Optical & Fixed Networks

Telecoms network operator Paratus Botswana announced on Wednesday it has started work on lighting a new fibre route – billed as the “SADC Highway” – that will connect Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Digital infrastructure provider WIOCC announced on Tuesday it is partnering with Nigeria’s state-owned ICT and shared services provider Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) to boost broadband infrastructure in Nigeria.

Chilean regulator Subtel says it has received four offers to carry out a feasibility study of a project to implement  the first submarine fibre optic cable between Chile and Antarctica.

Benin-based broadband provider Isocel Telecom has announced ambitious plans to expand its network to reach up to half a million households, emphasising that fibre is still essential to fill the gaps that mobile connectivity cannot yet address.

Philippine telco PLDT has reportedly launched what it’s billing as an “uninterruptible fiber internet connection” service that uses fixed wireless access (FWA) LTE as an automatic backup connection in case of a fibre outage.

Telecom Namibia says it successfully completed eight FTTx projects worth NAB35.5 million (US$1.9 million) for underserved areas in 2023 and 2024, and will invest another NAB27 million to expand its fibre access network further in the coming year.

As industries worldwide accelerate digital transformation in an AI-driven era, resilient, high-speed networks have become essential.

Global connectivity provider Angola Cables is reportedly planning to expand into Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to cash in on Africa's growing appetite for digital infrastructure – provided regulators make it easier to roll out that infrastructure.

UAE-based operator Etisalat by e& and Mauritius-based digital infrastructure provider WIOCC say they have formed a strategic partnership to integrate their subsea networks to accelerate growth of Africa’s hyperscaler ecosystem.

Cirion Technologies, a digital infrastructure and technology provider in Latin America, today announced what it describes as a new, wholly diverse and resilient Atlantic subsea route expanding fibre connectivity between Latin America and North America. It’s called the South American Crossing-2 (SAC-2) Route.

Nokia has announced its second fibre broadband partnership in South Africa in as many days – this one with ICT solutions provider Reflex and ISP Net Nine Nine, and also with the aim of expanding broadband access for underserved communities.

Nokia has announced that South African internet service provider Fibertime will deploy Nokia’s fibre solution to rapidly expand broadband access to underserved regions of South Africa.

Telecom Egypt and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) announced on Wednesday they have successfully landed the Africa-1 subsea cable system at the first of two planned landing points in Egypt.

Latin American IP transit and connectivity provider EdgeUno has announced a new fibre optic route connecting Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Saudi Arabian telco Mobily and Telecom Egypt announced on Monday that they have signed a cooperation deal to land the first subsea cable directly linking Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Malaysia’s Hexa Capital Consultancy said on Wednesday it has chosen Globe Telecom to serve as the landing party in the Philippines for its trans-Pacific Malaysia-US (MYUS) Cable System.

OMS Group, a Malaysian subsea digital infrastructure company, has signed a contract with Dutch maritime firm Royal IHC for the construction of a series of cable-laying vessels. OMS is backed by KKR, a global investment firm investing across private markets in every asset class all over the world.

IP optical networking solutions vendor Ribbon Communications announced on Friday it has successfully completed a long-haul DWDM project to upgrade Indian telco Bharti Airtel’s optical transport network.

At GITEX Global 2024, Huawei unveiled a ground-breaking innovation set to redefine the optical transport landscape — the industry's first end-to-end fine-grained Optical Transport Network (fgOTN) product portfolio.

Philippine telco PLDT announced on Wednesday it has a secured a PHP2 billion (US$34.4 million) social loan facility from HSBC Philippines to finance its fibre infrastructure rollouts to underserved and unserved communities.

Nokia announced on Tuesday it has opened its first innovation centre serving Africa and the Middle East in Morocco, which will not only provide Nokia's network infrastructure technologies to play with, but also programmes to boost digital skillsets.

Ericsson says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UAE-based operator e& International to explore the potential for developing autonomous networks powered by AI over the next three years.

Liberty Networks and Gold Data announced on Wednesday that Telecom Italia’s international telecoms arm Sparkle has joined their plan to construct a new subsea cable system – renamed MANTA – connecting the US, Mexico, Panama and Colombia.

Optical networking vendor Infinera says it has won a contract with Philippine broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions to supply submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) for Converge’s landing station for the Bifrost Cable System.

Vietnam has this week announced that it aims to deploy two undersea internet cables by the end of next year. It has also said that 5G services will be deployed across the country by that time.

Burundi and Zambia are to be connected via an underwater fibre optic cable, following an agreement at the second Digital Government Africa Summit, which took place from 2-4 October 2024 in Zambia’s capital Lusaka.

Papua New Guinea’s state-owned wholesale operator PNG DataCo says that it has completed an upgrade of its internet gateway with a 100-Gbps link that enables it to migrate traffic onto the PIPE Pacific Cable 1 (PPC-1) subsea cable.

A timely announcement from the ITU, the United Nations specialised agency for digital technology, is aimed at enhancing efforts to protect the world's digital infrastructure and secure global connectivity. To be precise, it’s about submarine cables.

Will Brazilian neutral network and digital infrastructure company V.tal take over financially troubled operator Oi Brasil’s fibre broadband base, ClientCo? Having last week made the sole bid for Oi’s fibre unit it’s looking very likely that it will.

ASN announced on Wednesday it is collaborating with seismic instrumentation company Nanometrics and environmental monitoring firm RBR to integrate climate-change monitoring tech into subsea cables, starting with a new cable project underway in the Pacific Islands.

Nokia announced on Monday that Thai wholesale network provider International Gateway Company (IGC) has deployed its next-gen optical transport solution to modernize its existing DWDM network in Thailand.

Telecom Fiji says it has signed a partnership deal with New Zealand-based critical communication solutions firm Kordia to install a new transmission network for the northern island of Vanua Levu.