Press Release

Investors including Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, Orange Group, Orange Côte d’Ivoire, Sonatel, Silverlinks, announce the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to initiate the Via Africa submarine cable project, confirming a shared ambition to develop international connectivity, to support traffic growth and to strengthen the resilience of networks across the African continent.

This brand-new system aims to connect Europe to South Africa — including landing points in the United Kingdom, France and Portugal — with destinations along the Atlantic coastline such as the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, with extensions further south supporting increased connectivity diversity and improved resilience for countries along the route.

A consortium-based subsea infrastructure

The Via Africa system is managed as a consortium, enabling participating partners seeking autonomy and sovereignty to co-invest in the infrastructure and take part in its governance. This robust and proven model allows investors to participate directly in the decisions regarding the design, deployment and exploitation of the system and contribute to decisions that best meet their needs. The initial telco and digital player partners are open to additional partners potentially joining the project in the future.

Enhancing resilience and connectivity diversity across Africa

The new open cable project is designed to contribute to greater diversity and resilience of international connectivity serving Africa, by providing a different subsea route than existing infrastructure and strengthening the robustness of regional connectivity.

Next steps for the project

As part of the initial phase of the project, consortium members will jointly finance a cable route study to identify the optimal cable route that balances resilience, technical feasibility and overall economic efficiency.

In parallel, the consortium is preparing the procurement process for selecting a cable supplier, marking the next step in the development of the system.

Heirs Insurance Group has announced the launch in Nigeria of its multi-language generative AI assistant, Prince AI, which, it says, marks a major milestone in its digital transformation journey and reinforces its commitment to making insurance simple, accessible and inclusive.

With Prince AI, Heirs Insurance, which describes itself as Nigeria’s fastest-growing insurance group, says it becomes the first insurer in Nigeria to deploy a multi-language generative AI assistant. The AI-powered assistant delivers instant, intelligent responses not only to customer requests about Heirs Insurance products, but also to broader insurance enquiries, helping users understand coverage options, assess their needs, and identify the right policies for their unique situations.

Language is a key part of this offering. Prince communicates fluently in multiple local and international languages, including English, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and many more.

Beyond handling enquiries, the AI assistant enables customers to purchase and renew policies, and initiate and track claims. The chatbot is available across WhatsApp, the SimpleLife Mobile App, and the Heirs Insurance website, delivering seamless, always-on service experience across multiple digital touchpoints.

Peace Okhianmhense-Philips, Chief Digital Officer, Heirs Insurance Group, explains: “By embedding generative AI into our customer experience, we are not only improving speed and efficiency but also humanising insurance. This innovation allows us to connect more meaningfully with our customers, anticipate their needs, and deliver support that is instant, intelligent and accessible.”

Built on adaptive intelligence, the AI Assistant continuously refines its capabilities through every interaction. Personalised counsel is also offered if required.

Heirs Insurance Group, the insurance arm of Heirs Holdings, a leading pan-African investment company, serves both corporate and individual customers across Nigeria.

If there’s one part of the continental US that it’s been particularly hard to build out new intercity fiber, it’s what they call the Northern Tier. The lack of population density always made the business case hard to justify.  But in the era of hyperscalers and AI, that route is finally getting attention, and Lumen Technologies is looking to expand across it. … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

New single voice communication layer reduces complexity and costs for multinational organisations as they evolve their AI-powered workplace collaboration strategies.

News

The FCC is moving closer to banning the recognition of device testing labs and certification bodies in foreign nations without reciprocity agreements.

By Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

New rules being considered by the Federal Communications Commission could have big impacts on the future of electronic devices in the United States.

Under one of the rules, the FCC is considering banning the recognition of device testing labs in nations without a reciprocal trade agreement, an announcement from the agency said last month.

Labs not in compliance with the proposed rules would be phased out within two years if the rules are eventually adopted, the FCC said.

Conversely, the FCC also adopted rules that streamline the approval process for devices testing in U.S. labs or in nations with signed mutual trade agreements.

“The order would also adopt a range of other measures to promote the integrity of the equipment authorization system: require the disclosure of the location and number of employees engaged in FCC-recognized testing, improve the FCC’s post-market surveillance procedures, strengthen enforcement mechanisms, and establish confidential reporting channels for industry participants to raise concerns about violations or national security threats,” the FCC said.

The moves build upon the FCC’s efforts in March, when the agency placed foreign made routers on the FCC’s list of products deemed to pose unacceptable security risks.

Since adopting that rule, the FCC has since taken action to withdraw or deny recognition to, twenty-three facilities deemed “bad labs” by the agency, according to the FCC’s April 30 release.

At the time, the move was billed as in line with President Donald Trump’s strategy for national security, announced in 2025.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is due to visit China this week, with published reports saying he is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.

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Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) announced Monday that its long-awaited Nusantara Lima (N5) broadband satellite is now live and ready to connect underserved and unconnected regions across Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and Malaysia.

The Nusantara Lima satellite – which has been in the pipeline since 2022 and was finally launched in September last year – was built on the Boeing 702MP platform and carries a payload of 101 Ka-band spot beams covering all of Indonesia.

According to PSN’s web site, it has established seven ground stations in Aceh, Bengkulu, Banjarmasin, Cikarang, Gresik, Kupang, and Tarakan to support Nusantara Lima’s operations.

While the satellite is designed to provide supplemental coverage for PSN’s SATRIA-1 satellite, which began operations in 2024, the satellite operator said it will also play a “crucial role” in providing connectivity to Indonesia’s « frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped » (a.k.a. 3T) regions.

According to the government’s Antara news agency, PSN president director Adi Rahman Adiwoso said the satellite is also set to support national connectivity in the Philippines, while PSN is currently exploring its potential use in Malaysia.

