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Three global data center projects of interest and one M&A completion. … [visit site to read more]

The Oman-Australia undersea cable linking Perth and Muscat, is, according to the company that built it, ready for service.

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) — a 9,800-kilometre system manufactured and installed by undersea cable specialist SUB.CO — has landing points in Perth, Australia, West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Muscat, Oman.

According to a report in the Oman Daily Observer, a key differentiator for the cable is said to be its route. It is described as the first fully diverse cable between EMEA and Asia that avoids the Malacca Straight. This is a narrow stretch of water between Indonesia and Malaysia that has a high level of seismic and marine activity causing regular outages on submarine cable.

OAC is Australia’s first express subsea cable to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, creating a pathway of diverse connectivity from Australia to Oman, Europe, and onwards. A cross-connection to the Indigo cable system gives SUB.CO a route from Australia to Europe and the USA.

The Indigo cable system spans 9,200 kilometres, and consists of two 4,600 kilometre cable projects, Indigo West, connecting Singapore to Perth via Jakarta, and Indigo Central, connecting Perth to Sydney.

The OAC is a three-fibre pair system with an option to upgrade to four fibre pairs based upon final demand. SUB.CO expects another month of testing before OAC takes on commercial traffic.

The Raxio Group, a leading pan-African data centre developer and operator, recently held a ground-breaking ceremony that formally kicked off the construction of its Tier-III carrier neutral colocation data centre, located at Beluluane Industrial Park (MozParks) in Maputo, Mozambique.

It is called Raxio MZ1 and, as the name implies, this is the country’s first carrier-neutral, privately owned data centre and Raxio’s first data centre in Mozambique. It is set to commence operations in Q1 2023.

The event was attended by members of the government, including the Governor of Maputo Province, as well as executives of MozParks, and senior representatives of the Raxio Group.

In addition to providing colocation capacity to the country’s digital backbone, Raxio MZ1 will nurture interconnection through redundant meet-me rooms. Mobile network operators, ISPs and carriers will be able to interconnect to each other and their customers, reducing the cost of access to content across the country at a time when new submarine cables will also be providing Mozambique with enhanced international connectivity.

Raxio MZ1 will be fully equipped with industry best-in-class cooling technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy in an ‘always-on’ environment.

The facility will aim to adhere to the company’s core sustainability principles to minimize the environmental footprint through optimal equipment selection and sustainable design. In addition, the MozParks location will allow Raxio MZ1 to meet its electricity requirements from renewable sources.

To complement its internal team, Raxio has assembled experienced local and regional technical partners specialised in design, engineering, and construction.

Raxio Mozambique is part of the Raxio Group portfolio, which includes Raxio divisions in Uganda, Ethiopia, DRC, Cote d’Ivoire and Tanzania.

MTN is accelerating its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040 with the launch of a request for proposal (RFP) to convert its South African headquarters into a ‘green’ office.

Phase 1 involves the procurement of providers for alternative energy rooftops and solar car parks. This forms part of the company’s broader Project Zero initiative, which explores all forms of renewable energy on a large and smaller scale.  

MTN SA CEO Charles Molapisi said that apart from helping manage the current rolling power cut challenges, MTN’s energy strategy addresses a broad array of immediate climate and energy issues. The strategy includes mitigation initiatives to minimise and or eliminate the impacts of climate change and reduce energy costs as well as dependence on fossil fuels.

“Climate action is imperative to secure the future socioeconomic development of Africa. In South Africa, we acknowledge the importance of balancing the reduction of our impact on the environment with the need to connect more people to high-speed broadband,” said Molapisi.

“We are adopting appropriate mitigation measures that are enabling MTN and its people to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel generated power. Our focus is to reduce any unnecessary use of energy, create more energy efficiencies, increase the use of renewable energy and to generate more value from conventional sources, such as heat,” he added. 

MTN is adopting a phased approach towards the development solar renewable energy-based projects pursuant to its Net Zero Energy Strategy commitments to achieve its net zero ambitions. The MTN Net Zero Energy Project will be implemented in four phases: 

• Phase 1 Facility – 14th Avenue Campus roof top and solar carports in car parks
• Phase 2 Facility – Ground mounted Solar Facility on vacant land adjacent to 14th Avenue Campus
• Phase 3 – Rooftop and Ground Mounted Solar at various other MTN Facilities  
• Phase 4 – Off-site wheeling from REIPPs

Implementing the renewable energy project will result in improved reliability and cost effectiveness of electricity supply. Phase one could see an anticipated 7,143 Mwh generated (one Mwh is equal to 1,000 kilowatts of electricity generated per hour and to put this into perspective, the average developed economy house uses about 893 kwh a month). These projections are all subject to final bid approvals and evaluations. The preferred bidder notification for Phase one is expected in December this year.  

“The capacity of the facility will be determined by bidders after having considered the availability of roof top and car park areas and its suitability for the purposes of extracting maximum capacity. However, it is clear based on current expectations that as we move through the phases, this should be more than enough to move to complete energy self-sufficiency of our building, surrounds and assist greatly in our move to embedding alternative energy solutions into everything we do,” said Molapisi.  

This RFP addresses the following Phase one initiatives and focusses on the establishment of a renewable energy Facility at MTN’s Headquarters: 

• Roof top – several buildings have been identified for roof top installations
• Solar car parks – several car parks have been identified to replace current shade cloth with solar car park structures and PV panels.
• Energy storage using battery storage 

The facility will include all required infrastructure for the safe operation and maintenance for the roof top and solar car park installations, to generate and deliver renewable electrical energy to the selected point of connection, and will comply with all relevant environmental and other legislation, as well as embedded generation and Grid Code requirements. 

Meanwhile, investing in large IPP programmes will reduce MTN South Africa’s carbon emissions, contributing to the Group-wide 2040 net zero strategy. 

MTN SA is utilising its IPP license for self-generation by using Combined Cooling Heat and Power (CCHP) technology (Tri Generation) at three of its switching centres to generate 4.75 MW of power to support building electrical base load, and to be only partially dependent on the Eskom grid. MTN also has 30 off-grid renewable energy facilities which generates an additional 57kW in remote areas where there are no space constraints. 

“We see this as an opportunity to explore all forms of renewable energy, large and smaller scale systems, as well as investing in large IPP feasibility programmes, which when implemented will reduce our carbon emissions as part of our Project Zero programme to achieve net zero by 2040,” says Molapisi. 

The plan is also aimed at ensuring network stability, where battery solutions and backup generation remain pivotal. 

“The challenge of providing renewable energy at all of our base station facilities is that this is heavily dependent on space to accommodate large solar arrays to suit our power requirements to support the latest network technology (5G). Our current backup power methodology is mainly battery backup, with key sites having permanent onsite generators and MTN deploying mobile backup generators where and when required,” concluded Molapisi.

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Greg Elliott, VP of 1623 Farnam

Over the past couple of years, discussions around how 5G networks will influence entertainment, and specifically the music industry, largely centered around the ins and outs of virtual events. This was for good reason: crowd limit mandates and quarantine restrictions made live concerts disappear. Instead, artists performed streaming shows and festivals through online platforms. In regard to testing the limits of 5G networks … [visit site to read more]