Pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which has a fibre backbone of over 100,000 kilometres across the African continent, has announced a new collaboration to deliver internet access to 20 million underserved people in Africa by the end of 2025, partnering with Microsoft.

Working together through Microsoft’s Airband initiative, the new collaboration will initially target regions that include, but are not limited to, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. Additionally, the partnership will allow for increased proliferation of high-speed connectivity to the farthest parts of Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

The companies say they will empower individuals and businesses in some of the United Nations’ least developed countries to help bridge the digital divide and assist in transitioning more African countries into the digital economy.

The effort will be discussed during a panel discussion at the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) which takes place in Doha, Qatar from 5-9 March.

According to the International Telecommunication Union, roughly 2.7 billion people globally remain unconnected because it’s either unavailable or they can’t afford it. Rural areas around the world are especially disadvantaged, as traditional telecom infrastructure fails to go the final mile in low-density regions.

Microsoft’s Airband Initiative partners with a wide-ranging ecosystem of organisations to design, implement and support programmes that deliver unique connectivity solutions designed for local communities and their challenges. This includes working with broadband providers, local ISPs, energy partners, international organisations and local governments to deliver internet access in unserved or underserved communities worldwide.

In today’s fast-paced world, remote collaboration is more important than ever before. With the pandemic accelerating the need for distributed and remote teams, many organizations must find a way to collaborate effectively across distances. Bicom Systems’ software suite offers the solution. 

Not all telecom business applications are created equal, in fact many have limitations that can hinder remote collaboration. Some applications have useful features for remote collaboration, but users would have to install several other applications for business meetings, disrupting their flow and losing valuable time. Not all applications can be used for in-person and remote teams equally. 

Enter gloCOM with the powerful gloCOM Meeting Module, designed to streamline both remote and in-person team communication. 

What is gloCOM?

gloCOM is a unified communications suite created by Bicom Systems. It is designed to help businesses communicate and collaborate more effectively, with a wide range of features such as voice messages and calls, instant messaging, group chat administration, file sharing, and more. When we say unified communications, we mean it all – desktop, mobile, and web with a seamless design you can use on Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla, Opera, Android, and iOS.. 

You can easily take your business anywhere you go with gloCOM. And this is one of the strongest selling points our partners use when selling to their customers. Get all of details on our latest version of gloCOM in our recent blog post: Product Update: What’s New in gloCOM & gloCOM GO 6.7 [2023].

What is gloCOM Meeting Module?

gloCOM Meeting module is a product module that is integrated seamlessly within gloCOM. It is a powerful tool that allows users to conduct remote meetings and training sessions with ease. The solution is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for users to navigate and use. Along with our unified communications suite, gloCOM Meeting allows users to experience a complete business communications experience.

Key features of the gloCOM Meeting Module

gloCOM Meeting Module comes with a wide range of features that make it a powerful tool for remote collaboration. Some of the key features include:

High-Quality Video and Audio

One of the most important aspects of any video conferencing solution is the quality of the video and audio. The gloCOM Meeting Module delivers high-quality video and audio, ensuring that users can communicate clearly and effectively. The solution also supports HD video, essential for remote teams sharing detailed visuals. (Want to read more about video? Check out What We Learned after a Year of Video Conferencing.

(WebRTC) Screen Sharing + Remote Control

gloCOM Meeting Module allows users to share their screens with others in a meeting. This is particularly useful for presentations, training sessions, or when working on a project that requires collaboration. WebRTC screen sharing allows sharing of visuals with a better frame rate for a clearer image during meetings. Users can easily share their screens and control what is being displayed, allowing them to give more dynamic and engaging presentations. Users can also request remote control during the meeting, saving valuable time for collaboration. 

Recording and Playback

gloCOM Meeting supports meeting recording. This feature is particularly useful for training sessions or those unable to attend a live meeting. Recordings can be played later, allowing users to review the material or catch up on what they missed.

Chat and File Sharing

In addition to video and audio, gloCOM Meeting supports chat and file sharing. Users can easily chat with others in the meeting, and files can be shared and discussed in real time. This feature is particularly useful for remote teams collaborating on documents or files.

3 Reasons Meeting is the most intuitive solution for gloCOM users

1. Ease of access

While using gloCOM, there is no easier access to video conferencing than the Meeting module. Easily start or schedule meetings using gloCOM desktop, web, or mobile with just one click on the Meeting icon. Invite people outside of your organization or network with a unique meeting number. There is no need to install any other software because the combination of the gloCOM UC suite and gloCOM Meeting is a complete communications solution.

Realistically, what is easier – to click on one icon or to open an entirely different video conferencing software? Not to mention that you cannot be sure how the security of third-party video conferencing apps is handled. If you own gloCOM and upgrade to the Meeting module, there is no need for such concerns. 

2. Ease of use

If the Meeting module is the easiest one to access for gloCOM users, it is completely natural that it is also the easiest one to use. Valuable features for streamlined collaboration are so user-oriented that you only need one meeting to adapt. And when you try Meeting as a gloCOM user, it is not very convenient to return to any other video conferencing solution. 

