A new data center project, a new IX, and some rural broadband expansion: … [visit site to read more]

Space42, the UAE-based AI-powered SpaceTech company, and satcoms giant Viasat have signed a binding agreement to co-found Equatys, creating the first shared space and ground infrastructure platform for global direct-to-device and advanced MSS connectivity.

Equatys will offer a platform that will support the extension of mobile coverage and overlay in the places terrestrial networks cannot serve, including in coverage gaps in populated metro areas.

The agreement was signed at World Space Business Week, a gathering for space and satellite business leaders taking place this week in Paris. Upon the formation of Equatys, Space42 and Viasat will commit to an initial equity contribution of up to  US$1 billion.

This is the latest stage in a process that has been going on for some while. In fact the announcement of Equatys as a joint venture took place this time last year.

The company is being established as global demand for satellite-enabled mobile connectivity accelerates. Together, Viasat and Space42 say they bring unmatched global reach through commercial relationships with more than 400 mobile operators worldwide and access to the largest amount (more than 100MHz) of globally coordinated MSS spectrum available for D2D deployment, creating a uniquely scalable foundation for growth.

Equatys is designed to support the connection of smartphones, IoT devices, and other devices and terminals directly to satellites, giving mobile operators a way to offer voice, text, and data where cellular networks are otherwise unavailable or have low density.

The agreement builds on work by Space42 and Viasat on the technical design and manufacture of the satellites, along with ecosystem progress in seamless terrestrial network integration, interoperability standards and feedback from a number of mobile network operators and ecosystem participants. 

Equatys will provide a neutral, shared layer of both satellites and ground infrastructure; by sharing infrastructure rather than duplicating it, ecosystem participants can reduce capital requirements, accelerate deployment, increase service availability, and maintain customer and commercial independence.

Participating operating licensees sharing infrastructure can realise greater cost efficiency than is likely to be possible within their own geographic coverage area and/or spectrum authorisations. Multiple operators can use the same platform while maintaining their own spectrum licensing rights, customers, and commercial relationships.

The business model is open by design, so additional spectrum licensees and satellite operators can use the constellation, which supports high levels of spectrum aggregation, coordination and cooperation.

The initial constellation is the first phase of an architecture designed to scale to 2,800 satellites across 60 orbital planes and three altitude layers, enabling densification without redesign as demand grows.

Space42 holds coordinated L-band spectrum rights across more than 160 markets and mobile operator relationships that extend the platform’s commercial reach. Viasat is expected to serve as prime technology contractor, and holds coordinated MSS spectrum rights in the L-band globally and in the S-band in Europe.

Together, Space42 and Viasat hold commercial agreements with more than 400 mobile operators worldwide and technical capability and access to operate across over 100 MHz of globally coordinated MSS spectrum for advanced MSS services and NTN D2D services.

Liberty Business has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide Jamaican businesses and organisations with access to cloud services supported by local expertise and managed services.

The partnership is part of a wider five-year strategic collaboration between Liberty Latin America (LLA), the parent company of Liberty Caribbean, and AWS. Liberty Caribbean operates Flow, Liberty Business and BTC in the Bahamas.

Under the agreement, Liberty Business customers will have access to cloud advisory and migration services, managed cloud operations, hybrid cloud solutions and disaster recovery. The partnership also includes local billing and support through a single provider.

Liberty Business said the offering is intended to help organisations modernise their IT operations and improve resilience, with target sectors including government, financial services, tourism and hospitality, healthcare and business process outsourcing.

Charles Manus, senior director at Liberty Business, said the partnership would help Jamaican companies move beyond connectivity and use cloud and AI services to improve competitiveness.

The deal gives Liberty Business a broader cloud services portfolio as demand for cloud infrastructure and digital services grows among Jamaican organisations.

