Optical & Fixed Networks

With network traffic surging, Omantel has deployed Ciena’s coherent optical technology to connect data centres, submarine cable landing stations and telecom exchanges in various regions across Oman.

Indian Railways ministry technical arm RailTel Corporation and the state-run telecom research and development organisation Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) have signed a pact to work together in the telecom space with a key focus on the modernization and expansion of communication networks across the country.

Argentine government-owned telecommunications company Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales Sociedad Anónima AR-SAT (ARSAT) has signed an agreement with the Secretary of State for Energy to expand the country's Federal Fibre Optic Network (Refefo) by lighting up some 4,405 kilometres of unused fibre cables.

Djibouti Telecom, the government-run telecommunications monopoly in Djibouti City, has begun construction of a new cable landing station (CLS).

Israel’s Ministry of Communications (MoC) has launched its first tender for the so-called ‘Incentive Areas’ that will likely not be covered by commercial fibre-optic deployments.

Angola’s newest operator Africell will use wholesale IP transit and connectivity solutions from Angola Cables.

Group Vivendi Africa (GVA) has confirmed that it will begin offering its CanalBox FTTH services in Gabon’s second city of Port-Gentil by mid-2022.

PEACE Cable International Network Co Limited, the company behind the new subsea cable connecting Asia, Europe and Africa, has announced a deal with leading carrier and cloud-neutral data centre provider iColo.

Nepal has seen widespread fixed broadband outages resulting from a clash between the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and several of the country’s ISPs.

Driven by the strong growth in the fixed broadband segment, the total fixed communications service revenue in the Philippines is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.0% from US$3.6bn in 2021 to US$4.7bn in 2026.

Frogfoot Networks, the open-access fibre provider in Cape Town, South Africa, has acquired the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) assets of the fibre network operator (FNO) Link Africa Western Cape for an undisclosed sum.

2Africa can now officially boast that it is the longest subsea cable system in the world after the announcement that it has been extended to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan and India.

Telekom Slovenije has tapped Nokia to supply broadband equipment to allow its FTTH network to offer 10Gb/s, with deployment slated for this year.

Leading Indian operator Bharti Airtel has selected networking products company Tejas Networks to enhance its optical network capacity in key metropolitan markets.

Burkino Faso’s government has detailed its National Strategy for the Development of the Digital Economy, which seeks to boost connectivity in urban areas.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is delivering affordable high-speed connectivity to communities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using Wireless Optical Communication technology (WOC) from Project Taara.

Chinese provider of submarine-network solutions HMN Tech said the first 16-fibre pair repeatered submarine cable system, the Hainan to Hong Kong Express (H2HE), has completed the system commissioning and testing, and is now ready for service.

In yet another example of how the response to Covid-19 has influenced the telecommunications sector in a number of countries, MTN Ghana has announced the launch of a home internet service.

With an eye to the continuing drive to boost services to citizens and businesses, Botswana has floated a tender for the design, supply, installation, commissioning, operation and support of internet and backhaul connectivity in 61 of the country’s villages.

Satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat Satellite Networks has announced that it has received a $12 million service award for recurring revenues from broadband services in Cusco, Peru.

Dr. Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, has announced plans to provide more than 60 million people in rural areas with high-speed internet under an ambitious drive to unlock new pathways for economic growth.

In an interesting example of cooperation to avoid duplication, Tanzania is planning to use electricity infrastructure to deploy broadband services.

Netcracker Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, extended its contract with Maxis, Malaysia's converged service provider, for its Digital OSS, which provides the underlying digital and automation foundation for Maxis including fibre optic footprint and next-gen IP network.

Indonesian wireless network provider Telkomsel closed another tower sale with Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel), selling 4,000 units for IDR6.2 trillion ($434.8 million) and agreeing on a ten-year leaseback.

Philippines telecommunications giant PLDT is doubling its existing total network capacity from 55 terabits per second to 92 Tbps by the end of 2021. That is almost more than triple from its capacity last year which was only at 30 Tbps.

Indonesia-based mobile telecommunications services operator XL Axiata said that it has intensively built a 4G network in Banten Province in the last year. Within a year, there was the construction of more than 630 4G BTS to remote areas that were previously unreachable.

FiBrasil (FiBrasil Infraestrutura e Fibra Ótica SA), a Brazilian company whose focus is the construction and operation of a neutral fibre network, has announced a major acquisition with the potential to boost its coverage plans.

Airtel Niger has reportedly invested $5.7 million in deploying optical fibre from a major Nigerien city to the country’s border with Nigeria.

Vodafone Ukraine, the second-biggest mobile carrier in the Ukraine market, has announced plans to enter the fixed broadband market.

Ciena, a networking systems, services and software company, says it is working with Djibouti Telecom to increase digitisation in the East Africa region by deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme solution to upgrade one of Djibouti Telecom’s submarine cable systems.

American telecommunications software company Mavenir announced to have been selected by the Romanian telecommunications company Telekom Romania Mobile Communications to deploy a cloud-native IMS (vIMS) platform together with VoLTE and VoWi-Fi microservices.

Serbia Broadband (SBB) said that it would begin free digitalization of the Serbian cities of Kraljevo and Vrsac in September by extending its ‘GIGA’-branded fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network.