Q4 2016 south asian Volume 9 Number 4 Forwireless wireless comms professionals in the Southern Asian region COMMUNICATIONS ● New radios for backhaul ● Is LTE viable for critical comms? ● Cashing-in on grey route traffi c A cross-technology one box solution offering TETRA, DMR Tier III, TEDS and Analog. GO HYBRID and combine multiple technologies in one coherent system. www.damm.dk wirelesssouth asian CONTENTS COMMUNICATIONS Q4 2016 5 News south asian Volume 9 5 News review Number 4 Q4 2016 Forwireless wireless comms professionals in the Southern Asian region COMMUNICATIONS Volume 9 > Vietnam sees launch of fi rst 4G services ● New radios for backhaul > Mobile operators prepare for SDN ● Is LTE viable for critical comms? ● Cashing-in on grey route traffi c Number 4 > Singapore trials ‘Li-Fi’ for wireless > True fi rst to use Atom GPS for time sync > ABS supports Indonesia free-to-view TV > AsiaSat relocates satellite to help Spacecom A cross-technology one box solution offering TETRA, DMR Tier III, TEDS and Analog. GO HYBRID and combine multiple technologies in one coherent system. www.damm.dk > Omantel Wholesale connects Asia and Africa 16 Wireless solutions > R&S enhances Philippine Coast Guard comms > ‘Gatekeeper’ controls Banglalink’s SMS traffi c Explore DAMM TetraFlex® products and solutions: 13 Wireless business > Singapore to retire 2G networks in 2017 The BS422 HYBRID Outdoor Base Station is a cross-technology one-box solution offering 16 Wireless solutions TETRA, DMR Tier III, TEDS and Analogue, > Hunting system tracks RF interference and allowing hybrid usage in one coherent 18 Backhaul system. BS422 offers improved syncro- nisation, improved redundancy, high Features: power and extended frequency range. 18 Backhaul > RAHIEL NASIR discovers microwave’s power The BS421 TETRA Outdoor Base Station: is unlikely to diminish in the near future. With its IP65 protection and compact design the BS421 Outdoor Base Station is 22 Critical communications 22 Critical communications ideal for installation in harsh environments > 4G has a way to go before it can replace and for direct mounting on antenna masts, established PMR, as RAHIEL NASIR fi nds out. buildings and towers, reducing feeder loss and installation costs considerably. 27 Industry view > ADITYA DHRUVA explains how to unlock Critical communication made easy the multi-billion dollar A2P opportunity. The DAMM TetraFlex® System comes 30 World news complete with outdoor or indoor base > First NB-IoT network set to go live stations. DAMM offers comprehensive > M-Pesa simplifi es payments at water ATMs features as well as built-in applications > MCCA promotes 4G LTE for public safety such as: > ITU develops universal laptop charger • Network Management > NASA test fl ight uses Globalstar system 31 World news • Dispatcher > EC report fi nds insuffi cient 5G allocation • Voice & data Log System • Group Bridge SUBSCRIPTIONS: of control can purchase an annual South Asian Wireless Communications is a subscription at the cost of £110. controlled circulation quarterly magazine. For more information and general enquiries You can use your tablet or smartphone to Register now for your free subscription at please contact Suzanne Thomas at benefi t from coverage extension, as well www.kadiumpublishing.com [email protected] as data capacity for videos and pictures. Readers who do not qualify under the terms or call +44 (0) 1932 886 537. The complete range includes Android, iOS and Windows soft terminals. EDITORIAL: ADVERTISEMENT SALES: www.damm.dk Editorial director: Rahiel Nasir Senior sales executive: Andy London Designer: Alan McClenaghan [email protected] Turn to page 12 Contributors: Aditya Dhruva Tel: +44 (0) 1932 481731 to fi nd out more about DAMM Dave Howell Publishing apprentice: Jennifer Coates Editorial enquiries: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1932 481729 [email protected] Production & circulation: Production: Suzanne Thomas Publishing director: Kathy Moynihan [email protected] +44 (0) 1932 886537 Tel: +44 (0) 1932 481728 © 2016 Kadium Limited. All rights reserved. The content of this publication may not be reproduced in part or in whole, including photocopying, scanning and/or recording, or transmitted in any other form by any means including electronic, digital or mechanical, or stored in any form of data storage, archival or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright holders. All enquiries should be sent to Kadium Limited, Unit 2, 1 Annett Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, KT12 2JR, UNITED KINGDOM. