Issue 13 I January 2014

Carrier Communitye-magazine

Wholesales Industry & Community News

2

Editorial

Content

Wida Schmidt, CEO

Wholesale Industry NewsGCCM 2014 Events ReleaseCommunity News

p.03p.11p.12

CEO at Carrier Community

Wida Schmidt

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to announce the 1st January edition of 2014 e-magazine which outlines some industry latest news and reports including tyntec newsletter about Number Look Up as well as captures information about our 2014 club’s events, new member carriers joined the Carrier Community global club platform. We have also included the company profile of our new members using our online advertising service.Industry news and articlesOnce again, we have picked up a few telecom related industry news and articles to keep our members informed about the latest news happening in our industry.

Annual 2014 GCCM In our December e-magazine issue we have included our club’s press release which highlights our GCCM 2014 expansion plan in the new regions such as Middle East (Dubai 2014 GCCM) and to reach our members in CIS, C. & E. Europe as well as Scandinavia – we introduced our 1st edition – Berlin 2014 GCCM. At each 2014 GCCM, we expect 350+ carrier member executives representing. 15% of the attendees’ members represent C-Level, followed by 35% VP and 50% Director and Manager levels. We are honoured and proud to announce our official GCCM 2014 Sponsors confirmed till date: Carrier member companies – SingTel, PCCW Global, Verscom, Kryptos Global, Apelby Comunications, StarHub, Blueberry Telecom, Synectiv, Manor, BT (GTM), FL-Connect Voice, LANCK Telecom, WorldHub, Yabanad, Shengli, tyntec, Ivoice, Telefoonik, Epsilon Telecommunications, Xperttel, Fizan Telekom. Vendor Sponsor Partners- Digitalk, Voxvalley Technologies, Telarix and others. In the next pages and on our newly launched GCCM website: carriercommunityevents.com, we have highlighted further details about all official sponsors and GCCM 2014 club’s annual events.(New) Online Meeting Planner – as part of the GCCM events, we are opening our new online meeting planner for all 2014 GCCM events enabling our members attending to arrange their business meeting online and well ahead of the annual event’s date.

Online Advertising new membersIn our January 2014 issue, we have included the details of our new member carriers who is using our online advertising to promote their company logo and services.

Members joined in January 2014New members are joining our club every month. This month once again we have included the company names recently joined. To view their names and contact them, please view our last page or visit our exclusive Global Member Online Directory with over 2700 members from 1200+ carrier wholesale companies in 120+ countries. If you are a telecom operator, you can apply for FREE membership, please register on www.carriercommunity.com.

Our members feedback and comments are very important for us so please write tous so that we can further improve the services and grow this exclusive and global club.

Once again THANK YOU for all your support and trust.

Carrier Community GmbHT: +41 (0) 31 544 21 31// F: +41 (0) 31 560 40 90//Marktstrasse 10, 6060 Sarnen, Switzerland//info@carriercommunity.com//www.carriercommunity.com

3

PCCW Global- Press Release

HONG KONG, January 28, 2014 – PCCW Global, an international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, and 16 other prominent service providers around the world have come together to construct a new and unique high capacity cable system, Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1). AAE-1 interconnects Hong Kong, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe with a target ready for service date in 2016.

AAE -1 will be the first high capacity cable system to link all of the major South East Asian nations to Africa and Europe via the Middle East. It will facilitate and provide support for the unprecedented growth of Asia-Africa trade. Providing robust, reliable, low latency connectivity which underpins one of the highest growth and most active global trade routes, AAE-1 will also bring much needed protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested subsea cable systems connecting the various countries along the route.

PCCW Global plans to land the cable at the Cape D'Aguilar Cable Station in Hong Kong, and then extend connectivity to their city data center, making Hong Kong a key telecommunications hub in addition to Singapore and Marseille in France along the AAE-1 network.

Bringing together China Unicom, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat, Omantel, Ooredoo and many other major service providers from around the world, PCCW Global hosted a signing ceremony for the Construction and Maintenance Agreement in Hong Kong on January 27, 2014 to officially mark a new chapter of the AAE-1 Project.

