Toni Eid, founder of Telecom Review Group, was undoubtedly right when he said: “5G-Advanced has seen remarkable progress in the Middle East.” He was speaking at the recent 18th Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit 2024 in Dubai where he was delivering the opening speech prior to a panel entitled World’s First 5G-A Region Sets Sail.

The backdrop to this event is 5G-Advanced networks moving from testing to commercial deployment – notably in the Middle East. Which is why a panel of industry associations, regulators, operators and vendors were being asked to describe how far 5G-A had come in the region – and where it could be going next.

Moderator Issam Eid, CMO Africa, Levant, KSA & Qatar, Telecom Review Group, asked the panel about the challenges currently within the 5G-Advanced ecosystem. How, he asked, can industry organisations and government agencies overcome these challenges, drive collaboration and foster a more mature industry value chain?

Fayez Abu Awad, Policy Director, MENA, GSMA, warned: “When considering the next stage of evolution of 5G we have to be mindful of the fact that ARPU has been stagnant for quite a while. We need to make sure that we have the use cases monetised properly in 5G-A.”

His answer (and a regular theme of the panel) was cross-industry collaboration. The GSMA is working on opening access to the capabilities of the network – and advocates for an open API approach.

Dr. Khalid Al Awadi, Manager, Broadcasting and Space Services, of UAE regulator TDRA UAE, focused first of all on spectrum utilisation – notably the adoption of new spectrum frequency allocations for IMT or mobile services.

The integration of non-terrestrial networks – a characteristic of 5G-Advanced – is also a challenge. Will more bands be needed?

More important, perhaps, is the future of private 5G. As he said: “We’re talking about different industries utilising data communication. We have a big challenge with regards to knowledge and understanding.”

Finally can costs be brought down? Regulators, he suggested, need to focus on a framework for spectrum sharing or RAN sharing.

The operator members of the panel then addressed the question of the current status of 5G-Advanced development – and what influence will 5G-Advanced technology evolution and network deployment will have on the Middle East.

Hasan Alshemeili, Head of Technology Planning of Emirates-based operator du, was able to describe a success story in his market where 5G outdoor coverage is almost universal and 5G-Advanced use cases have been demonstrated, notably band aggregation to achieve extraordinary Gigabit speeds.

du was also the first regional operator to deploy 5G-Advanced over DAS using Huawei LampSite X. 5G-Advanced coverage he said, is now 20% of the nation “and our strategy is to increase our footprint to 40% by next year”.

As for applications, he said that 5G-Advanced will help to accelerate digital transformation by enhancing connectivity across different sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation (V2X for example) and smart cities.

Dr. Ayman Elnashar, VP of Technology Strategy, Architecture & Innovation, e&, highlighted his market’s achievement: the fastest 5G speeds of any nation globally. He also noted that e& is planning for private 5G thanks to a partnership with oil and gas giant ADNOC to deploy the biggest private network in the world.

Of course 5G-Advanced is still being standardised – with enhancements likely to continue for some while. The recent 3GPP Release 18 will enhance the uplink while Reduced Capability (RedCap) New Radio is helping to expand the NR device ecosystem. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will play increasingly important roles in 5G-Advanced.

Release 19 promises to expand the addressable market for 5G massive IoT. Base station intelligence, energy-saving ambient IoT, improved power consumption for base stations and devices and continuing enhancements to RedCap will help to address sustainability and energy efficiency. Further ahead, Release 20 will address 6G and AI-focused network design.

Stelios Savvides, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Oman, agreed that the GCC area is very advanced in 5G-A but asked: What are the use cases and network scenarios that are helping to drive investments?

One answer comes from Oman itself during Salalah’s tourist season. “We’ve been looking at advanced scheduling, in terms of uplink improvements, to drive throughput and of course some features around sensing interference – how we can drive the network to give a much better experience.”

