Qatar regulator the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has announced that it has opened access to more than 4,860 kilometres of government telecom duct infrastructure across Qatar.

This move forms part of CRA’s broader regulatory mandate to optimise the use of national telecom assets, enable licensed service providers to scale their networks more efficiently, and support the delivery of high-quality digital services to homes and businesses.

The CRA says the initiative also reflects CRA’s strategic objective to promote fair and open access to essential telecom infrastructure – reducing duplicate deployments, improving investment efficiency, and accelerating the rollout of next-generation technologies such as fibre to the home (FTTH) and 5G. 

Delivered in collaboration with the country’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal), the infrastructure spans 60 projects and covers over 40,000 residential, commercial, and government premises nationwide. The rollout is governed by a 2014 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between CRA and Ashghal, which formalised planning, construction and transfer protocols.

This isn’t a new concept. In fact it seems that, to date, more than 15,500 premises have been connected via the CRA-managed government telecom duct infrastructure. Operator Ooredoo has utilised 468 kilometres of ducts to serve 2,010 consumers’ premises, while another operator, Vodafone Qatar, has deployed 251 kilometres to connect 1,150 of its consumers.

CRA oversees access to the network through its Duct Management System (DMS), a geographic information systems (GIS)-based digital platform that facilitates real-time capacity visibility, application processing, and coordination for network extensions. This, says CRA, ensures transparency, efficiency, and alignment with national infrastructure policy.

News

Consumers and small businesses will be able send text messages via satellite

Australian telco Telstra has announced the launch of its direct-to-device (D2D) satellite text messaging service through its partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink.

Customers on selected plans and with compatible devices (currently limited to the Samsung Galaxy S25) will be able to use Starlink’s satellite network to send and receive text messages wherever they can see the sky.

Starlink’s low Earth orbit satellite constellation currently covers all of Australia except for the Australian Radio Quiet Zone in Western Australia and remote offshore territories and islands.

For customers with compatible plans and devices, all that is required to access the new satellite service is a simple software update, with Telstra suggesting that all eligible customers will be enrolled in the coming weeks.

Enrolled customers will automatically be connected to the satellite network whenever traditional terrestrial mobile coverage is unavailable.

Telstra first began working with SpaceX to make use of its Starlink constellation for enterprise customers back in 2023. The partnership was expanded to include D2D messaging with Starlink at the start of this year, with extensive testing of the messaging service running over previous months.

For now, Starlink’s D2D service is limited to the text messaging and even that, Telstra warns will be somewhat intermittent in delivery; customers are being warned they may face delays in sending and receiving messages based on factors such as their location and the proximity of the nearest orbital satellite.

“This means customers are likely to find that some messages are sent or received almost instantly, while others may take many minutes or longer,” said Telstra’s Tom Beach on the company website.

In future, Starlink’s D2D services will be expanded to include voice and data services. The number of compatible devices will also increase.

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Also in the news:
SWR deploys Europe’s first ’Rail-5G’ Wi-Fi  
BT accelerates fibre rollout amid cost cuts
AT&T agrees $5.75 billion deal for Lumen’s consumer fibre assets

GoTo, described as the largest digital ecosystem in Indonesia, and service provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) have announced the launch of a new, enhanced version of Sahabat-AI, an Indonesian large language model launched in mid-November last year.

Launch versions of Sahabat-AI offered a mere eight or nine billion parameters. Now upgraded to 70 billion parameters, Sahabat-AI offers enhanced accuracy, enabling the launch of the new Sahabat-AI chat service, which is built with strong reasoning capabilities, enabling users to ask questions and receive insightful, natural-language responses. It is one of the many use cases made possible by the more powerful model.

More importantly perhaps, the latest model can now operate across five local languages: national language Bahasa Indonesia, as well as Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese and Bataknese, in addition to a number of international languages.

As news service Forbes points out, this development is part of a drive to preserve local culture and dialects amid a global surge in AI development, currently led by models trained in the US and China.

Of course the term ‘local languages’ may imply modest numbers of speakers. However, local languages in Indonesia can boast tens of millions of speakers. This LLM therefore gives the new service access to many rural Indonesians that may not speak English or even Bahasa Indonesia.

There is, inevitably, a digital sovereignty angle to all of this. All data and GPU infrastructure used to serve the model are stored within Indonesian territory or on users’ own servers, ensuring compliance with national data regulations. By localising data storage and processing, its creators argue, Sahabat-AI also opens up new opportunities for the Indonesian government and public sector to build secure, sovereign AI-powered services.

