Analysts believe CBN will not affect current telco’s business
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology awarded a telecommunications license to state-owned broadcaster CBN. With this approval, CBN can now compete with established telecom firms China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
The MIIT said it awarded CBN a basic telecommunications business license with the aim of expanding the telecom and broadcasting markets, and promoting additional competition between telcos. Through the new licence, CBN will be able to offer domestic Internet data transmission and telecoms infrastructure services. However, analysts do not expect CBN to have a significant impact in the business of the three current operators in the near term.
“We do not think CBN will become a major threat to existing telecom operators in the near term, unless CBN can resolve its own financial bottlenecks and complete the process of national television and broadcasting network consolidation,” said Nomura analyst Leping Huang in a research note, Reuters reported.
According to the analyst, the Chinese broadcaster will spend CNY20 billion ($3.07 billion) in telecom investments this year, which represents 5% of China’s total spending in the sector.
China Mobile, the world’s largest telecoms operator, counted 833.8 million total mobile subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2016, including 376.5 million LTE subscribers. Rival operator China Telecom ended Q1 with 202.6 million total mobile subscribers, including 74.91 million LTE users, as well as 116.2 million wireline broadband connections and 132.8 million fixed line customers. Meanwhile, China Unicom ended Q1 with 258.9.6 million mobile subscribers, including 59.3 million LTE subscribers, 73.4 million broadband connections and 72 million fixed line customers.
XL Axiata selects Amdocs solution to enhance mobile financial services platform
In other APAC news, Indonesian telecoms operator XL Axiata selected Amdocs Mobile Financial Services solution to enhance its existing XL Tunai mobile financial services platform and introduce new services under a seven-year managed services and revenue-sharing contract.
Amdocs’ solution is said to allows XL Tunai customers across Indonesia to use a single wallet for all financial services including airtime top up, money transfers, credit purchases, and online and retail payments. In the future, XL Tunai customers will also be able to pay for TV media service, insurance and travel purchases.
Under terms of the agreement, Amdocs will deploy and operate its MFS system, which will replace XL Axiata’s homegrown legacy system, under a dedicated managed services model. The agreement includes delivery of the overall solution, including technical design, hardware acquisition, system implementation and third-party system integration.
