NEWS
Nokia and
Thailand’s True
Group prepare
Eastern
Economic
Corridor for 5G
Japan’s biggest bank
to launch proprietary
cryptocurrency this year
Nokia has won an IP/MPLS network deal
with Thailand’s leading complete digital
lifestyle enabler, True Group.
Nokia’s solution, which will be deployed
in the north-eastern and eastern areas of
the country where the important Eastern
Economic Corridor (EEC) is located, will
enable a robust 5G roll-out with customized
services requirements for throughput, latency
and reliability.
The Thai government is pushing for 5G to
drive the economy and recently opened an
auction for 5G spectrum to the country’s
main operators, including True. The EEC
is a flagship development project under
the Thailand 4.0 initiative where the Thai
government plans for the area to be a
hub of trade and investment, regional
transportation and logistics and a strategic
gateway to Asia.
Nokia’s IP/MPLS solution includes network
slicing functions – a key building block for
any 5G deployment – that will enable True
to partition its network into independent
logical network slices, each with performance
characteristics that fit specific needs.
Jirachai Kunakorn, Chief Network Operations
Officer of True Corporation, said: “The genuis
technology, True 5G, will be instrumental for
businesses and industries to move the country
to a true digital age, especially in the EEC area
where we will first see the concentration of
new 5G industrial use cases.”
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
(MUFG), one of the biggest
lenders in Japan, will circulate its own
cryptocurrency later this year.
The currency, which has been called
the ‘MUFG Coin’, will be unveiled in
partnership with HR firm Recruit Holdings
after being planned for several years.
Mitsubishi UFJ said it will roll out its
digital token through a smartphone
payment app for member companies
listed on Recruit’s website.
Recruit, which operates online and offline
services for travel, housing, restaurants,
beauty, automobiles and education,
promises to leverage the new coin to
create a borderless shopping experience.
The new coin is said to allow customers
to purchase goods and services from
restaurants, convenience stores and other
shops, as well as make transfers to the
accounts of other participants.
The exchange rate of one MUFG coin is
expected to be equal to one yen.
The company is also said to be
investigating other ways to leverage
the tokenized digital currency and its
underlying blockchain technology across
its banking services.
The latest move has come a few years
after the banking giant attached itself to
the cryptocurrency bandwagon by joining
the blockchain-based ‘utility settlement
coin’ (USC) project. •
18 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com