Underlining Saudi Arabia’s reputation as the fastest-growing data centre market in the Middle East are no fewer than three data centre-related announcements this week.

The first is from data centre infrastructure provider Pure Data Centres, and digital infrastructure platform Dune Vaults. These two companies have announced a joint venture to develop hyperscale data centres in Saudi Arabia.

The partners says they plan to develop multiple 100+ MW-capacity campuses of best-in-class facilities, making their venture one of the largest data centre providers in the region, poised to meet growing local and international customer demand.

Meanwhile, data centre and digital infrastructure services company Ezditek says it has broken ground on its flagship data centre facility in the capital, Riyadh.

The RUH01, as it will be known, is to be located on a more than 35,000 square metre plot in the Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU). It is mainly aimed at providing a sustainable and scalable foundation for local digital transformation.

Its strategic location, says Ezditek, provides an ideal entry point for hyperscalers, cloud providers and enterprises looking to establish a presence in the country with direct access to major carriers.

Ezditek adds that the RUH01 will reach 100% of public and enterprise customers in the Saudi central region and deliver a maximum capacity of 24 MW. The facility is expected to go live by Q1 2026.

The third announcement involves Saudi ICT infrastructure company Tawal and 5SKYE, a provider of edge AI infrastructure solutions, which have signed a partnership through which they will jointly deploy 5SKYE’s next-generation 5G AI micro edge data centres, providing what is described as scalable, real-time data processing.

By combining Tawal’s telecommunications expertise with 5SKYE’s “innovative and aesthetically pleasing” edge AI use case infrastructure, the partnership says it will enable industries across the kingdom to adopt intelligent applications that enhance efficiency, reduce costs and drive growth.

The infrastructure, say the partners, will support transformative use cases such as IoT-driven CCTV, AI analytics, digital advertising and edge compute/MEC, further empowering sectors like public safety, logistics, retail and industrial automation, as well as smart city initiatives.

As a number of news outlets note, these and many other such initiatives are driven by government digitalisation efforts, a ‘cloud first’ policy and a favourable regulatory environment, so we can, presumably, expect even more such announcements in the coming weeks and months.

Another attempt to manage virtual private network (VPN) use is under way in Pakistan, where the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has extended a deadline for unregistered VPN owners to give their details until the end of this month.

The official explanation for the mandatory registration requirements is government concern over the misuse of unauthorised VPNs for illicit activities, including bypassing internet restrictions and accessing prohibited content, accessing sensitive data and facilitating criminal or terrorist activities.

A nationwide crackdown on unregistered VPNs will begin on 1 December. This may include VPN blocking, which, local reports say, has already been successfully trialled once and will be trialled again before any full-scale shutdown.

The PTA stated last weekend that the authority has streamlined the VPN registration process for entities such as software houses, call centres, banks, embassies and freelancers; all of these can now easily register their VPNs online through the PTA’s official website.

Registration involves completing an online form and providing basic details, including, for freelancers, documentation verifying their project or company association. Applicants must also provide the IP address for VPN connectivity. 

Local reports suggest that Pakistanis make up to 20 million daily attempts to access blocked explicit content using unregistered VPNs, despite government restrictions.

As regular readers will remember, VPN use in Pakistan was in the news only a few months ago. An internet slowdown in August was blamed by activists on state attempts to build a China-style internet firewall as it looks to exert further control over the online space. Officials, however, blamed the widespread use of secure connections or VPNs for the slowdown.

One bit of M&A, one bit of federal dollars, some subsea fiber, and a new PoP: … [visit site to read more]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Riccardo Amati, The Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF)

2024 is the “year of elections,” and mobile messaging apps have become the dominant medium for political campaigns, revolutionising voter engagement. This shift is driven by the ubiquity of smartphones, declining trust in traditional media, and the powerful capabilities of AI, which have enabled more direct and personalised communication between candidates and voters. While this transformation offers more … [visit site to read more]

Indonesian telco Telkomsel said on Thursday it has teamed with ZTE to implement an AI-powered network solution in its 4G network to optimise base station performance after completing tests in Makassar and Kendari.

The “self-adaptive feedback solution” promises to optimize network performance without the need for additional hardware. The solution leverages AI and machine learning to automatically adjust network parameters such as speed and power control, for data-intensive apps such as video streaming and gaming.

Telkomsel said it has been testing the solution in more than 90 sites on its live network in Makassar and Kendari, covering 300,000 users. Results: video buffering was reduced by 15%, download speeds increased by 11%, web page loading times improved by almost 30%, and latency for gaming was reduced by 47%.

“By integrating artificial intelligence into the network, we are not only increasing efficiency, but also answering the increasing need to access high-quality digital content,” said Richard Liang, president director of ZTE Indonesia.

Telkomsel’s planning and transformation director Wong Soon Nam said that the self-adaptive feedback test is part of the telco’s “Hyper AI” strategy to utilise end-to-end AI and ML to improve the customer experience.