This investment demonstrates PCCW Global’s ongoing commitment to investing in new capacity to support its customers’ needs. PCCW Global operates one of the world’s most diverse, high quality global networks, designed to serve the growing voice and data demands of both global service providers and multinational corporations. PCCW Global’s advanced network underpins a portfolio of innovative network, voice, video and cloud computing solutions designed to connect and facilitate the communications needs of global business.

Carrier Community GmbHT: +41 (0) 31 544 21 31// F: +41 (0) 31 560 40 90//Marktstrasse 10, 6060 Sarnen, Switzerland//info@carriercommunity.com//www.carriercommunity.com

4

PCCW Global Press Release

Mr. Alex Arena, HKT’s Group Managing Director, said, “Our investment in AAE-1 will further enhance our position in Hong Kong as a regional telecommunications hub, and will also improve the ability of PCCW Global’s international cable network to withstand natural disasters such as the massive earthquakes which have occurred in the region over the past few years. It will also help to address the ever-increasing demands of our mobile, data and video customers in Hong Kong who make use of our world-leading quadruple-play services.”

Mr. Marc Halbfinger, PCCW Global's Chief Executive Officer, said, “The AAE-1 project builds on our already extensive strategic cooperation with other consortium members. Not only will the construction of the AAE-1 complement our existing network and ensure added resilience and security, it will also provide us with new and extensive coverage for future expansion. In particular, it will provide much needed capacity to support the rapid growth that we are seeing in cloud computing and Content Delivery Networks (CDN), driven by our strong presence in the media industry. AAE-1 is set to revolutionize communications between Asia and Africa, and the rest of the world, and confirms PCCW Global’s commitment to invest in the region.” About PCCW GlobalPCCW Global is the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications service provider, which is majority-owned by PCCW Limited. Covering more than 3,000 cities and 130 countries, the PCCW Global network supports a portfolio of integrated global communications solutions which include Ethernet solutions, IP solutions, fiber and satellite transmission solutions, managed services and solutions, international voice and VoIPX services.PCCW Global maintains regional centers in Hong Kong, Herndon, Virginia in the US, Paris in France, London in the United Kingdom, Gosselies in Belgium, Johannesburg in South Africa, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Beijing in China, Tokyo in Japan, Seoul in Korea, Singapore, while our team maintains presence in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.To learn more about PCCW Global, please visit www.pccwglobal.com.

About HKTHKT (SEHK: 6823) is Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider. It meets the needs of the Hong Kong public and local and international businesses with a wide range of services including local telephony, local data and broadband, international telecommunications, mobile, and other telecommunications businesses such as customer premises equipment sale, outsourcing, consulting, and contact centers.Together with the highly successful media business of its parent company, PCCW Limited, HKT offers innovative media content and services across the PCCW Group’s unique quadruple-play platforms – fixed-line, broadband Internet access, TV and mobile.

Preferred

Discover

Partner

how tyntec can help you to shape opportunity in mobile and webtyntec enables companies to integrate SMS, voice and mobile numbers for a wide range of uses.Route traffic accurately and validate real-time subscriber information with tyntec’s Number Lookup.

Become a partner today:

Connect with us: www.tyntec.com or email: sales@tyntec.comMunich +49 89 202 451 100 - London +44 207 436 0283 - Singapore +65 6478 3020 - San Francisco +1 415 608 6127

Associate Sponsor

Meet us at 2014 GCCM Events

Room Special Price

GCCM 2014 Singapore16th-17th June 2014

*Room contingent limited, book by 15th April 2014Contact us for further information at:

events@carriercommunity.com

BOOK NOW$ 240*

Courtyard Room (single) $240*• Incl. breakfast • Internet access

Fullerton Hotel *****1 Fullerton Square, Marina Bay, 049178 Singapore

Wholesale Industry Newshttp://www.totaltele.com/

M1 Singapore says mobile data use spurred 2013 growth21 Jan 2014

The Singaporean wireless and broadband operator M1 has reported a 6.3% increase in ser-vice revenue for the year ended 31 December 2013, to SGD819.8 million (USD642.3 million). The results were driven by growth in post-paid mobile use and in its fixed customer base, as well as higher revenue from mobile data services. Operating reve-nue declined 6.4% year-on-year to SGD1.01 billion due to lower handset sales, while net profit after tax was up 9.4% y-o-y to SGD160.2 million.

