TM has partnered with Nokia to enhance its international optical network. This collaboration is specifically designed to address the growing demand for high-speed connectivity, particularly from hyperscaler customers such as large cloud service providers – a crucial requirement for Malaysia’s next step as a digital hub in Southeast Asia.
The cornerstone of this upgrade lies in Nokia’s advanced Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology. DWDM essentially acts like a multi-lane highway for data transmission, allowing TM to transmit multiple data streams simultaneously over a single fibre optic cable. This translates to a significant increase in network capacity, enabling TM to handle the ever-growing volume of data traffic seamlessly.
Nokia’s contribution goes beyond just hardware. The new network will be powered by Nokia’s fifth-generation super-coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-Vs) technology. This advanced engine ensures superior transmission performance over long distances, resulting in improved scalability, interoperability, and lower energy consumption. This aligns perfectly with TM’s strategic direction of adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) for network management, as the energy efficiency of the PSE-Vs reduces operational costs.
Beyond enhanced capacity and performance, TM will leverage Nokia’s WaveSuite platform. This software suite provides TM with a comprehensive set of tools for optimizing network operations and unlocking new revenue streams. WaveSuite allows efficient network management, simplifies service creation, and facilitates automation, which is crucial for AI-powered network management.
This partnership between TM and Nokia has far-reaching implications beyond just network upgrades. The enhanced network will create a high-speed expressway for data traffic flowing between Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. This improved connectivity will solidify Malaysia’s position as a leading provider of high-speed and reliable optical network services in Southeast Asia, attracting more hyperscaler customers and fostering regional economic growth.
John Harrington, Senior Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific Sales for Network Infrastructure at Nokia, highlighted the significance of this collaboration. “We are delighted to collaborate with TM to help them meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity,” he said. “Our advanced optical solutions, including the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) family for access and metro aggregation, and the WaveSuite applications for network management and service creation, will enable TM to provide a world-class network experience to its customers.”
Small and medium businesses are different from their larger competitors because the chief strategist in many SMBs is often still the owner or the founder.
The challenge for SMB owners is therefore often to understand the technological trends that might apply to their business. This can be complicated, in part because the rate of change in technology is high.
Yet many of these technology areas, such as access to mobile devices and the growth of cloud services, have special relevance to SMBs. Integrating technology should therefore be a central part of any SMB strategy, rather than an option, even for very small companies. The technology is needed to meet customer demands for better experiences, to ensure that businesses and customers can transact quickly, and because being online makes it easier and faster for SMBs to open up new global markets.
Employees of SMBs have similar expectations and the same driven goals of the business owners. They believe that having the right technology improves their productivity, helps drive business growth and increases flexibility in a hybrid working world.
At the center of how SMBs can leverage technology are four trends around mobility, AI-enabled services, and cloud automation, all under a security umbrella.
Taking teams to the next level of productivity, flexibility and customer satisfaction will require businesses to find a balance between implementing emerging technology and training employees to use this technology to provide personalized experiences for customers.
How do each of these technologies support and influence SMBs?
Connectivity
Slow and unstable connectivity is a major obstacle for a distributed workforce that relies on device technology to collaborate and to provide value to customers. Even as 5G continues to be rolled out around the world, WiFi 6E is already offering advanced connectivity in many countries. SMBs can make their investments in WiFi 6E and 5G today, to take advantage of higher-bandwidth, ultra-low-latency connectivity, and high-speed connectivity to the cloud. It’s worth noting that 5G deployments are accelerating around the world, and WiFi 7 is already on the horizon. SMBs should at least understand where these might fit into their existing and future strategies.
Device speed and functionality will continue to match this high-speed connectivity, and users will continue to seek out ever more productive designs that match lifestyle, work style, and mobility. An example of a device that is made for such high-speed connectivity is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4 operating on Windows 11 Pro. Simplify your workday and improve productivity with Windows 11 Pro With AI-powered experiences, intelligent workflows, and unmatched personalization, you can do it all on your Windows 11 Pro device. From features to get organized in a snap to fast performance and smart videoconferencing, Windows 11 Pro devices help you improve productivity anywhere. It has a built-in secondary screen offering alternative and distinct functions. Such an innovative device requires high-speed connectivity so that employees will be “always available” and “often on”, working flexibly to accommodate their personal lives.
