Hong Kong – Entelechy Asia

NVIDIA expands DLI offerings

Booz Allen Hamilton

The need for deep learning skills is increasing as more and more companies and industries hop on the bandwagon. Launch a little more than a year ago, NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute (DLI) has already trained tens of thousands of students, developers and data scientists.

And the company is expanding its DLI offerings with:

New partnerships: Team up with Booz Allen Hamilton and deeplearning.ai to train thousands of students, developers and government specialists in artificial intelligence (AI).
New University Ambassador Program: Instructors worldwide can teach students critical job skills and practical applications of AI at no cost.
New courses: More courses are added to teach domain-specific applications of deep learning for finance, natural language processing, robotics, video analytics, and self-driving cars.

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Samsung Pay extended to smartwatches

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

Samsung Gear 3 Guess it was only a matter of time as Samsung Pay has been extended to the Gear 3 and Gear Sport. This will let consumers use their smartwatches, on top of their smartphones, to make purchases.

Samsung Pay on Gear is protected by Samsung Knox for enhanced security. It functions independently so users need not bring their phone along to make payment with their smartwatches. They can view their transaction record on Samsung Pay Plugin, an associated application for Samsung Gear.

In another development in Hong Kong, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank have become Samsung Pay partners. Both banks’ customers can start using Samsung Pay for their credit cards from November 2.

Enhancing public safety

Enterprise, Events, Telecommunications

Motorola Solutions has unveiled highly advanced technology solutions to enhance the capabilities of nation-wide public safety networks at Critical Communications World 2017 in Hong Kong. These include mission-critical radio technologies, specialised software, mission critical broadband, command centre solutions, and future innovation concepts.

Growth in both mission-critical communications and mobile broadband technologies is fuelled by demand for end-to-end, interoperable solutions combining the most needed elements of voice, data and multimedia communication.

“Public safety customers in Asia Pacific are among the most technically advanced in the world and are continuing their rapid adoption of mission-critical mobile intelligence services and smart technologies. This is enabling them to filter and analyse the vast amounts data available today so they can make better and faster decisions to protect our communities,” said Iain Clarke, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, of Motorola Solutions.

Fuji Xerox HK to accelerate IoT growth

Cloud, Enterprise

fuji-xerox-smart-device-2-0

Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) aims to ride the Internet of Things (IoT) wave with the introduction of Smart Device 2.0, which comprises three key IoT components — cloud application, big data analytics and integrated business workflow.

The new-generation mobile document management smart device consisting of hardware, software and cloud applications is designed particularly for enterprises that handle and manage excessive documents, such as financial and banking, construction and legal industries.

Smart Device 2.0 also works for enterprises and small-to-medium businesses with staff who always work on their mobile devices, because it enables the same working environment regardless of where they are. This smart device is becoming a workplace necessity that streamline workflow; employees are no longer bound by geographical restrictions and can stay connected to their office all the time, helping enterprises save time and costs, and better use their resources.

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NTT Com Asia names new C-team

Enterprise, People, Telecommunications

Hong Kong-based NTT Com Asia, the East Asia headquarters of NTT Communications, has named Hideaki Ozaki as President and CEO, Theodoric Chan as Chief Commercial Officer and Mr. Taylor Man as Chief Technology Officer.

The three executives will oversee business strategies and development in the East Asia region covering Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Korea. They bring decades of industry experience driving development of NTT Communications’ business with enterprises and ICT partners in Japan and other Asian markets to their new roles at NTT Com Asia.

New iPhones are bigger with Watch to come in 2015

Uncategorized

It’s confirmed. The new iPhone 6 and 6 plus are bigger than their predecessors. Of course, this is not exactly news with the numerous leaks over the past weeks.

Sporting a 4.7-inch Retina HD display, the iPhone 6 is the smaller of the two and is marginally thinner than the previous incarnation. The larger iPhone 6 plus ventures into the phablet space with a 5.5-inch display. Both smartphones come with the A8 processor, a 8MP rear and 2.1MP front camera.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia are among the 15 countries where the Apple products will be first sold on September 19.

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Samsung opens first Executive Briefing Center in HK

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

Samsung Executuve Centre Samsung has opened its first ever Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in Hong Kong to serve as a one-stop shop with business-to-consumer and business-to-business products and solutions.

Located at 1/F, 33 Des Voeux Road Central, it comprises six themed experience zones (hospitality, retail, restaurant services, corporate, education and transportation & logistics industries) to allow business partners and their clients to experience Samsung products and solutions in action.

