu province) with the capacity to produce 300,000 cars a year, with its first car likely to have a price tag of about RMB300,000 ($43,700).
Foxconn currently China Harmony Auto's second largest shareholder
A recent report by Taiwan's United Daily News also noted that two Foxconn subsidiaries (Eson Precision Industry, a module manufacturer, and BizLink Holding, a supplier of automotive equipment cabling and both important suppliers to the electric vehicle market) were key suppliers of Tesla electronic vehicle components, and speculated that Foxconn could play an important role in any future electric car developments by Apple.
Under the terms of the transaction, Vodafone will exchange a 35% indirect interest in Safaricom for 226.8 million new ordinary Vodacom shares. The transaction, which is valued at approximately Euro 2,361 million based on Vodacom's closing share price on May 12th, 2017, will increase Vodafone's ownership in Vodacom from 65% to 70%. Vodafone will continue to hold a 5% indirect stake in Safaricom following the transfer, in addition to the indirect interest held via Vodacom.
Coriant has appointed Homayoun Razavi to lead its global sales and marketing organization. As Chief Customer Officer (CCO), Executive Vice President of Global Sales, and Chief Digital Marketing Officer (CDMO), Razavi is responsible for development and execution of the company’s global sales, go-to-market, channel, and marketing strategy. He reports directly to the company CEO and Chairman, Shaygan Kheradpir.
SubCom's new eLMS solution is designed to provide improved performance compared with traditional solutions, including:
With the launch of a new PoP and metro fibre in Zurich, Switzerland the new route provides customers with routing options that can significantly improve performance for transmission to and from Milan, Italy and Marseilles in France. The combination of a shorter route with increased security and diversity is designed to offer Telia Carrier customers to address the demands of end-users.
“The rapid change in technology is driving companies to consider SD-WAN as the answer to simplifying network challenges,” said Mike Fitz, vice president of the Sprint Global Wireline Business Unit. “The Sprint SD-WAN dashboard provides our customers with real-time, detailed visibility into the performance of their entire WAN and all of their applications, while single-click deployment minimizes the set-up time for branch offices and temporary sites.”
XKL's DMD-A appliance supports a variety of filter options including 48-channel or 96-channel mux/demux and 4-band or 6-band combiner filter, and enables point-to-point or east/west configurations. It also provides support for up to four EDFAs and one Raman amplifier, dependent upon other installed options. The appliance also features dispersion compensation and an integrated optical switch for path protection.
Part of Nokia's customer experience management (CEM) portfolio, Cognitive Analytics for Crowd Insight is a new software application that leverages Nokia Bell Labs' machine learning algorithms to track and analyse the aggregate movement of subscribers using real-time network data rather than GPS or application data. This allows more frequent updates and larger sample sizes to deliver precise, timely change information, with the ability to leverage Nokia analytics installed base with more than 200 customers.
ZTE noted that Pakistan announced the adoption of the DTMB standard for digital television broadcasts in 2015 during an event attended by president Xi Jinping of China and prime minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. Pakistan, with a population of nearly 200 million, selected the DTMB technology that was developed by China, following the evaluation of technologies including the European DVB-T and the Japanese ISDB-T standards.
