25
Mai, 2026

Ufinet Brasil taps Prysmian to boost data centre interconnectivity in Alphaville

Global cable manufacturer Prysmian announced on Thursday it  has partnered with Ufinet Brasil to deploy a 30 km underground network to boost interconnectivity for hyperscale data centres in Sao Paulo Province’s Alphaville.

According to Prysmian, the goal of the project was to increase network capacity and expand data transmission in São Paulo using existing pipeline infrastructure to reduce the social impact of infrastructure works.

To that end, Ufinet and Duraline deployed Prysmian’s SiroccoHD solution, which sports a cable density of 8.6 F/mm², enabling the installation of 432 optical fibres in a single 12x10mm microduct.

Prysmian said this allows the reuse of legacy 40mm duct networks with up to 3 microducts, which can expand the capacity of existing infrastructure up to 1,296 optical fibres.

Ufinet and Duraline deployed the 432-fibre version of the SiroccoHD solution, which Prysmian said is a 3x improvement over conventional microcables in Brazil, which typically accommodate up to 144 fibres in microducts.

“SiroccoHD addresses a real problem for our customers in large urban centres: how to increase fibre capacity using the infrastructure I already have installed?” said Lucas Nogueira, manager of R&D, innovation and sustainability at Prysmian in a statement. “This is the kind of solution that enables strategic hyperscale data centre projects, positioning Brazil at a new level in the race for digital transformation and demonstrating the strength of our industry.”

22
Mai, 2026

LATAM smartphone market grows despite memory price pressures

The Latin American smartphone market recorded 34.8 million smartphone shipments in Q1 2026, representing 3% year-on-year growth, defying broader global declines driven by rising memory component costs.

According to analyst house Omdia, the growth was largely supported by retailers building up inventory ahead of expected price increases tied to more expensive DRAM and NAND memory chips. Smartphone vendors also leaned toward lower-storage models, such as 128GB variants, to keep devices affordable and soften the impact of rising costs on consumers.

While demand for premium smartphones remained resilient, buyers in the entry-level segment faced increasing affordability pressures.

Samsung remained the region’s largest smartphone vendor by shipments, recording 12.9 million units in Q1 2026. The company posted 9% year-on-year growth, increasing its market share to 37% – its highest quarterly level since Q1 2023.

Xiaomi ranked second with 6 million shipments, growing 3% year-on-year and marking its sixth consecutive quarter of growth in Latin America. The vendor captured a 17% market share.

Motorola secured third place despite a 5% decline in shipments to 4.9 million units, giving it a 14% market share. Omdia attributed the drop primarily to a 37% fall in shipments of devices priced between US$100 and US$200.

Honor consolidated its position in fourth place after posting 30% year-on-year growth to 3.4 million units and securing a 10% market share. Growth was driven largely by the success of its entry-level Play 10 device, which sold around half a million units during the quarter.

Apple rounded out the top five vendors with 31% year-on-year shipment growth, supported by strong demand in Mexico for its iPhone 17 range.

Looking ahead, Omdia expects the Latin American smartphone market to face increasing pressure as retailers gradually pass rising component costs onto consumers, particularly in the sub-US$300 segment.

22
Mai, 2026

MTN Group towers could become an AI inference grid

It is being widely reported in the African technology press that pan-African operator MTN plans to turn its African towers into an AI inference grid.

To convert its African tower estate into a distributed AI compute fabric, MTN Group will install open GPU infrastructure at base station sites. This, it seems, means the same hardware can run both the cellular network and edge AI inference workloads.

This plan does, however, still appear to be at an early stage. According to the South African news service TechCentral, the plan was set out by MTN Group chief technology and information officer Charles Molapisi at an event hosted by law firm Bowmans in Johannesburg on Wednesday. 

Every cellular tower has a baseband unit at its base to drive the radio access network. Molapisi apparently suggested that MTN will replace these with open GPU configurations capable of running the radio plus AI inference, or what the company has described as a “distributed AI grid”.

The ambition is for MTN to become the biggest distributor of edge and inference in the African continent, where it has a presence in 17 sub-Saharan African countries.

Latency would, apparently, improve. At the moment AI workloads have to go via a central data centre. With the new system they could be processed at or near the tower. With edge compute installed, the workload could be served locally rather than backhauled to a distant data centre and returned, freeing capacity and cutting round-trip time.

