Several interesting items of regional interest from this week to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]

News

At CES 2025, Toyota Motor Corporation announced the completion of Phase 1 construction of Toyota Woven City (“Woven City”), its self-made smart city at the base of Mount Fuji.

The Japanese automaker giant has labelled the city as a “test course for mobility” and plans to launch Phase 1 for late 2025.

Speaking at the CES confrence, Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s Chairman of the Board of Directors (Representative Director), detailed his vision for the city: 

“From personal mobility devices, like a wheelchair race car…to drones that safely escort you home at night, to interactive pet robots that provide support and companionship for the elderly, to flying cars…”

At the official launch of Woven City, approximately 100 residents―primarily Toyota and WbyT staff and their families―are expected to participate in co-creation activities as the first residents. Plans to welcome the general public are in place for 2026.

The Woven City concept was first unveiled in 2020, where it was described as a “living laboratory”.

Woven City is ideated to be where “Inventors” can develop, test, and validate innovative products and services. These inventors include Toyota and Toyota Group companies, such as WbyT, as well as external companies, startups, and individual entrepreneurs.

This article was written by Grace Dawes, Editor of movemnt.net

Also in the news:
VEON and Starlink to launch Direct-to-Cell Satellite connectivity in Ukraine
Swisscom completes acquisition of Vodafone Italia
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m

Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said on Wednesday it has extended its high-speed fibre broadband network to all inhabited islands in the Maldives in a project that took five years to complete.

At a press conference announcing the milestone, Dhiraagu CEO and MD Ismail Rasheed noted that “only a few developed countries have successfully extended 100% fibre broadband coverage to their entire population.”

While the Maldives is a small country with less than 578,000 people, it’s also a geographically challenging archipelago of close to 1,200 islands across 22 atolls. Of that, around 200 islands are inhabited. All of those islands now have access to fibre broadband services, Ismail said.

Ismail also said the rollout enhances the Maldives’ digital backbone and will fuel the growth of digital services across the country, as well as enable greater digital inclusion in island communities by expanding broadband access and lowering the cost of internet services.

Ismail credited the government, atoll councils, island councils and partners for their cooperation in rolling out the fibre broadband network, as well as the work of Dhiraagu staff.

As for the international connectivity backing that network, the islands of the Maldives archipelago are connected by several inter-island subsea cable systems, but currently its only international subsea link is to Sri Lanka via the Maldives Sri Lanka Cable (MSC), which has been in operation since 2021.

That said, the Maldives has established a landing point for the India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) subsea cable connecting Mumbai with Singapore, which will interconnect with the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) subsea cable system connecting Mumbai with Milan, Italy, that is scheduled to be ready for service sometime in 2025.

Dhiraagu inaugurated the official landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in the Maldives in August 2024. SEA-ME-WE 6 is scheduled to be ready for service in early 2026. It will also be the first international subsea cable in which a Maldives telco owns a direct stake.

For the first time since 2021, the final quarter of 2024 was not the most prolific period of the year for cyberattacks. The attack rate peaked at 2,192 per day in the third quarter of 2024 before declining to 2,063 per day in Q4. Despite this reduction, the final three months of 2024 were only the third quarter on record when the average number of cyberattacks encountered by UK businesses exceeded 2,000 a day.

Previously, 2023 was the worst year on record for cyberattacks on UK businesses, when companies encountered an average of 720,252 malicious attempts to breach their systems each. Before 2024, the average number of attacks in a single quarter had only exceeded 2,000 in Q4 2023.

Remote IoT devices attract most cyberattacks 

Hackers attacked remotely controlled devices connected to the Internet of Things most frequently in 2024. Business firewalls encountered more than 161 daily attacks targeting applications such as building control systems, security cameras, networked printers, remote monitoring, and industrial automation systems. 

Web applications, remote desktop software, and company databases were also frequently targeted, with businesses typically attracting more than 20 individual attacks daily for each of these systems in 2024.

Beaming tracks a quarter of hackers to locations in China

Beaming’s analysts identified over a million IP addresses being used to launch cyberattacks on UK businesses in 2024 and traced almost a quarter (241,019) of them to locations in China. Beaming also identified significant and increasing volumes of cyberattacks that appeared to come from areas inside India (87,144 attacking IP addresses) and the USA (81,112) in 2024.

Sonia Blizzard, Managing Director of Beaming, said: “The rise of automated cyberattacks means the internet has never been more dangerous, and we expect it will become even more so as hackers use AI. The good news is that we are not seeing record numbers of companies crippled by hackers because businesses have got better at protecting themselves and ISPs such as Beaming are working hard to prevent malicious activity at a network level.”

Cameroon’s state-owned telco Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has reportedly revealed a budget of XAF326.2 billion (US$514.7 million) for 2025 to upgrade its network infrastructure and improve service quality, along with a strategic roadmap to steward its evolution to 2027.

According to a report from TechAfrica News on Tuesday, the 2025 budget includes plans for installing new antennas and modernizing existing equipment. Meanwhile, the roadmap aims to diversify Camtel’s service offerings, enhance operational efficiency, and reinforce transparency and good governance practices over the next three years.

Both the budget and the roadmap appear geared to respond to criticism over Camtel’s service quality, the report said.

Despite that, Camtel said it is a strong position financially to implement the improvements, with revenue doubling from XAF108 billion in 2018 to XAF207 billion in 2023, while its capital has grown from XAF67 billion to XAF117 billion. Camtel also reported a net profit of XAF11 billion in 2023.

In November, Camtel’s director of strategy, organisation, project and innovation, Gilbert Ngono, told Developing Telecoms that the telco plans to conduct 5G pilots next year in Yaoundé, Douala, and selected rural locations to align with the government’s Universal Service mandate.

