All Tech News

There’s a new point of presence (PoP) in Brazil from Sparkle, a leading international service provider and global operator.

Paratus, a full-service pan-African telecommunications operator, has selected mobile network infrastructure solutions provider Star Solutions to supply its Sonata EPC core network platform for deployment in Namibia.

Saudi Arabia is to provide 60,000 free Wi-Fi points in a number of public places thanks to a newly announced initiative.

Nokia has announced plans to deploy an internet gateway for a government-owned network in Iraq.

Covid-19 was supposedly a boost to mobile money use in Kenya after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) allowed free M-Pesa and mobile banking transactions until the end of the year. However, Safaricom is apparently not thrilled by the possibility that this ruling may be extended into 2021.

Safaricom is expected to revise down its bid for an operating licence in Ethiopia following the revelation that mobile money offerings will be the exclusive preserve of local financial institutions.

Chinese manufacturer Vivo said it will manufacture its mid-range V20 SE smartphone in India, pledging to support the government’s national Make in India initiative.

MTN Rwanda opened its mobile money API platform to third-party developers, as part of plans to stimulate the growth of its monetary technology ecosystem.

Estonia’s first commercial 5G network is now live, with Telia Eesti launching services in the city centres of Tallinn, Tartu and Parnu.

There’s been yet another major deal involving Amdocs in recent days. The software and services giant and Indian operator Airtel have announced plans to extend their existing partnership to deliver what is referred to as a differentiated experience to customers.

A1 Bulgaria, part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group, has announced a partnership with software and service company Amdocs to modernize and digitize its contract management and document life cycle.

Senegal’s postal authority has signed an agreement with satellite communication service provider Spacecom. The deal will help the public company in charge of postal services in Senegal to provide internet services to the country’s rural population.

Chile’s Grupo Gtd is using Netcracker solutions to digitise its customer experience and automate order and fulfillment processes.

Telia Lithuania (also known as Telia Lietuva), the country’s biggest telecommunications and IT company, has announced the launch of a 5G mobile network in Lithuania.

Underlining the growing interest on the part of US technology companies in India, Amazon, through Amazon Web Services (AWS), reportedly has plans to invest an estimated $2.8 billion in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana State, India, to set up a new cloud region – or AWS Region, as it is known.

WhatsApp began widespread rollout of its payment service in India after multiple regulatory challenges, with backing from the country’s largest banks.

Vietnamese company Vingroup secured a contract to manufacture two million 4G smartphones for an undisclosed US operator, a showing of overseas market expansion for the company.

A US telecoms infrastructure company offered to deploy 5G networks in Jamaica for free, in exchange for gradual eventual revenues over time garnered in the country.

Data centre specialist SpaceDC has announced the launch of JAK2, a new data centre in Indonesia sited in the ID01 campus, which will also be home to the company’s other flagship data centre JAK1.

A further example of the continuing drive to meet the growing demand for mobile communications on metro services comes from Belarus where operator MTS has announced that it will provide communication for passengers on the new line of the Minsk metro.

Russian operator MTS chose Canonical’s Charmed OpenStack cloud computing platform to power the operator’s next-generation cloud infrastructure, to support future service launches such as 5G.

As part of a government initiative to connect 100 percent of Colombia for which it has already deployed a large number of Wi-Fi zones, SES has announced a deployment of 300 additional free community Wi-Fi zones in the country, enabled by high-speed broadband over satellite.

Telecom Egypt, which provides fixed and mobile voice and data services to Egyptian customers, and the government of St Helena have signed an agreement to connect the island to Telecom Egypt’s subsea system over the Equiano submarine cable system.

Russian operator MegaFon has announced plans for a project through which low earth orbit (LEO) satellites will provide data access to users on the ground.

There's positive news for Huawei from Indonesia, where operator Indosat Ooredoo has announced its continued partnership with Huawei Indonesia as one of its strategic partners to build a state-of-the-art, programmable, 5G-ready transport network powered by segment routing IPv6 (SRv6).

Indian networking products company Tejas Networks has been selected by C3ntro Telecom to upgrade the high-speed backbone and broadband network of the Mexico-based wholesale carrier.

As CSP’s experience disruption to traffic patterns as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, what are the key challenges facing their data centres?

The Indian smartphone market grew 9% year-on-year hitting over 53 million units in Q3, the highest evert shipment uptick in a quarter for India, according to Counterpoint Research.

Israeli operator Bezeq made good on a pledge to expand its fibre optic network with the completion of its fibre optic rollout in the town of Metulla, marking the first community in Israel to be entirely connected to the operator’s fibre network.

Hrvatski Telekom, a leading operator in Croatia, has claimed a first with the launch of a commercial 5G network, which, it says, places Croatia alongside developed European and world markets.

The Kenya government announced it will lay 630km of fibre optic between the towns of Eldoret to Nadapal, to deliver high-speed internet services and increase trade in east Africa.