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those shared by the publisher or the editor. E&OE. Printed in England by Henry Stone Ltd Register here for your free digital edition http://www.kadiumpublishing.com/forms/asia/sasia.htm NEWS Vietnam sees its fi rst 4G services Vietnam’s Ministry of Information in Vietnam to be fully covered scale as it did with 2G, and can and Communications (MIC) has with 100 4G BSTs. VinaPhone, offer low service fees thanks to awarded 4G licenses to VinaPhone, which is owned by the Vietnam “cheap” LTE devices. “For 2G Viettel, MobiFone and Global Post and Telecommunication and 3G, we had to buy equipment Telecommunications (Gtel). Group, is planning a wide rollout from telecom equipment suppliers. According to the Department of of 4G services in 2017 with 21,000 But now we can manufacture 4G Radio Frequencies, the country can BSTs to be installed nationwide. equipment. This is a big advantage only popularise 4G services as from Meanwhile Viettel, which is run when deploying 4G,” says Son. 2018. However, operators have said by Vietnam’s military, received its Minister of Information and From 2018, Viettel says it will that they can officially launch as 4G license on 14 October and has Communications Truong Minh Tuan replace imported products with soon as they receive their licenses. begun installing equipment and (right) presents a 4G license to ones that it has produced itself. VinaPhone has been commercially infrastructure. The company has been Nguyen Manh Hung, general manager The operator will also manufacture testing 4G mobile internet services testing 4G equipment in Ba Ria-Vung of military-owned operator Viettel. its own telecoms equipment. in Phu Quoc Island and Ho Chi Tau and Hanoi since late 2015 and Its target is to research, design Minh City since January 2016. now plans to deploy infrastructure in deputy general director Hoang and make 70 per cent of its own On 3 November, it became the Laos, East Timor and three provinces. Son says services will be officially infrastructure hardware by 2020. country’s first operator to offer The operator’s aim is to implement launched in the first quarter of 2017 At the time of writing, MobiFone LTE after launching services on 4G services with the most widespread and will cover the whole territory. announced 4G coverage in Hanoi, the 1800MHz band in Phu Quoc. coverage throughout the country in The company claims it can Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. The island is now the first locality the shortest period of time. Viettel provide 4G services on a large Gtel has yet to disclose its plans. Pre5G in Malaysia and ‘live’ 5G in the Philippines ZTE has carried out a live demo of its 12 litres, is claimed to be the world’s is building a bridge to 5G, enabling Manila Technology Centre in Quezon Pre5G equipment in Malaysia. And in smallest 4T4R remote radio unit. global operators and users to have an City, it leveraged the vendor’s a separate development, Smart claims The company says the technical early experience of high-speed service AirFrame data centre platform to to have achieved 5G speeds over a combination of 4x4 MIMO, 256 analogous to 5G in advance.” support high-performance and low- ‘live’ network in the Philippines. QAM, and five carrier aggregation Meanwhile in mid-December, PLDT latency requirements. At its VOICE Towards 2020 summit meant that the peak rate for a single subsidiary Smart said it had achieved Smart’s innovation team will contin- held at the end of November, ZTE UE reached a steady 1.75Gbps. 5G speeds of 2.5Gbps using 100MHz ue to collaborate with the Technology showcased its Pre5G FDD 1.75Gbps Speaking at the time, ZTE Malaysia with latency of just one millisecond. Centre to conduct joint research for solution using its R8854 which, at GM Ge Yuqiao said: “ZTE Pre5G In a demo conducted at the Nokia the development of 5G technology. Mobile operators prepare for software defi ned networks Nokia is helping two operators in the carrier SDN platform, it will also be able region to transform their networks by to provide flexible data services such using SDN technologies. as bandwidth-on-demand nationwide. In November, Dtac announced that Globe has recently gained access it will become Thailand’s first cellco to new LTE spectrum. As part of a to implement an SDN-ready IP/ separate agreement, it will also use optical network. The company will use Nokia’s help to transition to a flexible flagship products from Nokia to bolster cloud-based network infrastructure as its backbone to support a network that it prepares for IoT and 5G. will eventually deliver ultra-broadband The vendor will deploy its 4.5G Pro mobile access to more than 40 per technology using the 5G-ready AirScale cent of the country’s population. CTO Prathet Tankuranun says the deployment in Thailand is an important step base station and Flexi Zone small cells in Dtac needed a core network to handle in Dtac’s migration towards full SDN automation. the Visayas and Mindanao regions. This increased data demand, but also with will provide broadband access to some the open interfaces and the programma- advanced technologies, we’ve made with the “highest level” of service of these areas for the first time.