PSN has already allocated some of Nusantara Lima’s capacity for use in both countries, which each getting access to 20 Gbps, the report said.

“This proves that our neighbouring countries prioritize connectivity independence amid current dynamics of global politics,” Adiwoso said at an inauguration ceremony on Monday, during which he also described Nusantara Lima as “an important symbol for our nation in maintaining our own national independence.”

News

Niel has reduced his holding in the company to less than 0.1%

French billionaire Xavier Niel, owner of Iliad Group, has sold his roughly 6% stake in Belgian telco Proximus, according to a recent filing.

Assuming Proximus’s recent share price of €6.56, the deal would have netted Niel around €135 million.

Niel acquired his roughly 6% stake in the business in late 2023 via his Irish holding company Carraun, praising the operator’s networks and competitive positioning.

By 2025, reports suggested that Niel had proposed a shared ownership model with the Belgian government – Proximus’s largest stakeholder with around 53% ownership. According to those reports, this deal would have seen the government retain the chairmanship of the board, with Niel appointed CEO and given the possibility of increasing his stake in future.

The deal was ultimately rejected by the state, which was likely viewed the deal as something of a soft takeover.

For years, Niel had previously made no secrets of his ambitions to launch his challenger brand Free in the Belgium market, one of the most expensive telecoms markets in Europe. Responding to a 2024 post on X bemoaning the country’s high prices, Niel said he was all for it, saying “it’s your government that doesn’t want it” (translated).

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”fr” dir=”ltr”>Moi je suis chaud, c’est votre gouvernement qui veut pas <a href=”https://t.co/iwJ2QbXuhR

&mdash » rel= »nofollow »>https://t.co/iwJ2QbXuhR”>https://t.co/iwJ2QbXuhR</a></p>&mdash; Xavier Niel (@Xavier75) <a href=”October » rel= »nofollow »>https://twitter.com/Xavier75/status/1979549525816594492?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>October 18, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&#8221; charset=”utf-8″></script>

Now, with the Belgian government’s attitude seemingly unchanged, Niel has decided to turn his attention elsewhere. One such location is surely Chile, where Niel’s NJJ Holding teamed up with Millicom to purchase Telefónica’s local unit earlier in the year.

With Brussels unwilling to loosen its grip on the former incumbent, Niel appears to have concluded that Belgium’s telecom market remains easier to complain about than to crack.

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Several bits of last mile news, a data center project, and some IX growth: … [visit site to read more]

UAE-based satellite player Space42 revealed on Monday it is ready to launch direct-to-device (D2D) satellite services via its geostationary Thuraya-4 satellite via a partnership with non-terrestrial network (NTN) firm Skylo Technologies.

Space42 said that Skylo’s 3GPP-compliant NTN platform has already been integrated with Thuraya-4 and is ready for commercial deployment. The two companies have also tested the platform by completing a bi-directional, real-time voice call on the network with no modified SIM and no changes to existing operator core infrastructure.

Space42 said that commercial deployment of Thuraya’s D2D service will begin across Thuraya-4’s coverage footprint across 37 countries on a rolling basis as it secures the necessary regulatory approvals and operator agreements in each target market.

“This partnership advances Space42’s strategy to become a global NTN leader, extending Thuraya-4’s reach through an interoperable connectivity layer that enables satellite and terrestrial networks to function as one unified system,” said Ali Al Hashemi, Space42’s CEO of space services, in a statement.

“Space42’s decision to select Skylo’s standards-based architecture for Thuraya-4 validates what we have built: a carrier-grade connectivity layer where satellites function as a natural extension of mobile networks, not a parallel system,” added Skylo co-founder and CEO Parthsarathi Trivedi.

Thuraya-4 – which went live in November 2025 after being launched into orbit earlier in the year – is designed to integrate seamlessly with terrestrial networks to support Space42’s broader strategy to develop and launch 3GPP-compliant D2D satellite services.

In September last year, Space42 and Viasat launched their Equatys JV, which aims to leverage 100 MHz of harmonized MSS spectrum already allocated across more than 160 markets to offer D2D services globally.

News

The new unit will support SoftBank’s expansive AI data centre ambitions

In a press release issued today, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the creation of a new battery storage business operating under its mobile network operator unit, SoftBank Corp.

The standalone unit will work on both the technical development of battery technologies, as well as their manufacture.

To do this, the new unit has partnered with a pair of South Korean businesses – Cosmos Lab and DeltaX Co. – with whom they will collaborate on the technology.

Cosmos Lab specialises in battery cell technology, most notably zinc-halogen batteries that use pure water as their electrolyte, removing the flammability risk associated with lithium-ion batteries.

DeltaX Co. is an energy storage system manufacturer that builds ‘next-generation’ battery cells

The battery business unit will be focussed alongside SoftBank’s AI Data Center that is in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. Here, SoftBank is planning to set up two new sites: the AX Factory, focussed on AI data centre operations and AI infrastructure hardware manufacturing, and the GX Factory, a manufacturing hub for next-generation batteries, solar panels, and related products.

The company is aiming to deploy a plant with battery capacity of one gigawatt-hour per year, which could expand to multiple gigawatt-hours per year in future.

Even at just one gigawatt-hour per year, the deployment would already be one of the largest battery plants in Japan.

Initial production is expected to begin in March 2028, with mass production targeted for 2029.

Initially, the batteries produced will be used to support SoftBanks own AI data centres, but in future will expand to offering the batteries to commercial customers. These could include “grid applications in Japan, as well as for factories and other industrial uses, as well as for residential use, with a view to expanding into global markets over the medium term”, according to the company.

In total, SoftBank is aiming for the business to generate around ¥100 billion (US$637 million) in annual revenues by the end of the decade.

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