The firm said that mobile data usage continued to grow in 2013 and revenue from non-voice services rose 4.0 percent-age points y-o-y to 41.6% of service revenue. As at end-2013, M1’s mobile customer base

stood at 2.11 million, with post-paid customer numbers growing by 35,000 over the twelve-month period. M1 also added 33,000 fibre broadband customers during the year to bring the subscriber total to 85,000 as at end-2013.

Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer of M1, commented: ‘Growth in 2014 will be driv-en by mobile data and fixed services. Mobile data will [in turn] be driven by customers upgrading their smartphone plans and [the] increasing adoption of smartphones by prepaid customers. Fixed ser-vices will benefit from the increasing fibre adoption in both the consumer and enter-prise segments.’

But the lack of chipsets and devices means it will not launch just yet.

SK Telecom on Monday said it is ready to upgrade its LTE-Advanced network to three-band carrier aggregation (CA), paving the way for theoretical peak connection speeds of 300 Mbps.

To achieve the faster speed, the operator combined one 20-MHz block of spectrum and two 10-MHz chunks of spec-trum, all in separate bands. It did not specify which spec-trum bands it will use. How-ever, chipsets and devices that can connect are still in devel-opment, and SK Telecom does not expect commercial prod-ucts to be available until the end of 2014.

Nevertheless, "with the suc-cessful development of 'LTE-Advanced three-band CA', SK Telecom further strengthens its global leadership in tel-

SK Telecom ready for three-band carrier aggregationMonday 20 January 2014

ecommunications technolo-gies," said Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and head of SK Telecom's network technology R&D centre. "SK Telecom will continue to make strenuous ef-forts to provide unmatched ser-vice quality and speeds, which will lead to the overall advance-ment of the telecommunica-tions industry."

In 2013, SK Telecom became the first operator in the world to commercially deploy LTE-A carrier aggregation, using two 10-MHz chunks of spectrum, one in the 1800-MHz band and one at 800 MHz. In November, it upgraded its network again by adding a further 10 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum into the mix.

At this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, SK Tel-ecom said it will demonstrate three-band CA using 20 MHz per carrier, which is capable of peak speeds of 450 Mbps.

7

News in brief

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm

Level 3

Epsilon Liberty Global AAE-1

www.telegeography.com

has acquired Ziggo, a Dutch provider of entertainment, information and communication through television, internet and telephony services. Ziggo serves around 2.8 million households, with 1.9 million internet subscribers, almost 2.3 million subscribers for digital television and 1.6 million telephony subscribers. Liberty Global will acquire Ziggo in a stock and cash transaction valuing Ziggo at approximately €10.0 billion ($13.7 billion).

has established a dedicated in-market commercial team based in Dubai focused on creating bespoke solutions for local service providers. Growing demand for IPX-based services and outsourced local access networks has made it necessary for Epsilon to further develop its presence in the Middle East. Clint Collins, Regional Director, Carrier Business MEA, will lead Epsilon’s local efforts in the region.

16 service providers around the world have come together to construct an undersea cable system called Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1). AAE-1 interconnects Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe with a target ready for service date in 2016. AAE -1 will be the first high capacity cable system to link all of the major South East Asian nations to Africa and Europe via the Middle East. It will facilitate and provide support for the unprecedented growth of Asia-Africa trade. Providing robust, reliable, low latency connectivity, which underpins one of the highest growth and most active global trade routes, AAE-1 will also bring much needed protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested subsea cable systems connecting the various countries along the route.

have signed a comprehensive telecoms infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure created by both parties. This will include optic fibre network – inter and intra city, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services and other such opportunities identified in the future. The cooperation is aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. This will also provide redundancy in order to ensure seamless services to customers of the respective parties.

has opened a Point of Presence (PoP) at Interxion’s London data centre campus as part of a wider company strategy to expand their international network. Global Transit, an Asian international bandwidth provider, provides high availability services through its content rich network to leading service providers and enterprises across the region. The company has existing PoPs in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA as part of its global service coverage. Consistent with its international ambitions, Global Transit sees Europe as its next key hub presence.