Segmentation – differentiated quality of services for certain customers – has potential and gaming is an undoubted 5G-A opportunity, he said, as are lowering costs with RedCap and controlling capacity and access on the network, IoT, super low latency, mobile private networks, live feeds and more.

Ramy Boctor, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Qatar reminded his audience that “5G SA is a big piece in a bigger puzzle… the nature of traffic is changing now.”

Video on demand, live video streaming, gaming and virtual reality are all video services, but the latency and bandwidth requirements of these are different. What’s going to shape 5G demand soon could be more the application than the end user, he argued. Content providers therefore need open APIs.

“It’s not a matter of getting a connection to the content it’s how you get this connection. How fast do you get it? What’s the nature of this bandwidth?” New features are important, he noted, but 5G is also there to provide premium connectivity.

And new features are coming under 5G-Advanced: enhanced connectivity, uplink, download, latency, power efficiency and sustainability. AI-led automation will enhance site creation and network optimisation. Among applications, 5G-Advanced-led healthcare, smart cities, traffic management, safety, and urban management are part of a constantly lengthening list.

Equipment vendors were then asked about the role equipment vendors can play in application and businesses model explorations when collaborating with operators.

Allen Tang, President of ICT Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, Huawei MECA was very upbeat. Joint innovation has been key: terminal manufacturers, operators, regulators and standard organisations working together will accelerate the maturity of the 5G-A ecosystem, he argued.

New spectrum is becoming available. 3CC aggregation is already influencing deployment – and 3CC smartphones are on the way. New technologies like 5QI with SQL technology will allow new business models (like experience monetisation) for operators. And suppliers like Huawei can do a lot of innovation with operators to solve any issues during the journey to mobile AI, and the transformation from NSA to SA architecture.

Khalid Al Awadi, TDRA, added: “The most important issue that we need to take into consideration to adopt and progress 5G implementation is the collaboration of different stakeholders in the industry.”

Talking about 5G-A monetisation, Zoran Lazarevic, Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson MEA, asked how we can connect every killer application with each and every operator globally. How is it going to be maintained and, where necessary, upgraded? What about contract agreements and monetisation? Ericsson and some of the biggest operator globally are trying to address this with a global network API platform to offer connectivity to developers.

One-size fits all networks may not work with 5G-Advanced capabilities like slicing, low latency and performance-based business models, he suggested. Developing the applications to manage this means collaboration.

Mohamed Samir, VP Middle East Market, Nokia, again noted that 5G-Advanced is an evolution of the promises of 5G, including real-life applications to meet different demands. But while the vendor can supply the technology to enable that, collaboration means different operators can build the right business models to serve different consumers. “It’s all about bringing value at the end to the whole ecosystem,” he said.

Fayez Abu Awad of the GSMA added: “We have here representatives of the supply side economic equation. What we’re missing is the demand side.”

The modern mobile industry will extend to multiple sectors, and, he said: “We will never be experts in aviation, tourism or government. However, the experts within these sectors need to understand the capabilities that we can offer as an ecosystem and start dreaming of their own applications.” And the GSMA open gateway API initiative can help, supporting standardisation that makes a service, no matter where it’s developed, easily and rapidly deployable on your own network.

Another question for vendors was: Can AI can be leveraged to create synergies with 5G? It certainly supported network performance during the Qatar World Cup but with 5G-Advanced embedding AI functionalities in the OSS system this combination is becoming exponentially more powerful. Indeed, the complexity of 5G-A mobile networks cannot be managed by human beings alone; you have to have support from the AI, gen AI and LLMs.

Allen Tang reminded us of the fundamental importance of building for the cloud, of training to support AI, of ongoing telco-to-techco transformation and of the need to address monetising AI in a way that will enhance the customer experience and allow differentiation.

Dr. Ayman Elnashar, of e& also reminded us of the role of AI in solving network problems via automation, managing performance and energy and more. And collaboration, which will extend to the likes of Azure, AWS and Oracle for help building cloud infrastructure and hosting LLMs. With appropriate alliances, he added, operators can take a lead with AI.

