Huawei Supports Asia Pacific LTE Summit 2016: Building a Safe, Broadband and Digital Asia

The Asia Pacific LTE Summit 2016, jointly organized by Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and Huawei, was held in Bangkok on June 6, 2016, under the theme "Embracing the digital transformation and building a safe, broadband and digital Asia". Over 300 people attended this event that highlighted top-level expertise and sparked the interest of government organizations, industry associations, operators, equipment providers and internet companies. This unique opportunity created a platform for in-depth discussions based on LTE technology evolution, industrial development and business applications. In his opening address, Dr. Settapong Malisuwan, Vice Chairman of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said that the summit's goal was to improve digital transformation and to encourage the ICT hub. “Operators need greater capacity and faster speeds to ensure abundant services and applications to accommodate digital life, work and entertainment.” He also said that each mobile operator in Thailand will invest 25 billion baht annually to expand the wireless broadband infrastructure, which will further boost economic development. In the Asia Pacific region, the LTE market can be divided into 3 different markets according to the phase of development. The first market, like Hong Kong, has stepped into the 4G era, providing the first commercial VoLTE service in the world. The second market, such as Thailand, is developing LTE at a very quick pace; while the third, such as India and other developing markets, have a tremendous population base and rapid economic growth, but still have a very low penetration rate of MBB. “These countries are positively planning to deploy the LTE network because of the giant market opportunity,” said Mr. David Sun, President and Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Southeast Asia Region. “Huawei is committed to the development of the communication industry in the region. With our wealth of experience both globally and within the region, we are confident to copy this success in these markets. We will cooperate closely with our regional partners, in order to provide better networks and services, in order to build a safe, broadband and digital Asia.” Mr. Qiu Heng, President of Huawei Wireless Marketing Operation Department, shared his ideas on “Safer Asia, Broadband Asia, and Digital Asia”. Qiu Heng said: “Human Happiness Index is increasing with the development of ICT. The vision ‘Safer Asia, Broadband Asia, Digital Asia’ we proposed could match Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We hope all of our Asians could enjoy better natural environment, safer society and better health care with the contribution of ‘Safer Asia’.” The "Broadband Asia" will bring high quality experience of communication for all Asians anytime anywhere, rich content from the internet will bring more relax time for the families, this will enhance the link between families and friends. It will also switch on and start up the home office for the small and middle companies; this enables people to have more spare time to be shared with families. The “Digital Asia” will drive the industrial transformation and upgrading in Asia in the next 10 - 15 years, to make people work more creatively. Smart automotive will make cars become the individual's living room or office based on requirement, reducing waste travel time, thereby increasing people leisure time; Sharing economy will reduce personal fixed consumption of assets, making energy saving and environmental protection, making the earth greener. In order to make these visions become possible, Qiu Heng also made recommendations for Southeast Asia: "Compared to mobile operators in other regions, less spectrum is allocated for mobile operators in Southeast Asia region, we hope mobile operators can get more spectrum, to achieve spectrum technology-neutral and application-neutral, and open more public facilities, such as lampposts, bus stations, to support the deployment of base stations."