Thai telco True Corp announced on Thursday it has partnered with the Ministry of Public Health to launch True SkyBridge, an autonomous air logistics management platform designed to support medical drones delivering medical supplies to remote areas.

The prototype SkyBridge platform, designed and developed by True’s Research and Innovation Center, connects hospitals, medical service units, public health personnel and the public to the autonomous air logistics system underlying the drone service.

True SkyBridge supports multi-brand drones and carries full-function AI-driven flight data and safety systems over True’s network, said Ekaraj Panjavinin, head of research and innovation at True Corp.

“True SkyBridge provides end-to-end management of medical transport missions, covering route planning, medical payload quality monitoring, real-time flight tracking, fleet management and control, drone readiness and safety systems, as well as automated documentation that records the time and coordinates throughout each flight,” Ekaraj said in a statement.

True kicked off the launch of True SkyBridge with two live drone flights along different routes in the Pua District of Nan Province, which features mountainous terrain, winding roads along mountainsides and cliffs, and scattered communities, all of which are prone to heavy rainfall, landslides, or flash floods that can disrupt ground transportation routes.

For one route, a drone delivered medicine for patients with non-communicable diseases from Phaya Pha Nong Stadium to Ban Rong Ngae Community Square, then returned with medical samples. The flight covered a round-trip distance of 4 km and took approximately 3.5 minutes, 50% faster than transportation by road which takes around seven minutes.

The second route – which demonstrated the delivery of medicines to a remote area where land transport routes had been cut off – ran across steep mountains, cliffs, and dense forests from Phaya Pha Nong Stadium to Ban Nam Pua School. The round-trip distance was 46 km and took approximately 35 minutes – 70% faster than transportation by road that usually take more than two hours.

“The platform enables the fast and seamless delivery of medicines, medical supplies, and medical samples on every mission. It is also designed to provide high levels of safety and full traceability, with the potential to scale into a nationwide network in the future,” Ekaraj said.

True SkyBridge has regulatory support from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (AEROTHAI, which provides air traffic control and aeronautical communications services) and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

Narin Kalayanamit, an adviser to the public health minister, said True SkyBridge will support Thailand’s medical and public health services by ensuring that everyone has thorough, equitable, and quality access to healthcare services, particularly people in frontier, remote, and underserved areas facing medical access restrictions.

“In the past, flight trials were successfully conducted in coastal areas, which demonstrated a significant reduction in both time and constraints of maritime transportation,” he said. “Therefore, medical drones serve as another approach to elevate public access to healthcare services, while effectively enhancing readiness in handling emergency and disaster situations.”

Narin said the service will be expanded to ten additional remote areas, and further integrated into the healthcare service system.

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) has reportedly ruled that Reliance Jio’s proposal to build a domestic LEO satellite constellation to compete with the likes of Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Amazon Leo is technically sound.

According to a report from ETTelecom published Friday, citing anonymous government sources, IN-SPACe), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) arm of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have evaluated Jio’s plan and found it to be “on par” with systems like Starlink.

Neither Reliance Jio nor IN-SPACe have confirmed the report as of post time.

According to the report, Jio’s plan – which first surfaced last month – calls a constellation of 1,600 LEO satellites, with 32 satellites visible at any given time, while the constellation will be designed to offer a bandwidth capacity of between 4.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps. Jio is also proposing to set up at least 20 ground stations to support the LEO constellation.

The nod of approval from IN-SPACe means the Indian government can now provide regulatory support for Jio as it submits filings to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to secure the orbital slots, the report said.

While global operators like Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Amazon Leo are building far bigger LEO constellations, Jio’s main advantage is that the Indian government is keen to expand its self-reliance strategy to the LEO sat space.

The report said that apart from finding Jio’s proposal technically sound, IN-SPACe also sees merit in the national security and strategic defence implications of not having to rely on foreign operators for LEO satellite services.

The report also claims the government is discussing whether some of the LEO satellites in its network could carry defence payloads.

