Safaricom Ethiopia has surpassed 15 million 90-day active subscribers, less than four years after launching commercial services in the country.

The operator received its unified telecom licence from the Ethiopian government in July 2021 and began commercial operations in October 2022, entering a market previously dominated by state-owned Ethio Telecom.

Safaricom Ethiopia has deployed more than 3,500 network sites since entering the market, with its network now reaching around 60% of the country’s population. The operator said all of its sites are 4G-enabled and 5G-ready.

The subscriber milestone comes as Safaricom Ethiopia moves towards financial breakeven following several years of investment in network infrastructure, technology and distribution.

The operator said increased competition following Ethiopia’s telecoms liberalisation has contributed to wider connectivity, faster internet speeds, increased data usage and growth in digital payments.

Safaricom Ethiopia is part of the Vodafone-backed Safaricom group, which entered Ethiopia as part of the country’s efforts to liberalise its telecoms market and attract private investment.

News

The company says its new SingleRAN 22.1 wireless software aims to build a multidimensional foundation for the Mobile AI network

As AI models grow more advanced, the use of AI agents continues to proliferate. According to forecasts from IDC, there will be more than 1 billion actively deployed AI agents by 2029, raising to 2.2 billion in 2030. Other estimates are even more bullish, with Huawei’s Intelligent World 2035 report predicting 900 billion AI Agents will be active globally, with 90% operating in mobile scenarios. Indeed, earlier this year NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said he envisaged a workforce where each human employee would be supported by over 100 AI Agents. 

The consensus is clear: the ‘Agentverse’ – an interconnected ecosystem of autonomous AI Agents – is coming, if it is not here already.  

This explosion in AI Agents presents a significant challenge to wireless network operators. Unlike traditional legacy traffic, Agent services require continuous multimodal data transmission, real-time interaction, and constant multi-agent collaboration. This places unprecedented demands on mobile networks, requiring massive uplink capacity, deterministic low latency, and guaranteed service levels.  

Against this backdrop, traditional downlink-centric networks focussed on ‘best-effort’ connectivity will soon find themselves obsolete. Wireless networks will need to be systematically redesigned with a focus on capability allocations, dynamic resource orchestration, and novel interaction paradigms.  

This systematic overhaul is exactly what Huawei is targeting with its latest software update, SingleRAN 22.1. 

SingleRAN 22.1: Six features for the Agentic ecosystem  

Huawei’s SingleRAN 22.1, launched in Shanghai earlier this year, is the company’s first commercial software release purpose-built for the Mobile AI era. It includes six key technical advances that, when taken together, form a robust foundation for supporting Agentic AI at scale.

• GigaUplink focusses on overcoming terminal power and spectral efficiency bottlenecks with two new algorithms. The Multi-layer Fusion Uplink Reception algorithm aims to dynamically optimise the network through coordinated power control, non-contiguous resource scheduling, and intelligently combining beams from multiple antennas. The second algorithm, Uplink CoMP Enhancement, works to improve how multiple cells cooperate and suppress interference. 

  When combined, these algorithms have demonstrated average uplink throughput gains of 24% to 33% in live field trials in Macau and Yunnan, expanding 10 Mbps uplink coverage by approximately 2 dB to support uplink-heavy AI streams.  

• GigaBand is designed to optimise existing spectrum across both 4G and 5G. It uses centralised scheduling to dynamically allocate spectrum, time, power, and spatial resources between LTE and NR, improving overall spectrum efficiency by 20%. It also enables more flexible switching between dynamic spectrum sharing and NR-only, delivering 10–30% better NR performance without impacting 4G performance at existing levels. 

  Commercial deployments have achieved 34% higher 5G standalone experience, around 20% uplink improvement, and 5G uplink speeds exceeding 1 Gbps.  

• iBeam 3.0, the latest update to Huawei’s beamforming optimisation solution, is designed to improve 5G downlink performance, particularly under medium-to-heavy network loads. Building on previous iBeam generations, which delivered over 20% gains through interference suppression and user pairing, iBeam 3.0 further improves beam accuracy, user scheduling and interference management. It combines real-time channel conditions with Sounding Reference Signal measurements to more accurately target devices, optimises user pairing, power allocation and modulation, and suppresses interference. 

  In a live Saudi Arabian network, iBeam 3.0 delivered a 15% improvement in downlink rates versus previous iBeam generations through a software-only upgrade. 

