With MWC underway over in Barcelona, there is lots of partnership news out there as well as plenty of vendor announcements: … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

Turkcell, Türkiye’s leading telecommunications and technology company, has been deploying Europe’s largest Super C+L ASON (Automatic Switched Optical Network) mesh metro and backbone network, in collaboration with global technology leader Huawei. This cutting-edge infrastructure sets a new benchmark in the evolution of high-capacity, flexible, and reliable optical networks. 

This state-of-the-art network provides bandwidth capacity of up to 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps, potentially even up to 2.4 Tbps per wavelength. Moreover, thanks to Super C+L technology, the spectrum increases by 2.5 times compared to traditional solutions. This technological leap will boost the total capacity carried over a single fiber by 5 times compared to conventional methods. As a result, this network deployment marks a pivotal advancement in meeting the demands of the 5G Advanced and F5.5G era. 

Leveraging ASON technology, the Super C+L mesh network allows for automated, intelligent network management, streamlining operations and maximizing uptime. This deployment solidifies Turkcell’s position as a leader in technological innovation, offering a robust foundation for next-generation mobile and broadband services. Prepared for the demands of the F5.5G era and beyond, Turkcell is set to lead the way in delivering future technologies. 

Prof. Dr. Vehbi Çağrı Güngör, Chief Technology Officer of Turkcell, says: “Turkcell is at the forefront of building the next generation of telecom infrastructure. Our commitment to innovation and technological leadership ensures that we are not only meeting the demands of today but also preparing for the future. This advanced network is designed to deliver the high-performance, flexible, and reliable connectivity required to support the digital transformation across industries.” 

Gavin Gu, President of Huawei’s Optical Transmission Domain, said, “Huawei is proud to collaborate in deploying one of Europe’s most advanced optical networks. This 400/800G Super C+L ASON mesh network is a key enabler of the next phase of connectivity, empowering businesses and consumers with seamless, high-performance services. By embracing new technology, we are ensuring that this infrastructure will support the future needs of the digital world.” 

ABOUT TURKCELL: 

Turkcell is a technology and telecommunications company headquartered in Türkiye, offering a unique portfolio of voice, data and IPTV services over its mobile and fixed networks along with digital consumer, enterprise and techfin services. Turkcell Group operates in three countries: Türkiye, Belarus and Northern Cyprus. Listed on both the NYSE and BIST since July 2000, Turkcell remains the only dual-listed company on these exchanges.

Read more at http://www.turkcell.com.tr 

Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions, has announced at MWC25 that Kenyan operator Safaricom has deployed Red Hat OpenShift as a common cloud platform for applications, including the M-Pesa mobile payment system.

Safaricom has more than 45 million subscribers and the widest modern mobile network coverage in Kenya. It runs sensitive applications with high uptime and stability requirements. This includes third party applications that connect to the renowned M-Pesa core platform, a mobile payment system that supports 51 million customers making over US$314 billion in transactions per year across Africa.

Safaricom’s vision is to be Africa’s leading purpose-led technology company by 2025. To fulfil this vision, Safaricom identified the need to move from monolithic, traditional infrastructures to a cloud-native, container and microservices-based architecture that provides a flexible, stable foundation to grow and support its digital requirements.

Building on its use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a stable, reliable and flexible Linux platform and Red Hat Satellite for infrastructure management, Safaricom sought an open source solution for containerisation. Initially, Safaricom deployed upstream Kubernetes but faced stability challenges and a lag in resolving bugs quickly enough to meet its business needs. Safaricom then chose to move to Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes, which provides production-ready maturity and carrier-grade stability along with enterprise-grade support.

Safaricom collaborated with Copy Cat Group, an experienced systems integrator, as well as the Red Hat team to deploy the platform and develop a roadmap for application modernisation. This included aligning processes across Safaricom’s security, application development and platform teams.

The companies ran joint technical workshops and a developer day to get the teams upskilled on DevOps and agile methodologies.

Safaricom in 2024 then expanded to Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus to harness Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for additional cybersecurity capabilities, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes for holistic orchestration of its workloads at scale and Red Hat Quay, a security-focused and scalable private registry platform for managing content across globally distributed data center and cloud environments.

