Uniti Group is investing in its intercity fiber network with two new lit routes. The plans call for 100G and 400G wavelength services as well as spectrum services on the new Dallas-Atlanta and Atlanta/Ashburn routes. … [visit site to read more]
13
Oct, 2022
Indian cyber security ruling deadline may be extended – again
The deadline for complying with the Indian government’s controversial new cybersecurity directives is likely to be extended, according to Indian media – though only for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)’s guidelines originally appeared in late April. They required all companies, intermediaries, data centres and government organisations to report any data breach to the government within six hours of becoming aware of it.
However, they also mandated virtual private network (VPN) service providers to maintain all the information they had gathered for five years and hand it over to the government as and when required. SMEs and MSMEs have to hold on to the data for three years.
As we have reported, citing security and privacy concerns, some VPN service providers such as ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and NordVPN have announced plans to stop offering their services in India.
The Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told India’s Economic Times: “We will not make SMEs or MSMEs bear the burden of this additional compliance until they are ready.” However, the ministry itself seems not to have been ready for the disruption the new ruling might cause.
In fact this is the second extension in the compliance deadline for SMEs and MSMEs by the ministry. There was an extension in late June to September 25, after representations from SMEs, MSMEs, data centres, VPS, VPN, and cloud service providers that they needed more time to “build capacity”.
It seems, however, that some SMEs and MSMEs still lack the cost-effective human resources needed to comply with the cybersecurity rules. And of course maintaining data will add to their operational costs.
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NTIA releases further $600m in grants for Tribal connectivity
NEWS
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has awarded 23 new grants aimed at deploying broadband on tribal land and improving accessibility
Back in November 2021, President Joe Biden signed the far-reaching Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law, pledging to invest around $550 billion in federal funding to improve America’s physical and digital infrastructure, from roads to fibre networks.
Of this total, around $65 billion has been earmarked to help extend affordable, reliable, and high-speed internet access to everyone in America, with a particular focus on helping the most digitally underprivileged demographics in the country.
One such group, facing a disproportionate risk of digital exclusion – particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic – are the Tribal communities within the US. While Federal Communications Commission data from 2019 showed that fixed broadband services were accessible for 95.6% of the US population, just 79.1% of people on Tribal lands had similar access. To make matters worse, only 46.5% of Tribal households with access to broadband services had adopted these services.
As a result, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) was set up in 2021, aiming to help improve not only the availability of broadband infrastructure in these communities, but also the digital skills to fully benefit from the technology.
The TBCP was backed by an initial allocation of $980 million from the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, which was signed into law the same year. The aforementioned IIJA, which was codified a few months later, allocated a further $2 billion to the TBCP, bringing the total available funds to almost $3 billion.
Since then, the NTIA has been gradually releasing the funds to Tribal communities and organisations, following an application process (which was, ironically, criticised for being inaccessible due to lack of broadband availability).
This week, the NTIA has announced its latest batch of grants as part of TBCP, awarding 23 grants worth over $601.6 million.
Communities and organisations in fifteen states will benefit from the grants: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The largest grant, worth $52.5 million, was given to Calista Corporation, a Tribal organisation planning to help deploy fibre for 10 villages in Alaska.
“We are making an historic investment in Tribal communities to ensure reliable, affordable high-speed Internet for all,” explained Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These grants – made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – underscore President Biden’s commitment to closing the digital divide in the United States, especially within Tribal lands. Today’s awards will not only build high-speed Internet capacity within Tribal Nations, but also bring digital opportunities for good-paying jobs, education, and healthcare.”
These latest grants bring the total of allocated funds to roughly $1.35 billion, with additional grants to be announced on a rolling basis over the coming months.
To what extent are Tribal lands at risk of falling below the digital divide? Join the discussion live in Texas at the upcoming Connected America conference
Also in the news:
Understanding the telco’s role in the IoT market
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MTN Group joins the Telecom Infra Project’s Board of Directors
12
Oct, 2022
ESnet6 Upgrades, Leverages Ciena Gear to Hit 46Tbps
ESnet has launched the latest iteration of its next-generation network backbone. ESnet6 is the U.S. Department of Energy’s research & development network and is headquartered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It connects up all the national laboratories, supercomputing centers, researches, and instruments, enabling the processing and sharing of massive data sets. … [visit site to read more]
12
Oct, 2022
Vodafone and Ericsson continue network optimization drive in Oman
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An Interview with Darren Woods, CFO, Freedom Fibre at Connected Britain 2022.
11
Oct, 2022
Tuesday Bytes: AtlasEdge.
A bit of M&A, some R&D, and a couple of interesting technology deployments: … [visit site to read more]
Tuesday Bytes: AtlasEdge, Sparkle, STL, Vocus, Verizon Business
A bit of M&A, some R&D, and a couple of interesting technology deployments: … [visit site to read more]
10
Oct, 2022
Another Nigerian operator joins the PSB club
Nigeria’s Globacom has joined the rush to open payment service banks (PSBs) with the launch of its MoneyMaster PSB offering. MoneyMaster was granted a payment service bank licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2020.
MoneyMaster PSB will, like other PSBs, and working in line with CBN regulations, facilitate payment and remittance services within Nigeria, accept deposits from individuals and small businesses, issue debit and prepaid cards, operate electronic wallets and inbound remittances and carry out other services.
To open an account, all the customer needs to do is dial a code and then follow the prompts from any telecommunications network; MoneyMaster PSB is network-agnostic. However, the operator says it will leverage Globacom’s nationwide coverage and many agents in rural and urban areas for its rollout.
As for product branding, the main solution is called G-Kala, which turns a phone into a wallet (the customer’s phone number will be used as his or her account number). With G-Kala a user can receive cash from any mobile app and move money to other accounts.
According to the Nairametrics website, Globacom has said it will be engaging over 100,000 agents and deploying kiosks across the country. Moneymaster will, says the operator, be leveraging mobile phones, PoS, and the web to provide financial services to millions of Nigerians who may otherwise be excluded from the financial system.
Local media outlets point out that Moneymaster’s launch completes the entry of all mobile network operators in Nigeria into the financial services business through services like 9Mobile’s 9PSB, MTN’s MoMo and Airtel’s Smartcash. Another service, Hope Payment Service Bank Limited (Hope PSBank) is described as Nigeria’s premier digital-first bank.
Globacom has said that close to 50% of Nigerians do not have access to a banking service and 82% of Nigerians are currently receiving their income in cash. It has added that its PSB is geared towards the 95% financial inclusion target by 2024 set by the CBN.
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Prysmian develops pre-connectorised products to address the UK’s increasing demand for fibre connections
INTERVIEW
Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian UK, shares his thoughts on the increasingly crowded space available for the UK’s energy transition and the deployment of broadband networks.
Prysmian is using its global experience in broadband rollout to develop smaller, higher quality pre-connectorised products to help networks meet the increasing demand for fibre connections at a time when the UK is experiencing a skills shortage.
Furthermore, Prysmian acknowledge that we’re in the first part of the big full fibre wave and we’re accelerating. In parallel, Prysmian are developing new products – cables, connectorisation, connectivity, to get the cables to the end users’ home – this is the second wave.
This interview was conducted at Connected Britain 2022, the event will return to London in 2023 – find out more here