PLDT: No fraudulent capex spending
31 March 2023

PLDT has stated that there was no fraudulent activity in relation to its PHP48 billion capex overspending last year, but profit fell in its full 2022 financial year due to the overrun.
The operator said in a stock exchange filing that it had completed a forensic review of the elevated capex spend in December. It was conducted by an external party, focusing on the financial year between 2019-20.
PLDT stated that it found: “no evidence of fraud, intentional concealment, or bad faith conduct on the part of any employee of the company and no basis to restate the company’s historical financial statements.”
Find out moreBangladesh: mobile subscribers up
23 March 2023

Government data shows that mobile subscriber numbers in Bangladesh grew for the second consecutive month in February 2023 after falling by more than 4 million in the second half of 2022 due to market leader Grameenphone facing a ban on selling SIMs.
The four operators in the nation added 1.8 million subscribers in February for a total of 182.6 million, following a gain of 600,000 in January, as per data from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
Subscriber numbers in 2022 peaked at 184.5 million in in June. Grameenphone was barred from selling SIMs the following month, with the restriction lifted at the beginning of 2023. The operator’s subscriber base declined by 5.5 million in the second half 2022. During the period, only Banglalink managed to add users (1.4 million), with Robi Axiata losing 130,000 and Teletalk about 60,000 compared with the first half of 2022. The full-year tally was down by nearly 1 million.
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10 March 2023

Reliance Jio subsidiary Radisys has acquired fixed wireless access (FWA) specialists Mimosa Networks for US$60 million from Airspan Networks, to move to accelerate Jio’s telecom network product development.
Mimosa’s 56 employees will be kept on by Radisys.
“Over the years, our collaboration with Airspan has resulted in groundbreaking architectures for high-speed connectivity for both the end user and for backhaul applications,” said Reliance Jio president Mathew Oommen. “The acquisition of Mimosa will further accelerate Jio’s innovation and leadership in the production of telecom network products that deliver value to consumers and enterprises across the globe with cost-effective, rapidly deployable fixed and mobile broadband.”
Find out more03 March 2023

Indonesia’s Telkomsel is boosting its collaboration with ZTE, with the two parties signing an MoU that will see them jointly develop enterprise 5G services.
Telkomsel and ZTE will develop a portfolio of innovative product and service solutions by adopting Cloud PC technology that can implement virtualisation, centralised management, and sharing of computing, storage, and network resources. Scheduling through the cloud data centre enables the effective use of virtual desktops. It can maximise computing for both companies and the public. In addition, the two companies will also explore opportunities for cooperation in the study of 5G Air-to-Ground network technology which apart from being able to provide high-speed yet affordable broadband services for airline passengers, is also expected to increase the efficiency and security of airline operations.
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