The self-adaptive feedback solution also improves energy efficiency, which translates into lower opex costs, Telkomsel said. By automatically switching the base station to low-power mode when traffic is low, the solution increased power efficiency by about 15% while lowering energy consumption by 8%.

With the tests in Makassar and Kendari complete, Telkomsel will deploy the solution across the rest of its network in Indonesia.

The collaboration between Telkomsel and ZTE is part of a strategic partnership agreement signed by both companies at the Mobile World Conference earlier this year. The agreement covers ZTE network solutions designed to boost network performance and the user experience, such as Network Edge AI, 5G-Advanced, and Intelligent Home Network.

Multiple interesting projects going on at the metro/regional level across the country: … [visit site to read more]

Ukraine’s telecoms regulator said it raked in UAH2.8 billion (US$67.7 million) during its spectrum auction on Tuesday, with Vodafone, Kyivstar and Lifecell buying five lots of spectrum in the 2100, 2300, and 2600-MHz bands.

According to a statement from the National Commission for State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum, and Postal Services (NCEC), Kyivstar bought two lots of spectrum in the 1940-1945/2130-2135 MHz and 2355-2395 MHz bands, while Vodafone Ukraine also bought two lots in the 1945-1950/2135-2140 MHz and 2575-2610 MHz bands. Lifecell took the fifth lot for the 1935-1940/2125-2130 MHz bands.

Under the new licences, which are good for 15 years, the operators will install 1,500 new base stations within two years, including 500 in the first year, according to Ukrainian news site UNN. They are also tasked with rapid restoration of communications in de-occupied territories within six months, as well as increasing mobile coverage on national and international highways.

In a statement, Kyivstar’s parent company Veon said the auction result boosts its total spectrum holding from 152 MHz to 202 MHz. Veon also said Kyivstar will will invest UAH1.43 billion in the Ukrainian economy through the spectrum acquisition.

« We have consistently stated that the time to invest in Ukraine is now, and have committed US$1 billion in investments through 2027,” said Veon Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu. “We have an unwavering commitment to building Ukraine’s digital infrastructure, taking 4G connectivity across the nation, bolstering our network’s energy resilience to keep Ukraine connected, and investing in the digital services that Ukraine needs.”

The successful auction also signifies the Ukraine government’s determination to develop the country’s digital infrastructure even amid the ongoing war with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. As we reported this week, the Ukrainian government has set a target to increase 4G coverage from 65% to 91% over the next three years, despite repeated attacks on critical infrastructure.

« Developing an industry during wartime is a challenge, but not a reason to put life on hold,” said Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov. “The auction for obtaining licenses for the use of the radio frequency spectrum is an important step in the development of Ukraine’s electronic communications industry and evidence that the war does not stop investments in state assets, and their effective management can bring significant funds to the budget.”

A few interesting items from around the world at midweek: … [visit site to read more]

Madagascar’s three mobile money operators – MVola, Orange Money and Airtel Money – have denounced plans by the government’s Directorate General for Taxes (DGI) to tax mobile money transactions, which they say will discourage financial inclusion and harm the economy.

The DGI announced last Thursday it is looking to introduce a 0.5% tax on all mobile money transactions above MGA150,000 (a little over US$32.00), which it said will generate MGA143 billion in tax revenue per year.

According to a joint statement from MVola, Orange Money and Airtel Money published on the Ecofin news agency website, the actual tax revenue would be far less, as it would actually reduce usage of mobile money services. 

MVola, Orange Money and Airtel Money said families would see fees for money transfers increase by up to 5x, and while fees for merchant payments would increase by much as 10x. That would cause the number of active mobile money users to drop 30% immediately, and decrease the value of transactions 60% within six months, they said. There are currently around 23 million mobile money users in Madagascar.

Reduced usage of mobile money services would also impact the 164,000 distribution agents (cash points) operating in the country, the operators said.

In essence, mobile money operators claim the tax would encourage people to switch back to cash, which goes against the financial inclusion efforts promoted by the Central Bank of Madagascar, as well as the government’s own digitalisation initiatives.

Among other things, taxing mobile money would slow down digitization of the economy, increase security risks, reduce the traceability of transactions (which would also make it more complicated to collect tax revenue), reduce foreign exchange inflows and discourage local and international investment, the operators said.

MVola, Orange Money and Airtel Money also noted that similar tax schemes in other countries such as Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon and Central African Republic that have seen similar results.

Mobile money operators said that if the government wants to increase tax revenues, it should accelerate large-scale adoption of mobile money services. The resulting boost in total transaction volumes and value of merchant payments would in turn accelerate digitalization and boost the digital economy.

“This digitization will contribute to the formalization of the economy and generate increased tax revenues, of the order of MGA100 billion,” the operator statement said.

We try to stay out of politics here and that’s not going to change today. But the telecommunications and internet infrastructure sector in the US will soon see a shift in regulatory leadership. Brendan Carr has been named by the incoming administration as the next FCC Chairman. … [visit site to read more]