APTelecom said on Thursday it is joining real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed new hyperscale data centre campus in Vietnam.

Cushman & Wakefield will serve as the prime contractor for the feasibility study for Stavian Digital Park (SDP), with APTelecom supporting the programme as a specialist subcontractor.

The USTDA signed an agreement with Vietnamese technology company Stavian Hightech Infrastructure JSC last week to fund a feasibility study for the development of the data centre campus.

At the time, Stavian said it had selected Cushman & Wakefield to conduct the study, which will include the full suite of ancillary infrastructure the project requires, including power supply, cooling and connectivity.

Cushman & Wakefield will develop a procurement framework, financial model, and master plan for the campus. It will also establish criteria requiring customers to use secure equipment.

APTelecom will contribute its telecoms and connectivity expertise to the broader feasibility study, including international connectivity, subsea cable systems and integration, carrier engagement and strategy, commercialisation and digital infrastructure considerations.

“Connectivity is an increasingly important part of the data centre development equation, particularly as campuses scale to support hyperscale, cloud and AI requirements. As digital infrastructure developments become larger and more complex, the ability to align data centre planning with resilient connectivity infrastructure becomes increasingly important,” said Andrew Green, head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Asia Pacific data centre group.

“Stavian Digital Park is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate how our combined capabilities can create greater value for clients across the digital infrastructure market,” added Eric Handa, co-founder and CEO of APTelecom.

According to the USTDA, Stavian Digital Park – which will be located in Ho Chi Minh City – is designed to attract hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure operators as the first major customers, especially US-based firms, although the USTDA said the park will be open to “any trusted telecommunications provider.”

Tony Dinh, chairman and CEO of Stavian Group, said the park would be one of the largest planned data centre campuses in Southeast Asia, and will equip Vietnam with next-generation infrastructure required by modern AI computing systems require, as well as significantly expand the country’s data centre capacity.

“Through Stavian Digital Park, we aim to help Vietnam attract more international technology investment and become a regional hub for AI and cloud computing,” he said in a statement.

The project is the second one in the last few weeks to receive USTDA funding for a feasibility study with APTelecom’s involvement.

In September, the USTDA said it was funding a feasibility study for a new subsea cable system linking Thailand with the US via Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand’s state-owned National Telecom (NT) selected APTelecom to conduct the study.

Safaricom and payment gateway provider Pesapal announced on Thursday they are rolling out new payment features for M-Pesa across Kenya, including dynamic scan-to-pay, tap-to-pay and “AI pay”.

Dynamic scan-to-pay builds on Safaricom’s existing scan-to-pay service – in which customers scan a QR code linked directly to a merchant’s M-Pesa Till Number – by using Pesapal’s merchant payment infrastructure to enable such transactions to be extended the physical point of sale.

Tap-to-pay enables customers with NFC-enabled smartphones to tap their device on a Pesapal POS, verify the transaction details and complete the payment.

Meanwhile, AI Pay enables customers to scan any receipt, printed or handwritten, to automatically identify and fill out Till or PayBill details as well as the payment amount, reducing the need for manual entry.

“As the way Kenyans shop and transact continues to evolve, we are focused on ensuring that M-Pesa evolves with them. This means moving beyond simply enabling payments to reimagining the payment experience itself,” said Safaricom group CTO James Maitai. “Our partnership with Pesapal is an important part of that journey, bringing together our respective capabilities to shape the next generation of everyday payments.”

Pesapal founder Agosta Liko said bringing Tap-to-Pay and Scan-to-Pay on the Pesapal POS represents the biggest leap in Kenya’s checkout experience in years.

“Thousands of businesses trust our platform, and by teaming up with Safaricom, we are delivering the faster, error-free transactions their customers expect,” he said.

Digital infrastructure services provider Edotco Bangladesh, has partnered with Tiger New Energy, a pioneer in sustainable transportation, to give used telecom batteries a second life by repurposing them into Instant Power Supply (IPS) systems, providing backup power when the main utility grid fails.

Under Edotco’s flagship Tower to Power corporate social responsibility initiative, the programme retrieves technically viable cells from retired batteries and repurposes them into backup power solutions. These systems will be deployed in selected rural schools, educational institutions, and other locations with limited access to reliable electricity, helping to improve education and community well-being.

Al Batuni Mohammad Sayed Ahmed, Country Managing Director of Edotco Bangladesh, explains: “At Edotco, sustainability means creating lasting value for both communities and the environment. Through our Tower to Power initiative, this partnership will give retired telecom batteries a second life ― helping to reduce electronic waste while expanding access to reliable backup power in underserved areas. It is a practical example of how responsible innovation can address real community needs and create meaningful impact.”