The overall message of the day? Well, this panel revealed many fascinating and varied perspectives on 5G-A its role and future, but there was undoubtedly one clear overall message: collaboration will help 5G-A to fulfil its potential.

News 

Orange Cyberdefense, cybersecurity arm of Orange Group, has published its Security Navigator 2025 report, a strategic guide to understanding changes in the cyber threat landscape 

Now in its sixth year of publication, this year’s report reveals a stark increase in politically motivated cyberattacks across Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  

At a launch event this month in London, Char van der Walt, Head of Security Research at Orange Cyberdefence, and Sara Puigvert, EVP of Global Operations, discussed one of the report’s themes: the geopolitical hacktivist threat to Europe.  

A hacktivist is defined as a hacker who engages in attacks on computer systems based on political motivations but is not state sponsored. 

The report focuses on one (unnamed) pro-Russian hacktivist group, which has conducted over 6,600 attacks since 2022. A staggering 96% of these incidents were directed at European countries such as Ukraine, Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, and Italy. 

These groups have shifted focus to “cognitive warfare,” aiming to manipulate public trust and perception rather than solely causing technical disruptions. Whilst not directed by the Russian government, the groups are often what van der Walt described as ‘government tolerated’, using the Russian state playbook of societal disruption to portray the West, NATO, an those supporting Ukraine as morally degenerate.  

By attacking election systems and other symbolic institutions, these hackers seek to spread disharmony and discontent, undermining the fabric of trust that our societies are built on. A lot is unknown about such groups, but typically their activities are triggered by geopolitical events, such as European elections, protests, or the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.  

Hacktivist activity is also extending to operational technology (OT) systems, which are critical for infrastructure in sectors like energy, manufacturing, and healthcare. Nearly 23% of OT-targeted attacks in 2024 were linked to hacktivists, and 46% of these incidents resulted in the manipulation of control processes. The utilities sector has been particularly affected, underscoring the vulnerabilities of essential infrastructure. 

AI continues to play a key role in the ongoing transformation of the cybersecurity sector, being used both defensively and offensively. Threat actors are using GenAI to produce realistic phishing attacks and deepfakes, while cybersecurity teams are deploying AI-driven tools to detect advanced threats faster. However, vulnerabilities within GenAI systems pose additional risks, the report warns. 

In addition to the report, Orange Cyberdefense has also released its Cybercrime Now tool, a free to use interactive platform to provide education on the criminal ecosystem of hacktivists. Find it here. 

Join us to discuss the topic of Cybersecurity at next year’s Submarine Networks EMEA, 18-19 February in London. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
TalkTalk to cut hundreds more jobs in effort to save £120m
Heavily delayed ADC submarine cable system finally goes live in East Asia
World Communication Awards shine a light on AI Excellence

Contributed Article

The need for speed – high-speed internet – along with greater bandwidth capacity will continue to be critical for communities everywhere in 2025 and beyond

By: Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer of Great Plains Communications

Network operators should anticipate demand for more and more bandwidth, as network traffic growth shows no sign of slowing down.

What’s driving all the bandwidth consumption? We rely on the internet for products, services, and applications we use continuously more and more. Smartphones, smart watches, other wearables, smart TVs, streaming services, real-time events (e.g. concert, sports), online gaming, along with virtual and augmented reality are some of the products and applications growing network traffic and consuming bandwidth.

As a fiber optic network provider, Great Plains Communications sees a continued rise in network traffic as an ongoing trend. Knowing there is a critical need for increasing bandwidth, network operators must implement best network practices in key areas to meet demand, improve productivity, and minimize disruption of customers’ everyday lives.

Here are key factors to support the demand.

AI plus good data = best customer experience

AI means different things to different groups. Transferring information between data centers for AI applications consumes high bandwidth. Yet, AI is now part of the pit crew that keeps the network running. For network operators, AI means automation to drive greater efficiency across organizations and supply bandwidth on demand.

