Optical & Fixed Networks

Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT) sealed the acquisition of American Tower-owned ATC India for INR210 billion (US$2.5 billion), making it the largest towerco in the nation, surpassing rival Indus Towers.

Italian company Sparkle, an international telecoms service provider, has signed an agreement with Airtel Business, the B2B arm of Indian service provider Bharti Airtel, for additional capacity on a diversified low-latency route between Asia and Europe.

Cassava Technologies’ African tech business Liquid Intelligent Technologies announced on Wednesday it has upgraded its 1,300-km fibre route in Kenya that connects the coastal city of Mombasa to Busia on the Ugandan border.

The Bangladesh Private Cable System (BPCS) consortium is ready to start work on building the country’s first privately-owned subsea cable, according to subsea cable consulting and project management company Pioneer Consulting, who is advising the project.

Argentina’s telecoms regulator Enacom has approved extra financing to finish a project undertaken by Argentinian state-owned telecommunications company Arsat to increase the capacity of its fibre optic network.

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), a state corporation that transports, stores and delivers petroleum products to consumers, but that also has a network infrastructure license, says it has onboarded a leading Tier III internet service provider (ISP), Syokinet Solutions, to activate 1.6 terabits per second (Tbps) data capacity on KPC’s fibre optic cable which runs from Mombasa to Nairobi.

Broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions announced on Thursday that the South-East Asia Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System (SEA-H2X) subsea cable has officially landed in the Philippines.

SierraIG, a joint venture (JV) between dense dark fibre infrastructure provider SummitIG and Neutral Networks, a Mexican company focused on providing 100% neutral connectivity to carriers, service providers and operators, plans to establish itself as a pure-play dark fibre infrastructure provider in Mexico.

Two positive announcements for Nigerian connectivity have made headlines in the past week – one from pan-African operator Airtel Africa’s recently established fibre unit, Telesonic, and one from Hotspot Network Limited, a leading last-mile connectivity and telecom tower operator in Nigeria.

Guinea's Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy (MPTEN) reportedly plans to interconnect the country’s national fibre optic network with the network of Côte d'Ivoire in yet another move to boost its international capacity.

China Mobile International (CMI) announced on Tuesday that the PEACE subsea cable running from Singapore to France is now fully activated end to end, adding more open and flexible connectivity between Southeast Asia and Europe.

Telkom Indonesia’s international arm Telin said on Wednesday it has signed a strategic partnership with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison to develop ICE System 2, the latest announced leg of Telin’s Indonesia Cable Express subsea cable project.

Bayobab Kenya, part of Bayobab Group, the digital infrastructure business arm of MTN Group, announced on Tuesday the completion of a terrestrial fibre network connecting Mombasa to Uganda via the border cities of Malaba and Busia.

Liberia is the latest African country to be hit with internet service disruptions, which the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) has attributed to a cut in the ACE (Africa Coast to Europe) subsea cable.

Brazilian ISP InfoRR is partnering with service provider 4WNet Telecomunicações to build a new DWDM optical network using equipment from Brazilian vendor Padtec to expand operations from the state of Roraima to Amazonas.

Nokia announced on Thursday that Telekom Malaysia (TM) will use its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) solution to build a dedicated terrestrial optical network to better manage growing data traffic and improve data center connectivity.

On August 8th, operations commenced at Yangtze Optics Mexico Cable S.A. de C.V. in Mexico’s Jalisco State, marking the establishment of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company's (YOFC) first production facility in the nation.

Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said it has inaugurated the official landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in the Maldives, although the cable is still almost two years away from activation.

Recent African cable news includes a milestone for Namibia with the inauguration of its Equiano cable station and plans for a 2Africa cable landing in Pakistan.

Residents of Tonga’s outlying islands will have to wait until at least mid-August for internet connectivity to return to normal, as the ship sent to repair the nation’s only domestic subsea cable is itself being repaired after breaking down.

Telecentro, a leading telecommunications operator in Argentina, has selected the cOS broadband platform from Harmonic – a company that delivers virtualised broadband and video delivery solutions – to modernise its broadband network.

Australia has launched a new ‘Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre’ for Indo-Pacific subsea cable projects on Monday that also serves as the latest initiative by the Quad alliance of Australia, India Japan and the US to limit China’s influence in the Pacific Islands region.

Philippine fibre broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions says it is collaborating with Ribbon Communications to boost the capacity of its fibre backbone to terabit levels using Ribbon’s Apollo optical networking system.

A new high-capacity cable system connecting Greece with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be on the way after a recent agreement between the two countries.

Sky Cable Corporation, the pay television and broadband arm of ABS-CBN, a leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, has announced a partnership with Philippine fibre broadband provider Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, says it has approved a US$100 million loan to Brazil's federal government to improve digital connectivity and expand fixed broadband coverage in the country.

South African fibre installation company Lightstruck has entered into an agreement with the Namibian City of Windhoek’s City Link initiative to advance the city’s fibre network commercialisation efforts.

Telkom Indonesia’s international arm Telin announced on Monday that it is partnering with BW Digital to build a subsea cable between Singapore and Indonesia to support demand for data centre traffic, just six weeks after revealing a similar project with Singtel.

A Google ship reportedly arrived in French Polynesia on Friday to start survey work on five planned subsea cable projects that will connect various Pacific islands with Chile and Australia.

Inter-island internet services in Tonga have reportedly been disrupted after an earthquake damaged the Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE),  the island nation’s only domestic subsea cable connection.

The Philippine government’s new project to expand the reach of fibre broadband across the country will result in more lines deployed, but it won’t get more people connected if services are too expensive, says analyst firm BMI Country Risk & Industry Research.

European fibre backbone and subsea infrastructure provider EXA Infrastructure says it has signed a deal with Turkey’s SOCAR Fiber to develop a terrestrial fibre optic route across Turkey that it says will add diversity to the cluster of subsea cables in the Red Sea corridor.