Indeed, the model is optimised to run on locally accessible infrastructure, enabling a broader range of users, from early-stage startups and university labs to large-scale public service institutions, to integrate AI into their workflows.

For developers, the LLM can be freely downloaded, an open access approach that GoTo and IOH say empowers Indonesia’s broader AI ecosystem to build, experiment, and collaborate – encouraging the creation of AI applications tailored to local needs.

Press Release

by Bas Burger, CEO, International, BT

Today, we launch BT International, serving our multinational customers as a dedicated operation within BT Group with its own people, products and platforms.

It comes as our customers face unprecedented disruption across their markets driven by geopolitics, regulation and technology — with AI catalysing change faster than ever. We have designed BT International specifically to help our customers meet these challenges head on and anticipate future opportunities to thrive.

The way we do this centres on two highly scalable telco platforms designed for the age of multi-cloud and AI: Global Voice and Global Fabric, with security built in by design. We’ve channelled our investments into these cloud-centric global platforms and concentrated our expert teams where customers need them most.

From asset-light to platform-rich

We have evolved our ‘asset-light’ strategy for several years, designing our platforms to reflect the trends we see in customer traffic crossing our networks — from data flows to and between the big cloud providers to the emergence of hybrid cloud as a preferred model for many businesses. We see that AI has unpredictable impacts on our customers’ networks — from the lumpy, bulky training workloads of large language models (LLMs) powering GenAI to the low latency demands of conversational AI and augmented reality. These trends are set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving cyber security threat landscape and a fast-moving regulatory environment.

Telecoms gets its voice back

Our Global Voice platform enables businesses, governments and the people they engage with to communicate with each other effortlessly. We’re already world leading in the global voice services market, managing over 16 billion calls to customer call centres in over 70 countries every year. We’ve migrated these services onto a new SIP-powered, cloud focussed platform enabling voice to be carried across data networks. SIP has been around for a while but the fact that Global Managed Voice is both SIP-powered and cloud-focused means that it’s perfectly poised to unlock the full potential of integrating voice with AI.

Indeed, Gartner predicts that 30 per cent of Fortune 500 companies will offer customer service through only a single, AI-enabled channel by 2028. I believe our Global Voice platform is strongly positioned to enable this, backed by our experts who have delivered over 5,000 contact centres to over 2,000 customers around the world.

Wrapping the world in Global Fabric

Next, we have Global Fabric, our brand-new, AI-ready, cloud-centric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. This offers customers instant, secure and resilient connectivity to practically every app or digital service they want, including the world’s top cloud and software-as-a-service  (SaaS) providers. It launched to live customer traffic earlier this year and it is the platform that will help us achieve our goal to be the world’s number one provider of secure multi-cloud connectivity.

Global Fabric could have hardly arrived at a better time. We were one of the first telcos off the starting blocks with a truly greenfield international platform to eliminate the drag that the previous generation of networks had on customer innovation. With traditional networks, setting up or making changes to connectivity for a new or existing app, including AI, could take days or weeks. With Global Fabric, it happens in an instant.

Now think of the increasingly complex international regulatory environment. Technology and data have become geopolitical pawns. That means customers must double down on sovereignty, ensuring the right data stays within the right jurisdiction while enabling them to unlock its value to the business. With Global Fabric, customers can choose both the cloud destinations their data goes to and the route it takes along the way. This means regulated data never leaves the designated national borders and helps customers stay compliant.

Sharing a platform for success

Looking to the future of our industry, we believe international networks will gravitate towards fewer, larger, telco platforms able to manage the demand generated by increased cloud and AI services. We invite other service providers to work with BT International, as we build out our ecosystem of partners, including our recently announced partnership with Google Cloud, and scale fast so we can, as an industry, offer the best value to customers across the globe.

We’re at a pivotal moment as an industry. It is an opportunity to move away from fragmented legacy international networks to a platform designed with the reality of AI, cyber and cloud at its core, reflecting customers’ expectations of speed, security, sustainability, sovereignty and naturally the skills to support future growth and prosperity.

Join us at Connected Britain, 24-25 September in London. Tickets available here  

Also in the news:
SWR deploys Europe’s first ’Rail-5G’ Wi-Fi  
BT accelerates fibre rollout amid cost cuts
AT&T agrees $5.75 billion deal for Lumen’s consumer fibre assets

Interview 

BT’s Head of Environmental Sustainability Gabrielle Ginér explains how the Joint Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (JAC) is helping telcos tackle sustainability issues collectively 

As the telecoms sector sets its sights on net zero, it faces a major challenge to reduce emissions from the global supply chain. For most operators, Scope 3 emissions (those generated outside of their direct operations) account for much of their carbon footprint, and it is a problem they cannot solve in isolation. 

