New Zealand telecommunications firm Spark has formally announced its 5G rollout plans. The operator has outlined a detailed schedule in relation to its 5G strategy which includes its plans to open a 5G innovation lab later this year.
Industry News
Apple loses the second largest smartphone maker title to Huawei
Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG), the global smartphone giant, overtook Apple in second quarter of 2018 to become number two smartphone vendor globally for the first time. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide, Huawei earned 15.8 per cent market ahead of Apple at 12.1 per cent.
Tech investment sales drive SoftBank’s earnings
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank announced a 49% increase in its profit in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2018, driven by the sale of its share in Indian online retailer Flipkart by its Vision Fund, in addition to the sale of most of the Chinese operations of chip design unit ARM Holdings.
Profit turns into net loss – ZTE revises Q1 results
ZTE revised its Q1 results to announce that what was a profit has turned into a significant net loss of more than CNY5.4 billion ($790 million, due to the impact of the recent US trade ban.
Huawei keen to become the world’s top smartphone maker
China's Huawei said it could replace Samsung as the world's top smartphone maker by late next year, just days after data showed it surpassed Apple for the number-two spot despite being essentially barred from the key US market.
The world’s largest 5G deal announced
T-Mobile and Nokia announced a landmark $3.5 billion agreement to accelerate the deployment of a nationwide 5G network. Nokia will provide T-Mobile with its complete end-to-end 5G technology, software and services portfolio, assisting the Un-carrier in its efforts to bring its 5G network to market for customers in the critical first years of the 5G cycle.
NTT Docomo exceeds expectations in Q1
Japan's largest mobile telecommunications group, NTT Docomo, said it had posted a net profit of up to 9,2% over a year in the first quarter of its 2018/19 fiscal year, thanks to a surge in the number of subscribers to its offers. The company also highlighted that it had benefited from an increase in revenues related to its fiber optics services.
Samsung Electronics profit dips as phone sales fall
Samsung Electronics said its second quarter net profit dipped slightly from a year earlier, with a fall in smartphone sales mitigated by strong demand for its memory chips.
Google aims for a comeback in China with censor-friendly search engine
Google is crafting a search engine that would meet China's censorship rules after it withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking. However, it is now working on a project for the country codenamed “Dragonfly”.
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to pay $1b to expedite merger
According to the Economic Times, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular paid INR 73 billion ($1 billion) in a combination of cash and bank guarantees to the country’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in order to clear the last major obstacle related to the pair’s delayed merger.