Cloud automation
Cloud automation, and cloud applications, are an easy entry point for many SMBs that are looking to speed up or otherwise improve their business processes. As data, apps and workloads continue to expand into the cloud, SMBs will be able to automate simpler tasks, programs and customer services. Efficient automation of data analytics, customer feedback and trends or smarter scheduling can free up more time for teams to focus on creative growth engines.
The cloud also allows more SMBs to consider Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) options. While often being more cost-effective, hybrid cloud solutions will be more future-proof and allow for greater scalability through flexibility. IDC has predicted that the growth of cloud services among APAC SMBs, for example, will continue through to 2025.
AI services and products
AI services are increasingly playing a role in helping businesses address common challenges such as staffing, security monitoring, financial management, and tailoring services to customer needs.
Some SMBs are now incorporating AI chatbots to provide round-the-clock resources for employees, adding convenience for those seeking answers to common questions about employee benefits, scheduling, insurance, vacation availability and sick time.
Companies that adapt smartly to incorporate AI-enabled services and products have a competitive advantage. AI and machine learning can provide real-time targeted data analysis, allowing employees to do creative and social media tasks that AI simply cannot credibly do. This, in turn, frees up time for innovation, and product and service development – investments that can be made without sacrificing current revenue and cash flow.
Securing the IT ecosystem
Across all these technologies sits security, from the devices all the way through to cloud access. Remote and hybrid work styles have already changed the nature of security risks, with many organizations, including SMBs, now allowing employees to have flexibility in where they work and use their own devices. As more services move to the cloud, access security risks also increase, and while cloud service providers can provide secure access inside their data centres, access between a business’s devices and the cloud can still attract cyber security risks. Threats are very real and lack of adequate protection can have devastating effects, but best practices and solutions exist to mitigate those threats.
SMBs must strategically implement the appropriate infrastructure, cloud automation and AI tools that will help their business scale. Businesses of all sizes demand client and data centre infrastructure that enables growth rather than restricts it. As technology rapidly evolves, businesses need the ability to integrate new technologies and workloads efficiently and seamlessly, often within resource, budget and capital boundaries.
For SMBs, this sometimes represents new challenges, but they can leverage the experience and investment made by larger companies, peers, partners and competitors, and with the right business and technology strategies in place, they will have the advantage of being more dynamic and responsive to growth opportunities.
Sony has broken ground in chipset manufacturing by announcing its new, ultra-low power ALT1350 Chipset.
CEO Nohik Semel is confident the ALT1350 satisfies increasing demand for IoT chipsets
Developed by Sony Semiconductor Israel (Sony), the new ALT1350 chipset is the world’s first cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT solution which enables both LPWA communication protocols and satellite connectivity. CEO Nohik Semel believes the ALT1350 is a game-changer and satisfies increasing market demand for multiprotocol, ultra-low power IoT chipset.
Sony claims the ALT1350 asthe most advanced IoT solution available and addresses service providers main concern; power consumption. The platform features an optimized standby mode (eDRX) that reduces power consumption by 80% compared to the current generation. This can improve battery life by up to 4 times, allowing additional functionality and smaller form factors for future devices.
A feature-packed chipset with innovative power saving and connectivity features
The ALT1350 brings new innovation to connectivity too. It’s sub-GHz and 2.4GHz integrated transceiver enables hybrid connectivity. This reduces power consumption and costs when connecting to smart meters, smart cities, trackers and more, while enhancing coverage. To benefit trackers further, there is both cellular and Wi-Fi-based positioning along with power-optimized concurrent LTE and GNSS. Furthermore, the chipset will operate with 5G networks and contains an additional LPWA radio transceiver with targeting operation in <1GHz and 2.4 ISM bands for truly universal connectivity.
