Optical & Fixed Networks

Malaysia’s Railway Assets Corp (RAC) announced on Friday it has contracted telco YTL Communications to build out fibre optic infrastructure along 1,600 km of railway track, putting an end to the railway fibre monopoly held by Telekom Malaysia’s Fiberail.

Viettel Networks, a subsidiary of military-owned telco Viettel, announced on Wednesday that the Vietnam-bound link of the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) is now live, more than doubling the country’s international bandwidth.

Axiata Group is reportedly seeking financial advisers as it explores a potential sale of its majority stake in tower subsidiary edotco Group, in a deal that could be worth up to US$3 billion including debt.

While many subsea cable stories recently have been about accidents and repairs in the world’s oceans, two recent stories from India and West Africa are land-based and underline some of the potential pitfalls of inadequate planning.

TIM Group's global operator Sparkle has announced the expansion of its network in Mexico with the opening of a new point of presence (PoP) in Querétaro, a city in the centre of the country.

The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) says that state-owned operator Libtelco and the Cable Consortium of Liberia (CCL) will relocate the country’s landing station for the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) subsea cable, which has been suffering from outages blamed on construction work at the current landing site.

At the OFC Conference, from March 30 to April 3, 2025, at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC) highlighted several new developments in hollow-core fibre technology.

In the rapidly evolving world of telecommunications, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable (YOFC) company has emerged as a global leader. At the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, we had the opportunity to speak with Dr Zhuang Dan, executive director and president of YOFC, about the company’s international expansion, innovative product offerings, and strategies for the future.

During MWC 25 in Barcelona, Kim Jin, Vice President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, officially unveiled a full series of 10G smart OLTs at the Green All-Optical Summit. The products can help operators maintain business competitiveness in the broadband service domain for the next decade, ultimately promoting the smart upgrade of global optical access networks.

Backbone telecommunications network provider Telecom Fiji has announced the successful completion of the Savusavu to Labasa Fibre Project, described as a major milestone in enhancing digital connectivity across Vanua Levu, the second largest of Fiji’s islands.

Recent cable landing station news from eastern India and West Africa underlines the continuing growth of the submarine cable business across both regions.

State-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC) has reportedly decided to slash its wholesale bandwidth prices by 10% in a bit to make internet access in Bangladesh more affordable.

TIM Group's global operator Sparkle and Al-Bawaba for Telecommunications and Informatics, a Libyan ISP provider offering a wide range of ICT solutions, say they have enhanced their commercial partnership to provide international connectivity services to and from Libya.

At Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2025, Huawei emphasised the urgent need for operators to construct future-proof optical networks to capitalise on the surge in data demand driven by AI-powered applications.

The three partners behind MANTA, a new subsea cable system connecting Mexico and the USA with Central and Latin America, have announced that  SubCom, which engineers, manufactures, and installs subsea fibre optic data cables, has been awarded a contract for the design, manufacture and installation of the MANTA system.

Qatar-based Ooredoo Group announced on Sunday it has signed a landing party agreement with Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC) to land Ooredoo’s planned Fibre in Gulf (FIG) subsea cable in Iraq.

Nokia announced on Thursday that it has signed a three-year deal with Indian telco Vodafone Idea to enhance and expand its IP backhaul network with IP/MPLS solutions across multiple telecom circles in India to boost 4G and 5G network performance.

During MWC 2025 in Barcelona, Huawei held an all-optical summit themed "Accelerate F5G-A, Boost Industrial Intelligence". At this summit, Huawei discussed and shared the latest industry practices in ISP, all-optical campus, industry communication network, and fiber sensing with global industry experts, customers, and partners.

The PEACE subsea cable cut in the Red Sea, reported by a number of news outlets early last week, could be a long-term issue, with repairs taking months.

Hard on the heels of recent news, reported here yesterday, that the long-anticipated sale of financially troubled Brazilian operator Oi’s fibre broadband unit ClientCo to fibre provider V.tal had gone ahead, the Brazilian market will soon gain a new fibre services player with the launch of Nio.

During MWC 2025 in Barcelona, IDATE held the Green All-optical Network Forum themed "AI-Centric All-Optical Network for New Growth". More than 200 industry leaders from the European telecom regulator BEREC, the FTTH Council, carriers, and device vendors all gathered together to discuss the opportunities as well as challenges coming from all-optical networks in the AI era, from policies to markets, from services to network architecture, and from technology innovation to business models.

Juniper Networks announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabian telco stc will deploy Juniper 400G routers in its core network and select data centres to support expansion of its 5G network to reach 75 cities and regions.

On March 3, as the global communications and technology community converged in Barcelona, Spain, for MWC Barcelona 2025, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC) took center stage with its visionary theme, “Leading a New Future With Fibre.”

Axiata’s telecoms infrastructure company Edotco announced on Tuesday it has signed a strategic agreement with Malaysian infrastructure firm Kejuruteraan Rasshin (KRSB) to expand digital infrastructure in Sarawak.

Saudi digital enabler stc Group and Ooredoo Oman, a regional telecommunications provider, have announced the signing of a head of terms agreement to establish an international terrestrial fibre optic network corridor between Saudi Arabia and Oman. It’s called the SONIC project.

Nokia announced on Monday that ACES-NH – a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Communication and Electronics Systems (ACES) – has deployed the country’s first 25GPON neutral host network.

Malaysian telco YTL Communications and telecoms infrastructure firm Bullish Aim Group announced on Monday they have formed a joint venture to develop fibre infrastructure to support the growth of data centres in Johor.

Algeria Telecom, the largest telecommunications operator in Algeria, and tech giant Huawei have jointly announced the official launch of the national 400G WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) project, building an all-optical premium transmission foundation covering the whole country.

PLDT announced on Friday it has successfully completed its two subsea cable branches connecting the Philippines to the intra-Asian Apricot cable system that will run between Japan and Singapore.

Only days after making news in Indonesia, telecom and fibre consulting firm APTelecom is back in the headlines, this time in Malaysia, with an appointment to support another submarine cable project.

UAE-based telco du said on Monday it has signed a partnership deal with PEACE Cable International Network Co Limited to extend the PEACE subsea cable system into the UAE and Gulf region.