The Indian government appears to be caught between its view that LEO satellites can expand broadband connectivity to underserved and unserved across the country, and its growing concerns over national security in light of its ongoing tensions with China and Pakistan, as well as growing geopolitical tensions in general.

Last month, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) expressed concerns over possible signal spillage of foreign satellite services across India’s borders, which it said raises national security concerns.

In November last year, IN-SPACe reportedly rejected applications from Chinasat, APT Satellite (Apstar) and AsiaSat to offer satellite services in India, citing national security.

Starlink obtained a GMPCS licence in June 2025 to offer satellite communications services in India, as well as authorisation from IN-SPACe. It’s already signed reseller deals with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. However it has yet to secure security clearances from the government over issues such as compliance with foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations, to cite a recent example.

Eutelsat OneWeb and SES both have GMPCS licences, the latter via SES’s satellite venture with Jio. Amazon Leo’s application for a GMPCS licence is reportedly still be evaluated by the DoT.

Two data center projects and two regional fiber buildouts: … [visit site to read more]

China’s smartphone market fell 4.3% year-on-year to 66 million shipments in the second quarter of 2026, marking a fifth consecutive quarter of decline as rising memory and component costs pushed up device prices, according to IDC.

The research firm said component prices began climbing in late March, while government subsidies that had supported demand in previous quarters started to fade. The combination weakened consumer demand and forced most Android smartphone vendors to raise prices.

Huawei and Apple were the notable exceptions, keeping market broadly stable during the quarter. IDC suggested this helped both vendors attract consumers who were hesitant to buy amid rising prices elsewhere in the market.

Huawei regained the top spot with a 22.6% market share after shipments climbed 19.4% year-on-year. Apple followed with an 18.1% share, posting 24.4% growth. Oppo and Vivo tied for third place with 16% market share despite recording shipment declines, while Xiaomi ranked fifth with 12.4%. Samsung finished 10th with just 0.1% market share after shipments plunged 60% – the steepest decline among the top 10 vendors.

First-half smartphone shipments totalled around 134 million units, down 4.2% compared to the same period last year.

“Huawei and Apple held their prices steady while competitors were raising theirs, and that gave hesitant buyers a reason to go ahead and purchase in a quarter when most of the market was giving them a reason to wait,” said Arthur Guo, Research Analyst, Client Devices Research at IDC China.

Looking ahead, IDC warned that pricing pressures are expected to intensify. Vendors have so far been cushioned by inventories of lower-cost components purchased before prices increased, but those stockpiles are being depleted. As a result, the research firm expects the year-on-year market decline to widen to around 20% in the second half of 2026.

IDC also expects 2027 to remain challenging as storage prices are unlikely to ease significantly. However, it noted that consumer demand has been delayed rather than destroyed, with a new smartphone replacement cycle expected to drive a market recovery between 2028 and 2029.

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The government of Trinidad and Tobago says it has signed MoUs with US companies Ernst & Young and Hummingbird AI Holdings to develop AI-ready data centres and infrastructure in the country with at least 450MW of load capacity.

According to a Facebook post from United National Congress (the political party of prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar) on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs signed an MoU with Ernst & Young to create a framework for collaborating on developing large-scale data centres and supporting infrastructure.

Under the framework, EY will leverage its Energy to Intelligence (E2I) platform to develop a 300 MW data centre. EY will also partner with third parties for the project.

Meanwhile, the ministry’s MoU with Hummingbird AI also establishes a framework to develop a proposed 150 MW AI infrastructure and data-centre facility, with potential longer-term expansion to 500 MW.

Initial commercial operation for the latter facility is tentatively targeted for the first quarter of 2028. That said, both projects will undergo due diligence before the government decides to proceed with either.

Trinidad and Tobago currently has five data centres – four in Port of Spain, and one in Prince Town. According to Data Center Map, the data centres in Port of Spain are all Tier III compliant.

The UNC post said that the MoUs – combined with a third MoU with Pinnacle Steel and Vanadium to refurbish and recommission its recently acquired iron and steel plant at Point Lisas into a vanadium plant – could represent a combined potential investment exceeding US$5 billion over the coming years that will generate in excess of 5,000 new jobs, provided any of them make it past the due-diligence stage.