• IDEA (Intelligent Differentiated Experience Assurance) is designed to move mobile networks from “best effort” to differentiated, guaranteed experiences. It dynamically allocates network resources according to the needs of different services and users; for example, prioritising high uplink capacity for AI services, low latency for gaming, and stable connectivity for real-time applications. IDEA combines elastic speed control with dynamic resource reservation to provide more predictable performance, achieving over 95% target-rate satisfaction for 2 Mbps uplink and 5 Mbps downlink in heavy-load metro scenarios. 

  A deployment for HKT showed that the proportion of <40 ms latency sessions in low latency gaming scenarios improved by 5%, 5 Mbps uplink rate satisfaction improved by 11.7% for live streaming customers, and VIP user live streaming satisfaction rose from 92.23% to 97.69%. 

• 0 Bit 0 Watt 0 Loss is Huawei’s intelligent energy-saving solution, designed to reduce 5G network power consumption without compromising service performance. It enables network equipment to enter deep sleep during periods of low demand and wake up quickly when traffic increases. In super-deep dormancy mode, residual power consumption falls below 10 W, with a 30-second wake-up, while fast deep dormancy reduces consumption below 50 W, with just a 5-second wake-up and zero service impact. This change means that energy savings are no longer achieved only during periods of predictably low usage, like nighttime, and instead are achieved all-day.  

• RANSpirit is an AI-powered wireless network intelligence agent, designed to automate network optimisation and operations. Instead of relying heavily on engineers to monitor millions of network settings and manually diagnose problems, RANSpirit uses a telecom AI model and digital twin to understand network conditions, identify issues and determine the best actions. It can simultaneously balance user experience, network performance, energy efficiency and operational needs, rather than improving one at the expense of another. By continuously sensing, analysing, deciding and executing, RANSpirit enables minute-level automated optimisation, helping operators move from reactive, manual network management towards proactive, autonomous operations. 

In addition to enhancing the network’s multi-dimensional capabilities in software, SingleRAN 22.1 also provides a foundation for the next generation of baseband processing hardware. This version of the technology is the first to support Huawei’s next-generation UBBPi series baseband boards, combining its advanced algorithms with the latest baseband technology to deliver the diverse network capabilities Mobile AI services will demand.  

A connectivity foundation for an AI-powered future 

For Huawei, these new capabilities represent not only improvements to existing 4G and 5G services but the creation of an entirely new network topology paradigm in anticipation of continued AI growth. These integrated solutions resolve foundational network bottlenecks, allowing operators to systematically deliver the deterministic latency, high uplink capacity, and differentiated performance required to support billions of interconnected AI Agents across the emerging Agentverse.  

“Mobile AI is not a service upgrade — it is a paradigm shift for the industry. As the first commercial version for the Mobile AI era, SingleRAN 22.1 comprehensively reconstructs network capabilities, empowering operators to seize new opportunities in the Token economy, making intelligence omnipotent, omnipresent, and perpetual,” said He Yunru, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Solutions. 

Huawei’s SingleRAN 22.1 has already been commercially deployed at 35 operator sites across 23 countries. Over 100 operators globally are expected to have completed deployment by the end of the year. 

Also in the news
Shared Rural Network rollout extends to UK national parks with over 150 4G masts live
Vodafone touts latest attempt to bridge the UK’s digital divide
Virgin Media O2 cuts 5,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Biju Anidil, Regional VP Sales, EMEA & APAC, Evergent

Every monetisation vendor, mine included, will tell you to modernise your BSS. You have heard it a hundred times, which is why most of you have not acted. The advice is not wrong. It is incomplete, and the missing part is the reason operators stay stuck. … [visit site to read more]

Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Digital Transition and Technological Innovation (MTNIT) says it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with French AI solutions company Mistral to help develop an AI ecosystem adapted to the country’s specific requirements.

Under the agreement – which was signed last month but publicly announced on Tuesday – MTNIT and Mistral are conducting a strategic study and audit to map out the players and available resources for an AI ecosystem, as well as evaluating existing data and infrastructures, and identifying areas where AI could provide concrete use cases serving the needs of the government, companies and populations.

Ideally, the audit will form the basis for an operational roadmap that will define the conditions for deploying AI solutions and allow the emergence of “high-impact” pilot projects.