Red Hat OpenShift is now the core Kubernetes-based platform in Safaricom’s IT environment, running all of its containers and supporting approximately 70% of its tier 1 and tier 2 applications. It is moving much of its estate to Red Hat OpenShift on bare-metal for greater control, increased economic efficiencies and more flexible scale-out capabilities. Benefits that Safaricom has seen include customer experience improvements, greater platform stability, faster time-to-market, expanded automation capabilities, increased scalability and additional security.

Looking ahead, Safaricom is assessing the opportunity to expand these benefits into the network space, such as its 5G core, by expanding its Red Hat OpenShift footprint. The team is working on a proof-of-concept to kick off and define the process before scaling up to onboard the full team and applications.

The communications and media space has been quite a dynamic environment over the past few years as companies balance both internal and external transformations.  But the arrival of AI is just accelerating everything.  Professional services companies, like Accenture, are right in the middle of all of it with both a ringside seat and a hand in the changes themselves.  With us today to talk about the state of the sector and look at where things tend to be going is Dan Rice, Accenture’s Communications and Media Lead for the USA. … [visit site to read more]

Netcracker is helping communications service providers around the world execute successful, results-driven digital transformations. AI and Generative AI play a central role in everything we do, helping operators thrive in a digital economy.

We can help operators redefine monetization for a digital world, revolutionize customer engagement with immersive digital experiences and maximize agility and efficiency with pioneering autonomous networks.

In late 2024, long-standing Netcracker customer Swisscom decided to leverage Netcracker’s cloud-native OSS and operations solutions to support its strategy of adopting TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture to achieve decoupling and autonomy of architectural domains.

Swisscom’s use of the Netcracker Digital OSS suite allowed the operator to quickly respond to future technical and market requirements across the business through a decoupled system that increases efficiencies and removes bottlenecks. This includes an accelerated rollout of Swisscom’s new wireline access network platform and the use of Netcracker’s cross-domain service orchestration for the provisioning of connectivity services. Active Resource Inventory supplies real-time information about the network to greatly facilitate planning for new services.

“After many years of successful collaboration with Netcracker in the OSS domain, we are excited to plan for additional network transformation requirements,” said Markus Reber, Head of Networks at Swisscom. “Netcracker’s expertise and our synergies in developing a robust platform for our lines of business will help map our next steps towards a modern digital architecture.”

“The deployment of cloud-based autonomous operational domain management functional blocks brings us closer to achieving a lean and fully modular IT architecture,” said Felix Jaeger, Co-Head of Software Development at Swisscom. “By fostering closer collaboration and adopting an agile approach, we will enhance customer experience and boost operational efficiency through the creation of simpler IT solutions.”

“We greatly value our partnership with Swisscom, including helping it reach the next level in its IT transformation,” said Benedetto Spaziani, GM at Netcracker. “We are delighted to work closely with Swisscom to continue the success we’ve already achieved and are looking forward to many more milestones.”

To learn more about Netcracker’s Digital Platforms Click here

Adelaide, Australia & Oslo, Norway  – 27 February 2025. Myriota, the provider of global satellite based connectivity optimized for IoT devices, today announces the availability of its ground breaking 5G compliant Myriota HyperPulse^TM network running on Nordic Semiconductor low power cellular IoT solutions.

The partnership delivers end-to-end 5G NTN (Non-Terrestrial Networks) standards-based connectivity solutions for battery-constrained IoT. The two companies are closely aligned in delivering ultra-low power IoT services with battery life measured in years for a wide range of applications across logistics, utilities, and industrial control systems.

Myriota has more than a decade of experience in delivering high security, power efficient direct-to-satellite IoT solutions through their UltraLite^TM connectivity service. The addition of the new HyperPulse 5G standards-based network builds on this knowledge, expanding their extensive infrastructure with a constellation of satellites in geostationary (GEO) orbit and L-Band frequency.

HyperPulse is the first solution of its kind powered by Viasat’s dynamic leasing capability, which allows Myriota to scale the network’s performance dynamically to suit the needs of customer devices deployed in the field. By leveraging Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9151, the smallest and lowest power System-in-Package (SiP) module for IoT deployments, device makers can upgrade their connectivity to Myriota HyperPulse quickly and easily.

