AMD and Viettel High Tech – a member of Viettel Group – have completed a 5G mobile network field trial deployment conducted by Viettel and powered by AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices.

Viettel High Tech has used AMD radio technology with prior 4G deployments and is now accelerating new networks via new 5G remote radio heads. Designed to meet the growing capacity and performance requirements of mobile users globally, the Viettel 5G mobile network is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

AMD is the exclusive radio unit silicon supplier for Viettel’s indigenous 5G radio development. After the successful completion of the first field trial, Zynq MPSoCs are now set to be extended to an additional 300 Macro 8T8R base stations and 900 5G 8T8R Macro radios. The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC was also chosen by Viettel for its first-generation 64T64R Massive MIMO radio which is currently being optimized for field trials. Viettel is developing the next generation of radios to also include Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC devices, to provide industry-leading integration and higher performance.

“Viettel is committed to advancing mobile technology leadership by working closely with AMD to incorporate its adaptable SoC technology into our new generation of 5G networks,” said Nguyen Vu Ha, General Director of Viettel High Tech. “Going from VHT’s history of making 4G BTS, this decision to scale for the growing demands of 5G was based on evaluating various factors including flexibility, simplification, design stability and the experience of engineers.”

“5G provides new opportunities to offer higher levels of performance, power efficiency and new services along with increased reliability required to meet the growing data demands of cellular networks,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, corporate vice president, APAC Sales, Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group, AMD. “We are proud of our close collaboration with Viettel and remain focused on enabling its mobile network to deliver the optimal end-user experience as well as the flexibility to evolve and grow as Viettel’s user base and required bandwidth continue to increase globally.”

Viettel is the largest telecom operator in Vietnam, serving more than 130 million mobile customers.

Optical fibre and satellite are driving two very different business models from Ekinops and World Mobile which could, potentially, boost African connectivity.

Ekinops, an optical transport and network access specialist, has been selected by telecom infrastructure provider Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group (BCS), a pan-African wholesale telecom infrastructure provider, for its network backbone upgrade, which, the partners say, will enhance connectivity throughout Africa. 

The project involves long-distance regional optical transport networks capable of 1Tbps capacity across Africa, and urban connectivity upgrades through 44 metro ring deployments, offering 10G traffic from points of presence and towers to the network hub.

Supplying its Ekinops360 optical transport portfolio, Ekinops says it will increase BCS’s backbone capacity with both single and dual fibre capabilities, aggregating low-capacity circuits to high bit rate protocols to deliver speeds ranging from 1Gbps to 1 Tbps. The solution also accommodates future demand for backbone capacity increases through the company’s FlexRate coherent channels, to extend the network’s reach and capacity throughout the region. 

Meanwhile, World Mobile, which aims to provide affordable connectivity to rural and remote areas worldwide via its blockchain-based mobile network, says it is expanding its network across the African continent following a series of successful pilot tests using low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the US and UK. 

Using innovative satellite and relay technology with stratospheric balloons, its first efforts are looking to provide connectivity in hard-to-reach areas within Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria.

World Mobile pilot tested the use of Starlink’s satellite network as a backhaul option for providing internet to World Mobile’s AirNodes (or internet access points). The company says it expects further tests with other LEO satellite systems will enable services to roll out more efficiently across sub-Saharan Africa.

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ExteNet has picked up some major business in the arena of, well, arenas. The wireless infrastructure specialist announced yesterday that it has entered into an exclusive and expanded partnership with one of the big three US wireless carriers: T-Mobile. … [visit site to read more]

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A couple infrastructure expansions and a couple technology partnerships to start the week: … [visit site to read more]

By Sergio Bea, vice president of global enterprise and channels, Accedian

Even as cyber-attacks increase and network infrastructure grows more complex, IT, network and cybersecurity teams are expected to deliver better customer experience with fewer resources and are charged with more responsibilities around their organization’s resiliency. … [visit site to read more]

It appears African operators no longer have the fintech market all to themselves. In fact NCBA Group, a Kenya-headquartered financial services conglomerate, recently announced that is planning to work with partners to bring its mobile phone banking service M-Shwari to Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This also seems to be part of a strategy for NCBA to grow as a regional bank. It already operates in Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire and Rwanda and is apparently in talks involving potential partnerships with banks and operators in those countries for mobile phone banking services.

NCBA did well in the mobile phone-based lending market in Kenya after partnering with Safaricom in 2012. It now wants to replicate this model outside East Africa.

Ethiopia and DRC seem to be particularly attractive as they have huge populations and a banking sector mainly focused on serving big companies, making them appealing to ambitious lenders in regional states targeting smaller businesses.

In addition the NCBA model is to work with local banking and mobile partners to deliver its products in new markets, and, while new regional partners have not yet been revealed, its Kenyan partner Safaricom has recently entered the Ethiopian market. However, local press reports point out that Ethiopia’s banking sector is still one of the most tightly state-controlled in Africa and is not open to foreign ownership.

NCBA has established partnerships elsewhere with a number of operators, including M-Pawa in Tanzania with Vodacom, Mokash in Uganda with MTN and Momokash in Cote d’Ivoire, also with MTN.

Local press reports suggest that NCBA plans spin out its fintech business, which includes M-Shwari, into a standalone company with the aim of creating more personalised and feature-rich digital banking services.