Page 131 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Singapore Claims First 6G Lab in SEA

The Infocomm Media Development by SUTD and supported by the National the testbed will follow 3GPP and open RAN
Authority (IMDA) teamed with Singapore Research Foundation. SUTD president standards to provide “easy evaluation of
University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Chong Tow Chong said it is “pleased to research outcomes”. It added Singapore
to launch the Future Communications partner IMDA, to progress the industry’s forged partnerships with institutions
Connectivity Lab, which they claim is research and educational institutions for including the 6G Flagship in Finland, and
the first physical 6G laboratory in the talent development in Singapore’s wireless the Korean Institute of Communications
Southeast Asia. IMDA stated the laboratory communications ecosystem”. IMDA stated and Information Sciences.
will combine 6G R&D with SUTD’s AI
Mega Centre, and is designed to advance
Singapore’s future communications and
connectivity capabilities as well as talent.
Lew Chuen Hong, IMDA CEO, said the
“innovations today are not possible without
constant investment and keeping our
eyes on the next bound…This is the start
of our efforts to tap into the promise of
future communications tech and become
a global node of excellence”. The lab is
part of Singapore’s SGD70 million ($49.7
million) Future Communications Research
& Development Program, which is hosted

Bharti Airtel Launched Its ‘Always On’ IoT

the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
setting mandatory requirements for device
connectivity and tracking in buses, private
fleets and other public transport. As per
law, all registered buses and taxis have
to mandatorily install such devices, while
the government recently also mandated
vehicles carrying hazardous goods to
install AIS-140 compliant trackers. Other
Bharti Airtel has launched its ‘Always across multiple mobile network operators uses include emergency vehicles, mining
On’ IoT connectivity solution in India, (MNOs). Airtel’s solution complies with the and construction vehicles and other
comprising dual profile M2M eSIMs Automotive Research Association of India mission-critical use cases.
allowing IoT devices to stay connected (ARAI) AIS-140 standard implemented by

Bangladesh’s First IoT-Based Delivery Solution DigiBox Starts Officially

State Minister for ICT Division, Zunaid Dhaka. While speaking as the chief guest started back in 2020. "All of these solutions
Ahmed Palak inaugurated Digibox, the first at the event, he said the private sector are either American, European or Chinese
entirely "Made in Bangladesh" IoT Smart employed more than 1 lakh people in the and would cost anywhere between $15000-
delivery solution. "Digibox developed by past four years to deliver products. "But as $30000 per installation, where ekShop-
the ekShop of a2i offers seamless last-mile there is a lack of logistics infrastructure, Digibox is completely manufacturing them
delivery, storage, and pick-up experience. It a lot of innovation is still needed in the in Bangladesh and saving on that cost,"
champions ICT Division's motto of 'Made sector. And this is where ICT Division's he further added. At present, there are
in Bangladesh' for hardware and software ekShop comes in," he said. Zunaid Ahmed about 2,500 e-commerce companies in
solutions," the state minister said in the Palak added that Amazon started this the country and at least 50,000 business
chief guest's speech at the inauguration service called "Amazon go Locker" in 2018, pages on Facebook. The local e-commerce
event held at the ICT Tower, Agargaon, so did Alibaba in the same year, while India sector is expected to be worth Tk26,000
131 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022