The Brazilian government has qualified 12 companies to operate the second section of Norte Conectado, an Amazon River fibre backbone project, as a consortium.

The 12 companies selected were Telefônica, TIM, Claro, Aquamar, ClickIP/ICOM Telecom, SEA Telecom, BR Fibra, Mobwire/DB3, Ozônio Telecom, PPLINK, VOCE Telecom and V.tal. These companies will be able to operate, maintain and commercially use the optical backbone section for a 15-year period, which can be renewed.

According to news service BNamericas, the project, known as Infovia 01, will involve the installation of about 1,100 kilometres of a sub-fluvial fibre cable that will connect the city of Santarém, in the state of Pará, and Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, through fibre laid along the Amazon River. There will also be a number of branches to other towns.

This initiative is part of the second section of the eight that make up the Norte Conectado programme, which seeks to expand the communications infrastructure in the Amazon region of Brazil through an underwater fibre trunk network. This network is said to have a low environmental impact as it uses river beds to reach the population and does not require deforestation.

Infovia 01 adds to the 770km first section, Infovia 00, plans for which we reported in January. Six companies have signed up to form the consortium to use and operate the first section.

Infovia 01 is being deployed and should be completely rolled out by the end of January, according to the government. The infrastructure should be available for use by March.

BNamericas reports that Chinese fibre optics manufacturer Hengtong will be the cable supplier for Infovia 01.

The judicial process involving the recovery plan of Brazilian service provider Oi seems to be over  – after more than six years of negotiations with creditors.

Judge Fernando Viana of the 7th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro has now decreed that all obligations assumed by the company have been fulfilled. His decision noted that the judicial recovery plan was the largest in the country’s history and one of the most complex cases in the contemporary legal world.

Brazilian press reports say that as a result of the merger between Oi and Brasil Telecom, Oi filed for judicial recovery in the Rio de Janeiro Court in June 2016. At the time, the company owed BRL 65.4 billion (about US$12.3 billion but possibly closer to US$19 billion at today’s rates) and renegotiations with creditors to restructure the debts had failed. It was the largest bankruptcy request in the country’s history. The gross debt is now about a third of that amount.

In December 2017, creditors approved the judicial recovery plan, which reduced liabilities by 40% through the conversion of debts into equity interest in the company. The sale of Oi’s assets – mobile operations, a submarine cable company, a fibre optic company and around 8,000 fixed telephone towers – followed a few years later. There was also a debt reduction agreement with the Attorney General’s Office.

But the story isn’t quite over yet. The company still has around 22 billion reais (US$4.2 billion) of debts, and Oi, with limited cash-generating assets, will probably be loss-making for a while yet.

In addition unpaid creditors will still be able to continue to make claims. Oi faced claims from some 65,000 creditors, and not all cases have been settled to date. However, according to TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the judge noted that “it is not the objective of the judicial recovery process to check whether the debtor will fulfil all the obligations contracted in the plan”.

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Kailem Anderson – Vice President of Portfolio and Engineering for Blue Planet, a division of Ciena

Network engineers and architects commonly used diagrams to visualize their network architecture. However, with the advent of disaggregated networks, 5G, and edge computing, which are designed to deliver dynamic services comprised of virtualized resources that can be placed anywhere in the network, generating an accurate picture of the ever-changing network has become more challenging than ever. … [visit site to read more]

Private 5G networks are again making headlines in India after Indian communications solutions provider Bharti Airtel announced a partnership with IT services and consulting company Tech Mahindra to deploy what it claims will be India’s first 5G-enabled auto manufacturing unit.

Under the strategic partnership the companies have deployed a ‘5G for Enterprise’ solution at Mahindra’s Chakan manufacturing facility, which is in the Pune district of the state of Maharashtra.

This, they claim, has significantly enhanced Chakan’s network connectivity resulting in improved speeds for software flashing, a critical operation for all vehicular dispatches. They explain that high-speeds and ultra-low latency now allow managers to undertake multiple software flashing sessions in parallel, resulting in reduced turnaround time for an operation. In addition, the computerized vision-based inspection is now fully automated, resulting in improved paint quality.

Airtel has been testing use cases and spectrum delivery with multiple partners and at several locations as a part of what it calls its #5GforBusiness offerings.

Speaking about the partnership, Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, says: « Our 5G solution for enterprise will transform manufacturing operations in the country. As the industry 4.0 paradigm gathers momentum, reliable data networks will prove to be a key differentiator in factory and manufacturing performances.”

The partnership underlines the potential of private 5G networks as innovative ways of monetising this emerging technology. In fact, according to India’s Economic Times, Airtel successfully trialled a private 5G network in July at a Bosch facility in Bengaluru, using trial 5G spectrum allotted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

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Aligned Data Centers is taking on some major new geographical reach with the planned acquisition of ODATA. The purchase will give Aligned a significant hyperscale presence in Latin America right off the bat, with more already under construction. … [visit site to read more]