Optical & Fixed Networks

Telekom Malaysia completed its new fibre optic hub across the northern regions of Sabah and Sarawak to connect remote locations situated there.

Total fixed communication services revenue in India is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% from US$10.2 billion in 2022 to US$13.9 billion in 2027, mainly driven by the strong growth in the fixed broadband segment. That’s the view of data and analytics company GlobalData in its India Fixed Communications Forecast (Q1 2023).

Telecoms infrastructure provider Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) secured a US$20 million loan with plans to spend the cash on mobile towers to connect deep rural locations in six new African countries.

The Guinean government granted infrastructure provider Guineenne de Fibre Optique (GFO) permission to sell interconnection services and optical fibre transport to operators in Guinea.

Nokia has deployed 25Gbps-capable PON-based fibre broadband access technology for Vodafone Qatar in the Msheireb Smart City district.

A new internet exchange has been launched in Manila in the Philippines by two major players in ICT service provision and interconnection platforms.

Philippines-based Eastern Communications budgeted PHP1 billion (US$19.1 million) in capex to bolster operations on the islands of Visayas and Mindanao, and complete a subsea cable, reported Philstar.

Fast Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) subsidiary of network solutions company Paratus Group, has announced that its 620-kilometre fibre optic network link between Muanda on the West Coast and the capital, Kinshasa, is now active.  The fibre link will deliver high-speed connectivity to the region through Paratus Group’s pan-African network.

Claro Argentina has signed a collaboration deal with Empatel, an Argentinean service provider based in the remote La Pampa province.

Helios Towers highlighted moves to lower capex for 2023 and focus on organic growth this year, as the company reported boosts to revenue and operating profit. 

African telecommunications and managed services provider Seacom says it has now gone live on the Equiano subsea cable following the cable’s landing in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2022.

Omani service provider Omantel and du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), have announced plans to link the UAE and Oman through a newly activated 275-kilometre international fibre optic submarine cable named the Oman Emirates Gateway (OEG).

The government of Burkino Faso has chosen Telecel Faso’s new subsidiary Bridge Fiber Solutions (BFS) to operate and maintain the country’s fibre optic backbone network.

Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a consortium of Asian telecommunications carriers managing the ASE cable system, is working with networking systems, services, and software group Ciena to improve the design capacity and sustainability of its cable system.

At the recent Kinshasa Economic Forum, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS) a pan-African wholesale telecom infrastructure provider, signed a warrants agreement that will allow BCS to move forward with its plans to install a new fibre-optic backbone in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

V.tal, an end-to-end digital infrastructure solutions company and owner of the largest neutral fibre optic network in Brazil, and leading technology company Cisco are working together to increase the capacity of V.tal’s multi-tenant fibre-optic neutral network in Brazil.

At Mobile World Congress 2023, ZTE has concluded the launch event for its 5G FWA Gen 5 personal and home data terminal, hosted by Ni Fei, SVP and President of Mobile Devices.

STC Bahrain and regional digital hub Center3 have announced plans to land the 2Africa Pearls submarine cable system in Bahrain. The companies say they have now officially completed the marine survey to bring the cable to the country.

Could two new undersea internet cable routes planned for 2023 or early 2024 offer Vietnam relief from its international connectivity issues?

Pakistan-based business communications company Multinet has announced that it will be upgrading its optical transport network that today spans the entire country covering more than 120 cities, across more than 14,000 kilometres.

ZTT International Submarine Cable & System has been hired as the cable supplier for three stretches of the Brazilian government-sponsored Amazon river fibre project Norte Conectado.

NEC Corporation and ADVA will jointly deploy time synchronisation solutions for Telkom Indonesia, allowing the fixed network operator to prepare its transport network for delivering time-sensitive 5G services across the country.

The latest in what appears to be a long line of undersea cable problems affecting Vietnam in recent years has brought comment from the General Secretary of the Vietnam Internet Association, Vu The Binh, who says that Vietnam needs at least two to three more undersea cable routes in the next five years to meet growing demand.

Kenyan broadband start-up Mawingu raised a total of US$9 million in a series B funding round to expand its operations to 25 counties in Kenya.

The CEO of Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTTP) has announced a major investment in fibre rollout across the island country.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is deploying Nokia’s transport network technology in a new terrestrial fibre route connecting Mombasa, Kenya to Johannesburg, South Africa.

French Polynesian operator ONATi - a subsidiary of the OPT French Polynesia Group - has selected Intelia and Ciena to increase the capacity of the Honotua international submarine cable to 300Gb/s.

The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has embarked on a national fibre ring project that will connect to the Arcos-1 system.

The 2Africa subsea cable, described as the largest subsea cable system in the world, has landed at the South African operator Vodacom’s network facility in Gqeberha. This is the first submarine cable landing in the Eastern Cape region.

Telekom Malaysia’s TM R&D has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ZTE that will see the companies collaborate on optical network research, bringing the first 50Gbps bandwidth experience to Malaysia.

America Movil and Telxius unveiled a new ultrahigh capacity subsea cable to link Guatemala to the US from 2025, as part of wider plans to improve global connectivity through bolstering the link between America Movil and Telxius parent Telefonica.

A rather unusual intergovernmental row seems to have broken out in Nepal, where the country’s Ministry of Communication, and Information Technology (MoCIT) has indicated its displeasure over the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) cutting internet cables, resulting, predictably enough, in internet outages for many customers.

Uruguay has approved the installation of Google's fibre optic submarine cable Firmina, removing another hurdle to the rollout of the longest cable ever with single-ended power supply capability.