This is where the Joint Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (JAC) comes in. 

“JAC is a not-for-profit association of telecom operators dedicated to developing Corporate Social Responsibility across the Information and Communication Technology supply chain,” explains Gabrielle Ginér, Head of Environmental Sustainability at BT and a board member of JAC. “JAC verifies, assesses and implements CSR while sharing resources and best practice to develop long-term supply chain sustainability.” 

With over 30 members and growing, including industry giants like AT&T, BT, Vodafone, and Singtel, the JAC represents a large portion of the telecoms market, and its influence is expanding in both scope and ambition. 

A shifting focus 

The JAC was founded in 2010 by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Telecom Italia to promote basic CSR principles, but members’ priorities have quickly evolved. The alliance has expanded to also focused on three emerging areas: climate change, supply chain due diligence, and circularity. 

To support these goals, JAC has created dedicated working groups. One is focused on accelerating progress toward net zero by helping members reduce Scope 3 emissions. Another is addressing human rights risks across global supply chains through collaborative due diligence. A third, more recently established, group is working on circularity, exploring how telcos can reduce waste by reusing components from network equipment and consumer devices. 

“Most of JAC’s members either have circularity targets in place or plan to set them in the next three years,” Ginér explains. “The top three motivations for pursuing re-use and recycling are carbon reduction, waste reduction, and regulatory compliance.” 

Sustainability down the supply chain 

While collaboration between telcos is important, JAC’s impact depends on execution, and that means working directly with suppliers. The body’s Supplier Engagement Programme (SEP) uses data to assess more than 900 suppliers on their environmental maturity, offering tailored support to help them improve. 

In parallel, the Carbon Reduction Programme (CRP) focuses on around 50 high-impact suppliers. These are the companies whose products and services contribute most significantly to telecom operators’ Scope 3 emissions. Suppliers are asked to disclose product-level carbon footprints and to provide clear, time-bound reduction plans. 

A standout example of this work involves BT, Ericsson and the electronics manufacturer Flex.  

“Ericsson worked with one of its suppliers, Flex, that switched to 100% renewable electricity for its factory in Tczew, Poland,” Ginér explains. “Of the 1.1 million products Flex produced for Ericsson in Poland, 1,401 baseband units were shipped by Ericsson to BT Group. As Flex switched to renewable energy at its Tczew site, Flex and Ericsson estimated an 11k-tonne reduction in Flex’s Scope 2 carbon emissions dedicated to Ericsson for 2022, which translates to a 14-tonne reduction in embodied carbon emissions for the 1,401 baseband units shipped to BT Group.” 

“It may seem like a small improvement,” she adds, “but these types of actions are necessary in the journey towards net zero and set a precedent for how these types of collaborations can be scaled in value chains.” 

Sustainability at BT 

BT is also progressing with its own sustainability agenda, both operationally and within its supply chain. It aims to get to net zero by 2031 within its own operations, and in its wider supply chain by 2041. The company is rolling out more energy-efficient fixed and mobile networks, phasing out legacy infrastructure, and consolidating real estate to reduce emissions from buildings. Last year, it recovered 1,750 tonnes of network equipment and reused 1,548 items in its network. 

“We switch off the energy-intensive 3G network in 2024 which saved over 60 GWh,” Ginér notes. “When older networks are switched off, we recover the network equipment so it can be reused or recycled.” In October last year, it secured £105m from recycler EMR (European Metal Recycling) for its surplus copper networks. The income stream is significant, even after the costs of extracting and processing the cabling. 

The company is also transitioning its fleet to electric and zero-emission vehicles, with over 5,500 electric vehicles already in use. It placed its largest ever order of 3,500 EVs in January this year. “We’re working hard and investing to convert the majority of this fleet to electric or zero-emission vehicles by the end of FY31 – where that’s the best technical or economic solution.” 

Supplier expectations have also been formalised. ESG-related topics now carry a 20% weighting in BT’s supplier assessments, and environmental criteria are embedded into onboarding.  

“Today, suppliers representing more than 65% of our supply chain emissions are reporting to CDP,” says Ginér. CDP stands for the Carbon Disclosure Project, a platform where companies report environmental data such as carbon emissions, to promote transparency and accountability. 

The next steps 

As telecom operators face mounting pressure to decarbonise, improve transparency, and reduce waste, the need for collective action only intensifies. 

“The sector is doing quite well,” says Ginér, “but of course there is always more to be done, especially in tackling Scope 3 emissions.” 