As summarized expertly by Nohik Semel himself, the ALT1350 is “…the game changer we’ve been waiting for, which will enable IoT deployments, utilizing universal connectivity on edge processing and multiple location technologies”.
It’s not every day that we hear a tech company is celebrating its 10th Anniversary; what’s more, one that isn’t a start-up or consumer-facing. While that may be true for EDOTCO, the company’s decade-long existence has entrenched the company with consumers and connectivity. The company has been actively involved in the rollout of cellular towers and related technologies in Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh and more across the ASEAN and South Asian regions.
What exactly does a TowerCo (telecommunications tower company) do? Well, it’s pretty simple. You know that symbol on your mobile phone which shows you your signal strength? They work to ensure that there is a connection at all times. This comes in the form of building and maintaining cell towers for mobile network operators (MNOs) and even leasing or co-locating towers with other companies. EDOTCO has its beginnings in Malaysia as Axiata group’s TowerCo before it spun off into its own business.
The company now boasts a portfolio of over 54,000 towers across the ASEAN and South Asian regions. They currently operate in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Pakistan, Philippines, Laos and most recently, Indonesia. This has made them the 6th ranking TowerCo in the world with ambitions to be in the top 5 by 2024. They have also been recognized as one of three unicorn status companies in Malaysia by Credit Suisse last year.
We spoke with CEO, Mohamed Adlan Ahmad Tajudin, about the company’s focus on equitable connectivity, innovation and sustainability. This interview comes in the wake of the company celebrating their 10th Anniversary and launching a companywide rebrand.
A Heritage of Innovation & A Culture of Sustainability
EDOTCO hasn’t been resting on its laurels for the past decade. They’ve been at the forefront of innovating in the TowerCo space. The company has also been busy inculcating a philosophy of innovation and sustainable thinking from the ground up. CEO, Mohamed Adlan informs us, “we inculcate the culture of a sustainable world for the future and the next generation within the minds of our people. We hire passionate individuals who fit within EDOTCO’s culture and core values to ensure our staff are in tune with EDOTCO’s heart.”
(Source: EDOTCO) Cell tower in the Uttara Region in Bangladesh made of Bamboo.
Their genuine passion and dedication to innovation and sustainability have been driving EDOTCO’s ingenuity when it comes to tower technology. One of the hallmarks of the company’s past decade is their collaboration with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). They looked to create a greener, more sustainable solution to building steel towers atop buildings in Bangladesh. If you remember, there have been cases where buildings in South Asia were collapsing due to the weight being borne. In their collaboration, BUET and EDOTCO created a very sustainable solution of creating the towers with specially treated bamboo which is more resilient and lightweight. This innovation resulted in a solution that is not only greener with 70% less carbon emissions; the resulting tower is 88% lighter. EDOTCO erected its first bamboo tower in the Uttara region of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2017.
Source: EDOTCO
“Innovation will always remain a key cornerstone in our operations. However, we have also shifted our focus to sustainability as a key indicator of growth as a group.”
While it may seem trivial, the innovative approach could very well be the first step in a new way to set up towers and empower connectivity in rural areas. With better, more natural materials, we’re looking at the possibility of minimally affecting ecosystems while society moves towards being more connected. The lower cost and carbon emissions are also a testament to the company’s commitment to creating and innovating sustainably.
Refocusing to Empower Equitable Connectivity with Innovative Solutions
The company isn’t resting on their laurels with their 10th anniversary either. Instead, they’ve turned their focus to sustainability and equitable connectivity. EDOTCO is committed to adapting to the rapid changes that come with the surge forward in digitization. To further drive the point home, the company is undergoing a revamp and rebranding to embody their continued commitment and further refocusing their efforts on sustainable innovation.
The rebranding also comes with a commitment to empower and advance the Asian region when it comes to the region’s communications and connectivity ambitions. They will continue to innovate and address the needs of both developing and developed countries with solutions that drive connectivity with 5G and beyond; making next-generation connectivity universally accessible. Together with that, EDOTCO will also be working with their partners and customers to enable and drive positive transformation in the communities they are engaged.
