Author: Alfie Amir

Alfie Amir is a senior analyst in Current Analysis Group. He is responsible for research, consulting and analysis focusing on market and technology trends, competitive analysis and account-based intelligence for ICT spending and modeling future investments. He also works across several trackers (e.g., fixed, mobile and IT) providing market sizing, forecasts and insights across the region. Alfie is quoted regularly in trade press and is a regular speaker at conferences, workshops and other industry events.

TM 5G Showcase Langkawi: Leading the 5G Race in Malaysia

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network, Secure
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • The 5G race in Malaysia is heating up with various initiatives announced by service providers.
  • Telekom Malaysia (TM) edges out the competition by leveraging its existing ICT portfolio, professional service capabilities, and R&D to offer end-to-end solutions.

The 5G scene in Malaysia is heating up, as the market is only a few months away from expected commercial availability. The regulator, MCMC, recently announced that 5G will be available to users by July 2020. Since the kickoff of the 5G Demonstration Project (5GDP) by MCMC in September of last year, the telcos have been making regular announcements about their progress. These include Celcom’s partnership with the police and municipal council on a smart city deployment in Langkawi, Digi’s launch of its 5G OpenLab in Cyberjaya, Maxis’ 3 Gbps in C-band 5G trial spectrum, and TM’s collaboration with players from other verticals to co-develop 5G applications in Subang and Langkawi. While MCMC has outlined 55 use cases in 32 sites across six states for the 5GDP, Langkawi has been the center of the attention, as the service providers placed most of their resources for their 5G initiatives on the island. Continue reading “TM 5G Showcase Langkawi: Leading the 5G Race in Malaysia” →

TM Collaborates with Eight Players Across Different Verticals to Develop 5G Use Cases in Langkawi

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• TM announced its 5G collaboration with eight players from different industries: government, hospitality, and retail.

• Apart from mixed reality and video, TM should also develop applications that leverage other 5G benefits (e.g., URLLC, network slicing, and edge-compute).

TM is making a major milestone in its 5G journey with its collaboration with the Majlis Perbandaran Langkawi Bandaraya Pelancongan (the city council) and Langkawi Development Authority, Jabatan Laut Malaysia (Malaysia Marine Department) as well as several other hospitality and retail players including Haji Ismail Group, Nadias Hotel, Hotel Ayda Chenang, The Loaf Asia, and Artisans Pizza. The collaborations focus on smart city and smart tourism use cases such as smart traffic light, smart parking, smart safety and security, smart retail analytics, and smart vehicle management solutions. These applications are running on the carrier’s trial standalone (SA) 5G network on 700MHz (the first SA 5G network in the country).

Continue reading “TM Collaborates with Eight Players Across Different Verticals to Develop 5G Use Cases in Langkawi” →

The 5G Race Is Heating Up in Malaysia, but Commercial Availability Remains Unclear

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Network
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • Malaysia is a step closer to seeing commercial 5G, with the various live trials and commercial partnerships by the regulator and telcos.
  • 5G could drive the current fixed-mobile convergence trend in the country. However, spectrum availability remains unclear and could delay the commercial availability of the technology.

The 5G Race Is Heating Up

The regulator, MCMC, has been proactive in driving 5G in Malaysia. It has created – and leads – the 5G working group, which facilitates collaborations to roll out 55 5G use cases across 32 cities, and it is looking to bring forward spectrum allocation for the technology from 2021 to the second half of 2020. Apart from the various initiatives by the regulator, the telcos are beefing up their preparations for the technology. The mobile market leader, Maxis, signed a partnership with Huawei in October to deploy 5G and co-develop use cases. Celcom is collaborating with Ericsson and UTM KL (a university in Kuala Lumpur) to launch a live trial on the university campus and drive the research and development of 5G use cases. Digi is partnering with Cyberview (a technology hub enabler) to launch 5G OpenLab to co-create 5G applications in the smart city vertical. TM, the fixed-line incumbent, announced its partnership with Huawei on 5G commercialization, and it plans to be the first telco to deploy a 5G standalone (SA) network. The telcos also recently kicked off their respective live 5G trials as part of the MCMC initiative, e.g., Celcom’s 360-degree 4K surveillance in Langkawi, Maxis’ AR experience at Aquaria KLCC, and TM 8K VR and Smart Tourism. Continue reading “The 5G Race Is Heating Up in Malaysia, but Commercial Availability Remains Unclear” →

TM ONE Leap Summit 2019: Firming Up Its Position to Capture Workplace Transformation and Digital Payment Opportunities

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Secure
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • TM ONE has the right products and capabilities to address the growing trend of workplace transformation.
  • Increasing digital wallet adoption in Malaysia drives the opportunity for service providers, especially with PCI-DSS compliance in data centers.

