Q&A: Malcolm Chan, MD, BICS Asia

Q&A: Malcolm Chan, MD, BICS Asia

Malcolm Chan, MD at BICS Asia, identifies the opportunities presented by LTE across Asia

Malcolm_Chan-small
What have been the highlights for BICS in Asia in 2015?

During 2015, BICS expanded the range of services available in the Asia market in addition to enhancing its backbone in the region to support the increased usage of next generation services.  

The extension of the APAC backbone network has opened the door for high-speed carrier Ethernet services between Europe and Singapore/Hong Kong, allowing BICS to address the growing need for flexible solutions towards Europe, reinforcing its role as a gateway to EU. 

Most notably this has allowed BICS to extend its remote peering offering to the PoPs (Points of Presence) in Singapore and Hong Kong, helping operators to regain control over their internet connectivity. 

BICS’ IPX and LTE Signaling presence has been reinforced with local Diameter routing capabilities and new IPX-enabled PoPs. Major mobile operators in the Asian region have joined this new infrastructure and established direct IPX connections to the BICS network, enabling them to access more than 320 IPX and LTE roaming destinations.

In addition to enabling LTE roaming connections, using this IPX infrastructure, in August BICS partnered with SK Telink to enable the first International E2E VoLTE calls between Asia and Europe. This showcases the feasibility and potential of enhanced user experience beyond national boundaries.

 

What new opportunities have you been exploring across Asia?

The launch of BICS’ Remote Peering solution in the region has improved the Quality of Experience for millions of internet users by giving operators in the region a way to access content.

BICS is now continuing to rapidly expand its LTE presence across the region with additional POPs and a growing on-net IPX and LTE Signaling community.

Asian operators are the pioneers in enabling enhanced communication services over LTE in their domestic networks and, moving forward we look forward to continuing to enable these services between the operators in the region and world-wide. 

 

What markets are of most interest for your company in the region and why?

BICS sees great potential in improving connectivity services in markets such as: Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

Given the technological innovation taking place in South East Asia and India, these are also areas of high potential for next generation services.

 

What are your strategic priorities for the region moving forward in 2016?

The focus next year will be on further exploring the establishment of additional POPs in key markets, based on their strategic position and competitive landscapes. 

From a new service perspective, there is great potential in enabling VoLTE, ViLTE and RCS service interoperability in the region, and worldwide.

 

What do you hope to achieve by attending Capacity Asia 2015?

Capacity Asia provides an excellent platform to showcase BICS’ capabilities to aid mobile operators in enhancing their data and voice LTE services internationally and further promote its flexible solutions as a premier gateway into Europe for operators in the Asia-Pacific region.

More from across our site
Gift this article