TOP NEWS
* Embattled Indian telco operator Aircel Ltd., along with Aircel Cellular Ltd. and Dishnet Wireless Ltd., filed for bankruptcy protection at the Mumbai bench of India's National Company Law Tribunal, Livemint reports, citing a company statement. The debt-laden Aircel, a subsidiary of Malaysian mobile network operator Maxis Communications Bhd., said "intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses" caused a significant impact on its business and reputation.
* Amazon.com Inc. launched Amazon Prime Music in India, Reuters reports. The rollout of the music streaming service, aimed to lure more customers to the company's e-commerce platform in India, will be free of charge for Prime members. Amazon's video streaming service Prime Video also landed a content deal with Walt Disney Co.'s Disney India that will give Amazon Prime Video users in India access to seven upcoming international titles from Marvel and the American Broadcasting Company, which will be available in India after premiering in the U.S., according to IANS.
Mobile World Congress 2018
* Partnerships between tech companies and telecom operators are crucial for the uptake and implementation of artificial intelligence technology, industry leaders said at the annual Mobile World Congress.
* Telecom operators and tech firms including China Mobile Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., along with a number of other companies, have teamed up to set up the 5G Slicing Association, a new industry body that will work to tackle requirements and potential applications for 5G network slicing.
* ZTE Corp. struck a memorandum of understanding with MTN Group Ltd. on 5G commercialization in the Middle East and Africa, which will see them jointly conduct a series of technology verification tests and assessments in 5G technology in the region.
JAPAN
* "Miss Sherlock," the first coproduction from Home Box Office Inc.'s HBO Asia and Hulu LLC Japan, will debut globally on April 27, Rapid TV News reports.
* DoCoMo Digital Ltd., the mobile payments arm of NTT Docomo, and Zain Group announced a partnership over the Kuwait-based mobile telco's new Application Program Interface platform at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. DoCoMo Digital will become Zain Group's first content provider using the new API layer, which is being developed in partnership with the Apigee Corp. team at Alphabet Inc.'s Google Cloud.
* KDDI Corp. formed a capital alliance with Japanese IT venture company Embrace Co. Ltd. to launch a smartphone-based health service, NHK reports. The platform will send meal and exercise instructions based on medical data such as heart rate and blood pressure taken from a wristwatch-type monitoring device.
* TDK Corp. will acquire ultrasonic sensor developer Chirp Microsystems Inc. to turn the California-based company into a wholly owned subsidiary. Chirp's sensors have applications such as augmented reality, virtual reality, smartphones and autonomous vehicles.
SOUTH KOREA
* Naver Labs Corp., a research and development unit of Naver Corp., joined forces with global mapping and location data company Here Global B.V. to automate the process of mapping indoor spaces based on AI technology, ZDNet Korea reports. The two companies plan to combine Naver Labs' technical capability with Here Global's platform to build indoor maps of key landmarks around the world.
* Naver Corp. patented a methodology and system to create new VR content using panorama video footage in order to enable the production of VR content even without a 360-degree camera, Chosun Biz reports. Users will be able to make content from data in the Naver Map panorama service, and the video footage can be stored.
* Naver Corp. pledged to support the revision of 11 types of online dictionaries for the next 4 years, working in partnership with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, iNews 24 reports. This comes as part of the internet company's plan to invest a total of 10 billion South Korean won in the language sector for 5 years since 2016.
CHINA
* Chinese self-driving auto startup Nio denied it is seeking an IPO, Sohu reports. Reuters earlier reported Nio was planning to raise up to US$2 billion through an initial public offering in the U.S.
* Beijing-based AI technology company SenseTime Group Ltd. formed a partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tencent news reports. The two parties will focus on deep learning and visual technologies for advanced interdisciplinary research.
* Tencent and Legend Capital jointly invested more than 120 million Chinese yuan in Yangcong Math, an education startup that helps students learn math, NetEase news reports. Yangcong's app uses AI technologies to help with user interaction.
