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Some ESG progress, a new edge data center, a new partnership in southeast Asia, and a new name in US fiber emerges: … [visit site to read more]
In August 2021, Bicom Systems became a WEPs – Women Empowerment Principles – signatory.
The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) are a set of principles offering guidance to businesses on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community. Established by UN Global Compact and UN Women, the WEPs are informed by international labor and human rights standards and grounded in recognizing that businesses have a stake in, and responsibility for, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Being responsible toward employees, business partners, and the local community is the basis of good business. With the support of ITGirls, joining WEPs consists of filling out a survey and creating a three-year action plan that can be adapted to the company’s needs. There are opportunities for many collaborations to strengthen equal rights for all in the IT sector.
“We are proud to join a project like this, supported by the United Nations. The Bicom Systems company has over 150 employees on almost all continents, and we are happy to see how the number of women in our team is growing. Signing the “Women Empowerment Principles” and establishing partnerships will greatly help implement our future projects. We want to encourage all girls to pursue science and showcase how their energy and ability are necessary for the IT sector“. – said Bicom Systems.
In the coming period, the ITGirls initiative will be available to companies when creating and implementing planned activities and networking with potential partners.
“By closing gender gaps, companies have the opportunity to increase the productivity of their employees and influence their retention as long as possible. According to McKinsey Global Institute research, the world economy could gain 28 trillion dollars by 2025 if women and men participated equally. By signing the Principles for the Empowerment of Women, companies can bring together their shareholders and drive change in the workplace, market, and community through a framework of seven principles. The principles for women’s empowerment are a guide to sustainable business, innovation, and productivity. Thousands of people and companies in every sector become part of this worldwide movement and become models for attracting talent, improving their communities, and entering new markets. We are pleased to see that Bicom Systems also supports the implementation of WEPs, and we are looking forward to future cooperation”, said Zerina Mandžo from ITGirls.
We at Bicom Systems will continue investing in young people, providing an opportunity to work on globally competitive products, and providing great and equal rights for everyone in the company.
This blog post was written by Sadzida Cenanovic, an Employer Branding Associate at Bicom Systems.
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As the North and South American subsidiary of China Telecom, China Telecom Americas (CTA) has a tougher path to follow than most international forays into the Americas. The rise of China’s economy means companies need help crossing the border, because there are many more language and cultural issues at play than between the U.S. and Europe, for example. With us today to talk about the company’s approach to the western hemisphere is Luis Fiallo, Vice President for China Telecom Americas. … [visit site to read more]
Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, a number of news outlets have been reporting that a cable project may soon be formally announced that will connect Morocco with Mauritania through Western Sahara.
Such an initiative could also reinforce the African Coast to Europe (ACE) cable to which Mauritania was connected in 2011 and on which it mainly relies for high-speed internet services.
The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable spans 17,000 kilometres along the west coast of Africa, connecting three European countries – France, Portugal and the Spanish-owned Canary Islands – and 16 African countries including Mauritania.
According to the Ecsaharaui website, Moov Mauritel, Mauritania’s leading operator, is especially interested in the, as yet unnamed, cable project.
If it goes ahead the cable would be over 1,000 kilometres long, stretching from Morocco’s southern Saharan regions to Mauritania while crossing the Guerguarat border post and boosting internet speeds significantly.
But will the project go ahead? A rather tricky issue is the argument that such a cable would imply recognition by Mauritania of Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara, one reason that the project has been rejected by previous Mauritanian presidents. If it is officially affirmed, however, it seems that current president, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, would be changing that position.
Another issue is Algeria, which may be unhappy with a project that undermines its own position. It supports the Polisario Front, the group that claims independence in the southern Moroccan provinces.
Algeria made clear its dissatisfaction when the Spanish government officially endorsed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan – a proposal to resolve the Sahara conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front – as the most serious and credible basis to end the dispute over Western Sahara.
In the event, we still seem to be awaiting a formal acknowledgment of the scheme, though there will then presumably be the practical issues of funding and project tendering to deal with.
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Globe Telecom gained board approval to sell over 7,000 mobile towers, in deals expected to reap PHP71 billion (US$1.2 billion) to finance network expansion and sustain industry consistency and reliability scores.
In a statement, the operator detailed two 15-year sale and leaseback agreements were signed for portfolios totalling of 5,709 telecom towers and related passive infrastructure. Both deals are expected to close in Q3 this year.