The ministry said the study focuses on several priority sectors, including public administration, health, education, agriculture and services to the population.

As part of the project, Mistral is working with Artefact Côte d’Ivoire, a local entity of the Artefact group specialising in data and AI consulting, who will provide technological and local expertise.

MTNIT said in a post on social media site X that the Mistral partnership will contribute to the AI pillar of the government’s Digital Roadmap 2026-2028, which includes 40 structuring projects.

The audit is expected to be completed in time for MTNIT’s « IMPACT IA » conference next week in Abidjan.

Teltronic, a Spanish company with more than 50 years of experience in the critical communications sector, says it will be supplying a 4G broadband communications network for national rail company EFE Trenes de Chile.

The broadband communications system will provide data transmission services for two new lines that will connect the capital city, Santiago de Chile, with the nearby towns of Melipilla and Batuco, as part of a project awarded by the Chilean railway operator to Siemens Mobility.

The project includes the implementation of the country’s first ETCS (European Train Control System) Level 2 system, an in-cab digital signalling system that uses continuous radio communication to guide trains safely without relying on traditional physical lineside signals.

Siemens Mobility has entrusted Teltronic with the deployment of a private 4G network that will provide coverage along the 87 kilometres of new railway lines. However, as Teltronic explains, the system is 5G ready, meaning that it can evolve to 5G technology through a simple software upgrade. In addition, the infrastructure includes two control nodes, one primary and one redundant, to ensure system robustness.

Teltronic says it will also equip the 32 new trains that will operate on the lines with its RTP-800, a state-of-the-art radio that will enable continuous train-to-ground data transmission. The onboard solution is completed by the DCD7 touch-screen console, which has been designed to meet the stringent requirements of railway environments and allows train drivers to operate the radio controls.

The system, which is also prepared to support voice communications, will be integrated with a passenger information system, a public address system and the CCTV network, whose images will be transmitted in real time. It will also support Level 2 ETCS which, says Teltronic, means it will play a key role in the safe and efficient operation of the trains.

Two M&A completions, an expansion, and some quantum: … [visit site to read more]

BOSTON: September 2, 2026 – Vodia Networks, Inc., a provider of unified cloud communications solutions to enterprises, contact centers, and service providers, is pleased to announce the expansion of its integration with the Apple ecosystem. This includes the company’s new iOS app, which now enables iPhone users to access a focused Vodia Phone experience in Apple CarPlay.

The Vodia iOS app

On July 28, 2026, Vodia announced its new iOS app, which gives users a native way to use a Vodia PBX extension from an iPhone or iPad. The redesigned app is built around a cleaner, card-based interface, making it easier to manage calls, call history, active call controls, chat, extensions, voicemail, call parking, and transfers, all from one mobile experience. 

The app interface follows the latest iOS design patterns, with layered cards, soft glass-style surfaces, and familiar system controls. Instead of forcing users through a legacy softphone experience, the app is built around how people already expect to use their iPhone. It also supports iPad, giving users a larger workspace for calls, status, messaging, and daily communication workflows.

Apple CarPlay

Apple CarPlay gives iPhone users a smart, safe way to use an iPhone while driving – it provides directions, makes calls, sends and receives messages, and plays music, all on the car’s built-in display. 

The Vodia CarPlay interface is built with Apple’s native CarPlay templates and includes four main areas: call history, extension directory, messages, and voicemail. It gives users access to essential Vodia PBX communication features from the vehicle display, without turning the dashboard into a full desktop PBX interface.

With CarPlay support, Vodia users can access important PBX features from the vehicle display:

• Business call handling
• Calls in CarPlay
• Call history
• Car audio support
• CarPlay alerts
• Confirmation before dialing
• Extension directory
• Native in-car call screen
• Presence visibility
• Siri-assisted chat
• Siri calling
• Voicemail playback

“Since iOS 13, Apple has consistently provided a robust framework for multiple voice apps to function on the same device, across a large range of hardware and software combinations,” said Christian Stredicke, PhD, founder and CEO, Vodia. “Vodia has gladly used and added app features as they became available, and the latest addition, CarPlay, will help users use their time commuting to work more efficiently and safely.”

The Vodia iOS app requires V68 or higher of the Vodia cloud phone system. It is available for download from the App Store. Documentation is available on the Vodia documentation website. 

For more information about the expansion of the Vodia PBX with the Apple ecosystem and the company’s overall mobile strategy, sales@vodia.com, +1 (617) 861-3490.

