Three metro expansion projects and one bit of M&A news: … [visit site to read more]

Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata announced on Tuesday it has launched Dialog Pay, a unified payments and financial services ecosystem designed to boost adoption of digital payments.

Dialog Pay – which is an integrated platform within the MyDialog App, but also available as a standalone app – enables customers to make LankaQR payments, transfer funds, access their digital wallet, open savings accounts and fixed deposits, and apply for loans powered by Dialog Finance, without having to switch between multiple applications.

Customers can activate Dialog Pay with their eZ Cash accounts, or link their preferred bank account to the app.

Dialog Axiata said it is also rebranding its existing Genie digital wallet as Dialog Pay as part of the new launch.

Dialog Axiata group CEO Supun Weerasinghe said Dialog Pay supports the government’s recently launched Lanka QR Payment Promotion Programme to drive adoption of digital payments in Sri Lanka, and aims to make it easier for customers to manage payments and financial services.

“We are thankful to our partners for joining us in this national initiative and look forward to working alongside all stakeholders to accelerate digital payment adoption across the country,” he said in a statement.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) will extend the tenure of President Director and Chief Executive Officer Vikram Sinha for another five years, subject to shareholder approval at the company’s upcoming Annual General Meeting.

The operator said the decision reflects the board’s confidence in Sinha’s leadership as IOH moves into the “next phase of its transformation”, with artificial intelligence becoming a key focus of its business strategy.

Sinha has been with Indosat Ooredoo since 2019 and oversaw the operator’s massive merger in 2022, in which Indosat joined up with Hutchison 3 Indonesia.

Looking ahead, the company plans to increase investment in AI across its network, enterprise offerings and digital services, while supporting the development of Indonesia’s domestic AI ecosystem.

The board also reaffirmed its support for IOH’s long-term financial target of doubling EBITDA, signalling confidence in the company’s growth strategy.

“Indosat has demonstrated the value of consistent execution and long-term strategic focus,” said President Commissioner Nezar Patria. “As the company enters its next stage of growth, the Board remains confident in Vikram Sinha’s leadership and the management team’s ability to deliver sustainable value for shareholders and contribute to Indonesia’s digital development.”

IOH claimed that AI is already being deployed across Indosat’s operations to improve network performance, automate internal processes, optimise capital investment and enhance customer engagement through more personalised digital services.

The operator is also expanding beyond connectivity by building capabilities in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and enterprise digital solutions. As part of this strategy, IOH  developed its sovereign AI initiatives, including open source LLM Sahabat-AI, NeoCloud and GPU cloud services, supported by partnerships with technology companies such as Nvidia.

Another priority is the development of a distributed AI computing infrastructure using Indosat’s nationwide network and data centre assets. The company says this will provide enterprises, developers and public sector organisations with greater access to AI computing resources across Indonesia.

Papua New Guinea saw movement on the 5G front on Friday after Digicel PNG announced its mobile network is now officially 5G-ready, while the country’s regulator released two draft plans for 5G spectrum bands.

Digicel PNG announced it has completed end-to-end 5G readiness testing on its network, with the results validating its network’s capability to deliver 5G connectivity.

Digicel PNG said its network achieved peak download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps during the trials.

Digicel PNG’s interim CEO Brett Goschen said the test results demonstrate that its network will be able to deliver 5G benefits to customers, including HD and ultra-HD streaming, enhanced mobile gaming and real-time experiences via lower latency, and more reliable connectivity for businesses, whilst also paving the way for future digital services and innovation across industries.

“The successful completion of our 5G readiness testing marks a significant milestone for Digicel PNG and for the country’s digital evolution,” Goschen said in a statement. “It confirms that our network is fully prepared to support the next generation of mobile technology, delivering faster speeds, improved responsiveness, and greater reliability for our customers.”

That said, Goschen added that while the network is ready to launch 5G, commercial availability is still some time away, saying only that details of a commercial launch “will be shared at a later stage.”

Papua New Guinea’s National Information and Communications Technology Authority (NICTA) has yet to issue definite plans to assign 5G spectrum and allocate new licences, having been focused on expanding the reach of 4G and enabling Starlink services in unserved areas.