3. One-click-meeting to rule them all

With the joint forces of the gloCOM UC suite + gloCOM Meeting module, you have a complete business communication experience that you can use seamlessly every day. You can easily switch from a softphone to a chat to a video meeting. You can even use your browser to join the meeting, without the hassle of switching applications. And once you try it, you will not even consider any other video conferencing app just for video meetings. You don’t need to download another application, you can just click on an invite link or enter a meeting number, and you are in.

Look no further if you are a gloCOM user because gloCOM Meeting Module will elevate your business meetings. We have some tips that go beyond the technology too – check out Utilizing Body Language to Optimize Conversation in a Virtual Meeting for ideas on how to improve your video calls.

If you are interested in upgrading your gloCOM Edition with the Meeting, please reach out to us directly or through your account manager. We’ll be glad to help you.

High service availability is one of the most important features that any voice service provider must ensure. You want your company protected from the risk of losing subscribers. The solution is a data recovery product with automatic takeover that ensures minimal downtime and high availability of your services.

This article will walk you through the capabilities of SERVERware and geo-redundancy and explain why this combination is the recipe for  success in a high-quality telecommunications business.

VIRTUALIZATION

We must first take a quick dive into virtualization. For those unfamiliar, virtualization is the process of creating and running virtual machines (instances of computers) using a physical host’s resources (computer, server). There are numerous virtualization solutions, each with its own set of benefits, disadvantages, and purposes. (Learn more in our blog post “How to Choose a Virtualization Platform“.)

Virtualization is a hot topic in the telco industry because it allows voice service providers to reduce hardware requirements while increasing system administration capabilities. Virtualization improves performance and uptime by consolidating multiple servers in one physical location.

Virtualization for Next-Gen Communications

Bicom Systems has been in the telecommunications industry for two decades. One contribution we made to this fast-growing market is a platform specifically designed for telecommunications services. 

One thing that sets SERVERware apart from the competition is the fact that our virtualization solution is the only platform designed specifically for hosting VoIP telephony and cloud communications. (Learn more about SERVERware in “SERVERware 4.3: What’s New In The Latest Product Release“.)

In a redundant, highly available, and fault-tolerant manner, it provides a variety of IP services and applications.

It offers thorough control, adaptability, self-healing, and hardware redundancy between the servers with the mirror edition.

SELF-HEALING TECHNOLOGY

SERVERware is a next-generation communication technology solution powered by ZFS, iSCSI, and LXC Containers as the three main underlying technologies.

We’ve integrated ZFS into the system to give SERVERware disk redundancy, fault tolerance, and self-healing capabilities. ZFS is a hybrid file system and logical volume management that offers logical raid configurations, large storage support, effective data compression, and data corruption protection.

Let’s say you have a SERVERware Mirror edition, both servers with 4TB drives. ZFS will combine those two drives creating a mirror and a single storage pool by using the drives from both servers. If one of those disks fails, the other disk contains the exact copy of the data of the other disk, which offers additional redundancy in protecting data and services.

GEO-REDUNDANCY FOR VOIP PROVIDERS

Now that we have covered virtualization and some highly functional features, let’s explain geo-redundancy and how VoIP providers can use it to safeguard their business.

Geo-redundancy is the distribution of critical data and services over multiple data centers located in geographically separated sites. This method aims to provide redundancy in the event of power outages, fires, natural disasters, or scheduled maintenance by data centers. Find out “Why you need Geo-Redundancy” in our previous blog post.

It is important to note that geo-redundancy differs from a backup, as they have different purposes. You can learn more about it by reading one of our earlier articles about geo-redundancy (here).

How is Geo-Redundancy Implemented in SERVERware?

Geo-redundancy is implemented through replications.

Replication is the process of sending a snapshot of a VPS from one SERVERware to another SERVERware site that acts as a GR Server. Therefore, for this to work, your company must own two SERVERwares sites. Each SERVERware has a NETSTOR storage pool formed, and a piece of that NETSTOR storage pool is reserved for the GR pool, which will be storing the replications of the VPSes from the primary site.

For this example, we’ll call them SW1 and SW2. SW1 and SW2 are physically separated and located in two geographically separate sites (e.g., London and Chicago).

Each SERVERware has a NETSTOR storage pool formed, and a piece of that NETSTOR storage pool is reserved for the GR pool, which will be storing the replications of the VPSes from the primary site

During the replication, a snapshot is created of the current state of the VPS, and that data is sent to the GR pool dataset on the SW2. If SW1 fails for any reason, the user can perform a takeover. The takeover process means another snapshot will be created of the one already stored in the GR pool, and a VPS will be created in the NETSTOR, where it will keep running.

A takeover is done in just a few clicks because all the necessary data is already located on that physical SERVERware (SW2). However, that will primarily depend on how frequent data replication is between sites. Users can schedule replication every minute, every 5 minutes, and the maximum time is every 24 hours.

Only the first initial replication transfers the entire VPS (e.g., 50Gb), and each subsequent one makes incremental replications, e.g., 300Mb, so there is no extensive data transfer that could lead to a network overload.

Does Geo-Redundancy Allow For An Automatic Takeover?