22
Mai, 2026

The Cloud Bottlenecks No One Warns You About Until It’s Too Late

The Cloud Bottlenecks No One Warns You About Until It’s Too Late

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Jennifer Curry Hendrickson, Senior Vice President of Managed Services, DataBank

Enterprise IT leaders have spent the better part of a decade being told that cloud is the answer. For many use cases, it is. Yet, a pattern has emerged across the industry that deserves more direct examination than it usually gets: Organizations are moving workloads back out of public cloud at a rate that suggests the original decisions weren’t as sound as they appeared. … [visit site to read more]

ZTE Releases Sustainability Report 2025: Driving a New Chapter in Sustainable Development Through AI

ZTE Corporation recently released its Sustainability Report 2025, highlighting the company’s latest achievements in deepening Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. This marks the 18th consecutive year that ZTE has voluntarily disclosed its annual sustainability performance to the public.

The report demonstrates that in the past year, ZTE fully embraced artificial intelligence, achieving milestone progress in advancing scientific carbon reduction, accelerating global digital inclusion and industry transformation through intelligent technologies, and strengthening governance resilience. These efforts profoundly embody ZTE’s responsibility and mission as a « Driver of Digital Economy ».

Xu Ziyang, Executive Director and CEO of ZTE, states in the report: « In the face of profound changes in the global digital economy, ZTE has unveiled its new vision, ‘To lead in connectivity and intelligent computing’, with greater strategic foresight and a stronger sense of responsibility. Driven by our ‘Connectivity + Computing’ strategy, we remain committed to our original aspiration of empowering high-quality and sustainable economic development through technology, and work with our partners to build an intelligent future that is more efficient, green, and inclusive. »

Strengthening Innovation and Reshaping Digital Momentum with AI

ZTE continues to advance its « Connectivity + Computing » strategy, fully embracing AI under the guiding principle of « All in AI, AI for All ». In 2025, the company sustained disciplined R&D investment, recording annual expenses of RMB 22.76 billion, approximately 17% of total revenue. Efforts focused on key areas such as connectivity (6G, optical communications, and IP networks), computing power, energy technology, smart terminals (such as AI-powered devices), operating systems, databases, and chips, underpinned by a core commitment to frontier technology exploration and collaborative innovation.

According to the report, as of December 31, 2025, ZTE has filed approximately 95,000 global patent applications, with over 50,000 patents granted globally. In the chip sector, the company holds around 5,900 patent applications and over 3,700 granted patents. In the field of AI, it has nearly 5,500 patent applications, with nearly half of them granted. Throughout the year, the company declared and secured over 100 technology projects. Within R&D, AI tools have been widely applied, with a usage penetration rate of 79.78% among developers. The AI code generation rate reached 31.45%, and the improvement in R&D efficiency has begun to manifest. ZTE’s innovation was further recognized with 11 gold awards, 3 silver awards, and 39 excellence awards from the China Patent Awards, and 31 honors from the Guangdong Patent Awards.

Leading Science-Based Carbon Reduction, Paving the « Digital Green Path »

ZTE has deeply integrated climate action with its development strategy, advancing the « Digital Green Path » across four key dimensions: green corporate operations, green supply chain, green digital infrastructure, and green industry empowerment, ensuring the achievement of science-based targets.

For Scope 1 & 2 (operational emissions), in 2025, the company exceeded the Phase I target outlined in its 2024 Zero-Carbon Strategy White Paper. Through management measures for energy saving and technologies such as AI-based dynamic scaling and remote control, the company achieved a 46% reduction in carbon emissions compared with the base year of 2021. For Scope 3 (upstream and downstream emissions), ZTE achieved an 8.55% reduction in physical emissions intensity during the use and maintenance phase of telecom products, with a year-on-year reduction of 3.05% in absolute emissions across the full lifecycle of terminal products.

For three consecutive years, ZTE has been recognized on the CDP Climate A list for its excellence in environmental governance.

