Here is a set of regional infrastructure news to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]

Leading financial services platform Mukuru has announced the launch of its new mobile wallet in Malawi, the Mukuru Wallet, which, Mukuru says, is designed to address the growing demand for a convenient, secure, efficient way to manage funds and make money transfers.

The Mukuru Wallet enables customers to seamlessly receive and send funds both locally and internationally, and store, save and earn interest on funds.

Mukuru explains that mobile wallets are proving to be a critical financial tool for underserved and unbanked communities, offering a safe and effective means of accessing financial services. In Malawi, the wallet enables an alternative means of accessing formal banking services in both rural and urban areas.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) National Payment Systems report for the period ended December 2022 showed a 14.1% increase in the number of mobile money subscribers, which stands at 12.2 million, up from 10.7 million in 2021. According to Pride Chiwaya, Malawi Country Manager at Mukuru, it was this massive demand that led to Mukuru launching the wallet.

This Mukuru Wallet has been designed specifically for the Malawian market, complete with two pockets called Nyanja and Moyo. Nyanja is for all domestic money transfer transactions and cash-ins, while Moyo is for customers to receive their international money transfers. No fees are charged when cashing out from the Moyo pocket. In addition to this, customers earn interest on the funds in their wallet on a quarterly basis.

Mukuru says that, with a safe, secure, digital means of storing money that also enables them to pay bills directly from the wallet, Malawians will not only benefit from the reduced risk of not having to withdraw large sums of cash, but they can also actively take part in the modern, digital financial economy.

Interview

At Connected Britain this year, we sat down with Rob Gilbert, VP of UK and Ireland  at HFCL to discuss his thoughts on market consolidation from a manufacturer’s perspective, the next big breakthroughs in fibre technology, and sustainability within the fibre supply chain.

Watch the full interview below:

Four bits of expansion news from Europe and Asia to keep up with: … [visit site to read more]

News

The service claims to make AI adoption easier and more affordable for businesses 

Singaporean telco Singtel has launched RE:AI, a new cloud-based service designed to make artificial intelligence (AI) easier for businesses and public sector organisations to access and use.  

Launched yesterday, the service provides affordable AI solutions without the need for companies to invest in expensive infrastructure or specialist skills. 

The AI cloud solution offers customers access to high-performance computing, data storage, and AI tools, all managed through Singtel’s Paragon platform. This, combined with Singtel’s network infrastructure, including 5G and quantum safe networks, allows enterprises to manage and scale AI applications across their organisation.  

“With the launch of RE:AI, we’re significantly reducing entry barriers, making AI easily accessible to enterprises, government agencies, research communities and academia – the more people have access to AI, the more innovation is bound to emerge, which in turn fuels growth,” said Singtel’s CEO Bill Chang in a press release. 

“RE:AI will foster a dynamic ecosystem of partners with distinctive capabilities and platforms to accelerate AI adoption to drive innovation and growth in Singapore and the region, sustainably,” he continued. 

The launch fits with Singtel’s broader plans for digital transformation. Back in August, the company announced a strategic partnership to bring its GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offerings to business across Southeast Asia. Regional telcos AIS, Maxid and Telkomsel are the first to take up the offering.   

Singtel is also expanding its AI infrastructure through global partnerships, and is developing new AI-ready data centres via its Nxera arm. In June this year, Singtel became a founding member of the Global Telco AI Alliance, along with Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, e&, and SoftBank. The joint venture will develop multi lingual Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically designed to meet telco needs, in areas such as improving customer interactions via digital assistants and chatbots. The LLMs will be tailored to the needs of the five companies in their respective markets, allowing them to reach a combined customer base of around 1.3 billion people in 50 countries. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
“We’re the best kept secret in data centre and cloud,” says Nokia at Connected Britain
Submarine cable damage in the Red Sea ‘severely underestimated’
Vodafone and Google deepen relationship with 10-year AI partnership

Contributed Article

[Paris, France, October 9, 2024] During Network X 2024 — Broadband World Forum (BBWF), Huawei teamed up with carriers and Informa to hold the All-Optical Access Innovation Summit, bringing together heavyweight analysts, carrier customers, and Huawei experts. They discussed a range of frontier topics such as the launch of 50G PON for 10Gbps, 10G PON true gigabit experience, FTTR scale-up, Wi-Fi 7 2+2 industry generation guidance, network construction with optimal TCO, and premium broadband experience management. Through discussions, they outlined the development trend of the global 10Gbps industry.