“We are aware that consumers are expecting more and more from different industries and their heightened expectations are reshaping the business environment and operations. As the world leader in technology, Samsung utilises its strongest edge to work together with different business partners across a wide spectrum of industries,” said Raymond Lee, Managing Director of Samsung Electronics HK.

HK retailers increasingly aware of video surveillance benefits

Gadgets

Hong Kong retailers believe that video surveillance has a direct impact on internal and external losses, according to a survey by Centre for Retail Research commissioned by Axis Communications

While about 96 percent of HK retailers agreed that CCTV has had a direct reduction on the level of internal and external losses they had incurred, only 58 percent are using surveillance solution to prevent theft.

Four in five respondents think they had reduced loss by a rate of 11 percent or more. Retailers also believe the use of CCTV in the premises can help increased safety and security for customers (77.8 percent) and staff (66.7 percent), similarly providing better evidence material (74.1 percent).

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APAC PC market matches Q2 expectations

Desktop

The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew two percent from last quarter and declined 10 percent year-on-year in Q2 to reach 24.3 million units, coming in marginally higher than IDC’s initial forecasts, according to the research firm’s preliminary results.

In India, shipments to an ongoing large education project came in earlier than expected, adding about 100,000 units to the commercial PC segment. Thailand’s coup d’état, on the other hand, resulted in a steep double-digit annual decline as channels were wary to take in shipments. Microsoft’s Bing programme is ramping up in the region’s emerging markets, with Malaysia being the first to come in strong this quarter.

“The ongoing economic slowness in the emerging markets sets the tone of the overall PC demand and inhibited the region’s year-on-year growth. There are pockets of optimism coming from mature markets such as ANZ, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where the smartphones and tablets near saturation. However, the region’s growth has been adversely impacted with the rise of large-screen smartphones in China and most ASEAN countries,” said Handoko Andi, Research Manager for Client Devices Research of IDC Asia/Pacific.

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Smart mobile devices boost audio accessories sales in HK

Gadgets

gfk_logo High ownership of smartphones, tablets and phablets in Hong Kong have been positively impacting sales of complementary products such as headphones and headsets, as well as mini-speakers, according to GfK.

The surge in audio accessories sales come at the back of consumers’ fixation with smart mobile devices, having spent more than US$4.2 billion on nearly 8.4 million units of such devices in the past 12 months.

The combined market of headphones, headsets and mini-speakers generated nearly US$77 million in the last one year, reflecting a 10 percent surge over a year ago. While sales revenue for headphones and headsets expanded by nine percent, mini-speakers sold 83 percent more in volume and raked in additional 32 percent in sales dollar.

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Hong Kong is top data centre location in APAC

Enterprise

IDC Hong Kong is the top location in Asia Pacific when it comes to suitability for setting up new and outsourced data centres, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Data Center Index study.

Singapore and Taiwan are the next favourites based on factors such as energy costs and bandwidth availability.

“Choosing a strategically correct location has become increasingly important for organisations to serve their customers across countries. Hence, the scrutinizing process has to be done very thoroughly and carefully,” said Simon Piff, Associate Vice President of Infrastructure Research at IDC Asia Pacific.

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1O1O and one2free launch first VoLTE network in Hong Kong

Mobile, Telecommunications

1010 and one2free VOLTE- 1O1O and one2free have turned on the first VoLTE (Voice over LTE) network in Hong Kong powered by Hong Kong’s Trusted Network. The full commercial launch is expected to take place in the first half of 2014, in line with projected device maturity in the market.

CSL’s VoLTE offers clearer voice, instant connection, and better quality video calls enabled by ZTE’s IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) solution. Customers will experience a clearer voice and richer multimedia experience, with a distinct improvement in video call quality with VoLTE.

VoLTE also allows 1O1O and one2free to achieve better spectral efficiencies and will increase network capacity and subsequently enhancing the 4G LTE experience.

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Power limiting progress in mobile devices

Desktop, Enterprise, Events, Gadgets, Mobile, Uncategorized

Power is a big limitation in mobile devices despite improvements in battery power, according to Neil Trevett, Vice President Mobile Content of NVIDIA.

“Power is the new performance limiter. Developers need to use acceleration to preserve battery life and high performance,” he said at NVIDIA Tech Talk at SIGGRAPH Asia in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, advanced mobile GPUs and new sensors are combining to make vision processing the next wave of mobile visual processing. NVIDIA is building a stack of advanced silicon, APIs and libraries to enable advanced mobile vision applications.

