All Tech News

The global drive to encourage digital payment continues – this time with an announcement from Sri Lankan operator SLT-Mobitel that its mobile money arm mCash has partnered with payments solution giant Visa.

Bharti Airtel has announced the expansion of what it calls its green energy footprint with the commissioning of a captive solar power plant for its data centres in Uttar Pradesh.

The formation of a new Indian telecommunications industry body has just been announced. It’s called the Satcom Industry Association (SiA-India).

Suriname’s leading operator Telesur has signed a ten-year contract with Cerillion for a fully convergent BSS/OSS platform.

Data centre provider ST Telemedia Global Data Centres’ India unit has announced a new partnership with Indian cleantech company Avaada Energy to procure renewable energy.

Nokia and Mobily have completed a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network deployment in the L-800 band in Saudi Arabia.

According to a blog on the IBM website, the technology giant has launched a proof of concept (PoC) with Movistar, a Telefonica brand, to deploy one of the first fully functional Open RAN networks, covering 81,000 inhabitants in the city of Puerto Madryn in Argentina.

A major new announcement from pan-African data centre developer and operator  Raxio is a useful reminder of the continuing acceleration of data centre development across Africa.

Namibia will require all mobile phone users to register their SIM card prior to accessing services following the introduction of new regulation.

Not to be outdone by its longtime rival Globe Telecom, which this week announced a major upgrade to its 4G services while pledging new 5G coverage, Smart Communications confirmed that it has activated over 2000 5G sites in the Philippines.

Nokia and Safaricom have confirmed yesterday’s news that East Africa’s first commercial 5G services have been launched in parts of Kenya, and have added more detail about the technology involved.

Kenya’s leading operator Safaricom has announced plans to launch a 5G network this Friday in Nairobi and western Kenya.

Andean Telecom Partners Perú (ATP Perú) has selected Nokia to support its rollout of neutral host digital infrastructure projects for both fixed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and mobile (small cells) access in Peru.

Operator Ooredoo Maldives has announced the launch of the country’s first ever tier-III-ready data centre, providing connectivity, storage, security and support systems for IT-based services and operations for a wide range of customers.

Ooredoo Kuwait has tapped Infovista’s radio planning portfolio to upgrade over 2500 sites nationwide in a bid to accelerate its 5G network deployment.

Another 5G spectrum auction is on the way in Israel – and it could be held before the end of this year.

Globe Telecom has completed a 4G/LTE upgrade to its network in Boracay and is set to accelerate a modernisation push in other areas of the Philippines.

TIM Brasil has announced its intention to be the first operator in Brazil to migrate its data centres to the cloud.

Tunisia has launched its first home-made satellite. Challenge ONE was launched on 22 March with the help of a Russian launching rocket from a base in Kazakhstan.

Philippines operator Smart Communications has announced plans to roll out fuel cell sites in off-grid or hard-to-reach areas nationwide. This rollout starts in the second quarter of 2021 and will continue until the end of the year.

The government of China is reportedly turning its attention to the development of 6G technology across the next five years.

The deployment of a submarine cable system from Ecuador to the Galapagos Islands has been announced.

Given the difficulties faced by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) lately, the Indian state-owned telecommunications provider must be delighted that it has some encouraging news to promote – in the form of an offshore satcoms partnership with Novelsat.

Nepal is set to begin 5G testing in the cities of Biratnagar, Birgunj, Kathmandu and Pokhara, according to the country’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MOCIT).

We briefly noted earlier this week that Liquid Intelligent Technologies, formerly Liquid Telecoms, had deployed a fibre network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The company has now supplied more details of the deployment – and it makes some impressive claims for the new network.

IBM has announced the opening of its first IBM Cloud Multizone Region (MZR) in Latin America. Building on its existing data centre footprint in Brazil, IBM says that the MZR is a result of the company's continued investment in cloud infrastructure to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption and help foster business growth in Latin America.

United Group has selected Nokia to provide equipment for its next generation fibre networks across its southeastern European markets including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Senegalese operator Expresso has launched its 4G network after extensive delays.

Algeria’s telecoms minister Brahim Boumzar has confirmed that the government’s current focus is on improving 4G services rather than introducing 5G.

Digital fintech enablement provider Ukheshe Technologies and Infobip, a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected customer experiences, say they have developed South Africa’s very first WhatsApp payment gateway. It is to be used by mobile operator Telkom.