We view AI evolving as an enabler to enhancing the customer experience. In the past, operators were reactive: a customer alerted the operator when something broke and they fixed it. Currently, most are more proactive, deploying technologies in a ring topology with redundant equipment to mitigate downtime. With AI, events can be more predictive: for example, a problem is detected and fixed before the issue can be customer affecting.

Thanks to AI’s prediction ability, potential network disruptions can be averted. It stands to reason that a network will need more bandwidth during a live Thursday night football game. AI can calculate if the network has the necessary capacity and redundancy to ensure the audience never misses a play through buffering or other hiccups.

Network operators must leverage AI to create a better experience for their customers. However, along with the right tools and systems, AI must leverage reliable data to make the right decisions.

Timely network services

We’ve come to expect real-time services like Amazon Web Services model, which is available 24/7/365. We shop online, press a button, and our purchase arrives the next day. That has become consumers’ standard. So, they expect other products and services to be simpler and faster to obtain as well.

People rely on cell phones to do almost everything, and when we pull up all the applications we’re using, we’re consuming more bandwidth than we realize. Hyperscalers that want more and higher bandwidth to connect their data centers are another driver of increased network traffic. At Great Plains Communications (GPC), we see more demand for 400 Gig services, especially between key markets.

As a result, network providers must become more agile, monitor services more effectively, and add more products and services that work in tandem to meet current and future customer needs. One of the biggest challenges network operators face is predicting demand and growth trends and then planning and updating networks accordingly to be ready. To accomplish this, it is vital to have flexible architecture to scale the network capacity to meet changing bandwidth requirements in metro and rural areas.

Data to the cloud

Over the past decade, most businesses have either already done so or are planning to migrate most of their data from their own private onsite servers to cloud storage, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. It’s a big shift from how data used to be stored in private clouds to public clouds and a multi-cloud environment.

It is critical for businesses (and all of us) to have real-time access to data. We don’t want to wait or have the data lag. The cloud data warehouses offer virtually unlimited space with the ability to compute capacity and storage to scale up and down at greater cost savings. This is a tremendous advantage, which does require more bandwidth.

As consumers, we also rely on cloud storage. After all, we can’t store all our videos in our phone. We want to view a video and interact immediately. This requires reliable connectivity to the cloud, so we have immediate access to our data, wherever it’s stored. Reliable connectivity — to the internet and to cloud providers — is essential.

Future runs on higher bandwidth

From my point of view, both as a telecom network operator and as a consumer, having bandwidth infrastructure optimized to support current and future rising network traffic is a must-have. There are many considerations, but here are factors I consider essential.

First, the network infrastructure has to deliver adequate speeds. Speed alone is not enough. We also need reliable connectivity we can trust day in and day out. This calls for careful planning and best-in-class architecture when designing the network. And, most important, we need to provide the best possible customer experience in our digital age. We should take advantage of AI and other technologies to anticipate network demands, automate processes to drive efficiencies, and provide the best possible solutions for our customers.

Join the conversation about connectivity in North America. Click here to learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025.

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Steve Douglas, Head of Market Strategy, Spirent Communications

The start of a new year is a perfect time to take stock of the telecommunications industry and cast our eyes forward to what’s coming next. Of course, when you work closely with the companies preparing to actually deliver new innovations to users, you don’t need a crystal ball to see what’s coming. You can just observe how they spend their time and resources.  … [visit site to read more]

Satellite operator SES has added two more satellites to its next-gen O3b mPOWER constellation that are also the first two satellites with new designs to address power issues in the first six satellites.

SES had put four mPOWER satellites in orbit before discovering in August 2023 that a design glitch was causing power modules to switch off, which shortens their operational life. Two more satellites with the same glitch were launched in April this year so that the mPOWER constellation could commence commercial service, which was already behind schedule.

SES says it has put mitigations in place to compensate for the power glitch in the first six satellites, to include adding two more satellites to the mPOWER constellation, which will now comprise 13 satellites instead of 11.