With most JAC members now committed to science-based or net zero targets, and an increasing number taking action on circularity and due diligence, the foundations are in place. The next challenge is scale, ensuring that pilot programmes and successful supplier partnerships become standard practice across the global telecom ecosystem. 

Also in Feature Week:

UK data centre expansion sparks net zero concerns 

Real estate companies Greykite and White Star Real Estate say that their joint venture has successfully converted a former logistics facility in Warsaw into a state-of-the-art data centre, now known as Digital Ursus and claimed to be Poland’s largest data centre.

Launched last year, Greykite is an independent European real estate investment firm established and headquartered in London. White Star Real Estate is an international real estate company active in Central and Eastern Europe since 1997.

The two companies launched a US$339 million Polish logistics and data centre joint venture last year. It took over three sites (in Warsaw, Gliwice, and Strykow) that White Star had developed under its Diamond Business Park brand. The Ursus site was built by White Star between 2013 and 2019.

The reported site transformation includes a significant upgrade in power capacity, increasing from 18 MW to an anticipated 65 MW within the next year. This enhancement, the partners say, positions Digital Ursus as a critical node in Europe’s expanding digital landscape.

This 20,000 square metre facility, strategically located just eight kilometres from downtown Warsaw and six kilometres from Chopin Airport, has secured a long-term lease with a leading global data centre operator, believed to be EdgeConneX, which, the Data Centre Dynamic website reports, has signed a 15-year lease.

The site adds that EdgeConneX, in turn, is reportedly leasing the site for use by one of the ‘five largest tech companies’ globally and is to invest hundreds of millions of euros into the project. The company currently operates 2.5MW of capacity and 1,400 square metres of data centre space across three facilities in Warsaw.

Poland’s data centre market in general – and Warsaw in particular – is experiencing rapid growth, with projections indicating a tripling of power resources by 2030.

The latest spectrum licence auction in Thailand has apparently only attracted two bidders: True Corporation and Advanced Info Service (AIS) – and they do not seem interested in all the spectrum on offer. So what happens now?

The Bangkok Post reports that AIS and True submitted bid proposals to regulator the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) along with bank guarantees of 10% of the reserve price of each spectrum band for which they plan to bid, as required by the auction rules, after the NBTC opened the one-day period to submit licence bid applications on Thursday.

The NBTC plans to auction four spectrum bands on 29 June: 850MHz, 1500MHz, 2100MHz and 2300MHz. However, reports suggest that AIS and True will be targeting only the 2100MHZ and 2300MHz bands 

For the 850MHz band two 2x5Mhz lots are available at a minimum  bid per lot of 7.738 billion baht (about US$235.8 million). For 2100 MHz, the three lots (each 2×5 MHz) require a minimum bid per lot of 4.5 billion baht (US$137.1 million). For 2300 MHz there are seven 10Mhz lots priced at a minimum per lot of 2.596 billion baht (US$79.1 million).

Finally 1500 MHz will need to attract a bid per 5MHz lot of at least 1.057 billion baht (US$32.2 million); there are 11 lots.

Following the application period, the NBTC will review applicants’ qualifications from 30 May to 5 June, then submit results to its own board for consideration. We can expect announcements between 6-13 June. Appeals can be filed from 16-18 June.

Qualified bidders will be announced on 19 June. A mock auction will then take place on 23 June, followed by the real thing on 29 June.

It’s not clear what will happen to the unsold spectrum. In addition, according to the Bangkok Post, a group led by the Thailand Consumer Council recently submitted a joint petition to the Central Administrative Court seeking to scrap the auction, claiming it could affect consumer interests and will lead to a market monopoly.

Published by The Sunday Times in partnership with workplace engagement platform WorkL, the annual list acknowledges businesses in the UK that exhibit exemplary inclusion, wellbeing support, and satisfaction among staff members. With more than 500 companies evaluated, Altnets is unique not just for its industry but also for its scale, values, and culture.

Founded in 2020 with just three employees and no permanent workplace, Altnets today employs 17 individuals and runs from a state-of-the-art office overlooking Brighton Marina. In addition to being an established leader in telecommunications, the business is regarded by its staff as one of the most fulfilling and content workplaces.

Co-Founder and Director Sam Bangle commented, “This award reflects the outstanding team spirit we’ve built at Altnets.

“What makes us unique is the passion, creativity, and focus our employees bring to their jobs. Without them, Altnets wouldn’t be the business it is today.”

From servicing 33 clients in 2021 to over 100 by 2024, Altnets has expanded rapidly, but its ultimate objective remains unchanged: to connect communities digitally across the country, while cultivating a thriving, people-first culture within its team.