  • In terms of green operations, ZTE has established a systematic decarbonization pathway spanning energy mix optimization, refined technical energy-saving solutions, management-driven electricity saving, dual-carbon digitalization, as well as capability building and awareness enhancement. In 2025, the company completed new photovoltaic projects in Xi’an and Changsha, increasing the proportion of photovoltaic power generation with an annual generation of 39.22 million kWh. Furthermore, ZTE actively participated in green electricity trading and obtained 33,700 green electricity certificates (a total of 33.69 million kWh of electricity) throughout the year.
  • Regarding the green supply chain, ZTE has comprehensively integrated low-carbon requirements into its SPIRE 2.0 supply chain strategy, collaborating with partners to build a technology-driven, end-to-end eco-friendly value chain that drives sustainable development across the entire industry ecosystem.In 2025, with its Xi’an Base and Changsha Base newly awarded the « National Green Factory » certification, the company now operates three national-level green factories and one provincial-level green factory. Over the past year, ZTE accelerated supply chain decarbonization by conducting dual-carbon training for 97 suppliers and performing dual-carbon audits on 158 suppliers. Furthermore, it provided guidance for 152 key suppliers (covering 50.82% of procurement spend) on completing carbon accounting and drove 83 key suppliers to participate in CDP assessments and make public disclosures.
  • For green digital infrastructure, ZTE adopts self-developed low-power chips, advanced cooling technologies such as liquid cooling, PV applications at sites, and full lifecycle carbon footprint management to provide green digital infrastructure for the industry. By the end of 2025, the company had completed carbon footprint assessments for 240 products, achieving full coverage of all product categories.
  • For green industry empowerment, ZTE leverages ICT technologies (such as 5G, cloud, AI, and the Digital Nebula platform) to provide digital transformation solutions for various industries, helping them achieve energy saving, carbon reduction, and quality and efficiency enhancement. A prime example is ZTE’s collaboration with Benxi Tool Co., Ltd. on its smart factory initiative. Leveraging the 5G-enabled industrial Internet solution, the project successfully reduced the cumulative number of frontline operators across process steps by 20% while boosting the annual output by 1.5 times. Furthermore, the project shortened the lead time for raw material procurement by 40%, slashed the downtime due to material shortages by 50%, and cut the delivery time by 20%. These improvements significantly enhanced the overall competitiveness of this metal tool manufacturer.

Advancing Tech for Good, Building an Inclusive and Equitable Society

ZTE remains committed to a people-centric philosophy, striving to ensure equal communication rights and digital opportunities for communities worldwide. Providing network services to one-third of the global population, ZTE extends sustainable infrastructure and technological empowerment to every corner of the globe.

From the remote heights of Baqen, Xizang, where ZTE deployed an FTTR-B all-optical network solution at the People’s Hospital of the county (situated at an altitude of over 4,500 meters) to bridge the telemedicine divide, to Africa, where the company’s « Signal Reach » program built 152 rural network sites in Ethiopia to bring reliable connectivity to over one million people, ZTE continues to bridge the digital divide and foster an inclusive, equitable, and intelligent digital world.

ZTE regards talent as its most valuable asset, committed to building a learning organization and continuously fostering an employee empowerment ecosystem in the AI era. In 2025, the company maintained 100% employee training coverage and regularly carried out Employee Assistance Program (EAP) initiatives. In addition, ZTE successfully passed the re-assessment for the ISO 45001 system for all domestic operations and production sites, as well as for operations in 30 overseas countries.  

In public welfare, ZTE further strengthened its volunteer service system in 2025, with the number of employee volunteers surpassing 20,000 and more than 600 global community programs carried out during the year. Guided by its vision of  « Goodwill, Everywhere », ZTE implemented tailored projects in over 40 countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Spain, South Africa, and Ethiopia, focusing on educational support, medical assistance, low-carbon environmental protection, and rural revitalization. These efforts benefited more than one million people globally, underscoring ZTE’s commitment to building a more inclusive and sustainable society.

Strengthening Compliance Foundations, Enhancing Governance Resilience 

ZTE continuously builds and improves its three-tier sustainability governance system of « Strategy—Decision-Making—Execution », proactively addressing emerging risks to ensure steady implementation of its strategic goals. In 2025, the company sustained its ISO 22301:2019 Business Continuity Management System certification, covering five manufacturing bases and major R&D centers, while also guiding major suppliers to establish BCM management systems. ZTE also sustained ISO 37001 certification for anti-bribery management systems, covering its subsidiaries and branches in 38 key countries. In addition, the company officially launched its « Cross-Border Data Compliance Service Platform for Enterprises Going Global », a one-stop solution designed to help companies tackle complex global compliance challenges.

ZTE regards data compliance governance as an important part of the company’s overall compliance governance framework. In 2025, the company sustained ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security Management System) and ISO/IEC 27701 (Privacy Information Management System) certification. Alongside releasing its updated ZTE Privacy Protection White Paper, ZTE secured EU’s ePrivacyseal Global certification for five of its key fixed network and multimedia products, reinforcing its world-class data protection standards.

As a member of the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and a key participant and one of the first Champions of the Partner2Connect (P2C) Digital Coalition initiated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ZTE’s ESG efforts continue to receive worldwide recognition. In 2025, the company was rated by Sustainalytics as « Low ESG Risk » for the fourth consecutive year, included in the 2025 Fortune China ESG Impact List for the fourth year, honored with « Excellence in Practice Award » from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) for the sixth consecutive year, and once again included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook (China Edition) 2025. ZTE was also selected for the 2025 China’s Top 100 Overseas Brands Index released by People’s Daily Overseas Online and Global Yearly Brand Research Institute, and was selected as a model case in the 2025 China Corporate ESG Blue Book, and was recognized by Phoenix TV as an « ESG Communication Influence Pioneer ».