Feng Zhishan, President of Huawei Optical Access Network Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled ” F5.5G Booming, Moving Towards an Intelligent World”. He pointed out that the rapid emergence of AI applications drives the optical broadband industry to evolve to gigabit/10Giga intelligent access networks, and that now is the time to develop F5.5G all-optical intelligent access networks. Huawei launched three innovations: the industry’s first 16-port 50G PON service board, 50G PON FTTR and distributed AI computing engine, and the industry’s first intelligent home broadband model — Agent. By doing so, Huawei expects to build an all-optical intelligent access network that features deterministic experience, gigabit/10Gbps access, and computing-network integration. This can help accelerate the popularization of gigabit and the commercial use of 50G PON for  10Gbps, promote the innovation of intelligent applications, and help carriers seize new opportunities in the 10Gbps all-optical network era. All of this further propels us towards an intelligent world.

Stephen Wilson, Chief Analyst at Omdia, said the emergence of new AI applications, fierce market competition, and opportunities for ARPU growth are compelling carriers to upgrade to 10G PON, which is now a mainstream technology that has been launched by many carriers across the world. Wi-Fi 7 is gaining popularity among consumers, and shipments of Wi-Fi 7 CPEs among broadband carriers are expected to surge. Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 CPEs with 2×2 MIMO are an ideal choice for many carriers considering spectrum resources, power consumption, and user experience.

Peter Weiget, Lead Architect of Network Connectivity at Swisscom, said, “Swisscom is dedicated to providing a faster and more intelligent all-optical access network. Based on the FANO target network architecture, Swisscom uses 50G PON to provide the best access services and provide customers with network rates of up to 50Gbps. It also supports XGS-PON and 50G-PON Combo mode, achieving smooth service upgrade.”

Hudson KC Lou, SVP of Network Services and Development at CTM Macau, China, stated that CTM is committed to providing ultimate network experience for local residents with three innovations: FTTR services that feature full-home gigabit Wi-Fi coverage, differentiated intelligent acceleration services for eSports, and “Wi-Fi Manager for intelligent O&M”. To embrace the upcoming F5.5G 10Gbps era, CTM focuses on deploying mobile smart home and cloud storage services at the application level, and uses Wi-Fi 7 FTTR technology on home networks and 50G PON on access networks, driving the development of “Digital Macau 3.0”.

In a speech titled “One fiber to One Home, iFTTR Lights up Smart Life”, David Yi, General Manager of Huawei’s Home Network Domain, noted that, in the digital era, more smart home devices need to be deeply integrated with networks, and a unified smart home base is critical to high-quality smart home services. Huawei iFTTR OptiXstar F50 is the industry’s first FTTR+X product. It helps build a unified smart home base and provides storage, sensing, computing, and control capabilities. In this way, it can enable many smart home application scenarios, such as home guard, home healthcare, HD live broadcast, cloud gaming, and remote education. All of this brings users better smart life experience, propelling us towards a smart home era.

Balla Peter, Fixed Access Network Product Owner of DTAG, shared valuable experience in the successful development of 10G PON. He also pointed out that amid the rapid growth of live streaming, IoT, and remote work, the demand for bandwidth has skyrocketed, prompting us to pursue true gigabit experience. The company’s fiber strategy plays a fundamental role in the development towards 10G PON. In this case, the company focuses not just on network speed but also on creating a scalable and reliable network to meet future requirements.

