South African fibre installation company Lightstruck has entered into an agreement with the Namibian City of Windhoek’s City Link initiative to advance the city’s fibre network commercialisation efforts.

City Link is a dedicated business unit established within the City of Windhoek entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the commercialisation of the fibre network.

This partnership will reportedly enable a 1GB per second connection. The project has been awarded Class Comprehensive Electronic Communications Network Services/Electronic Communications Services (ECNS/ECS) Spectrum licences by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN).

According to Namibian business publication The Brief, the move, announced late last week, comes as part of the city’s Strategic Plan (2022-2027), through which it intends to optimise the total capacity of approximately 120 kilometres of underutilised fibre network by commercialising it.

City of Windhoek’s Councillor and Chairperson of the Financial Sustainability, Performance Management, and Policy Advisory Committee Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma has been quoted as saying: “The commercialisation of the fibre network presents a significant business opportunity that can potentially create a much-needed revenue stream for the City. This strategic initiative not only enhances the Council’s operational efficiency, but also improves service offerings to residents, businesses, and investors. It also facilitates seamless online transactions and provides access to real-time, reliable data.”

Lightstruck Holdings is busy elsewhere in the country too; it is planning to roll out a N$500-million (about US$27.6 million) project to develop the country’s first-ever open-access fibre network. The network went live in Khomasdal, a suburb of Namibia’s capital, recently, with another suburb, Rocky Crest, up next, along with Rehoboth, 90 kilometres south of Windhoek, and Osona, 60 kilometres north of Windhoek.

Late last year, the Namibia Infrastructure Development and Investment Fund acquired a stake in Lightstruck Holdings which will support the expansion of last-mile fibre infrastructure into towns and communities that were previously underserved.

Lightstruck Namibia was established through a collaborative venture between Lightstruck South Africa and Africa Merchant Capital Holdings. Its mission is to develop, own, and operate open-access, high-quality last-mile fibre networks, utilising an investment approach that prioritises the deployment of long-term fibre optic networks for the economic and social upliftment of the Namibian communities served.

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When it comes to data center development projects, question number one is usually about energy.  With AI now driving accelerating demand across the sector, that question is looming larger than ever.  Mission Critical Group (MCG) is a relatively young entrant into this space, focusing on design and implementation of the power infrastructure needed to run the sort of high density computing that the industry is now building out at a record pace.  With us today to talk about their approach is CEO Jeff Drees. … [visit site to read more]

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This Industry Viewpoint was authored by David Cottingham, CTO at IQGeo

As the fiber broadband industry evolves, operators face increasing pressure to adopt emerging technologies to stay competitive. McKinsey’s report, “The AI-native telco: Radical transformation to thrive in turbulent times,” underscores the potential of AI and Machine Learning (ML) to drive growth and disruption within the telecom sector. AI promises substantial benefits, including infrastructure that self-heals, touchless customer service, hyper-personalization, and automated marketing. However, its successful implementation hinges on the quality of underlying fiber network data. … [visit site to read more]

A telecoms lobby group in Zambia has warned that lengthy power blackouts caused by load shedding over the past year is taking its toll on the quality of mobile services across the country.

According to a statement released earlier this week, the Global System for Mobile Association of Zambia (GSMAZ) – which comprises MTN Zambia, Airtel Zambia and Zamtel – load shedding blackouts initiated by state-owned power utility ZESCO now last as long as 14 hours a day.

That’s having an unsustainable impact on the over 3,500 mobile towers connected to the ZESCO grid, as the towers are equipped with only four hours of backup power, which is causing “a huge cost variance not only for the fuel and generator maintenance but also for the associated fuel delivery logistics” for mobile operators, the GSMAZ said.

« Though backup power is available at these sites through generators, instances when there is electricity downtime, and extended load shedding hours, our provision of quality of service is compromised as the generators now require constant refueling and more frequent servicing cycles, » the group added.

The blackouts are largely a side-effect of severe climate change in Zambia, which has caused Lake Kariba – formed by the Kariba Dam, which generates electricity for Zambia and Zimbabwe – to lose 98% of its water, according to a January 2023 report from LifeGate Daily.

Early last year, ZESCO – which supplies energy to over 80% of Zambia – responded by increasing the length of power blackouts from six hours to 12 hours to keep the power grid from failing completely, the report said.

The GSMAZ said it recognised that climate change is having a major and unprecedented impact on all levels of life in Zambia, but added that the telecoms sector “is one of Zambia’s key economic enablers for sustained business growth and social development.”

The GSAMAZ statement added that mobile operators are working with tower providers, regulators and other stakeholders to find sustainable solutions to the problem, to include solar-powered backup solutions in the medium to long term. The group also apologized for the inconvenience to customers.

Load shedding is a common practice across much of the African continent as national power grids struggle to keep up with growing demand for electricity. It’s also a perennial headache for mobile operators who have been forced to invest and innovate to find ways around the problem.

In South Africa, where rolling blackouts are so common that state power utility Eskom recorded a record 280 days of blackouts last year, MTN said in March 2023 it would invest US$84.3 million to install solar power, batteries and generators at base stations (as well as investing in extra security to keep people from stealing them) to reduce reliance on Eskom.

Earlier this year, MTN said it would invest another US$101.3 million by the middle of the year in generators, batteries and renewable energy to counter the effect of Eskom load shedding.

In August last year, Vodacom signed a deal with Eskom to enable “virtual wheeling”, which would essentially allow Vodacom to secure energy from independent power producers using Eskom’s infrastructure without all the complexity that usually involves.

Vodacom said at the time it aims to source all of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2025.

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Four bits of infrastructure news from around the industry: … [visit site to read more]