• Committed to delivering advanced technology solutions, with a particular focus on wireless and energy infrastructure
• Strengthening network integration of XLSMART post-merger to enhance connectivity, sustainability, and customer experience

JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, today announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with XLSMART, the newly established entity following the merger of PT XL Axiata Tbk and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk.

The agreement, aimed at bolstering Indonesia’s digital infrastructure, was signed by Richard Liang, President Director of ZTE Indonesia and Shurish Subbramaniam, Director & Chief Technology Officer of XLSMART.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by senior executives from both companies, including Fang Rong, Chairman of ZTE; Xiao Ming, President of ZTE Overseas; Mei Zhonghua, President of Asia-Pacific & CIS Region of ZTE; Bai Yang, CTO of Asia & CIS Region of ZTE; Musa Gan, Sales Director of PT ZTE Indonesia; and from XLSMART: Franky Oesman Widjaja, Chairman of Sinar Mas Telecommunications and Technology; I Gede Darmayusa, Chief Network Integration Officer; and Sanjay Sachdeva, Chief Procurement Officer.  

Through this partnership, ZTE is committed to delivering advanced technology solutions, particularly focused on wireless and energy infrastructure, to support the accelerated integration of networks following the merger. This includes developing a reliable 5G network, implementing energy-efficient solutions using green technology, and strengthening the national digital ecosystem. This collaboration will not only enhance service quality and customer experience but also contribute to accelerating Indonesia’s digital transformation, aligning with the government’s vision to drive digital economic growth and ensure equitable connectivity across the country.

ZTE is committed to providing full support to XLSMART in the integration and transformation of the merged network, aiming to create an infrastructure that is future-ready with high efficiency and optimal performance. This support includes the provision of a reliable supply chain and rapid delivery of network equipment, the development of innovative product solutions tailored to the latest technological needs, as well as engineering and implementation that ensure a smooth and stable integration process with a consistent user experience. Additionally, ZTE will conduct comprehensive network planning and optimization to maximize performance and investment value at every site.  

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
ZTE Corporation
Communications
Email: ZTE.press.release@zte.com.cn 

BANGKOK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, in collaboration with Thailand’s leading mobile operator AIS and MediaTek, hosted a live demonstration of 5G-A UE Aggregation at the A-Z Innovation Center in Bangkok.

With the growing popularity of applications such as extended reality (XR), 4K live broadcasting, and immersive metaverse experiences, single user equipment (UE) faces inherent limitations in power, spectrum, and channel capacity. UE Aggregation offers a compelling solution by enabling Remote UEs to collaborate with nearby Relay UEs. Relay UEs can contribute their spare resources to enhance the uplink performance of Remote UEs, effectively breaking through the bottlenecks of single-device capabilities.

UE Aggregation integrates three key dimensions of cooperation to create a robust and efficient uplink transmission chain:

• Power Aggregation: The Relay UEs assist with signal forwarding, improving uplink connectivity in areas with weak coverage.
• Bandwidth Aggregation: Relay UEs share their unused spectrum resources, boosting the Remote UE’s uplink throughput.
• Channel Aggregation: Remote and Relay UEs simultaneously establish independent communication links, enabling multi-path transmission and enhancing reliability and redundancy.

The live trial was conducted in A-Z center lab based on AIS commercial 5G network configuration, using ZTE’s 5G gNodeB and core network equipment. MediaTek supplied prototype terminals equipped with UE Aggregation capabilities. Test scenarios simulated collaboration between Remote and Relay UEs, with direct comparisons to conventional single-device setups.

Performance was evaluated based on wireless uplink throughput and real-time 4K video streaming from mobile devices, achieving following results:

• Uplink speeds for edge users improved by up to three times with UE Aggregation enabled.
• Without aggregation, uplink throughput is insufficient for stable 4K live streaming, resulting in frequent stuttering and frame drops.
• When aggregation was activated, uplink can support smooth and high-quality 4K live streaming with consistent quality and no noticeable frame loss.