The two new O3b mPOWER satellites – which were launched on Tuesday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida – feature redesigned payload power modules. The remaining five satellites based on that design are currently being manufactured and are scheduled for launch over the next 18 months, SES said.

SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh said the commercial launch of mPOWER service is already paying off for its customers, particularly in developing markets banking on LEO and MEO high-throughput satellites to connect underserved and unserved areas, as well as supply mobile backhaul capacity.

“Ever since the start of service of O3b mPOWER earlier this year, we have seen how it has become an integral part of the connectivity experience of our customers,” he said. “We have also learned a lot and have put all of those insights to work as we progress in our innovation journey to scale up our services and meet even the most sophisticated requirements of our customers.”

SES has signed mPOWER deals with operators in Ecuador, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, the Cook Islands, Senegal and other countries in Africa, among others. India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm plans to use O3b mPOWER satellites for its satellite broadband service JioSpaceFiber.

Ufone 4G, the mobile unit of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), said on Thursday it has partnered with local assistive technology startup ConnectHear for a GSMA-funded project that will use AI to improve disaster-response communications for deaf people.

Under the project – which is backed by funding from the GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Challenges – the two companies will enhance ConnectHear’s virtual interpretation services to function in low-bandwidth environments and develop an AI-powered system that automatically generates early warning messages in sign language.

Ufone said this will allow deaf individuals to receive critical, real-time updates during emergencies, bridging a critical gap in disaster communication. Ufone will also zero-rate the ConnectHear app on its network, so that even users with no data package or mobile balance can use it.

Syed Atif Raza, group chief commercial officer for PTCL and Ufone 4G, said the partnership will break down financial and technical barriers for the over 10 million people in Pakistan who are deaf or hard of hearing, who are frequently excluded from early warning systems due to communication barriers.

“By enabling AI-driven sign language alerts and providing zero-rated access to the ConnectHear app, we are removing barriers that often isolate vulnerable communities during critical times,” he said in a statement.

“By optimizing our services for low-bandwidth environments and generating automated sign language alerts, we are ensuring that deaf communities receive the life-saving information they need in real time,” said Arhum Ishtiaq, co-founder and CTO of ConnectHear.

Pakistan is becoming increasingly prone to weather-related natural disasters, according to recent reports that list Pakistan among the ten most affected countries by climate-related disasters.

This year alone, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the monsoon season from July to September has resulted in flooding that has displaced over 600,000 people. Two years ago, over 30 million people in Pakistan were impacted by severe floods in 2022 .

Phillipe Bellordre, head of GSMA Innovation Fund, GSMA, said successful implementation of the project will serve as a model for other countries and humanitarian organizations looking to improve disaster preparedness for vulnerable populations.

SAN FRANCISCO, 12th of December 2024 – Gigs, the operating system for mobile services, today announced that it has raised a $73M Series B led by Ribbit Capital. All existing investors, including Google’s Gradient, YC and Speedinvest participated in the round. Gigs will use the funding to expand its geographical footprint and invest in an expanded suite of products and services for tech companies. This will enable more tech brands to meaningfully innovate in telecom, provide more value to their customers, and tap into a new recurring revenue stream.

The Walled Garden Of Telecom

Before Gigs, high barriers to entry kept the telecom industry closed-off to innovators. New entrants faced years of tough commercial negotiations with carriers and had to pour tens of thousands of engineering hours into navigating the messy patchwork of single-purpose vendors with archaic, fragmented operating systems. Engineering teams had to wrestle with clunky, unstable and inconsistent APIs from multiple carriers—like building tech from the early 2000s—all just to enter one market. 

On top of that, businesses were forced to commit more than $100 million upfront in order to achieve competitive rates from networks and get priority network access, all before selling a single subscription. These operational and capital expenses were hard to recoup and tied businesses to network-specific investments, ultimately hampering scalability and eroding margins. 