At the TM ONE Leap Summit held in Kuala Lumpur in November 2019, the Malaysian incumbent fixed-line provider shifted the conversation from product solutions to business outcomes. This is in line with its direction moving from connectivity to a solution provider. The event focuses on two digital transformation areas: the importance of workplace transformation in today’s digital era and the disruption of digital payment in fintech. Continue reading “TM ONE Leap Summit 2019: Firming Up Its Position to Capture Workplace Transformation and Digital Payment Opportunities” →

AWS Adds More ASEAN Customers as the Cloud Battle in the Region Heats Up

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• As the cloud battle in ASEAN continues, AWS has the advantage in the direct connect and go-to-market through partnerships with the domestic providers.

• The provider is also rapidly growing its customer base with various new references.

The public cloud competition in the emerging ASEAN region (excluding Singapore) is heating up. Alibaba Cloud entered the market early by opening a data center in Malaysia in October 2017 followed by another one in Indonesia in March 2018. Seeing the huge potential in the region, Google made an announcement in October 2018 to have its facility in Indonesia ready in early 2020 while AWS responded to its global rival with a similar announcement in April 2019. Despite AWS’ late move in the region (compared to Alibaba Cloud and Google), AWS has the upper hand in the direct connect or edge network as well as in the domestic go-to-market and brand share. This is achieved through its long partnerships with the domestic carriers and SIs. Continue reading “AWS Adds More ASEAN Customers as the Cloud Battle in the Region Heats Up” →

The Beginning of the SD-WAN Era in Malaysia

by Alfie Amir, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • TM has been offering SD-WAN since November 2018, but Maxis’ launch of its service last month marked the beginning of the real competition.
  • More carriers, integrators and resellers are expected to join the bandwagon, driven by customer demand.

SD-WAN in Malaysia

SD-WAN is not new; it has been around in the market globally for several years, offered by various providers such as carriers, system integrators and value-added resellers. The ecosystem is maturing, with a growing number of vendors and new capabilities having been developed (e.g., multi-vendor interworking, overlay-underlay integration, more virtual network services, network-cloud convergence). However, the market is only beginning to gain momentum in Malaysia. Telekom Malaysia (TM), the fixed-line incumbent provider in the country, launched the service in November last year, offering its customers two vendor options. The provider has not been aggressive in the market with its SD-WAN services due to the risk of losing its business from the legacy data services (e.g., IP VPN, Ethernet, Dedicated Internet) as well as the lack of competition. While there are smaller telcos, value-added reseller and system integrators such as RedTone, ViewQwest, Netpoleon, LNS and BreitKom in the market, its major competitor – Maxis – only launched SD-WAN last month, while Time has yet to offer the service. Continue reading “The Beginning of the SD-WAN Era in Malaysia” →

TM ONE Smart Services: End-to-End IoT Solutions Tailored for Local Needs

by Alfie Amir, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • TM ONE leverages its wide ICT capabilities, research and development, and local knowledge to offer IoT solutions and gain a competitive edge in the market by addressing the needs of domestic enterprises.
  • However, the applications offered are limited and there are still gaps in its platform features compared to others in the market.