“Myriota’s connectivity, designed specifically for the Internet of Things, is changing the game globally, unlocking better outcomes through intelligence gathered from the field. This is only possible because traditionally prohibitive satellite-based hardware and connectivity costs have been decimated. The industry can finally deploy secure, low power sensor devices at the scale needed to have real impact,” said Ben Cade, CEO of Myriota. “By combining our decade plus experience together with Nordic Semiconductor’s similar track record, we are enhancing our existing IoT connectivity platform with a 5G standards-based network which opens up a range of new applications, all powered by off-the-shelf modules with battery life measured in years and costs measured in single digit dollars.”

“Myriota is an established player in the satellite market, and our collaboration will now bring 5G NTN compliant solutions to the market, opening new possibilities for device makers out there” said Oyvind Birkenes, EVP of Nordic’s Long Range Business Unit. “It is rewarding to now have nRF9151 based devices connected and sending data over Myriota satellites to our nRF Cloud.

The two companies will demonstrate the solution at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on the Nordic Semiconductor Booth #7G21 in Hall 7, showcasing a sensing application where the end user device incorporates the Nordic Semiconductor nRF9151 module. The data is passed via the Myriota HyperPulse network and made available via a Nordic Semiconductor Dashboard demo. 

Myriota is also now taking applications for its HyperPulse Early Access Program — interested parties can apply at https://myriota.com/hyperpulse-5g

For more information about Myriota visit myriota.com

For more information about Nordic Semiconductor visit nordicsemi.com

Beaming, a specialist internet service provider (ISP) serving thousands of businesses across the UK, today opened a new office in Medway’s Chatham Dockyard. The Medway office will be home to a new sales team, technical support, and a research and development function focused on IT network performance and enhanced cybersecurity.

Beaming’s new office is its first outside of Hastings and is situated within Fitted Rigging House, a renovated historic building that was once the largest storehouse constructed by the Royal Navy. The location provides Beaming with additional facilities for meeting customers, closer proximity to its data centres, and the opportunity to increase its workforce. 

Sonia Blizzard, Managing Director of Beaming, said: “Over the last 20 years, Beaming has become a leading independent alternative to the generalist telecommunications giants. We now provide thousands of businesses across the UK with rock-solid, resilient connectivity, networking and IT services, a direct line to technical support experts, and the personal touch that only comes from working with a specialist.”

“Our new office in Medway is an exciting step on our growth journey, enabling us to expand the team and broaden our skills base, as well as host more customers at this unique and historic location.”

Philippines-based operator PLDT has revealed its interest in acquiring private equity firm KKR’s stake in fintech company Maya Innovations.

PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan stated during an earnings briefing that the company wants to increase its stake in Maya and has engaged Goldman Sachs to explore a potential transaction. Maya competes with Globe Telecom’s financial services platform GCash, which is operated by Mynt.

According to DealStreetAsia, KKR holds around 30% of shares in Maya, but it remains unclear whether the investment firm intends to sell its stake.

Pangilinan told reporters: “We know they (KKR) are trying to scan the market for the value of Maya. Maya is just starting to turn the corner, so we’d be keen to increase our stake in whatever might be available.”

PLDT noted that Maya Innovations turned a profit for the first time in December, driven by strong performance from its digital banking arm.

Founded in 2013, Maya offers mobile money and payments under the PayMaya brand, remittances through Smart Padala, and B2B card payments as PayMaya Business.

PLDT and KKR, alongside Tencent and the International Finance Corporation, invested US$215 million in Maya in 2018 and backed its US$120 million funding round in 2020.

PLDT’s enterprise arm has announced plans to introduce “long-range fixed wireless access” technology to underserved areas across the Philippines with challenging terrain.

While specific locations and a deployment timeline have not been disclosed, PLDT pledges to deliver “fibre-like speeds” capable of supporting high-bandwidth applications such as cloud computing and e-commerce. By eliminating the need for physical cables, PLDT Enterprise emphasised that FWA is a more cost-effective solution that can be deployed regardless of geographic limitations.

“At PLDT Enterprise, we recognise that reliable connectivity is a critical enabler of economic growth. Through long-range fixed wireless access, we can ensure that no business—regardless of location—is left behind in the digital transformation journey,” said John Gonzales, First Vice President and Head of Enterprise Consulting Services and Technology Management at PLDT Enterprise.