Even businesses capable of managing these burdens still faced the slow and bureaucratic processes of carriers, which hindered their ability to optimize in the long-run. Moreover, any plans to expand internationally required repeating the entire effort with each network operator—an untenable challenge for technology platforms that don’t consider telecom their core business. 

As a result, the internet economy lacks the infrastructure and tools to connect to the global telecom grid, something tech companies take for granted in areas like hosting and payments.

Democratizing Access To The Mobile Service Market

Gigs is radically democratizing access to the mobile service industry. The company’s mission is to reduce the cost of setting up a mobile service in one or multiple markets, as well as lowering operational and service costs to near zero. Without Gigs, it would take new entrants to the mobile service market years to develop and refine their service.

The company’s operating system empowers tech players to launch their own mobile service on premium networks globally within weeks, all through a single integration—eliminating the need to hire large teams of telecom engineers, navigate compliance hurdles, or manage multiple vendors and platforms. By providing everything you need to launch your own mobile service in one platform—including premium wholesale connectivity, a best-in-class connectivity API, a hosted checkout, a multi-currency payments suite, a tax engine, a subscription and analytics platform, and AI-powered customer service—Gigs removes the complexity, time-to-market, and costs for tech brands wanting to embed their own mobile services into their digital products and services.

To ensure customers maintain a competitive edge and operate state-of-the-art services with the highest customer satisfaction and lowest cost to serve globally, Gigs continuously productizes every aspect of its business and automates every customer support ticket. For the first time, this makes telecommunications accessible to tech companies that expect to work with modern tools and high-performance platforms.

Hermann Frank, co-founder and CEO at Gigs: “We believe that getting a phone plan should be as easy as ordering an Uber, not as complicated as leasing a car at a  dealership. The truth, however, is that phone plans are stuck in the past: analog, uniform, and, frankly, unloved. Extremely high barriers to entry have kept innovation out of the industry for too long. Now, the world’s leading product companies can bring this innovation to their users. Gigs breaks down these hurdles by empowering any tech company to distribute phone plans directly through their apps, transforming connectivity from a standalone commodity into a core, customizable feature of every digital product experience. Ribbit has a proven track record of upending markets burdened by incumbent lethargy. We were impressed by the team’s vision so when the offer came to lead our Series B, it felt very natural to lean in.”

Dennis Bauer, co-founder and President at Gigs: “Since our launch in 2020, Gigs has significantly increased its annual recurring revenue, cementing its position as one of the fastest-growing B2B companies globally. Leading tech brands with large, highly engaged audiences—ranging from high-growth neobanks like Nubank and Wealthsimple to major HR platforms, travel companies and phone manufacturers—are leveraging Gigs’ connectivity platform to integrate phone plans into their core services, delivering unique and seamless product experiences. With exciting new product launches and lighthouse customer announcements in 2025, Gigs is set to inspire even more innovative tech companies to launch their own mobile services.”

Jordan Angelos, General Partner at Ribbit Capital: “Mobile connectivity, like banking, is one of the most widely used consumer services globally. Yet, it consistently ranks among the lowest in customer satisfaction. Gigs is seizing a once-in-a-decade opportunity to revolutionize the $1T+ annual mobile subscription market, empowering innovators and trusted brands to digitize and enhance customer experiences, with phone plans serving as the ultimate superglue. We are impressed by the team’s vision, execution, and global momentum, and we’re excited to partner with them on this journey.”

About Gigs

Gigs, the operating system for mobile services, empowers tech companies to seamlessly embed connectivity into their offerings in weeks. By bundling phone plans and travel data with their core services, Gigs’ customers can increase stickiness and unlock a new recurring revenue stream with digital mobile experiences that meaningfully create value to consumers. Gigs’ end-to-end platform provides everything brands need to launch and operate their own multi-market mobile service: premium wholesale connectivity, a hosted checkout, billing, subscription management, analytics, and AI-powered customer service. Backed by Ribbit Capital, Google, Y Combinator, Speedinvest and BoxGroup, Gigs was founded by Hermann Frank and Dennis Bauer in 2020 and now employs over 90 people across the US and Europe. For more information, visit gigs.com. 

