Okay, about those predictions I made last year…  Each December I like to make a few predictions about the year ahead.  But what is a prediction without a healthy dose of reality to cut it down to size?  We don’t check such things often enough, we just tend to make more.   I’ll get to that part soon enough, but first: how did I do last year? … [visit site to read more]

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Multinational information technology services and consulting company Cognizant has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Garuda Aerospace, an Indian drone start-up, to power its drones with advanced digital tools.

According to the Times of India, Cognizant says this will bring innovative solutions at scale for enterprises aiming to achieve greater agility, productivity and overall outcomes.

The two companies aim to bring a wide range of end-to-end drone-based management and monitoring offerings for businesses across a number of sectors, including agriculture, warehouse management, and energy and utilities.

This collaboration will also offer Cognizant associates across such company service lines as analytics and IoT the opportunity to work on purpose-driven drone projects.

Garuda Aerospace is focused on developing low-cost drone solutions to optimize industries through accurate data. It describes itself as a drone-as-a-software aggregator that designs impeccable drones for myriad human and industrial needs.

Indian press reports suggest that Garuda Aerospace boasts a fleet of 400 drones and a well-trained team of over 500 pilots in 26 cities across the country.

It’s also a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme beneficiary. We reported in April that a number of companies involved in manufacturing drones and drone components had been selected as initial beneficiaries of the PLI scheme to boost drone manufacturing in India. The list, expanded in July, included 23 beneficiaries, one of which was Garuda Aerospace.

This year has seen growing activity in the drone sector. For example, in March we reported that Asteria Aerospace, an India-based drone manufacturer and solution provider and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd, had launched an end-to-end drone operations platform.

The ongoing use of advanced technology to address potential mobile network customer satisfaction issues has been in the news in West Africa thanks to a partnership between operator MTN Benin and vendor Ericsson.

MTN Benin and Ericsson have partnered on the deployment of an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solution to address throughput challenges.

A network management system utilizing AI and ML was designed to address throughput degradation with the associated aim of providing improved customer satisfaction. This, says Ericsson, is building on the existing Ericsson Operation Engine which is designed to provide data-driven network operations including state-of-the-art AI-enabled cognitive software for network optimisation.

Ericsson explains that the ongoing rise of connected devices has led to an increase in spectrum requirements, putting a strain on certain sites. Ericsson devised its latest algorithms to act on highly accurate predictions of future lower throughput based on historical data. As a result, MTN Benin can maximize the use of available spectrum, in turn improving user satisfaction through a reliable network experience for MTN Benin’s subscribers.

Uche Ofodile, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Benin, says: “By utilizing Ericsson’s solution for designing creative network solutions we hope to provide a more individualized approach to network management, thereby boost customer satisfaction and successfully contribute to government ambition to be the leading provider of digital services in West Africa.”

The AI and ML solution is described as multi-faceted in its benefits, as it addresses throughput degradation in the most efficient manner by anticipating it, offering zero-touch corrective action, increasing throughput for service-level agreements (SLAs) and making the best use of network resources.

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A new data center, a new PoP, some state fiber funding, and a new CEO: … [visit site to read more]

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According to figures widely reported in the Indian press, India’s three major operators are well below Department of Telecommunications (DoT) targets for 5G base station rollout – and in fact Vodafone Idea seems not have started yet.

The rollout of 5G services in India began at the start of October with a DoT target of 10,000 base stations to be in place every week. The actual figure appears to be 2,500 a week.

But when these figures are broken down it’s clear that market leader Reliance Jio is way ahead. Data from November suggest that Jio has 17,687 base stations up and running and 5G services launched across 10 states.

Airtel has rolled out services across more states – 13 – but with a base station total of only 3,293. That’s just under 21,000 5G base stations between the two companies to date.

Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea, aka ViL, seemed to be signalling its intention to be part of India’s 5G evolution by buying spectrum earlier this year. However, according to The Times of India, it hasn’t set up any 5G base stations yet.

As we have noted in the past, Vodafone’s ongoing cashflow problems may be holding back not just repayment of a number of outstanding debts but investment in network maintenance and infrastructure and, of course, 5G rollout.

Plans to convert its 161 billion Indian rupees (US$1.95 billion) accrued interest on the operator’s deferred AGR-related dues into a 33% government stake in the company seem to have stalled as the government apparently waits for guarantees of investment from the likes of the company’s owners, Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group, to reassure it the company has a future.

However, in turn, the lack of government assurances seems to be unnerving potential private investors, leaving Vodafone Idea in investment limbo.