Telenor reshuffled its executive suite, appointing Petter-Borre Furberg (pictured, left) as the new head of Telenor Asia, replacing Jorgen Rostrup (pictured, right) who will head up Telenor Nordics.

Rostrup began as head of Telenor’s Asian unit in 2020 and oversaw two mega-mergers on the continent. Axiata and Telenor agreed to merge their units Celcom and Digi forming CelcomDigi in November last year. The merger dragged since its announcement in 2021 due to regulatory concerns.

Telenor also merged its Thai unit Dtac with rival True in March, which was heavily opposed by the market leader at the time AIS citing competition concerns.

Rostrup was group CFO between 2016 and 2020 and was credited for simplifying portfolios and ensuring modernisation across the group.

“Jorgen was sent to Asia three years ago with a mandate to deliver growth and modernisation and capturing opportunities in the region. After completing the two biggest telco mergers in Southeast Asia and setting up and implementing a strong and future-proof organisation in the region, he will now return to the Nordics,” said Telenor Group CEO Sigve Brekke.

Telenor’s new head of Asia Furberg has a wealth of experience on the continent having held multiple leadership roles. He held the role of ‘head of emerging Asia’ between 2017 to 2019, and interim CEO of Bangladeshi unit Grameenphone between 2016 to 2017.

Prior to these roles, he was also CEO of Telenor Myanmar, CMO and then CFO at Dtac.

“When Petter-Børre is returning to Asia, we can utilise the competence of one of our most experienced leaders with 15 years in previous and different roles in the region. He will play an instrumental role in ensuring the implementation and success of the two mergers as well as continue to develop Telenor’s business in the region,” added Brekke.

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A US Trade and Development Agency-funded feasibility study for Nigeria’s Hotspot Network Limited has led to the issuance of financing for the deployment of 120 solar-powered rural telecommunications base stations across 22 states in Nigeria.

USTDA’s focus is the export of US goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies. In this case the project will utilize renewable energy to provide last-mile mobile connectivity to underserved rural communities that lack the requisite power infrastructure for reliable telecommunications.

Hotspot is a telecommunication infrastructure and solar-powered rural telephony network provider, using renewable energy and climate-smart technology in operating telecom sites in off-grid rural parts of Nigeria.

Co-financing the project are Nigeria’s Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) and the Climate Finance Blending Facility, funded by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). This co-financing attracted matching investments from nine Nigerian institutional investors.

USTDA’s feasibility study, announced in 2021, assessed Nigeria’s rural telephony market, defined the project’s technology, cost and revenue options, and recommended financing and implementation plans.

USTDA’s support for this activity results from a memorandum of understanding (MoU), also in 2021, with InfraCredit to jointly identify infrastructure projects in Nigeria that could benefit from project preparation funding and subsequent credit enhancements. The sectors of cooperation highlighted in the MoU include clean energy, information and communications technology, transportation, agribusiness and healthcare infrastructure.

A bunch of interesting infrastructure news items from EMEA: … [visit site to read more]

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s news about its sister company Vumatel’s success in the South African FTTH market, fibre infrastructure provider Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has launched a R400 million (about US$21 million) fibre network infrastructure expansion project.

The news came in the form of a statement from Maziv, the parent company of both DFA and Vumatel.

Quoted in a number of local news outlets, Maziv says the reason for the expansion was to enhance provision of connectivity hardware to allow high-speed connectivity to more businesses and contribute to South Africa’s digital transformation efforts, “enabling greater access to online services and improving economic growth”.

This isn’t unexpected. The project has apparently been in trial phase since February and is now being rolled out at scale.

News resource MyBroadband says DFA will deploy 800 additional dry underground distribution cabinets (DUDCs) as part of the upgrade project. These units have been developed and manufactured in South Africa to DFA’s specifications.

Maziv says the additional units will dramatically shorten the distance data travels from the customer and over the network using dedicated cables, ensuring the shortest possible installation times and, Maziv suggests, reduced downtime during repairs and maintenance activities. The infrastructure upgrade will be carried out in three phases over roughly 18 months.

The project should also accommodate future growth and demand on the network, with the ability to scale up fibre deployment to meet demand as it increases.

This news comes a week after South Africa’s Competition Commission blocked a Vodacom takeover of Vumatel and DFA, though the proposal may now be taken to the country’s Competition Tribunal.