According to a report in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath addressed concerns raised in several media reports, including one from the Associated Press, that the data centre projects would impact Trinidad and Tobago’s water supply, which is already plagued by chronic shortages.

Padarath said the proposed data centres won’t have a negative impact on the country’s water security, as the government intends to build the data centres in a special economic zone – possibly Debe – where special ponds will be constructed to supply water to the data centres, along with desalinisation plants as a longer-term backup resource for the country in general.

« We will have a hybrid system in terms of utilising the ponds in the first instance that are created, the man-made ponds, and then if additional water supply is needed by then the desalination plants would come on stream, » Padarath was quoted as saying in the report.

Little is known about Hummingbird AI, except that managing member Marc-Kwesi Farrel – who is named in the government press release as a signatory – is the founder and CEO of Ten To One Rum. He is also a non-executive director of Caribbean-focused investment holding and management company Massy Holdings, whose main portfolios are focused on retail, gas products, motors and machines, and financial services.

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Jio Platforms has reportedly appointed long-time executive Pankaj Pawar as its new CEO, replacing Kiran Thomas ahead of the company’s expected initial public offering.

According to The Economic Times, citing draft IPO documents filed with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, Thomas stepped down on 23 March, with Pawar assuming the role the following day.

Pawar currently serves as managing director of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary that operates the Jio mobile network. The IPO filing credits him with more than 30 years of experience building and scaling consumer and digital businesses.

Jio Platforms is the digital holding company that owns Reliance Jio Infocomm, as well as Reliance Industries’ digital businesses spanning telecoms, digital services and technology investments.

The Economic Times reported that Thomas no longer features among Jio Platforms’ key executives in the IPO filing, despite having been a prominent figure at Reliance Industries’ annual general meetings since the launch of Jio Platforms.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to serve as chairman and non-executive director of Jio Platforms following the listing.

According to the report, Jio Platforms is targeting an IPO that could raise around US$4 billion, making it one of India’s largest public offerings in recent years.

Two bits of M&A and a minority stake: … [visit site to read more]

Malaysian broadband operator Time dotCom announced on Friday it has formalised a strategic Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with local cybersecurity services company LGMS to strengthen Malaysia’s cybersecurity ecosystem.

Under the MoC, Time and LGMS aim to establish an integrated cybersecurity collaboration framework tailored to Malaysia’s regulatory, operational and threat environment, as well as joint innovation in AI-powered cybersecurity technologies, threat intelligence, security analytics and advanced security operations.

The framework is intended to help enterprises, public sector organisations and regulated industries strengthen cyber resilience, improve operational readiness and support secure digital transformation, said LGMS founder and MD Fong Choong Fook.

“Cybersecurity today requires more than individual technologies. Organisations need an integrated engagement framework that brings together advisory, governance, continuous monitoring, incident response and operational intelligence,” he said in a statement. “By partnering with Time, we are combining complementary strengths to deliver cybersecurity capabilities designed specifically for Malaysia’s regulatory and operational environment.”

Time and LGMS said the collaboration will also focus on developing joint cybersecurity go-to-market initiatives to accelerate cybersecurity adoption across Malaysian enterprises and public sector organisations, and strengthening Malaysia’s digital sovereignty through locally hosted infrastructure, sovereign AI capabilities and local cybersecurity expertise.

Time and LGMS also aim to develop capabilities through knowledge exchange, skills development and operational readiness initiatives.

The project will combine Time’s digital infrastructure, secure connectivity, managed security operations centre (SOC) capabilities and network intelligence with LGMS’ cybersecurity advisory, governance, risk and compliance, security assessment, threat intelligence and incident response expertise, said Azhar Adnan, CEO of Time’s Enterprise & Public Sector unit.

“Cybersecurity is no longer just about protecting systems. It is about enabling organisations to innovate with confidence,” he said in a statement. “As businesses embrace AI, cloud and digital transformation, trusted digital infrastructure becomes the foundation that underpins resilience, governance and business continuity.”