About Ribbit

The mission of Ribbit Capital is to transform the world of finance by backing visionary entrepreneurs. For over a decade, Ribbit has partnered with founders challenging the status quo to make money more transparent and accessible around the world. Ribbit has invested in exceptional teams across six continents, including at Brex, Bridge, Chainalysis, Coinbase, Coalition, Credit Karma, Fireblocks, Groww, Imprint, NEXT Insurance, Nubank, ONE, Parafin, Razorpay, Revolut, Robinhood, and others.

PRESS RELEASE

Independent Power Transmission Operator and Serverfarm Join Forces to Spearhead Hyperscale Data Center Development and Operations in Greece   

Athens, 16^th December 2024

The Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece and Serverfarm, a global data center developer and operator, announced today the signing of a Heads of Agreement regarding the formation of Gemini, a Joint Venture with the objective of developing and operating state-of-the-art, hyperscale-ready data center facilities in Athens and elsewhere in Greece, on sites owned by IPTO.

This strategic alliance marks a significant milestone in advancing Greece’s digital infrastructure and fostering sustainable growth in the data-driven economy.

Gemini will combine the collective expertise and resources of two leading entities in their respective fields. IPTO, as a crucial pillar of the Greek energy sector, plays a pivotal role in managing the country’s electricity grid, ensuring stability, and embracing renewable energy solutions.

Leveraging its extensive experience, IPTO will be providing reliable and sustainable power supply, essential for supporting data center operations along with strategically located sites with access to power and optical fiber networks, as well as other operational resources. Serverfarm, as an expert in data center development and operations globally, with a strong track record in commercial real estate ventures, will be bringing unparalleled industry experience and advanced design and operational know-how, ensuring that the Joint Venture will become a point-of-reference for data center services in Greece.

Gemini plans to construct and operate hyperscale-ready data center facilities in the Greater Athens Area, leading initially with a campus with committed power of 130MW, creating the foundations for establishing a robust digital ecosystem to meet the escalating demands of cloud service providers, content delivery networks and enterprises.

The data centers will be designed with a focus on energy efficiency, utilizing state-of-the-art cooling technologies and renewable energy sources to minimize their environmental impact, creating an unparalleled platform for hyperscale computing in Greece. The Joint Venture envisions Athens as a prominent digital hub, offering secure, reliable, and low-latency data center facilities to national and international clients, bolstering Greece’s position in the global data economy.

The Founder and CEO of Serverfarm, Avner Papouchado, said:

“As leading tech and hyperscale organizations continue to expand into Greece, we see a great opportunity to leverage our expertise in this region. Our strategic partnership with IPTO, underscores our mission to invest in transformative projects that create long-term value. The Greek data center market is still one of the most under-served in Europe, but at the same time, its geographical location makes it ideal to serve as a data gateway between continents. Our collaboration with IPTO in creating Gemini and our shared commitment to excellence and sustainability, will enable us to leverage this immense potential to offer high quality, data center services in Greece. Our goal is to cater to the growing needs of hyperscale customers in the area and elevate Athens as a major hub for the industry, shaping the digital landscape in the broader region.

The Chairman and CEO of IPTO, Manos Manousakis, said:

“IPTO is building critical infrastructure for tomorrow’s electricity and telecommunications backbone networks throughout Greece and beyond, interconnecting the future. We are delighted to partner with Serverfarm, through Gemini, to deliver world-class data center facilities in Greece. Serverfarm’s vast experience in developing state-of-the-art data centers, coupled with IPTO’s robust energy infrastructure and its strategic location at the crossroads of continents, will create an unparalleled platform for hyperscale computing in Greece, catering to the escalating demand for digital services in the region. This alliance symbolizes a significant milestone for Greece’s digital transformation, which is poised to build the foundation for a flourishing data-driven economy in Greece. In this way, we fully exploit synergies and create win-win business opportunities, transforming Greece into a critical energy and data hub of high geopolitical value, at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia.”