Looking forward, ZTE will continue to leverage its strengths in the R&D innovation and commercialization of fundamental technology, actively supporting the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The company remains committed to creating long-term value for stakeholders and driving society toward a future that is more efficient, greener, smarter, and more inclusive.

Download ZTE Sustainability Report 2025 here: https://www.zte.com.cn/content/dam/zte-site/investorrelations/en_announcement/ZTE_Sustainability_Report_2025_en0519.pdf

21
Mai, 2026

Major wind power deal for Brazil’s largest data centre

Omnia, a Brazilian data centre platform, has signed a 20-year energy supply deal with renewable energy firm Casa dos Ventos to use wind to power a planned data centre, potentially the largest in Brazil.

The data centre is sited at the Pecem port complex ​in the northeastern state of Ceara. The deal, according to Reuters, is worth US$2 billion.

We reported in June last year that Casa dos Ventos had been given the go-ahead from the country’s power grid regulator for what was then described as a 300-megawatt data centre project. It is set to host TikTok owner ByteDance. Patria joined the scheme the following month; the firm is expected to act as the main developer on the project, on behalf of Casa dos Ventos.

The data centre is said to represent a total investment of more than US$39 billion. It is still some way from start-up, however. Building work began in January this year. Initial operations are expected to commence in Q3 in 2027. Expansion will take place in phases until 2029.

The power will be supplied from the 630MW Ibiapaba wind complex and the Dom Inocencio wind farm in Piauí state in northeast Brazil, both of which are owned and operated by Casa dos Ventos. The deal is structured as a self-production model, providing Omnia a stake in Casa’s assets.

Reuters says that environmental groups ​have raised concerns about water use and potential ​impacts ⁠on nearby indigenous communities. Omnia’s response is that the project meets environmental requirements, is fully licensed and will ⁠need ‘minimal ​water use’, which it describes as equivalent to that ​of up to 50 households

The Data Centre Dynamics website says Casa dos Ventos is one of Brazil’s largest renewable energy developers. It has an operating and under-development portfolio of approximately 33.4GW of wind and solar projects, including 12GW in a joint venture with French energy giant TotalEnergies.

Brazilian investment firm Patria Investimentos announced the launch of Omnia, a hyperscale data centre platform with a strong focus on the growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, in May last year.

20
Mai, 2026

Safaricom-Vodacom deal suspended by Kenyan High Court panel

Safaricom’s US$2.1 billion deal to sell a 15% stake to South Africa-based Vodacom Group has reportedly been put on hold after the Kenyan High Court allowed petitions challenging the sale’s constitutionality to go ahead.

On Monday, according to media reports, a panel of three judges appointed by Kenya’s Chief Justice issued a conservatory order blocking Safaricom and Vodacom from proceeding with the sale until a ruling is given on the petitions.

The panel agreed with petitioners that the deal raises significant constitutional questions around national security, data sovereignty, public participation and prudent use of public resources.

“Court process is not a mere inconvenience, and the proposed sale isn’t immune from judicial review and supremacy of the Constitution,” the judges wrote, according to a report from MyBroadband.

TechAfrica News reports that the panel also rejected an application by Vodafone (which owns Vodacom) for both of them to be removed as respondents in the case.

The High Court had previously ruled that the challenge itself was constitutional, and rejected the argument that dispute over the deal is purely a commercial issue, the report added.

Vodacom struck a deal in December 2025 to boost its stake in Kenya-based Safaricom from 35% to 55% by acquiring a 15% stake from the Kenyan government as well as a further 5% stake from Vodafone.

However, although the Kenyan Parliament approved the transaction in March, Kenyan opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka petitioned the High Court last month to block the sale. Two other petitions opposing the sale have also been filed by private citizens, according to media reports.

Collectively, the petitions argue that the government failed to adequately involve parliament and the public in the decision, citing provisions of Kenya’s constitution, as well as laws governing the selloff of public assets. The petitions also argue that the deal is seriously undervalued.

The deal was saddled with strict conditions imposed by the Kenyan government when it was first announced, to include that Safaricom’s chairman and CEO must always be Kenyan citizens.

The government also said that Vodacom can’t change Safaricom’s corporate brand in any way without its consent, and that any restructuring of the business won’t result in employee layoffs “other than in the ordinary course of business”, the report said.

Vodacom would also be prohibited from making any changes to Safaricom’s existing supplier ecosystem for at least three years, and must consult the government regarding any plans to extend Safaricom’s footprint outside of Kenya, although it wouldn’t need the government’s approval to do so.