However, also on Friday, NICTA issued a public consultation notice on two draft papers proposing to use the 2300-MHz and 3500-MHz spectrum bands for 4G and 5G services.

Under the proposals, telcos would need to acquire a spectrum licence, which will be good for between five and 15 years, and an apparatus licence for the base stations, which would be valid for five years.

Comments are due on July 15, but no timeline has been given on when NICTA plans to award licences for either band.

Chile telecoms regulator Subtel has this week announced plans to expand competition in satellite services in Chile and to incorporate new bands to improve connectivity.

Subtel – the country’s Undersecretariat of Telecommunications – has published a modification to the technical standard that regulates the fixed satellite service, incorporating new frequency bands for its operation in the country.

This means that as well as established bands such as Ku and Ka for satellite service, the ruling has expanded to incorporate new frequency ranges that include the W band (ranging from 75 to 110GHz). In the coming days Subtel says it will publish plans to incorporate the V band (40 to 75GHz).

In practice, this will permit an expansion of the capacity of satellite networks, improve data transmission and strengthen satellite connectivity, especially in remote and rural areas or areas with less access to terrestrial infrastructure such as fibre optics or 5G.

Subtel says this change is also part of its agenda aimed at facilitating the deployment of infrastructure and accelerating the adoption of new technologies, particularly in rural and remote areas, with the aim of promoting investments that improve the quality of networks, and thus the quality of life of people.

The measure applies in general to all operators and satellite internet service companies that already operate in Chile – including Starlink and HughesNet – as well as to new companies that may join the market in the future. The hope is that the updated ruling will attract more investment and strengthen the regulatory framework by making it more modern and competitive.

The Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Romina Garrido, explains that with more radio spectrum “satellite services can operate more efficiently, support a greater volume of traffic and offer better services to people”. This will show itself, he says, “in more stable connections, higher speed and shorter network response time, in addition to more resilient connectivity against emergencies or interruptions, complementing the telecommunications infrastructure that already exists in Chile, especially for isolated and rural areas”.

Meta’s introduction of usernames for WhatsApp has hit a snag in India, as the government seeks to crack down on anonymous messaging as part of a wider campaign against fraud on global technology platforms.

India is Meta’s largest WhatsApp market and the company began rolling out usernames globally last week, allowing users to create a unique username instead of sharing their phone number. The feature also allows users to adopt their Instagram username, making it easier to connect across Meta’s platforms.

However, Reuters reported the Indian government has ordered WhatsApp to justify the feature and halt its rollout in the country while officials assess its impact. In a letter seen by Reuters, authorities gave the company three days to respond and argued that usernames could make it easier for fraudsters to carry out phishing attacks and impersonate users without revealing their phone numbers.

The move follows India’s temporary ban on Telegram last month over similar concerns that anonymous messaging was facilitating cybercrime. Telegram ultimately lost a legal challenge against the suspension.

The government’s letter warned that WhatsApp could lose legal protections under India’s IT laws if it failed to comply with due diligence requirements. Officials argued the username feature could materially increase online fraud by making it harder to identify malicious users.

WhatsApp said the feature is not yet live and will be introduced gradually later this year. The company stressed users will still need a phone number to register an account, while people will only be able to message others if they know their exact username. It added that safeguards against scams include limits on how many new users an account can contact and protections against repeated attempts to guess usernames.

The dispute marks the latest clash between India and major technology platforms as the government tightens oversight of online services. It also comes just a week after Meta appointed CRED founder Kunal Shah as WhatsApp’s global head, highlighting India’s strategic importance to the platform.

There was some interesting fiber M&A in one of the biggest infrastructure markets in the world the other day. SummitIG has announced the acquisition of Dark Fiber & Infrastructure. SummitIG is majority owned by SDC Capital Partners, while DF&I was part of the portfolio at Blue Owl Capital, and the two both have substantial assets in northern Virginia. … [visit site to read more]

Less than a year after its commercial launch, the BoGuan multimodal large language model (LLM) designed for cultural tourism in China has entered broad application in Xi’an, and is generating real revenues and value for the tourism industry.