INDIA
* The Bangladeshi High Court unblocked the bank accounts of Robi Axiata Ltd., a subsidiary of Malaysian telco Axiata Group Bhd., a day after the accounts were frozen by the National Board of Revenue in Bangladesh, The Daily Star reports. The account freezing was done after the country's tax authority found that Robi had unpaid supplementary duty and VAT on services & sales amounting to 187.2 million Bangladeshi taka to Bangladesh Telecommunications Co. Ltd.
* Bharti Airtel Ltd. is in advanced stages to establish a digital innovation lab in Bengaluru, India, to work on AI, internet of things, AR and VR to develop its in-house technology capabilities, The Economic Times (India) reports. The lab will be built under Airtel's digital innovation project, or Project Next, where it will invest 20 billion Indian rupees over three years.
* Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd., or Jazz, partnered with Ericsson AB for the optimization and performance management of the Pakistani telco's radio network.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Singtel, together with Ericsson AB, has made cellular IoT network commercially available in Singapore. The technology will help expedite the proliferation of IoT devices by enabling better coverage, power efficient and cost-effective solutions for companies.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., together with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, officially launched the Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute. The multimillion-dollar-per-year partnership, which signifies Alibaba's first joint research institute outside China, will develop AI technologies and deploy them in various aspects such as home, retail, community, and urban transportation.
* Thailand's State Enterprise Workers' Union filed a lawsuit against state-owned CAT Telecom Public Co. Ltd., in an attempt to scrap plans to create two new companies out of CAT Telecom and TOT Plc, Thairath reports. SEWU believes the merger will create two managerially weakened companies and will violate cabinet resolutions on the handling of public assets.
* Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings will partner with True Corp.'s TrueMove H to launch the WeChat Go SIM Card, a new SIM package specially designed for Chinese tourists who use WeChat abroad, RYT 9 reports. The SIM will allow subscribers to use WeChat in Thailand via TrueMove H's 4G+ HD network.
* Thailand's cabinet will appoint a new big data and cloud computing committee, under the authority of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Manager reports. The ministry said the committee will oversee the construction of a new big data center this year.
* Nick Nash is stepping down as group president of Singapore-based games and e-commerce company Sea Ltd., at the end of 2018 to establish his own startup fund, TechCrunch reports.
AUSTRALIA
* News Corp Australia Pty. Ltd. made more changes to its digital leadership following the abrupt exit of its Chief Digital Officer Nicole Sheffield, Mumbrella (Australia) reports. Julian Delany, managing director of News DNA since July 2017, will expand his responsibility to include digital, while Chief Technology Officer Dominic Hatfield will assume the new role of chief information officer.
FEATURED NEWS
US Supreme Court hears arguments in Microsoft data privacy case: Even as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Feb. 27 regarding a case about the reach of domestic search warrants when electronic data is stored overseas, several justices suggested that the matter would best be resolved by Congress.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Global Multichannel: Steady broadband ARPU growth expected despite fierce competition in East Asia: Steady broadband ARPU growth is expected in the coming ten years in East Asia which covers some of the world's largest and most well-developed fixed broadband markets including China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Economics of Internet: Hulu, Netflix dominate year-end 2017 content viewing metrics: The rapid changes to the online video space over the last few years have boosted viewing on non-desktop devices, which was the case for Hulu, DramaFever and TED in the second half of 2017, according to comScore Video Metrix data.
RECENT EARNINGS
Altice USA CFO: After Starz dispute, Q1 to be 'low point of growth' in 2018: In the wake of Altice USA's six-week standoff with Starz premium cable networks, the cable operator expects its first-quarter results to be the "low point of growth" in 2018, according to Altice USA CFO Charles Stewart.
Advertising slump hits ITV, but online trust crisis could boost future revenues: ITV Plc profits tumbled as U.K. economic and political uncertainty slashed marketing spend, but the commercial broadcaster said dwindling confidence in online advertising would benefit traditional TV.
Joji Sakurai, Myungran Ha, Frances Wang, Ed Eduard and Patrick Tibke contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription.