– End –

About IPTO:

  The Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) is responsible for the operation, monitoring, maintenance, and development of the “Hellenic Electricity Transmission System”, aiming to ensure safe and undisrupted power supply across the country. IPTO’s “Ten Year Network Development Plan” provides for the electrical interconnection of major Greek islands in the High Voltage System by 2029, the strengthening and modernization of the continental power grid as well as the facilitation of Greece’s transition towards a cleaner energy mix. IPTO’s investment program, includes the Crete-Attica power link, supplemented with dual optical fiber cables, the completion of Cyclades as well as the interconnections of the Dodecanese and the NE Aegean islands. IPTO is developing new international interconnections to Italy, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and Turkey, and supports new subsea electricity interconnectors to Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, with Greece as the main hub. IPTO is the project promoter of the “Great Sea Interconnector” between Greece, Cyprus and Israel and is currently maturing the “Green Aegean Interconnector”, a new electrical corridor between Greece and southern Germany, for the transmission of clean energy originating from Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean region to the large consumption centers of Central Europe.

For more information, contact:

Email: pressoffice@admie.gr

About Serverfarm:

Serverfarm is an established multi-regional data center platform that provides data center solutions to key hyperscale, webscale, technology & network customers. These data center solutions include Colocation, Data Center Design, and IT Infrastructure Management, through Serverfarm’s proprietary InCommand DMaaS technology. For more information, visit serverfarmllc.com.

For more information, contact:

Email: media@sfrdc.com  

All the benefits of next generation technologies that are becoming available from the cloud won’t benefit anyone unless they are integrated into operations successfully.  From automation to AI, there are always resistance to change and fear of the unknown to overcome.  How does a large organization make the transition successfully? And what happens if they don’t?  With us today to talk about it is Farès Sakka, Director of Smart Industries, Americas for Orange Business. … [visit site to read more]

Pan-African service provider MTN Group has announced some key leadership changes among its operating companies and at its digital infrastructure business, most notably at MTN Group’s wholesale fibre optic subsidiary Bayobab.

Mitwa Ng’ambi, CEO of MTN Cameroon since September 2022, will move to the same position at MTN Côte d’Ivoire, effective 1 March 2025, as Djibril Ouattara takes early retirement. Wanda Matandela, chief commercial operations officer at MTN South Africa, has been appointed as the new CEO for MTN Cameroon, effective 1 March 2025.

Most significant perhaps is the announcement that, effective 1 January 2025, Mazen Mroue, MTN group chief technology and information officer (GCTIO), will assume additional responsibilities as CEO of Digital Infrastructure (Infraco). This dual role will incorporate the mobility and fibre businesses of Bayobab, along with executing MTN’s data centre strategy as the MTN Group positions itself for growth and profitability in the development of AI across Africa.

Since joining MTN in 1998, Mazen has held various senior positions within the Group’s regional operations in Africa and the Middle East and served as a board member of various companies within the MTN Group. 

What this means is that Frédéric Schepens, current CEO of Bayobab, will be leaving the group effective immediately. This is described by news resource ITWeb Africa as “a surprise move” – and indeed this departure has been the main headline for a number of African news outlets reporting these changes. 

ITWeb Africa mentions a number of setbacks this year – and certainly the conflict in Sudan the depreciation of the naira, and disruptions caused by multiple subsea cable cuts have been challenging. However, another news source, TechFinancials, reporting on Bayobab’s financial results in August, said: “In this challenging environment, Bayobab achieved a resilient financial performance”, and added that in the first half of the year it had secured a number of new fixed connectivity infrastructure deals

MTN Group, however, simply notes that the changes are “aimed at addressing succession, operational execution, and advancing the Ambition 2025 strategy”.