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SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 opens in Hong Kong

Events

SIGGRAPH 2013 registration

Computer graphic professionals and enthusiasts made a beeline to Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in the opening day of SIGGRAPH Asia. The show has returned to Hong Kong after being held in Singapore last year. Interest for the show must be high because Kobe is making a bid to host the 2015 edition.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 starts tomorrow

Desktop, Enterprise, Events

SIGGRAPH prep

Exhibitors were working hard to get ready for SIGGRAPH Asia, which starts tomorrow at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Among them are HP and NVIDIA which have lined up two full-days of Tech Talks on “Shaping the future of visual computing”. Also on display are demos which showcase the power of GPU computing from the Quadro range of professional desktop GPUs to the NVIDIA GRID VCA.

Large screen smartphones gaining popularity

Mobile, Telecommunications

The numbers are clear. Big is getting more popular. Large screen smart phones (five-inch and above) accounted for 22 percent of the quarter billion smartphones shipped in Q3. This is the highest number ever and translates to a staggering 56 million units.

Samsung is the dominant player in the large screen segment. Breaking this down further, 66 percent of the 56 million smart phones had a five-inch display, 31 percent had screens between five and six inches while just three percent had six-inch or larger screens.

According to Canalys, the smartphone market grew 44 percent year-on-year in Q3. The top two vendors, Samsung and Apple, maintained their positions, with market shares of 34 percent and 15 percent respectively. Huawei, Lenovo and LG completed the top five.

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Touch-enabled notebooks top wish list

Desktop, Mobile

IDC Touch is in. Beyond touch screen phones, users in Asia-Pacific want touch-enabled notebooks.

According to an IDC Asia-Pacific end user survey, 82 percent of respondents prefer a touch-enabled notebook for their next purchase.

The annual survey that studies end user behaviour and usage on client devices. The usage explosion of smartphones and tablets, where touch screen is a prominent feature, is a key driver of taking these screens to the personal computer. The study also finds that the majority of PC users today, even in emerging markets, own a smartphone, especially for 26-35 year olds at 87 percent.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 available in HK on Sep 25

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

The much awaited Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be available in Hong Kong on September 25. Coming in black and white, the suggested retail price of the 3G and 4G LTE versions are HK$5,998 andHK$6,198 respectively.

The phablet packs innovative features where users can enjoy captivating viewing experience on the 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLDED screen that offers a stunning and divine viewing experience with a clear canvas for content creation. It also comes with an enhanced S Pen and multitasking features.

“Some people may often feel that the latest gadgets out there offer a contradicting feeling to our users because while you’re very engaged with your product, you tend to neglect the things around you. With the latest Galaxy Note 3, you will be able to enjoy a delightful mobile experience that brings passion to life,” said Yiyin Zhou, Director of Telecom Business, Samsung Electronics Hong Kong Limited.

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Hong Kong to stay as key Asia Pacific data centre market

Cloud, Enterprise

Limited land availability and high real estate prices are unlikely to make Hong Kong lose its status as a key data centre market in Asia Pacific, according to Frost & Sullivan.

The limitations are countered by the Hong Kong Government’s continuous support for the sector.

“Hong Kong’s strong political connection to Mainland China allows it to act as a gateway for global companies that seek to tap into opportunities in China’s market,” said Danni Xu, Research Analyst, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan. “Moreover, Hong Kong’s business-friendly and free-trade environment has drawn a number of multinational corporations (MNCs) to set up their regional headquarters in the country. This has brought in numerous investments and job opportunities, and created demand for data center services.”

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WeChat soars past 100m registered users milestone

Mobile, Social computing, Telecommunications

WeChat has surpassed the 100 million registered user account milestone. That’s remarkable considering the strong competition it is up against.

In the last three months, it doubled its registered user account base reaching the 100 million milestone shortly after an independent survey found that the platform was the fifth most used smartphone app worldwide.

Since its international debut, WeChat has been well received in Asia, quickly becoming the most popular mobile social app in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia across multiple smartphone OS platforms, where the user base has recently gained tremendous growth.

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Allen Ma is new CEO of HKSTPC

People

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) has appointed Allen Ma as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding E Anthony Tan, who has held the position since April 2008.