IoT in Malaysia and the Main Inhibitor

IoT has become a business need rather than a good-to-have technology. With benefits such as reducing operational expenditure, the technology is implemented by enterprises across verticals as a new solution or a replacement of the existing process. In Malaysia, the IoT deployment is growing, driven by the manufacturing sector, which accounts for over 80% of the country’s total exports and 23% of the GDP. However, overall adoption is still low, mainly due to the high solution cost and intangible business case, as revealed by a recent study done by GlobalData. For example, the labour and utility costs are low in the country, making it challenging for enterprises to justify the investment needed to implement IoT solutions. An IoT solution that replaces a human role needs to cost less than the minimum annual wage in the country (US$3,100) before the enterprise can start seeing the cost benefits. In another example, a solution that offers 25% of energy reduction from street lights offers savings of only US$20 per light, per year. While the benefits are proven and promising, the total investment required for end-to-end IoT solutions (connectivity, devices, platform, security and services) is often higher than the cost benefits a solution can offer in Malaysia. Continue reading “TM ONE Smart Services: End-to-End IoT Solutions Tailored for Local Needs” →

Alibaba Cloud Strengthens Its ASEAN Presence, Penetrating into Domestic IoT Ecosystem

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, Internet of Things
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Alibaba Cloud’s partnership with Sena on Smart City initiative strengthens the provider partner ecosystem, especially with the domestic players.

• However, Alibaba Cloud’s City Brain still has limited customer references compared to other hyperscalers such as AWS and Azure. The cloud stack such as AWS Outpost and Azure Stack would enable cloud providers to address the data residency and edge compute requirements without having local facilities.

On May 23, 2019, Alibaba Cloud announced a collaboration with Sena Traffic System (Sena), Malaysia’s leading smart traffic controller, to build a smart traffic management in the country. In the partnership, Alibaba Cloud will provide its City Brain solution, cloud computing resources, and talent development programs while Sena will be responsible for the overall design and development of the traffic light systems as well as the deployment. Continue reading “Alibaba Cloud Strengthens Its ASEAN Presence, Penetrating into Domestic IoT Ecosystem” →

ZTE NMVP: Enabling Providers to Optimize Their NB-IoT Networks

by Alfie Amir, posted in Network
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• ZTE’s NB-IoT Massive-connection and multi-service Virtual-verification Platform (NMVP) evaluates network performance and provides optimization suggestions to the network.

• While ZTE claimed the platform to be the first in the industry, competitors can build a similar solution and match the capabilities in no time.

Growing NB-IoT Adoption
Since NB-IoT was finalized in 2016, carriers have been enabling the technology in their networks for IoT deployments. To date, there are around 100 commercial NB-IoT networks available across the world. However, with only over 100 supported devices and about 20 chipsets available, the adoption is still relatively low compared to other wireless technologies. GlobalData shows that only 1.5% of the total IoT deployments today are based on NB-IoT while cellular technologies (e.g., 2G, 3G, and 4G) and wireline are still largely used (~75% of the total connections). Most NB-IoT networks today are still underutilized. However ZTE’s home market of China is the global NB-IoT leader, and is a natural fit to debut this type of platform. As the ecosystem grows, more devices will be available in the market and connected in the network, driving the overall traffic in NB-IoT network. Carriers will eventually face network congestions in the network which may cause disruptions to IoT applications. Continue reading “ZTE NMVP: Enabling Providers to Optimize Their NB-IoT Networks” →

NTT Recorded a Strong FY 2018 and Revealed Its 2019 Plan

by Alfie Amir, posted in IT Leader
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • NTT Communications recorded strong top-line performance in FY 2018, with revenue and income growth of 4.4% and 11.5%, respectively.
  • In FY 2019, the provider will focus on brand integration across NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security, as well as a vertical strategy through its ‘Smart World’ initiatives.

Top-Line Performance

Earlier this month (May 10, 2019), NTT Communications released its FY 2018 results (ended in March 2019). The provider recorded strong top-line performance, with growth in revenue and income by 4.4% to 1,392 billion yen (~US$12.7 billion) and 11.5% to 132 billion yen (US$1.21 billion), respectively. This growth may not be so high in general, but it is impressive considering the slowdown in the telecom and ICT market. For example, compared with its regional peers, both Singtel and Telstra saw flat revenue in their latest financial year, with changes of only 0.6% and 0%, respectively. NTT Communications’ FY 2018 revenue also exceeded its target set a year prior, by 12 billion yen (US$110 million). The increase was mainly driven by the double-digit growth in cloud (12.0%), solution services (11.9%) and global business (11.2%). Continue reading “NTT Recorded a Strong FY 2018 and Revealed Its 2019 Plan” →