Global Transit

has signed an agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad, a t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s service provider in Malaysia, to provide internet localization services, which will enable TM to locally cache high-demand content on its network to enhance internet connectivity, network efficiency, reliability and security. As an extension of its high-speed internet services, Level 3's Internet Localization service combines the company's content delivery network (CDN) with deep edge caching and high-speed IP to efficiently route traffic on TM's network.

agreed to embed AT&T NetBond into select Equinix data centers. AT&T NetBond enables customers to connect to their cloud services using their private AT&T VPN networks, which deliver highly secure connections with high reliability and performance capabilities, rather than relying on access via the public Internet. The alliance will create the opportunity for cloud providers to allow access to their services via AT&T NetBond from Equinix data centers around the world.

AT&T and Equinix

have launched a 100 gigabits per second upgrade along the TGN-Pacific (TGN-P) submarine cable system that connects the US to Japan and three routes in the TGN-Intra-Asia (TGN-IA) market across Asia. With this latest in a series of investments, Tata Communications believes it is the only private subsea cable owner that has 100G deployed across major routes around the world on its own infrastructure.

Tata Communications and Ciena

has announced its first triple-location customer. Anexia has joined its US exchange in addition to its existing presence at DE-CIX Frankfurt and UAE-IX in Dubai. DE-CIX customers can connect to DE-CIX Exchanges in three different geographical and strategically important locations around the globe, with DE-CIX New York ready for service and welcoming new customers since November 2013.

DE-CIX Exchange

A Marketing Agency Built for Carrier Business

www.ilexcontent.com

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Website & Online Content

Public Relations

Social Media

Brochures

Presentations

Video

Advertising

Giving telecoms carriers the story, the content and the touch points to sell more

CON-TENT

MARKETING

SALES

PUBLIC SOCIALCONTENT

MARKETING

SALES

PUBLICRELATIONS

SOCIALMEDIA

Matthew Whalleymatthew@ilexcontent.comt: +44 203 624 8617@ilexcontent

Wholesale Industry Newshttp://www.totaltele.com/

Customers of Mobily (Eti-had Etisalat Company), a leading telecom operator in Saudi Arabia, will soon enjoy enhanced voice and data services with improved network connectivity and coverage. For this, the opera-tor has selected Nokia Solu-tions and Networks’ Single RAN (radio access network) and comprehensive ser-vices, including refarming of the GSM 900 MHz band to 3G. NSN will upgrade Mo-bily’s 2G, 3G (WCDMA) and TD-LTE networks in the central region including Ri-yadh, the largest city in the country.

Mobily

International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), the inter-national wholesale division of Deutsche Telekom AG, is an-nouncing the launch of a new point of presence (PoP) in Hong Kong. Based on ICSS’s Next Generation Voice international (NGVi) platform, this move ex-pands the company’s reach in the Asia Pacific region by pro-viding fast and reliable voice connectivity to Europe and the United States as well as within Asia. In addition, it lays the groundwork for future develop-

Deutsche Telekom opens new IP PoP in Hong Kong

ment of the Asian voice mar-ket.

Hong Kong continues to evolve as a leading global business hub, thus requiring expansion of reliable telecom-munication services. The new PoP fulfills that need while reducing transmission dis-tances and latency. Further-more it supports all major IP protocols. ICSS’s strong sales force located in Hong Kong and Singapore will be there to serve customers’ needs for high-quality termination.

ICSS aims to double its mar-ket share in Asia within three years.