Joining as CEO-designate on July 22 and taking office on August 1 , Ma believes technology plays a key role in fuelling Hong Kong’s economic transformation and will draw on his 30 years of industrial and business experience to increase the competitiveness of the city as a regional hub for science and technology innovation while building ever stronger collaboration with the Mainland.

His key focus will be to advance HKSTPC’s mission to provide world-class infrastructure and services and promote Hong Kong as a regional hub of innovation and technology.

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13 HKSTPC partners win Hong Kong ICT Awards

Enterprise, Events

HKSTPC Hong Kong’s push for innovation has borne further fruits with 13 incubation and partner companies of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) scooping a total of 15 awards at the prestigious Hong Kong ICT Awards. They won with innovations ranging from intelligent interactive advertising display and business solutions for retailers to self-powered smart sensors.

“Despite the keen competition from over 600 entries at the Awards, our partner companies have won two Gold medals, three Silver, two Bronze and several certificates of merits,” said Allen Yeung, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Support of HKSTPC.

“We are delighted that among the 13 awardee companies, six are our incubation companies that are still budding, yet have shown enormous development potentials. Particularly four of them, namely Cenique Infotainment Group Limited, StampUp Limited, QBS Systems Ltd and Voloe Technology Ltd were only admitted to the Programme last year. Their remarkable achievements proved our local technopreneurs are full of creativity and innovation, and that has further affirmed the value of HKSTPC’s Incubation Programmes,” he added.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 to hit Hong Kong stores on April 27

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

The much-awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 will finally go on sale from April 27 in Hong Kong at a suggested retail price of HK$5,898.

“The new GALAXY S4 redefines the way a user and a mobile phone interact through touchless features,” said Yiyin Zhou, Product Marketing Director of Samsung Electronics. “This phone does not only have the world’s first full HD SUPER AMOLED screen that delivers superb viewing quality, its new impressive camera hardware also offers consumers countless of photographic options. ”

Following its unveiling at Unpacked in New York, Samsung will be taking the Galaxy S4 on a World Tour to major global cities to give local fans the chance to experience the new handset first-hand and hear exciting news happening in their own region.

Hong Kong electronic inventions take centrestage at coming Electronics Fair & ICT-Expo

Events, Gadgets

Three incubation companies of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) will be showcasing their electronic inventions in the concurrent events of Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) and the International ICT-Expo held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 13 to 16.

Two of the inventions will have patent registered pending innovations at the “Invention Zone”.

“IP protection is conducive to technological advancement. We thus are keen to offer services and aid funding for our incubation companies in patent application, including free chat with legal experts. We are proud that two companies under our Incu-Tech Programme are selected to exhibit in the ‘Invention Zone’, in which many of the inventions are patent registered or pending. With the valuable opportunity to promote their patented technology at the exhibition, we trust our incubatees can be well connected to industry practitioners and fasten their phase of commercialisation,” said Ir Allen Yeung, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Support of HKSTPC.

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CSL completes HD VoLTE call with eSRVCC

Mobile, Telecommunications

Hong Kong mobile operator CSL has successfully conducted a High Definition (HD) voice over LTE (VoLTE) call hand-off to 3G with an eSRVCC-based pre-commercial network. HD voice will keep service continuity before and after hand-off. All network equipment used in this demonstration was provided by ZTE. This HD VoLTE call with end-to-end QoS assurance provide highly reliable user experience and help operators differentiate their services.

The Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband(AMR-WB) speech codec was supported in the HD VoLTE call demonstration. This HD voice speech codec provides improved speech quality due to a wider speech bandwidth from 50 to 7,000Hz and ensures no significant impact on radio-frequency capacity due to the efficiency of codec suitable. HD voice technology will significant promote the development of high quality voice service, such as speech recognition, speech-to-text and HD conferencing.

“VoLTE provides an improvement in spectral efficiency and is needed to increase network capacity and allow to re-farm the 3G spectrum in the future,” said Christian Daigneault, Chief Technology Officer of CSL. “This HD VoLTE call using eSRVCC will shorten call set-up time, assure good handover to 3G where required and creates a better user experience for our customers. CSL has been the first to bring Dual Band LTE at 1800/2600 MHz in Asia and will continue to bring a superior network experience to its customers. The success of this demonstration is an important milestone in the development of LTE voice services in the mobile industry.”

NVIDIA building new home

Enterprise

Twenty years after its founding, NVIDIA is building a new home to accommodate growth.