(Source: EDOTCO) Redesigned Logo focusing on Sustainability and Equitable Connectivity
Together with this EDOTCO is also looking to drive their goals sustainably. They will be enhancing their internal sustainability strategy moving forward through their one-way and two-way engagements internally and in person. The vision to be sustainable isn’t just a bunch of fluff or a hot topic. It’s a vision and policy being driven in all departments from HR to Engineering. It provides an added impetus to their innovation and empowers their vision for equitable connectivity.
When it comes to equitable connectivity, EDOTCO isn’t just talking about sustainability either. They’re taking tangible steps to make erecting towers and providing connectivity as a service more affordable to its customers and, in turn, to consumers. Even before they embark on their next decade, the company has already helped MNOs save between 16% to 35% in their Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operations Expenditure (OPEX) through infrastructure sharing, tower leasing and co-location. This has also resulted in faster, more sustainable network rollouts and fostered competition between MNOs which is beneficial for consumers.
Working to Spearhead Equitable Connectivity & Sustainability
As much as they are driving innovation and helping with cost reduction for MNOs and, in turn, consumers, EDOTCO can only continue to do so with the correct policies in place. These policies and frameworks allow them to address more targeted issues. In Malaysia alone, EDOTCO continues to support the JENDELA framework put in motion by the Malaysian Government. It comes as no surprise that the company has already focused on equitable connectivity when JENDELA was first announced. They have since been supporting this framework by being a forerunner in connecting the unconnected.
(Source: EDOTCO) The Human Touch behind their innovative Bamboo Tower
Their innovations have allowed initiatives like Malaysia’s JENDELA to progress at a faster pace. With solutions like EDOTCO’s Network and Planning Analytics (NaPA), the company continues to allow MNOs to reduce costs and be more targeted and strategic in rolling out infrastructure. NaPA allows MNOs to reduce build times for towers by providing geocoding and analytic insights. To date, this technology has been used in the setup of over 200 towers in the JENDELA initiative.
Bringing a Human Touch to Digitization
(Source: EDOTCO) Mohamed Adlan Tajuddin, CEO Of EDOTCO
Being a company entrenched in the digitalization process, it gets easy to lose sight of the human aspect of technology. However, EDOTCO isn’t just a technology company – it’s a “Bionic Organization”. The company is creating “the workforce of the future” by integrating technology and digital tools into human interactions. While others look to leverage AI to replace humans, they are using AI and other technologies to better their workforce and provide value for their partners. They look to drive human interactions with the highest levels of efficiency.
EDOTCO’s “Bionic Organization” approach looks to harness in-house talent to bring heart and feeling to an industry that can be very cold. In the words of Adlan, EDOTCO is looking to become “Fitter, Faster and Far Better, without compromising on the human soul”. This entails leveraging digital solutions to make work more intuitive and human experience more effective. In addition, it will also, inevitably require their workforce to harness their inherent diversity of experience and backgrounds to drive innovation inclusively and with a sense of equity.
It’s getting rarer to see a tech CEO whose focus is on creating warmth and heart when driving their company. However, Mohamed Adlan’s approach to a “Bionic Organization” is looking to unite the two dichotomies in digitization and embeds them throughout the organization. This aims to create an environment and work culture that is collaborative, efficient and driven by insights and a sense of purpose. This is how he plans to drive both the sustainability and equitability pillars at EDOTCO.
Looking to Expansion, Diversifying & Further Empowering Equitable Connectivity
With the first 10 years in the bag, EDOTCO is looking to the future. Not only is it focused on bringing heart to digitalization, but it’s also constantly looking for opportunities to innovate and expand. Having already built a portfolio of 50,000 towers in nine markets from the initial 10,000 in its four home markets, the company is looking into new areas such as Network as a Service (NaaS) and Site as a Service (SaaS) to expand their portfolio.
