All Tech News

Further evidence of the continuing importance of satellites in extending the reach of mobile services come from Brazil where satcoms equipment and services giant Hughes has announced the successful three-month pilot of what it calls a new Community LTE service in five villages in Brazil.

Gilat Satellite Networks hailed a strong Q4 as revenues were up 58% year-on-year to $67.3m, crediting this to major contract wins for the company.

5G spectrum auctions and rollout may still be some months off in India, but 5G trials are well under way. Vodafone Idea Limited (aka Vi) is the latest operator to announce that it has successfully demonstrated 5G voice over new radio (VoNR).

Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel has chosen Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain and Management (SCM) to digitise and simplify its finance, planning, and supply chain processes.

Russia’s largest integrated digital company Rostelecom has launched the second phase of its mega data centre Udomlya.

Sri Lankan operator Dialog Axiata has tapped telecoms systems vendor Intracom Telecom to enhance its fixed wireless access (FWA) technology.

Hungary’s telecommunications regulator the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) launched a mobile device replacement programme to encourage consumers to trade in 2G and 3G phones for 4G devices, before planned network shutdowns.

Overall spending on information and communications technology (ICT) across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) will top $229 billion this year, an increase of 2.7% over 2021, said a study.

India’s true wireless stereo (TWS) market grew  74.7% YoY (year-over-year) to 20.3 million units in 2021.

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in its region, and Grid Telecom, subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) in Greece, have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) to connect Greece and Egypt using submarine cable infrastructure.

In another example of the apparently unstoppable growth of digital finance in Africa, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the government of Malawi have signed a grant agreement for $14.2 million to undertake infrastructure upgrades and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system.

Indian digital service provider Jio Platforms and SES, a global satellite-based content connectivity solutions provider, are the latest companies to target the Indian satellite communications market with the formation of a joint venture called Jio Space Technology Limited.

Eutelsat Communications and network company Marlink signed multi-year extensions to their global maritime partnership to support expansion in Africa and the Middle East.

Over 463,000 people have used mobile money services in Vietnam since operators Viettel and VNPT launched the cashless payments  last year.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the radar imaging satellite EOS-04 along with two others on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C52) today (February 14) this morning.

India shipped 161 million smartphones in the year 2021, up by 7 percent year over year, said the International Data Corporation (IDC)’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

Submarine fibre optic cable systems operator Seabras 1 Brasil (Seaborn) announced its network has been approved to provide connectivity to the Brazilain Stock Exchange (B3, enhancing the financial services market in Brazil. 

Part of a multi-million-euro investment fund has been spent to bridge the digital divide for 1.3 million Urktelecom customers in Ukraine, as the operator hailed its strategy in sourcing international investment.

Ethiopian telecommunication company Ethio Telecom partnered with Subex for a new business assurance solution using the enterprise AI platform HyperSense.

Chinese technology giant ZTE Corporation and China Mobile have verified the rule/policy-based SPN intelligent fault diagnosis system on the intelligent management, control, and analysis platform ZENIC ONE (UME) and deployed it across Liaoning province in China.

Chilean fibre to the home provider Mundo has been sold to private equity group Digital Bridge, by owners Linzor Capital Partners and minority shareholder Teras after picking up the company in 2019.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies has added a multi-cloud-based solution from Teridion to its backbone services as part of its efforts to offer internet services that match changing enterprise needs.

Jio Satellite Communications (JSC), the satellite unit of Reliance Jio Infocomm applied to the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for global mobile personal communications via satellite services (GMPCS) license, reported local media.

Emirates Telecommunication Group Company (Etisalat) said that its business unit Etisalat Digital announced a partnership with NICE, an AI-powered self-service solutions provider, to drive the availability of the CXone platform in the UAE.

YahClick, the satellite broadband service of UAE-based global satellite operator Yahsat, is teaming up with an off-grid power company lear Blue Technologies to expand its services of offering high-speed connectivity in Africa.

Wireless internet service provider XCIEN and fixed wireless access expert Tarana have announced a new partnership to bring high-speed, reliable internet service to businesses and residential areas across Mexico with plans ranging from 100 to 400 Mbps.

Namibian power utility NamPower has deployed Ribbon’s IP Optical portfolio for its “The GridOnline” project.

Network solutions firm Marlink signed a multi-million-euro agreement that will give its customers access to SES’ next-generation system of satellites.

Israeli operator Cellcom has selected Anodot’s end-to-end  zero touch network monitoring solution to improve service availability and provide early detection of potential network issues before they impact the customer experience.

India's minister of communications and technology declared the country is in the final stages of developing 5G and is currently looking ahead to future network standards. 

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison penned a non-binding memorandum of understanding with subsea cable provider Inligo Networks to build a high-capacity underwater fibre optic telecommunications cable system in Indonesia.

It’s only been a matter of days since we announced Indian plans to classify data centres as infrastructure that could speed up the data centre development process. Now the giant Adani Group is announcing a major initiative in the data centre sector.

Quantum Switch Tamasuk (QST), a Saudi company specialising in the design, build, financing and operation of data centres, has signed a key business principle agreement with the kingdom’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to develop and operate new data centres with a total capacity of 300MW by 2026.