Allen Zheng, Chief System Engineer of Huawei Optical Access Network, said that new digital and intelligent services drive continuous broadband evolution. Access networks should fulfill the following requirements: 0 video freezing, 0-wait experience, and 0-delay intelligence. Huawei intelligent OLTs can provide three key capabilities for the best service experience and new broadband growth:

1. Ultra-broadband: from leading 10G PON to the industry’s first commercial 50G PON solution;
2. The industry’s first dual-plane forwarding and hardware slicing: from best-effort experience to deterministic experience;
3. FAN intelligent engine: The industry’s first native intelligence enables quality on demand for carriers.

Cisternas Gonzalez Nicolas, Entel 2H Product Director, delivered a speech titled “Premium Broadband Operation Brings Ultra-Gigabit Experience to Every Chile Home”. In the speech, he introduced how Entel provides the best home connectivity experience in Chile and discussed its strategy in maintaining leadership. The company expects to expand home services to Peru and continuously improving user experience. He emphasized Entel’s focus on innovation and its position as a pioneer in the region thanks to technologies such as 10G PON and Wi-Fi 7 optical terminals.

Xu Fan, Chief Architect of Huawei’s Access Network Domain, said that as AI keeps growing, different applications have different requirements on bandwidth and latency. Huawei has introduced FIE intelligence technology to its latest access network solution. The wireless optical network (AI-WON) architecture, where APP-Flow at the intelligent service layer and OLTs at the intelligent network layer coordinate with the FTTR solution, provides ms-level adaptive closed loops and on-demand deterministic experience, helping carriers provide SLA payment methods based on bandwidth and latency. All this promotes experience monetization.

As a leader in the global optical network field, Huawei is committed to working closely with industry partners to explore and innovate in three dimensions: bandwidth expansion, user experience optimization, and intelligent upgrade. In this way, Huawei aims to promote the evolution of F5.5G technologies, propelling us towards an intelligent world.

News

SK Telecom (SKT), KT, and LG Uplus allegedly coordinated to keep their sales incentives at the same level

This week, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a preliminary decision to impose fines of up to $4.1 billion on the nation’s three telco giants.

SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus are accused of sharing internal information with each other between 2015 and 2022, allegedly to align their sales incentives paid to mobile phone retailers.

According to local media, if the FTC’s decision is finalised, the regulator intends to charge SKT between $1.05 billion and $1.63 billion, KT between $750.7 million and $1.3 billion, and LG Uplus between $732.2 million and $1.2 billion.

If imposed, these fines could be catastrophic for the operators, with even the lower bounds of these fines being far greater than their respective net incomes.

It is worth noting, however, that what the FTC here may consider to be collusion could, in fact, be efforts to follow government guidance.

In 2014, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) introduced guidance as part of the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act that told operators to provide sales incentives of around 300,000 won ($222).

This Act was intended to promote competition in the mobile market by preventing major handset discounts and thereby maintaining a level of pricing stability. A decade on, however, and the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act is largely seen as a failure, having inadvertently served to maintain high prices for customers.

As a result, the South Korean government announced plans to abolish the Act at the start of this year.

But regardless of the Act’s ultimately failure, the KCC points out that the telcos were nonetheless following government guidance in their incentive strategies during the period in question.

“The KCC has delivered its opinions to the FTC multiple times, highlighting that it is difficult to view the case as collusion,” said KCC Secretary General Cho Sung-eun at a National Assembly audit on Monday.

He added that the KCC’s own investigation had not found evidence of collusion.

“The FTC and KCC have been collaborating since the investigation of the allegation began and will continue to closely communicate with each other through the upcoming processes,” said the FTC in a statement.

The FTC’s final decision on the matter is expected to be delivered early next year.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter    

Also in the news:
“We’re the best kept secret in data centre and cloud,” says Nokia at Connected Britain
Submarine cable damage in the Red Sea ‘severely underestimated’
Vodafone and Google deepen relationship with 10-year AI partnership 

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.

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.