All Tech News

Botswana’s BoFiNet has selected Ribbon Communications to upgrade and enhance its national backbone network.

MTN Sudan has signed a 10-year network as a service (NaaS) contract with NuRAN Wireless, a supplier of mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure solutions, for the deployment of rural mobile infrastructure in Sudan.

A major debt finance deal promises to enable open access fibre provider MetroFibre Networx to bring more fibre connectivity to underserved markets in South Africa.

Niger’s Zamani Telecom has completed a wide-ranging upgrade of its 4G TD-LTE network.

Digital payment solutions provider Network International has announced it will bring WhatsApp for Business banking services to financial institutions across Africa through a collaboration with global cloud communication service provider Infobip.

Operator Zain South Sudan has gone live with a new digital service provisioning system (DSPS) supplied by Tecnotree, which describes itself as a global provider of digital transformation solutions for communication service providers (CSPs) and digital service providers (DSPs).

Underlining the dominance of South Africa in general, and Johannesburg in particular, in the African data centre market, US-headquartered Vantage Data Centres, described as a leading global provider of hyperscale data centre campuses, has announced the delivery of the first facility on its Johannesburg campus.

MEASAT-3d, described by Malaysian operator MEASAT as its latest and most advanced satellite, has now entered commercial service, after its handover by Airbus Defence and Space.

Claro, the second – and only other – network in Guatemala after Tigo, has claimed a 5G launch not long after its rival. This week it has launched 5G operations with initial coverage in parts of all of Guatemala's 22 departments (or administrative divisions).

The Thai government’s digital arm has admitted the administration has used spyware to survey individuals deemed a national society threat or narcotics offender, despite previously denying the use of spyware.

Africa’s Phase3 Telecom, an independent aerial fibre optic network infrastructure and telecommunications service provider, has partnered with satellite broadband service YahClick to offer high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband services.

International service provider Sparkle has added another submarine cable to its assets in the Atlantic with the activation of spectrum capacity on the Monet submarine cable system connecting Brazil to the United States.

State-owned fixed and mobile operator Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has announced plans to deploy fixed broadband infrastructure and services to new housing projects in the country.

This week, Huawei held the Carrier Cloud Transformation Summit as a highlight of its Win-Win Innovation Week.

Another major communications deal involving india’s oil industry has been announced as broadband satellite and managed network services provider Hughes Communications India (HCI) says it has been chosen to deploy and manage a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) across its 10,800-site retail enterprise network.

Given the growing requirement for fibre across Africa and the problem some African countries have with copper theft, it may perhaps be a surprise to learn that a fibre optic cable manufacturing factory recently inaugurated in Ogun State, in Nigeria’s South-West region, is West Africa’s first and only the fifth in the entire continent.

Indonesia-based Bersama Digital Infrastructure and investment firm Opti-Teknology Philippines have jointly acquired a majority share in Alliance Towers Corporation for an undisclosed fee.

Latin American data centre deals have been in the news recently thanks to a major acquisition in Ecuador and two facility openings in Mexico.

Ethiopian mobile money service TeleBirr has now passed the 20 million subscriber mark. In fact the Xinhua agency reports that TeleBirr, a service designed and rolled out with help from Huawei, now boasts more than 21 million subscribers.

A project that could massively expand the available infrastructure for 5G in Brazil has been mooted by two major players in their fields in that country.

Mobile network expansion is in the news again, with Vodacom in South Africa and Telkom in Kenya announcing plans to invest in better coverage.

Satellite communications company ST Engineering iDirect has announced that Malaysian satellite operator MEASAT is significantly expanding its iDirect Evolution-based satellite network to deliver a wide range of services to enterprises and communities located in rural and ultra-rural areas across Malaysia.