By default, the takeover in SERVERware is manual, but administrators don’t have to worry because there is also an option for the automatic takeover.

Administrators can create templates using SERVERware’s site monitoring feature. Site monitoring enables the SERVERware administrator to set up monitoring of remote sites by creating a set of tests that will report whether the monitored site is available or not. 

For example, SW2 pings the SW1 site and initiates the automatic takeover if it doesn’t get a return ping. Simple, effective, and much faster than backup.

DIFFICULTIES AND RISKS OF GEO-REDUNDANCY

There are no reasons not to implement geo-redundancy. There are no dangers other than poor planning since GR’s goal is clear.

Users implementing the GR need to keep in mind the resource usage of the primary site in order to have enough hardware and processing resources on the GR site to run their instances in case of a takeover, and this is a factor that might come with some difficulties in the implementation itself. Given that the virtual instances are using a specific amount of storage resources and RAM memory, they are generating calls and similar. If a takeover is done, the GR site must have a sufficient amount of those resources to run these virtual instances.

Thankfully, our team is here to support all of our partners, as they have done for a very long time, and as a result, the risk issue is eliminated.

How To Enable GR in your SERVERware?

Every SERVERware edition supports GR, but a separate license must be purchased to activate GR (per SERVERware).

Users who opt to implement the GR site will be working with our team of engineers, who will inspect their primary site and, based on the current resource usage and other important factors, provide suggestions for the number of hardware resources, hardware components, and similar for their GR site. This is called a staging process, which is completed before the actual implementation of the geo-redundancy to ensure the user will have enough resources for replications, takeover, or in other words, implementation of geo-redundancy.

The advantage of having two SERVERware sites is that the second one does more than simply wait to serve as a GR server (GRS). You can utilize the second SERVERware for PBXware and new VPSs just as the first one.

FIND OUT MORE

To learn more about SERVERware, please check out our wiki page and our YouTube Channel. Also, do not hesitate to contact us for any additional information you may have. geo 

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

VIEWPOINT

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat) CEO Vikram Sinha told journalists the merger was a case of being ‘at the right place at the right time’.

Vikram Sinha, President Director & CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison

When Indosat Ooredoo and Hutchison 3 Indonesia first announced their $6 billion merger back in September 2021, the news was met some scepticism by analysts, who noted the challenges the two companies would face when it came to integrating their networks creating a unified company culture.

Now, however, one year on from the merger’s competition, and these doubts have been silenced, with Indosat going from strength to strength.

In the last year, Indosat has seen its subscriber base increase by six million people, generating an increase in its organic net profit of 76.2% year-on-year.

Speaking to journalists at this year’s MWC, the company CEO Vikram Sinha explained that the merger had given the company the scale it needed to reach millions of additional customers, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas that were previously not economically viable.

In fact, over the next four years, Indosat is reportedly aiming to connect 21 million customers that have never been connected to the internet before, focussing on largely underserved areas like Papua.

But beyond reaching new customers, Sinha notes that a key growth component for the company will be its engagement with the millions of micro- and small enterprises that make up the backbone of the Indonesian economy.

When asked how  Indosat planned to engage with these businesses, Sinha made clear that the challenge lay not only in providing coverage to these businesses, but in encouraging them to join the digital economy.

“Connecting is the first step, but we must help them to enter and grow in the digital marketplace,” he said, noting access to money lending and digital banking services. “Once they can make $10, they will be more than happy to give us $1 for connectivity services.”

Naturally, a large part of connecting these new customers and businesses will centre around the rollout of existing technologies, like 4G and fixed wireless access (FWA), but the eventual rollout of 5G is also set to play a key role in  Indosat’s future growth.

Currently, the company has around 400 commercial 5G sites live in six cities across the country, with Sinha noting that the company was fully prepared for C-band spectrum to become available in the upcoming auction before it expands in earnest.

The date for such an auction has yet to be announced by the Indonesian regulator.

Sinha said that the company would benefit from studying the 5G developments currently taking place in neighbouring countries like India and the Philippines, allowing them to be better prepared when the time comes.

He also made clear, however, that  Indosat was not waiting for the advent of 5G when it comes to ushering in the era of Industry 4.0. Sinha explained that the operator was already in discussions with various vertical industries, including mines and ports, to better understand their technology needs.

“We need to get the ecosystem involved right now,” he said. “The key message is: there is a lot of opportunity here.”

For Sinha, the merger has been a resounding success, presenting a clear path to future growth for years to come. The main challenge moving forward – as is always the case for Indonesia’s telecoms sector – is the nation’s geography. With a population spread across around 18,000 islands spanning an area the size of Europe, achieving widespread coverage is difficult, even more so when trying to do so in a cost-effective and profitable manner.

This is perhaps why Sinha closed his press conference with the phrase ‘Gotong Royong’, an idea central to Indonesian culture that focusses on communal work for communal success.

“We need successful partnerships to bring the major benefits to customers and to enterprises,” said Sinha. “We have to build consumer trust and bring them simple and transparent products. For this, we need partners that share our vision.”

To learn more about Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, please click here.