With its comprehensive healthcare plans and insurance benefits, annual team-building excursions for the team, monthly social gatherings, and flexible work schedule designed to encourage a healthy work-life balance, Altnets is creating a working experience where staff members feel appreciated, encouraged, and seen.

“We’re more than a company that serves customers – we’re powered by our people,” Bangle added. “Our success demonstrates that, alongside our efforts to build digital connections throughout the UK, we are equally committed to maintaining a thriving and encouraging community here in Brighton.”

Altnets is one of only two Brighton-based companies to be named in the ‘Small Organisation’ category of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025 – and the only telecoms business of its size to be featured nationwide. This distinction demonstrates Altnets’ commitment to its employees and solidifies its standing as a leader in a field that isn’t frequently recognised for having an impressive workplace culture. While men largely dominate the telecoms sector, Altnets actively strives to diversify its workforce by recruiting more women than the industry average. Altnets strives to be regarded as one of Brighton’s best places to work, establishing a benchmark for small businesses across the UK.

The Sunday Times commented: “Recognition is the watchword at this Brighton telecoms company. Its 17 staff enjoy structured rewards, team-building and social events, including pizza days and charity skydives. There is also a commitment to personal development, with professional certifications and leadership coaching, and a wellness programme to ensure they care for themselves. They enjoy private healthcare, mental-health support and David Lloyd gym membership. Volunteering days allow people to give back to a cause they care about.”

Open communication, respect, and enjoyment are the foundations of the Altnets culture, reflected in schedule flexibility, opportunities for professional development, and regular after-work socials. The outcome is an unrivalled staff community and a place of employment staff genuinely enjoy being part of.

This recognition from The Sunday Times is more than simply an award – it’s an endorsement of the uplifting, collaborative culture that each team member works to develop and sustain.

A Company to Watch in UK Telecoms

With demand for high-quality telecoms solutions continuing to grow, Altnets is proving that investing in people is not just the right thing to do — it’s a powerful business strategy. From driving digital infrastructure forward to setting a new cultural benchmark in the sector, Altnets is one to watch.

Whether you’re starting out or looking for your next step in the industry, Altnets is always keen to connect with passionate, driven individuals who want to be part of something special. To find your next career opportunity with an award-winning company, email: info@altnets.co.uk 

Vitel Wireless claims to be the first Nigerian MVNO to achieve full interconnection with all major mobile network operators (MNOs), as it prepares for a nationwide launch later this year.

In a statement, Vitel said the milestone will allow its subscribers to make and receive calls with users on MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom (Glo), and 9mobile.

The interconnectivity was established through a combination of direct fibre connections and indirect routing via third-party providers.

This development follows several other firsts for Vitel. It was the first of 46 MVNOs licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission to be allocated a numbering plan, as well as national and international routing codes. Vitel also launched a location awareness network and was the first to announce a strategic nationwide rollout plan.

“We are gathering momentum for our big launch,” said Kenneth Emeka Nwabueze, MFR, Chairman and CEO of Vitel Wireless. “We are proud to be showing what’s possible for MVNOs, while also creating a path for others to follow. By leveraging our years of experience in Nigeria’s telecom industry, we are opening up new possibilities where there used to be none.”

Vitel plans to pilot its network in May 2025, with a full nationwide deployment scheduled for July, aiming to connect “millions across Nigeria.”

TerraPay, a global money movement company, has partnered with Wave Mobile Money, a mobile money provider, in what is described as a strategic move to enhance cross-border remittance services in West Africa – and specifically Mali.

This partnership enables Malians to receive money from family and friends abroad directly into their Wave mobile wallets, creating a faster, more accessible, and cost-effective way to access international remittances.

Not surprisingly. the collaborating companies have an established presence in the region. Wave Mobile Money, a fintech company founded in 2018, is a mobile money services provider operating in seven West Africa countries: Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali and Burkina Faso.

TerraPay simplifies global money movement, providing a single connection to one of the most expansive cross-border payment networks regulated in over 30 global markets.

Through this collaboration, TerraPay’s global payment network now facilitates remittance flows from multiple money transfer operators across the US, Canada and Europe to Mali, all through a single streamlined integration. This model ensures that all Wave users in Mali can instantly receive funds.

TerraPay explains that over 80% of Mali’s population uses mobile phones, with many using them for mobile money and digital wallets. 

The Orabank Group, a major financial player in West Africa, will also be a part of this initiative. Karamokho Badiane, Regional Head of Business Development at Wave Mobile Money explains: “This strategic collaboration allows us to harness TerraPay’s global payments infrastructure alongside Orabank Mali’s deep expertise in remittance services, empowering us to expand our reach and provide even greater value to our users.”