Vodafone Idea has secured about US$3.5 billion in debt financing from a consortium led by State Bank of India (SBI), providing the Indian operator with funding to rebuild its network and compete with rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

The consortium also includes Union Bank of India and the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The lenders have agreed to provide the financing over a period of nearly 10 years.

Conditions attached to the funding reportedly include Kumar Mangalam Birla remaining chairman of Vodafone Idea throughout the loan tenure, as well as guarantees covering repayment in the event of default.

Vodafone Idea, India’s third-largest mobile operator by subscribers, has been seeking debt financing to strengthen its financial position and fund network investment. The company reported a loss of INR37.5 billion in the quarter ended June, although this was narrower than expected.

The financing comes after the Indian government took steps to ease Vodafone Idea’s financial burden. Authorities capped the company’s past spectrum payments earlier this year, while the government converted about INR370 billion of outstanding dues into equity in 2025, increasing its stake in the operator to 48.99%.

Bloomberg reported that Vodafone Idea’s shares have risen by almost 40% this year, giving the company a market capitalisation of around INR1.6 trillion.

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Tom Traugott, SVP of Emerging Technologies at EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure

For most of the AI boom, the limiting question was who could secure the most advanced chips. In August of this year, NVIDIA signaled that the challenge has moved beyond silicon. It announced memorandums of understanding with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR intended to mobilize more than $500 billion of third-party capital for AI infrastructure over time. The goal is to finance not just accelerators, but the broader systems required to turn them into usable compute. … [visit site to read more]

Ethio Telecom revealed on Thursday it has held a stakeholders’ workshop with Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Group to push their planned Horizon Cross-Border Terrestrial Fiber Initiative into the pre-commercialisation phase.

The Horizon Fiber initiative – first announced by all three telcos in December 2024 and formalised this past February – aims to link subsea cable landing stations in Djibouti and Port Sudan via Ethiopia.

The goal is to create a scalable terrestrial route that enhances regional and international connectivity to support next-generation workloads like cloud computing, AI, fintech, e-commerce, and digital content delivery.

The Horizon Fiber initiative is also pitched as offering global carriers and hyperscalers a reliable, low-latency alternative route for subsea cable traffic across the Red Sea, which has been susceptible to frequent disruptions due to subsea cable cuts in recent years.

According to a LinkedIn post from Ethio Telecom, the workshop in Addis Ababa focused on the commercial and technical requirements to develop the terrestrial fibre corridor across the region with a fully protected, redundant architecture. Ethio Telecom said representatives from Ciena, Nokia and BringCom participated in those discussions.

Other participants in the workshop sessions included Google, Meta (via HIPConsult), Microsoft, Airtel Africa, Bayobab, WIOCC, center3, Saudi Vision, and China Mobile International.

Ethio Telecom said participating partners and global operators “expressed strong interest in leveraging and monetizing the multi-terabit capabilities of the Horizon Fiber corridor.”

Mongolian broadband provider Mobinet is deploying Plume Design’s Plume Platform to power its mobihome broadband service.

The agreement will provide Mobinet customers with access to AI-optimised Wi-Fi, advanced cybersecurity protection, parental controls and real-time home network management through an intuitive mobile app. The Plume Platform continuously learns and adapts to each household, helping deliver stronger Wi-Fi coverage, more reliable connectivity and a safer online experience.

Bat-Erdene Tuvd, Chief Technology Officer of Mobinet, said that the deal would provide its customers with “better Wi-Fi, stronger security and greater control” of their online activities, as well as “faster support and a better overall customer experience without increasing costs.”

As part of its commitment to customer satisfaction, Mobinet is introducing these advanced capabilities to subscribers without additional monthly charges. The Plume Platform enables faster and more proactive customer support via greater visibility into home network performance, allowing Mobinet to identify and resolve many issues remotely, reducing service interruptions, minimizing technician visits and ensuring smoother complaint handling.

“Mobinet understands that customer experience is the true differentiator in today’s broadband market,” said Chris Griffiths, Chief Technology Officer of Plume. “Mobinet selected the Plume Platform because of its unique ability to deliver smarter, safer and more reliable connectivity to households across Mongolia in a single unified solution.”