As one of the oldest cities in China with a rich cultural heritage, Xi’an is one of the most popular international tourist destinations in China. The city has increasingly turned to digital technologies to enable visitors and scholars to access cultural relics and better engage with the region’s rich history whilst also preserving its history.

Shaanxi Culture Industry Investment Group (SCG) has been working with partners like Huawei, China Telecom Shaanxi, and China West Airport Group (CWAG) to promote digital and intelligent cultural tourism by leveraging advanced technologies like AI and 5G-A to create numerous new services for visitors.

On the AI side of that initiative, SCG and Huawei unveiled the BoGuan LLM in September 2025, billing it as the world’s first commercial multimodal LLM for cultural tourism, as well as China’s first model dedicated specifically to preserve cultural heritage.

Inside BoGuan

The BoGuan LLM is built on intelligent computing infrastructure and a high-quality dataset that includes over 1.2 PB of data – including 31 million images, 4.4 million minutes of video footage, 2.18 million minutes of audio recordings, 510 3D models, and 960 million pieces of structured text.

With that dataset, BoGuan can generate highly-accurate multimodal content, such as museum-quality content about cultural relics. This capability enables it to support creation of new digital relic presentations, digitalization and preservation of traditional craftsmanship, and creation of digital IP for intangible cultural heritage.

BoGuan has also been used to develop a range of cultural tourism apps that unlock the business value of quality cultural tourism data.

For example, BoGuan powers an AI travel companion agent that had been made available to over 4 million users as of March 2026. Visitors can directly talk with this agent on the GO-SHAANXI app to create and adjust their travel itineraries in Xi’an, and get real-time recommendations for performances at various attractions.

Another app created using BoGuan is the Zhiying Camera mini programme – an AI-powered photography service that instantly integrates user photos with AI-generated scenes from history, allowing visitors to « time travel” to ancient times.

The BoGuan LLM has also been used to create digital IP such as the popular cartoon character Tang Biaobiao, which was designed by integrating local cultural heritage elements with the stone carvings of the Six Steeds of Zhao Mausoleum. As a testament of Tang Biaobiao’s popularity, sales of related digital collectibles and creative products have exceeded CNY2 million (almost US$295,000).

Meanwhile, SCG is also using BoGuan to integrate short drama production with cultural tourism and improve production efficiency and quality in Xi’an, which is also arenowned short drama hub.

“Artificial intelligence is not simply a stack of technologies,” said Edric Chu, General Manager of Huawei’s Shaanxi Rep Office. “It has become a key enabler that can activate thousands of years of cultural heritage, reshape travel experiences, and inject new momentum into the industry.”

Powered by 5G-A

All of these BoGuan-powered digital tourism apps for Xi’an are backed by a 5G-A network deployed by China Telecom Shaanxi and Huawei – particularly in Xi’an’s Grand Tang Mall, a ang-style pedestrian street located at the foot of the iconic Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and one of the most popular tourist attractions in China.

The 5G-A network is based on three component carrier (3CC) aggregation technology, delivering peak uplink and downlink rates of 600 Mbps and 3.5 Gbps, respectively – about 10 times faster than regular 5G networks.

As an example of the network’s performance capabilities, during the 2026 May Day “golden week” holiday, the network in the Grand Tang Mall supported concurrent access for 23,000 users, guaranteeing smooth video watching and social media experiences.

This is especially important given that HD live streaming at the Grand Tang Mall has become an important way for the attraction to bring in new visitors, which 5G-A is more than capable of supporting. According to public data, the average user dwell time of these live streams has nearly doubled, while the average transaction value has increased by 62%.

Edric Chu added, “Moving forward, Huawei will continue working with our partners to enhance cultural heritage preservation with digital and intelligent technologies, and stimulate development within the cultural tourism industry.”

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Stephen Douglas, Head of Market Strategy, Spirent, a Keysight company

Most of the energy conversation in our industry right now is about consumption. How much power AI data centers will pull, where the chips go, whether the models can run cheaper. Fair questions. But there’s a quieter shift underneath them that I think matters more for telecom operators, and it has nothing to do with how much energy they use. It’s about energy they could supply. … [visit site to read more]