UE Aggregation has been incorporated into the 3GPP Release 18 specifications and will continue to evolve in future releases (Releases 19 and 20). Future iterations will support multi-path routing, multi-relay architecture, inter-DU/CU coordination, and intelligent low-latency path optimization—laying a strong foundation for future use cases in industrial IoT, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and XR.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
ZTE Corporation
Communications
Email: ZTE.press.release@zte.com.cn

• Committed to delivering advanced technology solutions, with a particular focus on wireless and energy infrastructure
• Strengthening network integration of XLSMART post-merger to enhance connectivity, sustainability, and customer experience

JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, today announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with XLSMART, the newly established entity following the merger of PT XL Axiata Tbk and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk.

The agreement, aimed at bolstering Indonesia’s digital infrastructure, was signed by Richard Liang, President Director of ZTE Indonesia and Shurish Subbramaniam, Director & Chief Technology Officer of XLSMART.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by senior executives from both companies, including Fang Rong, Chairman of ZTE; Xiao Ming, President of ZTE Overseas; Mei Zhonghua, President of Asia-Pacific & CIS Region of ZTE; Bai Yang, CTO of Asia & CIS Region of ZTE; Musa Gan, Sales Director of PT ZTE Indonesia; and from XLSMART: Franky Oesman Widjaja, Chairman of Sinar Mas Telecommunications and Technology; I Gede Darmayusa, Chief Network Integration Officer; and Sanjay Sachdeva, Chief Procurement Officer.  

Through this partnership, ZTE is committed to delivering advanced technology solutions, particularly focused on wireless and energy infrastructure, to support the accelerated integration of networks following the merger. This includes developing a reliable 5G network, implementing energy-efficient solutions using green technology, and strengthening the national digital ecosystem. This collaboration will not only enhance service quality and customer experience but also contribute to accelerating Indonesia’s digital transformation, aligning with the government’s vision to drive digital economic growth and ensure equitable connectivity across the country.

ZTE is committed to providing full support to XLSMART in the integration and transformation of the merged network, aiming to create an infrastructure that is future-ready with high efficiency and optimal performance. This support includes the provision of a reliable supply chain and rapid delivery of network equipment, the development of innovative product solutions tailored to the latest technological needs, as well as engineering and implementation that ensure a smooth and stable integration process with a consistent user experience. Additionally, ZTE will conduct comprehensive network planning and optimization to maximize performance and investment value at every site.  

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
ZTE Corporation
Communications
Email: ZTE.press.release@zte.com.cn 

BEIJING, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The 2025 Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum opened Tuesday in port city of Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province, bringing senior port executives, industry experts, and scholars from more than 40 countries and regions.

Photo shows the opening ceremony of the 2025 Maritime Silk Road Port Cooperation Forum held in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province.

Themed “Go Green, Go Intelligent”, the forum aimed to explore ways to advance low-carbon development through green technologies, enhance supply chain resilience via digital connectivity, and strengthen international cooperation amid multiple global challenges.

Eyeing high-quality development of port shipping industry, He Jianzhong, president of China Institute of Navigation said in his speech that the port shipping industry should promote sustainable development through green practices, drive industrial transformation and upgrading via digital and intelligent innovation, and facilitate industry integrated development by enhancing connectivity.

Based on global practice, Anne-Sophie Zerlang Karlsen, head of Maersk’s Asia-Pacific operations, shared that in recent years, the Danish shipping giant has leveraged big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct real-time analysis of massive data, which has reduced costs and energy consumption, enhanced the capability for on-time cargo delivery, and boosted the overall efficiency of the supply chain.

For Chinese practice, the Ningbo Zhoushan Port, the world’s largest port in terms of annual cargo throughput and the third-largest in annual container throughput, is actively exploring the port’s transformation with three major systems featuring net-zero emissions, digital intelligence operation and full logistics services to inject impetus to global port shipping industry, said Tao Chengbo, chairman of Zhejiang Seaport Group and Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group.

Jens Meier, president of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) and CEO of Hamburg Port Authority, emphasized the importance of global cooperation via the forum as a key platform, which enables global stakeholders to work hand in hand and address common challenges.

This year’s forum has witnessed the release of consensus documents and several reports. Besides, concrete agreements were signed between Ningbo Zhoushan Port and Germany’s Hamburg Port, Wilhelmshaven Port and Spain’s Valencia Port.