Some vendor and IX news, an IX expansion, and two acquisitions in the data center services biz: … [visit site to read more]

The Connected Britain Awards winners have been announced, following a highly successful Connected Britain conference

With a record-breaking number of entries this year, the Connected Britain Awards 2026 showcased the most innovative and exciting elements of Britain’s ever-growing and rapidly evolving digital economy. This year’s shortlist included a fantastic array of diverse organisations and individuals, all of whom were highly deserving of praise. 

A big thanks to all our award presenters and to our expert panel of judges for lending us their expertise in selecting the winners.

Access Innovation Award 

For this category the judges were looking for an entry that did something special to help deliver connectivity to a previously hard-to-reach location.  

The winning entry created a system that did exactly this, drastically cutting installation time, costs, and waste, finally making broadband delivery economically viable for many rural locations in the UK. 

Emtelle – Rapid Customer Connect 

Indoor Connectivity Award  

The winner in this category pulled off a remarkable engineering feat, delivering high‑capacity 4G and 5G coverage at three locations, positively impacting millions of users. 

Wireless Infrastructure Group 

Customer Champion Award  

Combining proactive network management with outstanding local support, this entry demonstrated a true customer-first philosophy backed by exceptional satisfaction and retention scores. 

Lightning Fibre 

Highly commended: 4th utility Rise 

Barrier Removal Award 

This entry delivered a masterclass in collaboration and leadership by creating an open-access framework to simplify asset access, lower deployment costs, and accelerate fiber rollout. 

West Sussex County Council for OpenAccess West Sussex 

Startup of the Year 

ZIM Connections

Sustainability Award 

Challenging the throwaway culture of tech, the winning entry in this category sought to prevent e-waste through high-quality engineering and prioritizing ‘longevity by design’.  

FRITZ! & Zen 

Mobile Service Provider of the Year  

The winner in this category demonstrated a European first, deploying exciting new network capabilities that could reshape the approach to mobile connectivity across the UK. 

Virgin Media O2 – O2 Satellite 

Highly commended: VodafoneThree 

AI Innovation Award 

Turning back-office audits into live, real-time field support, the winning solution slashed telecom fault rates by up to 50% within 60 days and set a new benchmark for AI operational value. 

SkillsBase Forge 

Highly Commended: Zyxel One powered by Lifemote 

Data Centre Project of the Year 

This winning project delivered a resilient, sustainable data centre transformation, notably making use of waste heat to benefit a local campus. 

Advanced Power Technology and Schneider Electric 

Broadband Provider Award 

Proving that mastering the basics drives extraordinary results, this provider achieved an outstanding NPS, near-zero churn, and market differentiation through early Wi-Fi 7 rollouts. 

Connect Fibre 

Highly commended: Fibrus

Enterprise Solution Award 

This team introduced a transformational solution that addresses complex enterprise connectivity challenges while delivering clear operational flexibility. 

Antevia Networks – 5G Shift Private Network Solution 

Strategic Deal of the Year 

The winner here is potentially the landmark deal of the decade in UK connectivity, structured to unlock massive long-term investment, competitive scale, and enhanced connectivity across the nation. 

VodafoneThree 

Infrastructure Builder of the Year 

Using a holistic approach to network deployment, this specialist delivered a Project Gigabit contact ahead of schedule working in one of the UK’s most challenging environments. 

Viberoptix 

Digital Skills Award 

For this entry, the judging panel was highly impressed by a targeted, scalable digital skills initiative that directly tackles digital exclusion and builds long-term confidence across local communities.  

Norfolk County Council – Tech Skills for Life and Digital Skills Team 

Highly Commended: Kent County Council, Medway Council and East Kent College Group 

Public Sector Partner Award 

This award celebrates a private company that has done exceptional work in partnership with public sector organization.  