Their current focus is on expanding within Thailand and Vietnam where they believe that the potential for growth is the greatest. The company is also eyeing going public in the coming decade while they focus on pushing boundaries and accelerating equitable access to digital connectivity.
Maxis is one of the largest connectivity providers in Malaysia. The one mobile-centric company has expanded to include fibre and business solutions over the past few years. Back in 2021, the company introduced a new package for their services which bundled mobile and fibre connectivity for families. The offering brought 30Mbps fibre and mobile connectivity for up to four mobile lines for only MYR299. It was also the most affordable option for connectivity at launch.
The Maxis Family Plan just got a little bit more affordable thanks to two new plans which were silently introduced. The new plans complement their MYR299 plan with faster connectivity and more lines. The new Maxis Family Plan for 6 comes with 6 lines with unlimited data and with a 100Mbps fibre connection for MYR399. Still need more? The new Maxis Family Plan for 8 comes with 8 lines with unlimited data and 300Mbps fibre connection for MYR499. All plans comes with a zero downtime guarantee as Maxis uses its own 4G network as a fallback.
The New Maxis Family Plans (Source: Maxis Malaysia)
The website updates come as Maxis launches their new fibre campaign featuring a new, adorable green dinosaur mascot. Their new mascot unlocks the possibilities that come with connectivity at home. The green dino makes its adorable debut in a campaign video you can find on Maxis’s official YouTube Channel.
Aside from the new plans, Maxis offers fibre connectivity independently via its Maxis Fibre Broadband service. Plans for Maxis Broadband start at MYR89 for 30Mbps and caps out at 800Mbps for MYR499. Subscribers can also take advantage of Zerolution packages for new devices including Samsung OLED TVs and even a PlayStation 5 form as low as MYR1 a month.
If you were trying to get to a number of websites or use some of your apps earlier and couldn’t, it was likely because of an outage at Cloudflare. A large number of companies use the service to help improve their user experience and load times. The company has already acknowledged the issue and is currently working to resolve the root cause and restore the internet.
Screenshot: Cloudflare Twitter Announcement
According to their service status website, a P0 issue – essentially an urgent issue requiring all hands on deck – occurred at 6.34 a.m. UTC (2.34 p.m. UTC+8/Malaysian Time). The issue caused connectivity disruptions in the Cloudflare network across a large number of regions. During this time, you were likely to see a page with Error 500 on any website using the service – including ours. The disruption also affected Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS service and a number of apps and services including Fitbit, NordVPN, Discord and even Shopify.
Screenshot: Error 500 on Bluehost.com
Cloudflare has announced that they have already deployed a fix for the issue at 7.20 a.m. UTC (2.20 p.m. Malaysian Time/UTC+8). For now, it looks like the issue has been resolved and the internet is back in one piece again. It is worth noting that this incident isn’t the first incident. Cloudflare has experienced similar outages in July and August 2020. The former resulted in Discord going down for a little bit while the latter saw a similar result to today’s outage.
Cybersecurity has come leaps and bounds since we first started exploring the internet. Technology and the knowledge surrounding it have also progressed significantly. With that, so too has our understanding of the need to secure and protect our connections.
Cisco has recently issued an advisory to customers to upgrade their routers. The advisory comes in light of a vulnerability which allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code in a series of routers. This would cause a Denial of Service condition which would prevent access to the internet and connected servers.
Source: Cisco
The vulnerability affects relatively dated business routers – specifically, the Cisco Small Business RV110W, RV130, RV130W, and RV215W Routers. Malicious actors are able to access root privileges through the web management interface of the routers. While Cisco is aware of the exploit, it seems like the company has no plans to patch the vulnerability in these dated devices. Of course, the company has announced the end-of-life status in an advisory released back in 2019.
The only silver lining for those planning to continue using the aforementioned routers is that the vulnerability can only be exploited if the web management interface is enabled. This can be determined by checking the status within the settings of the router. That said, it is definitely advisable to update to a more current router for better coverage and connectivity if not anything else.
