ASIA IN BRIEF India's Telecom Regulatory Authority last Friday admitted the nation has fallen "much below" its target to deploy ten million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022, and a further goal of 50 million hotspots by 2030 is in peril.

India wanted the mass WiFi rollout to provide connectivity in locations where mobile networks don't reach or aren't affordable, to ensure that online services are available.

The Authority (TRAI) blamed the shortfall on the scheme using private services for backhaul links, and carriers using expensive leased lines for those connections.

TRAI's proposed fix for the problem is forcing carriers to apply retail prices to backhaul links. The Authority has opened a consultation on the idea.

- Simon Sharwood

New datacenters coming to Fiji, Malysia and South Korea

Fiji's deputy prime minister Manoa Kamikamica recently
announced [VIDEO] that Google will invest $200 million to build a datacenter in an undisclosed location in the nation.

"Google bring us serious opportunity to become a genuine ICT player and become more of a regional hub for the Pacific," explained Kamikamica in an interview with local media.

The datacenter investment comes after Google also helped to fund four more subsea cables to Fiji.

"Before Google came to see us late last year we only had one subsea cable, so in other words if somebody cut that cable Fiji would be like Tonga after the volcano - dead to the world. Maybe some satellite options and Starlinks here or there," the prime minister added.

Other Asian locales getting datacenters are Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Seoul, South Korea.

AWS launched its first region in Malaysia last Thursday. Named ap-southeast-5, the region has three Availability Zones.

Meanwhile in South Korea, SK Telecom announced it will transform its current datacenter into an AI datacenter using Nvidia GPUs in partnership with GPU cloud provider Lambda.

And in Singapore, Singtel plans to bring customers GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) by the end of 2024 in partnership with telecom consortium Bridge Alliance. The cloud-based service will be powered by Nvidia H100 GPUs in Singtel's upgraded datacenters within the city-state.

As part of the agreement, Bridge Alliance's 35 member operators will get access to the GPUaaS offerings from Singtel.

Australia's annual investment scam losses totalled $875 million

Financial services regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last week revealed it took down over 7,300 phishing and investment scam websites - including 5,530 fake investment platforms, 1,065 phishing scam links, and 615 cryptocurrency scam sites - since July of last year

ASIC emphasized the evolving nature of scams - particularly the use of social media and digital platforms to lure victims - and detailed that investment scams, which remain the leading type of scam, have alone caused AU$1.3 billion ($875 million) in losses.

Korea posts glowing results for Fukushima wastewater

The South Korean government detailed last week that tests for radioactivity in the nation's waters, fisheries and ship ballasts have not exceeded safety levels at any time since the Fukushima power plant began releasing its wastewater last year.

Since the first discharge on August 24, 2023, until August 19, 2024, the South Korean government has completed 49,633 radiation tests. During this time, seven discharges from Fukushima were completed and an eighth is currently underway.

Hong Kong's government also posts daily tests. The Register cannot find an instance of those assessments producing a result that health authorities considered dangerous.

PC sales rise in mobile-first India

India's PC market saw a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase in Q2 2024, according to analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

Workstations grew fastest, at 12.4 percent, followed by notebooks (7.4 percent) and desktops (5.9 percent). Sales within the consumer segment (11.2 percent) saw more growth than the commercial segment (3.5 percent). The quarterly results marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth for the consumer segment.

India is widely regarded as a mobile-first nation, with the majority of internet connections made using smartphones.

APAC Dealbook

Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:

• Vietnamese tech giant FPT is investing $200 million to expand its operations in Japan, focusing on cloud-based AI services and digital transformation solutions, according to media outlet Nikkei Asia.

  The investment will reportedly support the deployment of Nvidia GPU infrastructure and the establishment of a new datacenter, with services set to launch by early 2024.

• South Korean AI chip makers Rebellions Inc. and Sapeon Korea Inc. have finalized a merger agreement, the duo announced.

  The silicon slingers began merger discussions in June.

• Indian infosec firm TAC Security last Friday announced it will acquire Cyber Sandia, a security consultancy that holds an agreement with the state of New Mexico for IT services.

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https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/26/asia_tech_news_in_brief/