The first contains 2,180 telecom towers in Luzon which will be acquired by MIESCOR Infrastructure Development Corporation (MIDC) for PHP26 billion, the pre-tax gain from this transaction to be PHP10.6 billion. Globe also commissioned the company to construct 750 additional build-to-suit towers over the next four years on which the operator will be the anchor tenant.
The second deals consist of 3,529 towers which will be sold to Frontier Tower Associates Philippines for PHP45 billion. Globe estimated the pre-tax transaction gain form this deal will be PHP15 billion.
The majority of the towers to be sold are located in Luzon (66%) with the rest in Mindanao (19%) and Visayas (15%). The majority (79%) of the assets be to sold are ground-based and with the rest being rooftop towers.
Another deal is currently in “advanced discussion” with an undisclosed tower company for the sale and lease of 1,350 towers located in Visayas and Mindano. This deal is expected to close in Q4.
“We have always been looking for ways to monetise our tower assets and this record-breaking initiative marks our continued commitment to optimise our capital raising efforts and further strengthen the balance sheet as we seek to capitalise on opportunities in the telecommunications sector and complementary services,” said Globe CFO Rizza Maniego-Eala.
“These expanded long-term partnerships with the tower companies show Globe’s commitment to help improve the Philippines’ internet condition, as well as our desire to have as many Filipinos enjoy the benefits of having access to reliable internet. We also believe that through these monetisation efforts, Globe will be able to further improve overall operational efficiency, allowing us to serve our customers better,” added Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu.
Financial results
In its H1 results, Globe revealed capex increased year-on-year by 17% to PHP50.5 billion due to “aggressive” network rollouts to improve customer experiences.
The company’s service revenue hit PHP78/9 billion a 4% increase which was fuelled by the contribution of data-related products and services across mobile and corporate data.
Mobile data revenue grew 8% to PHP41.8 billion from PHP38.6 billion last year. Mobile data consumption grew to 2,177 petabytes from 1,761 petabytes last year. EBITDA stood at PHP40.5 billion which is up 8% from the same period last year.
This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Roger Northrop, Chief Technology Officer, Mutare
More phone calls are being transmitted by digital protocols today, rather than over physical analog lines, due to the prevalence of online VOIP communications and session initiation protocols (SIPs). Unfortunately, this evolution in telephony has provided hackers with new pathways to infiltrate organizations through their voice networks. … [visit site to read more]
Google has declined to back a proposal by the Indian government to create an entity that would allow the social media sector to self-regulate, despite support for the move from Facebook and Twitter.
In June 2022 the Indian government laid out two possibilities to address the issue of content moderation on social media: a new government-appointed panel that would review user complaints, or an industry-supported self-regulatory body. According to Reuters, Facebook parent Meta – which also owns WhatsApp and Instragram – and Twitter are keen for the latter option as they anticipate ‘overreach’ by government-appointed regulators.
While the government is open to the possibility of self-regulation, it has also noted that this would require a consensus across the sector, so Google’s “grave reservations” make the creation of a government panel more likely.
Reuters quoted anonymous sources as saying that during a private meeting this week, an Alphabet executive noted that a self-regulating body could oblige Google to have its internal decisions reviewed and even overridden by an external body. This could for example result in Google being forced to reinstate content that it had removed for violating its policies, setting a “dangerous precedent”.
The sources opted to remain anonymous given that the meeting was private, but confirmed to Reuters that in addition to Google, representatives of Facebook and Twitter were present, along with Snap and Indian social media platform ShareChat. The latter two companies reportedly also expressed reservations about a self-regulating body, arguing that social media moderation requires greater input from civil society.
In a statement, Google said that it had sent representatives to preliminary meetings and was engaging with the government and the industry on the matter, “exploring all options” to achieve the “best possible solution.”
Social media moderation is a major issue in India. The government takes a fairly hard-line stance on content that it deems objectionable and issues frequent takedown orders, which has resulted in social media firms taking a somewhat self-censoring approach. During Q1 2022, Google’s YouTube removed more videos in India for violating content guidelines (over 1.2 million) than in any other market globally.
Exacerbating these stringent controls over social media is the fact that users are currently only able to complain via India’s courts. The government is now seeking to introduce a dedicated system for social media users to make legal complaints if their content is hit with a takedown order.
The government’s proposal for any self-regulating body was to appoint either a technology expert or a former judge as a chairperson, with a further six panel members – among which would be some senior social media executives. The panel would be able to make binding legal decisions, reported Reuters.
US tech representative groups argue that a self-regulating body whose members are appointed directly by the Indian government could not be considered truly independent.
