Optical & Fixed Networks

The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), a government statutory agency, has launched a basic fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband package with a minimum connection speed of 100Mbps.

Bolivia is to expand its deployment of fibre and of cellular antennas to more municipalities across the country’s nine departments, according to recent reports from the Bolivian public works, services and housing ministry.

The DRC’s state-owned provider SCPT (Societe Congolaise des Postes et Telecommunications) has signed a US$35 million infrastructure modernisation agreement with LMS Holding.

Eight ISPs in the Brazilian Northeastern states of Paraiba, Pernambuco, Ceara, and Rio Grande do Norte have merged to create Proxxima Telecomunicacoes, with 95,000 subscribers and 350,000 households connected to fibre.

Uzbekistan’s state provider Uzbektelecom claims to have made significant strides in its push to replace its copper communication networks with fibre-optic infrastructure.

Ukraine's monopolist telephone company Ukrtelecom JSC has expanded the coverage of its fibre-optic network in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Chilean telecommunications regulator the Subsecretariat of Telecommunications (Subtel) has announced the launch of a public tender for the deployment of a fibre optic project in the country’s Tarapacá region.

Users of fixed and mobile networks in Vietnam are facing connectivity issues once again after the latest round of problems affecting the Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable.

Special purpose vehicle Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), on behalf of India's Department of Telecommunication (DoT), came out with a global tender for the development of BharatNet through public private partnership (PPP) in nine separate packages across 16 States for a concession period of 30 years.

Tower Infrastructure Trust (Tower InvIT) which is sponsored by Brookfield and backed by leading global infrastructure investors has struck a deal to acquire telecom infrastructure provider Space Teleinfra (STIPL), a leading indoor coverage solutions provider in India, for an equity consideration of Rs 900 crore (USD 121 million).

A 22km interconnected fibre optic network linking Cameroon and Gabon is now officially launched and operational.

Telefonica Colombia, a subsidiary of the Spanish telecom group Telefonica, and KKR, a global investment firm, have announced an agreement to establish Colombia’s first independent nationwide open access wholesale digital infrastructure company.

Five of the largest network operators in the Middle East have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that commits them to the support and deployment of Open RAN technology in their future infrastructure rollouts.

India’s second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has expanded its relationship with Cisco to bring secure access service edge (SASE) capabilities to its Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) customers.

Wateen Telecom, a Pakistan-based converged communication services provider, and Telenor Pakistan, an operator and part of the multinational Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor, have announced a partnership.

Mexico’s Megacable, the second largest multiple system operator in Mexico, has now received over 500,000 optical network units (ONTs), courtesy, it says, of ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile internet.

Orange Poland (Orange Polska) has transferred to its joint venture Swiatlowod Inwesticje (Fibre-Optic Investments) fibre connections covering around 672,000 households, as the new company starts operations.

Telecommunications company Telefonica, whose operations in Brazil are branded as ‘Vivo’, has announced that the neutral fibre network operator FiBrasil has officially started operating in the country.

Liquid Technologies has partnered with Facebook to build an extensive long haul and metro fibre network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Armenia is set for nationwide gigabit broadband over passive optical network (PON) following a new agreement between Telecom Armenia and Nokia.

The now-live Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable is interconnecting at three of Teraco’s data centres across South Africa, expanding access to broadband connectivity and digital services in Africa.

In 2024, Orange Polska plans to have 8 million households within the reach of the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) - said the president of Orange, Julien Ducarroz, during the presentation of the new Group strategy for 2021-2024.

Pakistan’s state provider PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited) has contracted Huawei to upgrade its IP Edge and Optical Transport Network (OTN) infrastructure.

Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest communications solutions provider, has implemented Ciena's photonic infrastructure to add capacity by up to three times to its optic fiber network in cities to deliver an enhanced 5G experience.

Malawi has launched the second phase of the national fibre backbone project that began more than four years ago.

The Indian Government announced that it had allocated an additional INR 19.041-crore (US$2.6 billion) in order to divert efforts towards the expansion as well as up-gradation of BharatNet, which is a nationwide initiative aimed at connecting over 600,000 villages with the optic fibre-based network so as to ensure the delivery of Internet services.

Indosat Ooredoo has partnered with Cisco for Southeast Asia’s first commercial deployment of segment routing over IPv6 (SRv6) to support the development of its 5G services across Indonesia.

Riding on a wave of the growth in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions, the total fixed broadband service revenue in Malaysia is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% from US$1.6bn in 2020 to US$2.5bn in 2025, said a study.

Globe Telecom Inc. has partnered with PhilTower Consortium Inc. to put up 500 new cell sites in the National Capital Region and Luzon this year in Philippines as part of efforts to boost connectivity amid the pandemic.

United Group has tapped Ekinops to build optical fibre networks for its Croatian subsidiary, Telemach Hrvastska.

The Iranian government has adopted major legislation to enable the government to take back control of physical hardware and transmission equipment used for the delivery of fixed data services.

Argentina is in the subsea cable news again. Late last week wholesale telecom service provider GlobeNet’s new subsea cable system Malbec, which connects Argentina and Brazil, was launched.

Ooredoo Oman has launched super-fast, reliable 4G and 5G fixed wireless (FWA) access throughout the country, powered by Nokia.