Side events included six thematic forums focusing on a few sub-sectors, such as full logistics, smart shipping, port-city integration, and navigation safety.

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/345867.html

Photo – https://laotiantimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/pic-1.jpg

BANGKOK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, in collaboration with Thailand’s leading mobile operator AIS and MediaTek, hosted a live demonstration of 5G-A UE Aggregation at the A-Z Innovation Center in Bangkok.

With the growing popularity of applications such as extended reality (XR), 4K live broadcasting, and immersive metaverse experiences, single user equipment (UE) faces inherent limitations in power, spectrum, and channel capacity. UE Aggregation offers a compelling solution by enabling Remote UEs to collaborate with nearby Relay UEs. Relay UEs can contribute their spare resources to enhance the uplink performance of Remote UEs, effectively breaking through the bottlenecks of single-device capabilities.

UE Aggregation integrates three key dimensions of cooperation to create a robust and efficient uplink transmission chain:

• Power Aggregation: The Relay UEs assist with signal forwarding, improving uplink connectivity in areas with weak coverage.
• Bandwidth Aggregation: Relay UEs share their unused spectrum resources, boosting the Remote UE’s uplink throughput.
• Channel Aggregation: Remote and Relay UEs simultaneously establish independent communication links, enabling multi-path transmission and enhancing reliability and redundancy.

The live trial was conducted in A-Z center lab based on AIS commercial 5G network configuration, using ZTE’s 5G gNodeB and core network equipment. MediaTek supplied prototype terminals equipped with UE Aggregation capabilities. Test scenarios simulated collaboration between Remote and Relay UEs, with direct comparisons to conventional single-device setups.

Performance was evaluated based on wireless uplink throughput and real-time 4K video streaming from mobile devices, achieving following results:

• Uplink speeds for edge users improved by up to three times with UE Aggregation enabled.
• Without aggregation, uplink throughput is insufficient for stable 4K live streaming, resulting in frequent stuttering and frame drops.
• When aggregation was activated, uplink can support smooth and high-quality 4K live streaming with consistent quality and no noticeable frame loss.

UE Aggregation has been incorporated into the 3GPP Release 18 specifications and will continue to evolve in future releases (Releases 19 and 20). Future iterations will support multi-path routing, multi-relay architecture, inter-DU/CU coordination, and intelligent low-latency path optimization—laying a strong foundation for future use cases in industrial IoT, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and XR.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
ZTE Corporation
Communications
Email: ZTE.press.release@zte.com.cn

• World leader in digital payment technology announces new innovation and partnerships in Asia Pacific
• Launches new products and partnerships to drive flexibility, security, and acceptance for the region

SINGAPORE, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The future of commerce in Asia Pacific is on display at the Visa Asia Pacific Media Showcase, where the company announced a suite of product innovations and strategic partnerships to enable a new era of commerce for the region.

Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer said, “Combining the strength of our global network with our leadership in payment innovation here in Asia Pacific, we are bringing new products and solutions that will transform commerce and deliver trust and security to AI-enabled payments across the region.”

The Visa Asia Pacific media showcase highlighted how AI-enabled digital commerce will significantly change the way consumers across the region discover and purchase products and services. In the near future, AI agents will browse, select, purchase, and manage transactions on behalf of users, making trust in payments more important than ever. Visa’s new AI-enabled solutions offer regional partners including AI platforms, fintechs, banks, and merchants a seamless way to connect to the Visa network to deliver secure, frictionless payment experiences.

Headlining today’s announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce, a new initiative that opens Visa’s payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of AI-powered commerce in Asia Pacific.

Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era for Asia Pacific

Visa Intelligent Commerce brings a suite of integrated APIs and a commercial partner program to AI platforms, enabling developers to deploy Visa’s AI commerce capabilities securely and at scale. Visa announced today that it is in explorations with Ant International, Grab and Tencent to grow AI commerce by enabling a secure and seamless checkout experience.

Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation, and financial technology provider. Grab is Southeast Asia’s leading super app offering ride-hailing, food delivery, digital payments, and financial services across eight markets. Tencent is a multinational technology leader that develops a wide range of digital products and services, including Weixin/WeChat, China’s super app.

