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China advances 5G trials; Google opening cloud region in Hong Kong

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China advances 5G trials; Google opening cloud region in Hong Kong

S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a biweekly roundup of the latest developments in technology in the Asia-Pacific region.

TOP STORIES

* China is scheduled to conduct 5G trials in selected cities, Ecns.cn reported Nov. 27, citing a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. China's three major telcos, namely China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom and China Telecom Corp. Ltd., plan to commercialize 5G networks by 2019 to 2020, Yicai Global reported Nov. 17, citing the Economic Information Daily.

* Google Inc. on Nov. 22 announced that it will open a Google Cloud Platform region in Hong Kong in 2018, which will be its sixth GCP region in the Asia-Pacific.

* Jeff Dean, head of Google's Brain Team, confirmed that Google is building an artificial intelligence team in China, Tencent News reported Nov. 28.

CLOUD

* Malaysia-based Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd. on Nov. 28 said that it collaborated with Microsoft Corp. to use Microsoft Azure cloud technology to experiment on digital customer profiling by utilizing AI and machine learning.

* Chinese internet company Baidu Inc. is poised to enter the South Korean cloud service market in early 2018 and is discussing potential cooperation options with multiple local independent software vendors, Digital Times reported Nov. 21.

5G AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS

* China Unicom and bike-sharing company U-Bicycle Ltd. will build a smart travel system utilizing NarrowBand Internet of Things technology, Yicai Global reported Nov. 30.

* Ericsson AB said Nov. 28 in its new Mobility Report that there will be 1 billion 5G subscriptions by 2023. Early deployments are foreseen in markets including South Korea, Japan, China and the U.S.

* SK Telecom Co. Ltd. on Nov. 29 said it developed new 5G transmission technology that can expand the service coverage by three times.

* StarHub Ltd. and Nokia Corp. on Nov. 27 agreed to jointly develop Internet of Things-enabled applications and services.

* KDDI Corp. will make au HOME, its home Internet of Things service, available through the networks of other carriers from the end of November, The Nikkei reported Nov. 24.

* Uber Technologies Inc. and Tech Mahindra said Nov. 24 that they are partnering to deploy electric vehicles on Uber's platform across multiple cities in India.

* South Korean telco LG Uplus Corp. is joining hands with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. for the Seoul Tech City project aiming to connect the city on 5G networks, Yonhap News Agency reported Nov. 23.

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. on Nov. 23 said it partnered with China Mobile Ltd. to showcase a 3.5 GHz portable 5G customer premises equipment that supports 4K ultrahigh-definition video streaming.

VIRTUAL REALITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

* Chinese AI startup Megvii, or Face++, is developing a robot for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.'s assembly lines, the South China Morning Post reported Nov. 30, citing Megvii founder and CEO Yin Qi.

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is planning to provide smart services through its cloud service by learning about users' preferences through smart devices, Tencent News reported Nov. 29.

* South Korea's KT Corp., China Mobile Ltd. and Japan's NTT Docomo agreed to establish a task force to cooperate on AI technologies, Financial News reported Nov. 29.

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is pushing forward the localization of its artificial intelligence personal assistant service Bixby in the Chinese market, ZDNet Korea reported Nov. 24.

* Sony Corp.'s Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. will team up with Japanese artificial intelligence developer UEI Corp. and U.S. startup World Innovation Lab LLC, The Nikkei reported Nov. 22.

* Baidu Inc.'s iQiyi launched an AI-backed open platform to connect content providers and audience through big data and AI mind-reading, Tencent News reported Nov. 22.

DEVICES

* Amazon.com Inc.'s smart assistant Alexa and Alexa-enabled devices are coming to Australia and New Zealand in early 2018, CNET reported Nov. 30.

* SoftBank Group Corp.'s SoftBank Robotics on Nov. 28 said that it is launching joint research projects with Brain Corp., a California-based robotic AI software company, on bringing commercial robots to market.

* Reliance Entertainment's Reliance Games is teaming up with GoPhygital to develop augmented reality- and virtual reality-based apps, games and experiences, Television Post reported Nov. 28.

* KT Corp. launched its first artificial intelligence speaker that runs on a long-term evolution network, GiGA Genie LTE, ZDNet Korea reported Nov. 23.

* LG Uplus Corp. launched a smart cloud-based drone control system, Money Today reported Nov. 21.

* LG Electronics Inc. announced that it will install Naver Corp.'s artificial intelligence platform Clova in its AI speaker Smart ThinQ Hub, JoongAng Ilbo reported Nov. 19.