The winning partnership deployed IoT at scale, showing a high level of cooperation and effectively shifting property maintenance from reactive to predictive, potentially having a major impact on residents’ health.  

iOpt & ng homes 

Public Sector Trailblazer Award 

While the previous award celebrated those working with the public sector, this award goes to a public organization itself. 

This entry overcame tough engineering hurdles to add an additional layer of connectivity to services, positively impacting thousands of users every day. We hope to see similar initiatives repeated across the country. 

Scotrail for their Starlink satellite integration 

Highly commended: The Scottish Government   

Rising Star Award 

The judges were blown away by this individual’s early-career leadership, with one judge saying: ‘These achievements are exceptional for any age, and remarkable for such an early career stage.” 

The winner has already led major fibre deployment projects and delivered remarkable infrastructure impact well beyond their years. 

Cameron Moir, GoFibre 

 Highly commended: Emily Jones, TTB CircularIT & Harry Turfrey, CityFibre

OSS/BSS Innovation of the Year 

A standout story in network automation, this entry leveraged an AI-powered digital twin to deliver massive efficiency benefits, both in network deployment and ongoing operations.  

Virgin Media O2 – Challenger OSS 

Community Improvement Award 

This inspiring project stood out for tackling a major challenge facing our industry and society at large: nurturing the next generation of STEM professionals. This initiative focused not only on educating, but on empowering underserved local communities with transformative technology skills beyond the basic curriculum. 

Littlegarth MicroBotics 

Highly commended: Wessex Internet  

The LuLu Coastal Cable System the Kenyan coast’s first fully protected coastal cable system, has been announced at this week’s ITW Africa digital infrastructure and connectivity event, held in Nairobi.

LuLu is a submarine cable designed to strengthen connectivity along Kenya’s 500 kilometre Indian Ocean coast, linking five strategic landing points from Mombasa to Lamu, including Vipingo Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Kilifi and Malindi.

It is an integrated system combining a submarine cable running along the Indian Ocean seabed with a parallel, protected terrestrial pathway. The developers of the system say that this dual-path protection architecture – submarine and terrestrial running in parallel – delivers the levels of resilience that international cable systems, data centre operators, and enterprise customers require as a baseline operating condition.

It is to be co-developed by INDOI (IOX), a Mauritius-headquartered ICT infrastructure developer, Blue Trade Investments Limited, a Kenyan investment company, ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms, which designs, finances, conceives and operates industrial ecosystems across Africa, advisory company AfriTrade Consulting Group, and Kingdom Bank, a subsidiary of the Co-operative Bank of Kenya.

The system will use DWDM technology in the 1550nm window, with 144 fibre pairs and a design capacity of up to 60 Tbps per fibre pair. It is designed for a 25-year operational life, with centralised network management, and is expected to be ready for service in Q2 2028, subject to contract execution.

Blue Trade, INDOI’s Kenya-registered infrastructure partner, is the designated cable landing party, regulatory interface, and operational delivery partner for LuLu in Kenya. Blue Trade says its established relationships with Kenya’s regulatory authorities, coastal communities, and government institutions provide the critical local foundation upon which INDOI’s regional infrastructure vision is built and sustained.

The LuLu landing at Vipingo SEZ is described as the catalyst for a broader transformation. The partners say that direct submarine cable connectivity within the SEZ boundary unlocks investment categories that manufacturing infrastructure alone cannot attract: hyperscale data centres, cloud service provider regional nodes, fintech and payment processing platforms, cybersecurity operations centres, and IoT-driven smart manufacturing services, to name only a few.

LuLu’s Mombasa landing will connect the entire coastal system to the global internet backbone from day one giving every LuLu landing station, and every tenant and operator these stations serve, seamless access to existing submarine cables landed in Mombasa and beyond.

As news service SubTel Forum notes, however, the information so far released does not name a system supplier, construction start, route-survey schedule or completed contracts.