“I believe this is a clear sig-nal of our intention to serve not only western markets, but all markets across the globe,” says Holger Magnussen, Sen-ior Vice President Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions. “At ICSS, we see great growth potential in the Asia-Pacific region, and we will persist in helping region-al clients expand their busi-ness opportunities.”

20 January 2014

9

Carrier Community GmbHT: +41 (0) 31 544 21 31// F: +41 (0) 31 560 40 90//Marktstrasse 10, 6060 Sarnen, Switzerland//info@carriercommunity.com//www.carriercommunity.com

A Marketing Agency Built for Carrier Business

www.ilexcontent.com

Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Website & Online Content

Public Relations

Social Media

Brochures

Presentations

Video

Advertising

Giving telecoms carriers the story, the content and the touch points to sell more

CON-TENT

MARKETING

SALES

PUBLIC SOCIALCONTENT

MARKETING

SALES

PUBLICRELATIONS

SOCIALMEDIA

Matthew Whalleymatthew@ilexcontent.comt: +44 203 624 8617@ilexcontent

Wholesale Industry Newshttp://www.telegeography.com/

MobiFone upgrades network ahead of Tet celebrations21 Jan 2014

China’s mobile sector has ex-panded by 11.1% year-on-year to 1.223 billion users, whilst a 3G boom has seen mobile data subscribers increase by 78.8% over the same period to 417.323 million, according to data pub-lished by the nation’s trio of wireless providers, China Mo-bile, China Unicom and China Telecom, for end-December 2013. China Mobile, the largest operator in the world by sub-scribers has continued to see its share of the overall market eroded by its smaller rivals, de-spite gains in the wireless data space. China Mobile registered a total of 767.206 million cus-tomers for end-2013, of which 191.623 million were 3G custom-ers, equating to a 62.2% share of the total sector and 45.9% of the 3G segment compared to 64.0% and 37.7% respectively twelve months earlier. China Mobile previously struggled to carry over its strength in the 2G mar-ket to the 3G segment, ham-strung by its decision to utilise the home-grown TD-SCDMA platform for mobile broadband services. The poor ecosystem for the technology initially held back the cellco from competing on level terms with Unicom and Telecom in the data sector, but concerted efforts from the

China Mobile flexes 3G muscles as market expands 78.8%

cellco in 2012/2013 to drasti-cally increase the availability and attractiveness of TD-SCD-MA-compatible handsets has begun to pay dividends for the mobile giant.

Whilst China Mobile has underperformed in the 3G segment, the smallest of the trio, CDMA operator China Telecom has punched well above its weight in the data sector and claimed nearly a quarter of the space at the end of 2013, with 103.110 million 3G subscribers in its total 185.580 million-strong customer base. Nevertheless, the reversal of China Mobile’s fortunes has begun to have an impact on Telecom, which saw its share of the data segment slide from 29.6% in December 2012 to 24.7% a year later. By contrast, Telecom saw an increase in its overall position, claiming 15.0% of the total market, up from 14.5% at end-2012. Uni-com meanwhile booked a to-tal of 280.983 million wireless subscribers at 31 December 2013, including 122.600 mil-lion 3G customers. This trans-lated to a 22.8% share of the total mobile market, up from 21.6% at end-2012, and 29.4% of the 3G segment, compared to 32.8% a year earlier.

21 Jan 2014

Vietnamese mobile operator MobiFone says it has completed work to upgrade, expand and optimise its networks in prepara-tion for the expected surge in demand for voice and data services during the Tet lunar new year festival. Part of the work includes the upgrade of 90% of its 3G network with HSPA+ technology, which enables data rates of up to 21Mbps download and 5.76Mbps upload, while capacity of the core 3G network has been increased by 10%. The company has also deployed additional base stations to ease congestion in high traffic areas.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has announced that from 1 February 2014 state-backed operator Afghan Telecom (Aftel) will reduce wholesale bandwidth prices by 30%, whilst cutting the cost of residential broadband services by 20%. On the wholesale front, the monthly price forSTM-1 (155Mbps) will drop from USD20,000 to USD14,000. Residential users meanwhile will see price cuts forDSL subscriptions

Aftel drops wholesale, residential internet prices21 Jan 2014

ranging from 256kbps connections – which will drop to AFN1,000 (USD17.6) – to 2Mbps, which will be AFN2,000 per month cheaper at AFN8,000. Commenting on the development ICT Minister Amirzai Sangin said: ‘Providing better and more advanced IT services to the people, at affordable rates is one of the goals of MCIT. We have put in lots of effort in this area and this tangible reduction in rate of internet is its clear result.’