Meanwhile, as part of its expansion plans, Camtel aims to increase its fibre-optic network from 12,000 kilometres to between 17,000 and 22,000 kilometres. That includes a new CFA100 billion fibre backbone that will add new fibre-optic lines and routes for data traffic.

Camtel has also signed a mobile network sharing agreement with French operator group Orange to boost service quality and narrow the gap with mobile rivals Orange and MTN.

Ngono said that while Camtel holds under 5% of Cameroon’s CFA800 billion mobile market, its network expansion plans should help it achieve 10% market share within the next two years.

Three bits of international news and one interplanetary: … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

A ten-fold increase in customers in the space of a year has led Red Helix, a market leader in cyber security and network performance, to invest £1million in expanding the capacity of its UK-based 24/7 security operations centre (SOC), increasing headcount by 150%. The company expects its SOC team to grow further in 2025, as demand for its specialised cyber services continues to soar.

Despite the global cyber skills shortage, Red Helix has been successful in recruiting and retaining SOC analysts who understand real-world security in small and medium-sized companies. The investment has been dedicated to creating innovative workspaces to support this talent, building a first-class team, and deploying an integrated suite of tools to ensure Red Helix can continue delivering industry-leading cyber security services tailored to the unique needs of SMEs.

Since its launch, Red Helix’s round-the-clock SOC coverage has brought enterprise-level security to the small and medium-sized businesses that often lack the in-house skills or resources to evaluate, integrate, and manage the security platforms they need.

As Red Helix CEO, Marion Stewart explained, “Our mission is to bridge the gap between the needs of small to medium businesses and the high-degree of complexity in security solutions they need – which are usually only accessible to larger enterprises.”

“By investing in our SOC,” she continued, “we’re able to protect more UK businesses from ever-evolving cyber threats. For many SMEs, one breach could jeopardise the entire company. Moreover, as small suppliers can be targeted to reach larger enterprises, there’s increased pressure on all supply chain members to uphold strong security. Each member of our SOC team understands the critical role our services play in protecting businesses from cyber disruptions. They are dedicated to providing proactive, reliable security, giving companies confidence that they’re in safe hands.”

The SOC, based at Red Helix HQ in Buckinghamshire, combines best-of-breed technologies with human expertise and provides a service that protects companies’ users, devices, networks, data, and applications in cloud, on-premise and hybrid environments. Through the company’s innovative pod structure, its team of analysts gain an in-depth understanding of each client’s systems and behavioural patterns. They then configure tailored triggers to detect anomalies and security breaches, taking swift and appropriate action as required.

“Taylor Howse, Cyber Security Analyst at Red Helix, said, “We equip our skilled SOC team with top-tier tools to deliver exceptional service. In the ever-evolving cyber world, every day brings new challenges, so staying ahead of threats requires constant readiness. Our structured training ensures we’re prepared. Each day, I analyse security logs and investigate anomalies – not just because I love the work, but also because Red Helix plays a vital role in safeguarding our customers’ environments, and being a part of that is hugely rewarding.”

The expansion of the SOC team comes as Red Helix continues its growth trajectory, having recently announced the appointed former British Army officer, Tom Exelby, as its new Head of Cyber Security. The company was also named as one of the top 40 cyber security companies in the UK and Europe 2024 by TechRound.

Two months after Ghana saw the launch of its first 5G wholesale network, telecoms operators have yet to lease capacity from it to offer commercial 5G services, according to Minister of Communications and Digitalization Ursula Owusu.

Owusu first announced plans to introduce 5G to Ghana via a shared wholesale network model in May 2024 to help telcos save on rollout costs. To that end, Radisys, Nokia and Tech Mahindra united with Ascend Digital Solutions, telecom solutions provider K-NET, mobile network operators AT Ghana and Telecel Ghana, and the Ghanian government to launch a JV called Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) to build out the shared infrastructure.

NGIC was granted a ten-year exclusive licence to deploy neutral 4G and 5G infrastructure to be leased to operators, and launched its 5G wholesale network at the start of November 2024. NGIC said it would start rollouts in Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi, with the goal of achieving national coverage by 2026.

The NGIC launch was heralded by the government and stakeholders as a pivotal move to accelerate digital inclusivity and growth in Ghana. The ministry also said rolling out a wholesale 5G network in phases would ensures rural inclusion, with subsidies to support underserved areas, as opposed to commercial 5G rollouts that are typically concentrated in urban centres.

However, since the November launch, none of Ghana’s main mobile operators – which includes NGIC stakeholders Telecel Ghana, AT Ghana, as well as MTN Ghana – have leveraged the NGIC network to launch their own 5G services, according to the Ecofin news agency.

During an interview on local television channel TV3, Owusu that the ministry has done its part to get the 5G ball rolling in Ghana, but it’s now up to operators to actively sell it.

“People didn’t listen to us at launch. This is a wholesale infrastructure. We built it, and now it’s up to telecommunications companies to buy capacity and provide it to their subscribers, » she told TV3.

The Ecofin report notes that it’s unknown if Telecel, AT Ghana and MTN have started discussions with NGIC or what the conditions of leasing 5G capacity will be. The ministry has also stopped short of providing a timeline of when it expects operators to start offering 5G services.

One sticking point may be the question of how much demand for 5G actually exists in Ghana, given that the penetration rate of 4G in the country – which has been available for the last nine years – was just 15% as of June 2024, according to government figures. The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization plans to boost that figure up to 80% by 2027.

Over the break three different M&A processes in the infrastructure space around the world steamed forward: … [visit site to read more]

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