It has 8,000 staff across 40-plus sites, including Taipei, Moscow, Shanghai, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangalore, Helsinki, Cambridge, Sophia, and Boston.

The new campus is just a few blocks from where the company started in Santa Clara.

“The new NVIDIA building will capture the ambition and imagination of our people. It will stand at the intersection of science and art, just as our work in visual computing does. It will be the symbol, the physical manifestation, of our vision for the company,” wrote Jen Hsun-Huang, CEO and Founder of NVIDIA in a blog post (http://blogs.nvidia.com/2013/02/nvidia-to-build-a-new-home-20-years-after-our-founding/).

ZTE launches Grand Era V985 smartphone in Hong Kong

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

ZTE has launched the Grand Era V985 smartphone in Hong Kong, enabling consumers to enjoy the device’s quad-core powered performance, and a rich media and entertainment experience.

The Grand Era V985’s simple, slim-body styling will appeal to discerning consumers – measuring just 7.9mm thick and weighing 115g. The streamlined design of Grand Era V985 conceals the device’s features. Fitted with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core 1.5GHz processor, the Grand Era V985 offers superior multitasking performance, fast Web browsing experience, and improved power efficiency for longer battery life.

Equipped with the NVIDIA 12-core Geforce graphics processor, a 4.5-inch Retina screen supporting high-definition videos, a IPS full-view display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 and 326 pixels per inch, and built-in support for Flash videos, the Grand Era V985 delivers best-in-class display quality, and offers user experience matching leading game consoles, meeting the requirements of mobile gamers and online video aficionados.

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Samsung opens first Partner Shop in Macau

Desktop, Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

Samsung opened its first Partner Shop in Macau today. Located at No. 63-65 on Avenida do Infante D. Henrique, the stylish and modern shop aims to provide every visitor with the best quality of customer service with unexpected personalised experience.

“As the world leader in consumer electronics and information technology, Samsung is dedicated to introducing innovative products with diversified features and functions to meet customer needs. Further to the launch of two Samsung Partner Shops in Hong Kong last year, Samsung continues to expand its business by launching the first Samsung Partner Shop in Macau,” said Lawrence Chow, Chief Marketing Officer of Samsung Electronics Hong Kong.

Adjacent to various scenic spots, the shop is a one-minute walk from Senado Square and two-minute walk from Grand Lisboa Hotel. With everything under one roof, it lets visitors experience Samsung’s innovative technology and modern digital living.

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ZTE introduces dual-mode Grand Era LTE smartphone in Hong Kong

Gadgets, Mobile, Telecommunications

ZTE has introduced its first dual-mode LTE smartphone, the Grand Era LTE, in Hong Kong as part of the launch of China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK)’s first commercial converged TD-LTE/LTE FDD network.

The TDD/FDD dual-mode ZTE Grand Era LTE smartphone operates on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform. It features a 1.5GHz dual core CPU, 1GB of memory and a multi-touch 4.5-inch 1280×720 Gorilla Glass display providing a high quality user experience on high-speed LTE networks. The device also has a 1780mAh battery and ZTE’s customisable Mifavor User Interface.

In addition, ZTE will showcase its FDD/TDD dual-mode MF93E uFi device and the MF825 data card on the new Hong Kong network. Both devices use Qualcomm’s MDM9215 second-generation LTE chip platform. The size and average power consumption of the MF93E and the MF 825 have been reduced by nearly a third compared to the first generation LTE devices making them smaller and faster.

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China Mobile Hong Kong launches world’s first converged TD-LTE/LTE FDD network

Mobile, Telecommunications

The start of Hong Kong’s first TD-LTE/FDD LTE converged network ushered in a new age in the city’s 4G telecommunications market, and unleashed vital impetus to propel the development of TD-LTE services globally.

Chairman of China Mobile Hong Kong, Tiger Lin, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sean Lee, and ZTE Vice President Zhang Jianguo officiated at a large-scale press conference in Hong Kong today to introduce the new service. Live demonstrations showcasing the high-speed data download capabilities of TD-LTE and LTE FDD networks and the seamless hand-over between TD-LTE and FDD LTE networks for online video transmission were conducted at the event.

China Mobile Hong Kong, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, acquired spectrum in the 2330MHz-2360MHz band for TD-LTE services in February 2012. On July 19, it announced a partnership with ZTE and Ericsson for the construction of the TD-LTE network offering dual-mode connectivity with existing FDD LTE services, giving subscribers a higher-quality 4G user experience and a more robust service.

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