GCCM 2014 London

GCCM 2014 Singapore

GCCM 2014 Dubai

Available: Bilateral Table I Meeting Rooms I Exhibit Space

GCCM Events 2014Mobile - Data - Voice - Telehouse - Terrestrial - Data Center

Meet 350+ global wholesales carrier executives

1st & 2nd April 2014

3rd & 4th March 2014

16th & 17th June 2014

GCCM 2014September 2014

Berlin

Carrier Community GmbHT: +41 (0) 31 544 21 31// F: +41 (0) 31 560 40 90//Marktstrasse 10, 6060 Sarnen, Switzerland//info@carriercommunity.com//www.carriercommunity.com

11

Community News

Carrier Call was founded in 2003 in Switzerland with the goal to revolutionize the way, telecommunication carriers work in the international and national interconnect wholesale business. The company's award winning XCarrier® platform enables operators to manage their inter-carrier trading relationships more effectively. Every carrier knows that the systems which underpin the trading and exchange of international voice traffic are exceedingly complex. But few appreciate the deep linkages that exist between all these business processes and systems. Because these systems are so closely intertwined, a single error in one application can have serious implications further on down the line. Carrier Call understands these linkages - the company is staffed with highly experienced telecoms software executives - and has developed from scratch a solution that can manage all voice traffic processes in one package.For further information or to schedule a live demo of the product, please contact Ms. Claudia Toth on +41 564434106 or fax +41 564434101 or send an e-mail to info@carriercall.com

Carrier Call

Members JoinedNew members from the following carriers joint the club recently. To learn more about them, please visit our online member directory.

• Zain• Deutsche Telekom

• Jazztel• tyntec

• Lexico-VOIP• Vrtelecom

• Singularity• Ibasis

Established in 2009, NGN CORP is a fast growing international voice carrier focusing on both wholesale and retail Voice over IP services. With offices in Lebanon and subsidiaries in Montreal Canada, and Nairobi Kenya, NGN CORP has successfully built over the years solid partnerships with selective Telecom Operators and wholesale voice carriers around the world. Our focus on quality directs to Middle East, Africa, and SEA, has positioned us as strategic suppliers to many Tier1 Telecom providers. We pride ourselves on a high quality of service with an emphasis on long standing relationships with our customers & partners.

NGN Corp

Is one of the best VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Service Provider focusing in Internet Telephony Solutions for businesses, VoIP reseller programs and VoIP carrier services across varied areas of expertise. We are dedicated to delivering Customer Management and Billing Solutions for entrepreneurs, carriers, VoIP Calling Card Operators and Corporate companies based on VoIP. Fizantel provides a bunch of best profitable VoIP solutions, which include world class quality VoIP Call Termination at cost-effective rates. It provides services like VoIP Termination, Wholesale Termination, VoIp Reseller, Callshop Reseller and A-Z Termination, All kind of VoIP Solution. Our vision is to emerge as a major VoIP Service Provider by integrating telephony system with the contemporary online world.

NGN Corp

Xperttel is a radical name in inno-vative Next Generation Network telecom Service Provider: target-ing Voice Over IP ( VoIP ) Aggrega-tion and other Value Added Facilities linked to them.

With a huge list of strong clientele in over 45 Countries around the globe, mainly in Asia, Middle East, Europe &Fareast, Xperttel offers unsurpassed services at an afford-able price so that every client could get the best value for money and in-crease their revenues

www.xperttel.comRizwan Bin Tahir, DirectorTel: +971-7-2077923Fax: +971-7-2041010E-mail: info@xperttel.com

www.carriercommunity.com

Carrier Community 2014