Over the past 25 years, Visa’s global network has handled 3.3 trillion transactions. Today, Visa is advancing its infrastructure, standards, and capabilities to power AI-driven commerce, opening new opportunities for consumers across Asia Pacific. Soon, AI agents integrated into familiar platforms will be able to transact using Visa’s 4.8 billion credentials at millions of merchant locations worldwide.

T.R. Ramachandran, Head of Products and Solutions, Asia Pacific, Visa, said, “As global commerce continues to evolve rapidly, Visa remains at the forefront of delivering innovations that will enable the future of commerce across Asia Pacific.”

“We believe AI agents will play a growing role in commerce, from handling routine purchases such as ordering food, to more complex purchases such as securing event tickets or making travel reservations,” added Ramachandran. “By combining AI capabilities with Visa’s trusted payment infrastructure, we are enabling a seamless, secure, and more enjoyable experience for consumers, merchants, and businesses alike.”

New Products and Capabilities for Asia Pacific

Visa continues to expand its product portfolio with solutions designed to support the evolving payment needs of consumers and businesses across Asia Pacific.

Stablecoins: Visa has been facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for over five years and is now expanding its offering to include stablecoin-backed cards, settlement, and programmable money. On and off-ramps via stablecoin-backed cards allow consumers to use their Visa credentials to buy stablecoins with fiat currency and pay with stablecoin across Visa-accepting merchant locations. In Asia Pacific, Visa is partnering with DCS Singapore, DTC Pay and StraitsX on stablecoin-backed cards that support conversion through regulated infrastructure.

Enabling seven-day-a-week settlement for stablecoins: Visa has settled more than $225 million to date in stablecoin volume that has been settled through Visa across participating clients. In Asia Pacific, Visa is working with StraitsX for stablecoin settlement.

Through the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), Visa provides a platform for our partners to issue and manage fiat-backed tokens, offering interconnectivity to public and private blockchains, enabling programmable financing, trading of tokenized assets and facilitating cross-border money movement. Visa is looking to expand the availability of VTAP to more partners later this year and into 2026.

Flex Credential: Visa’s Flex Credential, a next-generation card that allows users to toggle between debit, credit, and reward points, continues to gain traction in Asia Pacific. Visa first launched Flex in partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC), known as Olive, two years ago in Japan. Today, more than 5 million Olive account holders are benefitting from the Visa Flex Credential. The Olive card continues to outperform, with cardholder transactions averaging 40% higher than the national average in Japan over the past year.

Visa and SMCC have expanded the Visa Flex Credential to support small businesses with the flexibility to switch between business and personal accounts using the same Olive card, enhancing access to credit and cash flow management. Visa is also collaborating with local banks to launch Flex Credential in Vietnam in the next few months.

New Strategic Partnerships to Enable More Ways to Pay and Get Paid

Visa is launching new services and partnerships to make it easier for consumers, merchants, and businesses in Asia Pacific to pay and get paid.

Visa Pay: A service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online, launches across Asia Pacific, home to the largest number of digital wallet users. Through partnerships with leading players including LINE Pay in Taiwan, Maya in the Philippines, OpenRice in Hong Kong, and Woori Card in South Korea, Visa is expanding access to its global network, giving consumers more ways to pay globally by tapping, scanning or online.

Digital Identity:  This suite of solutions includes Passkeys, Tap to Confirm, and enhanced data which are meant to identify and authenticate digital users. These solutions will reduce friction for consumers by being digitally native while improving payment security and authorisation rates with enhanced transaction data and state-of-the-art fraud prevention techniques. New partners in the region include Coles, a supermarket chain in Australia and Maybank, a leading financial services provider in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

Visa Accept is a new solution that allows micro-sellers to receive payments directly to their eligible Visa debit card using any NFC-enabled smartphone. Launching in Vietnam, the service supports micro-entrepreneurs and informal sellers such as street vendors, freelancers, and rural service providers. Participating issuers will enable cardholders to accept contactless payments through their bank’s mobile app.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at www.visa.com.sg.