The initiative builds on the success of the Tower to Power platform, which, the parters say, has already positively impacted over 100,000 lives in Bangladesh. It aligns with Edotco broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments and supports key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including Affordable and Clean Energy, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Action.

By combining expertise in digital infrastructure and innovative resource management, Edotco Bangladesh and Tiger New Energy say they are demonstrating how retired telecom assets can be transformed into practical, environmentally friendly solutions that empower communities and create sustainable shared value.

In July last year the companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deploy sustainable power systems that drive greener connectivity and extend clean energy access to communities across Bangladesh.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions are again in the news following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between a leading name on the field and Indus Towers, one of India’s leading telecom infrastructure companies.

Replus Engitech, an integrated energy storage and clean energy company (and a subsidiary of advanced battery materials business HEG Advanced Materials), and Indus Towers have signed an MoU outlining their intent to explore collaboration on BESS solutions for telecom infrastructure in India.

Under the MoU, Replus intends to make available dedicated BESS production capacity of 1.5 GWh over a two-year period to support the evolving energy requirements of telecom infrastructure.

Replus also plans to expand its portfolio of telecom energy storage solutions, including higher-capacity battery systems, while exploring emerging technologies such as sodium-ion batteries that can enhance reliability, energy efficiency and lifecycle performance across telecom applications.

There is also a local manufacturing angle to this deal. Riju Jhunjhunwala, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, HEG Advanced Materials Limited, explains: “This initiative reflects the opportunity we see in building a strong, made-in-India energy storage ecosystem for critical infrastructure. Through Replus, we are building the manufacturing scale, technology capabilities and innovation platform required to address these evolving requirements and contribute meaningfully to India’s energy transition.”

Replus says it has deployed over 1 GWh of energy storage capacity across BESS, electric mobility, telecom power solutions, and hybrid energy applications, serving customers across diverse sectors in India.

A range of network rollout, upgrade, and trial activity from around the industry and the world to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]

Angola Cables is upgrading capacity across its MONET and South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) submarine networks with technology from Ciena, including support for 800Gbps services on the route linking the US, Brazil and Angola.

MONET connects the US and Brazil over 10,556km, while SACS links Brazil and Angola over 6,165km. Together, the systems provide a direct route between the US and Angola with a round-trip delay of around 130 milliseconds.

The upgrade is intended to meet growing demand for bandwidth from hyperscalers, cloud providers and AI applications, while giving Angola Cables greater flexibility to allocate capacity across its subsea network.

Angola Cables will deploy Ciena’s Waveserver platform with WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent optics, alongside its 6500 Reconfigurable Line System and Navigator Network Control Suite. The technology will enable 800Gbps client interfaces on MONET and provide connectivity options ranging from 100Gbps services through to capacity across a full fibre pair.

The operator said the upgrade will allow it to offer more diverse and resilient routes to wholesale, content, enterprise and cloud customers, while making better use of its existing fibre assets.

The move also strengthens the role of Angola Cables’ subsea infrastructure as a connectivity link between Africa and the Americas. The company operates SACS as well as the MONET system, giving it a route into the US from Angola through Brazil without relying on connectivity through Europe.

The upgrade comes as cloud and AI workloads increase demand for high-capacity international connectivity. For Angola Cables, higher-capacity optical technology allows it to increase the amount of traffic carried over existing subsea infrastructure rather than relying solely on new cable deployments.

The company has previously deployed Ciena technology across its submarine network and said the latest upgrade will increase the scalability and flexibility of services offered across the systems.

Some subsea expansion, an IX project, a new AI security launch, and some new $ going into AI digital infrastructure. … [visit site to read more]

Suriname market leader Telesur has completed an overhaul of its BSS/OSS systems, upgrading to the latest version of Cerillion’s suite.

The transition gives Telesur access to a broad range of new capabilities powered by Cerillion’s Promotions Engine, enabling it to design, configure and launch new offers much more quickly. The 26.1 release also provides AI-powered agents to support greater automation and operational efficiency, along with an expanded range of TM Forum Open APIs which simplify integration.

Updates to CRM Plus provide Telesur’s teams with a real-time view of customer data, aggregating data from across systems to provide more informed interactions and simplify user training. The next phase of the programme will see Telesur roll out Cerillion’s new composable Self Service, enabling more flexible digital journeys and supporting eKYC for customer onboarding.

Doric Ramlakhan, CEO at Telesur, said: “We now have some exciting new capabilities at our fingertips, from launching promotions much more quickly to harnessing AI and making better use of customer data. We have made this significant step forward with minimal disruption to the business.”