About Vodia

Vodia Networks, Inc. provides B2B cloud communications solutions for enterprises, contact centers, and service providers. Its PBX software offers a broad range of business telephony features for on-premise and cloud deployments on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Fully SIP-compliant, Vodia integrates with numerous SIP devices and trunking providers for flexible telephony. Its multi-tenant platforms support desk phones, softphones, APIs, and third-party CRM integrations. Vodia empowers partners and users with world-class cloud PBX and personalized support to ensure success. The company operates globally, with offices in Boston, USA, and Berlin, Germany. Visit Vodia on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.

• Sparklight Carrier Services implements TransUnion Universal Order Connect for wholesale order management.
• Streamlined ordering supports carriers, wireless providers and ISPs expanding into new markets.
• Automated wholesale ordering can reduce manual processing and standardize connectivity workflows.
• Electronic transactions improve visibility throughout the entire order lifecycle.

PHOENIX (September 2, 2026) — Sparklight® Carrier Services, a provider of wholesale connectivity solutions to national and regional carriers, wireless providers and internet service providers, has enhanced its wholesale ordering experience with technology designed to simplify how customers order, manage and deploy connectivity services.

“Wholesale customers need more than network capacity. They need a partner that is responsive and easy to do business with,” said Katherine Creech, Vice President of Business Services at Sparklight. “By simplifying how customers order, manage, and track services, we’re creating a faster, more seamless experience that helps them serve their own customers with greater confidence.”

KEY FACTS

• Sparklight Carrier Services has implemented TransUnion® Universal Order Connect (UOC) to automate wholesale order management.
• UOC enables standardized electronic transactions for wholesale connectivity ordering.
• The enhanced workflow extends from order validation, acceptance and enrichment through order status tracking.
• The implementation is designed to improve order accuracy and visibility throughout the order lifecycle while helping accelerate service delivery.
• Standardized workflows are intended to reduce manual processing in wholesale connectivity ordering.
• Sparklight Carrier Services provides connectivity across a fiber-powered network spanning 24 states.
• Its wholesale portfolio includes Wholesale Internet, Carrier Ethernet, Cellular Backhaul, Dark Fiber, and Middle- and Last-Mile Connectivity Solutions.

Automated wholesale ordering can reduce manual processing and standardize connectivity workflows

Wholesale connectivity ordering can involve multiple stages, from determining service availability and qualifying locations to placing orders and monitoring progress toward delivery. Sparklight Carrier Services’ updated process is designed to automate and streamline the ordering and tracking stages through a more standardized electronic workflow.

For wholesale providers managing network expansion across multiple markets, the operational objective is straightforward: make it easier to move an order toward deployment without introducing unnecessary manual steps.

Electronic transactions improve visibility throughout ordering and service delivery

Order automation is only one component of the update. The new capabilities improve visibility throughout the order lifecycle, covering the process from initial order placement through order tracking.

That visibility matters when carriers, wireless providers and ISPs are coordinating network extensions or entering new markets. A standardized workflow can give wholesale customers a more consistent way to understand where connectivity orders stand as they progress toward service delivery.

Streamlined ordering supports connectivity expansion into new markets

Sparklight Carrier Services provides wholesale connectivity solutions across a fiber-powered network spanning 24 states. Its portfolio includes Wholesale Internet, Carrier Ethernet, Cellular Backhaul, Dark Fiber, and Middle- and Last-Mile Connectivity Solutions.

“Whether customers are extending their network footprint or delivering services into new markets, our focus is on providing a responsive, reliable wholesale experience from order placement through service delivery,” Creech said.

For more information about Sparklight Carrier Services, visit business.sparklight.com/carrier.

###

FOLSOM, Calif., Sept. 2, 2026 — The AI² Insights Platform today announced it will launch publicly at IBC 2026. The platform gives media & entertainment (M&E) leaders a current, evidence-based answer to what AI is actually delivering in their business, and where it is heading next.

Every M&E executive is being asked to commit budget to AI. Few have a reliable way to tell a proven capability from a promising demo, or to know which opportunities are opening and which are closing. Guessing costs real money. It shows up as misallocated capital and missed windows.

AI² Insights closes that gap. Executives can see which AI capabilities are delivering results today and which are still just a good demo. They can find where the genuine innovation opportunities sit, where the market gaps are, and where the traps lie. They can also see how fast each part of the landscape is moving. The picture updates continuously, so what leaders see reflects the market as it stands now.

