This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Richard Brandon, VP of Strategy, RtBrick
In 2022, the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had the opportunity to request up to $5 million for initial planning through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. This is one of a myriad of government-funded programs aiming to … [visit site to read more]
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An infrastructure expansion, a new IX, a couple of customer wins, and a strategic investment: … [visit site to read more]
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
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Two companies with extensive fiber across Europe have teamed up to upgrade the high profile route within the Channel Tunnel. Colt won a 25-year deal to operate the infrastructure within the tunnel a year and a half ago, and EXA’s participation will help them monetize that deal further. … [visit site to read more]
There was an interesting bit of fiber consolidation over in western Europe yesterday. euNetworks has announced an agreement to acquire the dark fiber business of a Belgian utility company, referred to as ‘the Business Branch’. … [visit site to read more]
It seems that mobile money is a major driver of an impressive set of figures from operator MTN Uganda, the country’s largest telecom company, which has a subscriber base of about 17.2 million, and is part of the pan-African MTN Group.
In fact the rise announced – a 20% rise in pre-tax profit for the full year 2022 – was boosted by financial technology and data services, according to the company. Fintech and data service sales led a rise in pre-tax profit to 591 billion shillings ($160 million) from 491 billion shillings in 2021. Fintech revenues and data service revenues both increased by roughly a quarter.
Much of this is about mobile money services. As in much of East Africa, mobile payments have grown tremendously over recent years in Uganda as businesses have embraced cashless payments and e-commerce in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
MTN Uganda says some of the businesses that have embraced the MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) offering include supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, hardware shops, fuel stations and salons among others.
In fact MTN Mobile Money Uganda recently announced a MoMoPay Merchant milestone with the number of businesses on the service crossing the 200,000 mark. MoMoPay enables merchants to receive payment for goods and services using MTN Mobile Money.
MTN Uganda listed on Uganda’s stock exchange in December 2021, although, as Reuters points out, its initial public offering was undersubscribed.
The nearest rival to MTN in Uganda is Airtel. Statista says that in the second quarter of 2022 MTN held a majority of the share of mobile subscriptions in Uganda with 53%. Airtel reached 42% in 2022.
The other operators are Uganda Telecom and Lycamobile. Africell exited Uganda in October 2021.
Infinera revealed a couple of interesting trials yesterday. They went after the longhaul, both in the field with Arelion and in the lab with Corning. They have been stretching the reach of their 400G wavelength technology, leveraging their ICE-X pluggable solution. … [visit site to read more]
Two Saudi service providers have signed deals with Rakuten Symphony as they look towards their next generation of mobile networks.
Salam has signed a strategic alliance framework agreement that will see Rakuten Symphony provide Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) and network planning, implementation and operation services while Zain KSA has signed an MoU to enable strategic collaboration in building next-generation telecommunications networks based on open standards and network infrastructure.
Under the Salam agreement, Rakuten Symphony will provide platforms, expertise and services relating to 4G and 5G Open RAN technology. The alliance will allow for delivery of software, hardware, service delivery platforms and managed services in several areas, including e-commerce, fintech, mobile banking, big data and digital content.
Ahmed Al-Anqari, CEO, Salam, said: “Our strategic alliance with Rakuten will power Salam’s ambition to transform our existing mobile offering with richer customer experiences and unlock new possibilities for Saudi Arabia’s digital generation in support of the Kingdom’s digital transformation journey.”
Under the MoU signed with Zain KSA at Mobile World Congress 2023, Rakuten Symphony will deliver mobile network services through the use of open technology that will facilitate wireless infrastructure. The firms will collaborate on a blueprint for a cloud-native, fully virtualised, new-generation radio access solution architecture, which will be Open RAN 4G and 5G-based with advanced automation capabilities.
Zain KSA Chief Technology Officer, Abdulrahman Al-Mufadda, said: “This collaboration will leverage and maximise the strengths of Zain KSA and Rakuten to accelerate innovation and drive the Saudi ICT sector toward achieving Saudi Vision 2030’s goals to transform the Kingdom into a digital hub that fosters a digital economy and hyper-connected society.”
Now is the season for next generation equipment trials, and today we saw one of the first indications of the coming Terabit wavelength era. Windstream Wholesale put Acacia’s latest optical technology to the test, successfully demonstrating some big bandwidth on a live network. … [visit site to read more]
