All Tech News

Pan-Africa cross-border payments group MFS Africa has partnered with MoneyGram to enable P2P payments and money transfers in Africa.

The MIST cable system is on its way – and Orient Link, which provides construction, sales, operations and maintenance for submarine cables, and NEC Corporation, a leading name in the integration of IT and network technologies, have signed an agreement to build it.

In November 2019 it was announced that Orange Romania was the first operator within the Orange Group’s footprint to commercially launch 5G. Now the 5G network in Bucharest has been expanded to cover the entire city.

Armenian operator Ucom has claimed that its subscribers will now be able to access “much higher quality” mobile services following an extensive network upgrade.

There’s a bright future ahead for Indian data centres according to JLL, a leader in real estate services.

Kyrgyzstan is set to auction 2300MHz-2400MHz TDD spectrum, with licences covering all areas of the country except for the capital of Bishkek and second major city Osh.

Further evidence of the growing reach of Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions comes from a new LoRaWAN contract in South America.

Airtel Africa and MoneyGram have announced a partnership that will allow 19 million Airtel Money subscribers to receive international MoneyGram transfers directly into their mobile wallets.

Operator 3 Indonesia and Nokia have announced that they are working together to optimize and expand 3’s LTE network coverage and capacity to meet customer demand via what is referred to as a new Zero Drive Test solution.

Telefónica Group’s Brazilian subsidiary Vivo has extended its contract with Netcracker for its Revenue Management and Service Activation platforms.

AdcareIT is deploying managed secure SD-WAN services using an integrated NFV edge solution from Telco Systems and Clavister.

We reported last week that incentives to encourage local production of electronics in India were encountering problems attracting major names from the telecommunications network equipment business. Smartphone makers, by contrast, seem a lot more enthusiastic.

Vogel Telecom, a leading wholesale carrier in Brazil, has deployed the Groove (GX) Series G30 Compact Modular Platform from networking solutions provider Infinera to double capacity on its network.

iSAT Africa, a leading data, video and internet service provider, has signed an agreement with Azercosmos, a leading satellite operator in the South Caucasus.

Pan-African operator Airtel Africa and leading international banking group Standard Chartered Bank have announced a strategic collaboration to drive financial inclusion across key markets in Africa by providing customers with increased access to mobile financial services.

Equinix, a global interconnection and data centre company, has announced its expansion into India through the acquisition of the Indian operations of GPX Global Systems, a provider of next-generation, Tier 4 design, carrier-neutral data centres to developing global markets.

Recent satellite news from Latin America includes a backhaul contract for Gilat and an extended partnership involving SES and COMNET.

Tajik operator Tcell has activated its first 5G base stations in the city of Dushanbe.

Ukrainian number three Lifecell has confirmed that it will join the 4G infrastructure sharing arrangement signed in July by its larger rivals Kyivstar and Vodafone Ukraine.

Indian press reports say that prime minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the new submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair, in what appears to have been a virtual ceremony using videoconferencing.

Finally in the news for other reasons than its part in the bid for Oi’s mobile divison is operator Claro Brasil, which has offered more details on its plans to bring the first 5G network to Latin America by using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing.

Israel’s Ministry of Communications (MoC) has stated that the country is in the final stage of its 5G spectrum tender.

Digicel Tonga has successfully implemented a network-wide upgrade to LTE.

A significant announcement from one of India’s big three operators has seen Bharti Airtel agree a multi-year, strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Motorola Solutions has launched a new two-way radio device specially designed for small and medium businesses in Sub Saharan Africa.

Orange Niger, the second largest mobile operator in Niger, has selected wireless backhaul solutions and services from wireless hauling specialist Ceragon Networks Ltd to modernise its nationwide backbone network to 4G.

For some, 5G may seem a technology whose main applications are to high-end technologies and users. It’s timely therefore that Nokia has announced plans to set up a robotics lab at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore for research on socially relevant use cases based on 5G and emerging technologies.

Bharti Airtel has selected Ribbon Communications’ 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

Ukraine’s Ukrtelecom is planning deploy ultrafast broadband reaching 2.6 million people living in rural areas.

Africa Mobile Networks has extended its satellite cellular backhaul contract with Gilat Satellite Networks.

Remote connectivity is a continuing focus in African telecommunications, and a recent announcement from Telecom Namibia underlines the relevance of satellites and VSATs to this drive.

According to the Reuters news service, South African operator Telkom has launched a life insurance business that, it has said, will initially sell funeral insurance.