“AI is the fastest-moving technology this industry has ever had to absorb, and the decisions cannot wait for the next research cycle,” said Fernando Amendola, Founder of AI² Insights. “We built AI² Insights to close that gap. Ask it about opportunities. Ask it about traps. Ask it about trends. Always get a current answer you can trust.”

The scope is substantial. More than 200 AI use cases in M&E, each researched from a technology angle and a business angle. More than 70 distinct AI techniques are being analyzed with continuous monitoring across more than 1,000 technology vendors and 1,000 media operators worldwide. All of it is organized around the PADE-POC™ taxonomy, which maps AI across the entire value chain: Produce, Augment, Distribute, Experience, Protect, Orchestrate, Comply.

Trust is engineered in. Every answer runs through the Truth Engine™, built on RAHIC™: Recursive, Adversarial, Human, Iterative, Convergent. Conclusions are tested against contradicting evidence and reviewed by industry experts before an executive sees them. Every conclusion carries a confidence rating. Where the evidence is thin, the platform says so rather than filling the gap.

Executives reach that intelligence three ways:

• AI² Enquire

  An LLM-based dialogue engine. Ask a question in plain language and the engine intelligently selects and assembles the answer from the research corpus, in real time.

• AI² Research

  A library of published research. Executives pull full reports across more than 200 AI use cases in M&E, each analyzed from both a technology and a business angle.

• AI² Industry Tracker

  A dynamic dashboard. Watch the market move in real time: where the technology is heading, which players are gaining ground, and where the opportunities and obstacles are forming.

Access is sold as an Insights-as-a-Service model. Executives pay as they learn, for the intelligence they use, when they need it, rather than for a shelf of reports commissioned months earlier.

“Only AI can keep pace with AI. That is what makes this platform possible,” said Thierry Fautier, Co-Founder of The Media League. “The distance between what gets announced and what actually works is where budgets go to die. AI² Insights is the first thing I have seen built specifically to close that distance for M&E.”

How to get access

1. Today — register and take a look

   Executives can request beta access now at www.ai2insights.ai and see a sneak peek of what the platform can do.

2. Sunday, Sept 13 — see it live

   The full AI² Insights Platform will be introduced at the 2nd Annual SundAI Breakfast, hosted by The Media League, on Sunday, September 13 at the Van der Valk Hotel Amsterdam Zuidas. The morning includes a live demonstration and an executive roundtable on making AI pay in Media & Entertainment.

3. Early October — beta access opens

   Selected registrants receive login details and onboarding instructions.

Wider availability follows through Q4 2026, with general availability scheduled for January 2027.

A new collaboration aims to explore a dedicated on-site power generation solution of up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) for a new data centre development in Selangor, within the Greater Kuala Lumpur region in Malaysia.

DayOne Data Centres, a global digital infrastructure platform headquartered in Singapore, has announced a collaboration with Malaysia’s TNB Power Generation, the wholly owned power generation subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).

This announcement builds on a longstanding partnership between the two companies, which includes collaborating on DayOne’s campuses in Johor and national green energy programmes, including the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) and the Green Electricity Tariff (GET).

By combining DayOne’s digital infrastructure expertise with TNB GenCo’s power generation capabilities, the partners say they will look into solutions that support national grid security and reliability, while serving the needs of large-scale data centre operations and future AI infrastructure growth.

As for more precise details, the partners say the final capacity, configuration and implementation model remain subject to feasibility assessments, definitive agreements and applicable regulatory approvals.

By integrating dedicated on-site power generation and a battery energy storage system (BESS) directly with its data centre infrastructure, and working closely with TNB and other industry partners, DayOne says it aims to contribute to greater energy resilience, more efficient use of power infrastructure, and the accelerated adoption of renewable and lower-carbon energy solutions.

DayOne adds that Malaysia has been one of its most important growth markets since the company launched its first Malaysian campus, Nusajaya Tech Park (NTP), in 2023, followed by Kempas Tech Park (KTP) in 2025, both in Johor.

DayOne’s new Selangor development marks its continued expansion in the Greater Kuala Lumpur region. The company says it expects its cumulative investment in Malaysia to reach over RM28 billion (about US$69.2 billion) by the end of 2026.