Continuing efforts by countries across the Middle East to develop domestic space ecosystems encompassing satellite infrastructure have been underlined by recent announcements from Oman and Iraq relating to ground stations.

Durri Space and Cailabs have signed a contract for the deployment of three optical ground stations across Oman, targeted to be operational by 2028. The network will be owned by Durri Space and powered by Cailabs technology.

Durri Space is an Omani space communications company and part of Enjaaz Group, a company delivering satellite-powered insights to governments and enterprises across the Gulf and beyond. Cailabs says it builds ground systems that make laser communications deployable.

The project is described as a significant step in Durri Space’s ambition to develop a long-term optical communications capability in the Sultanate. The network will support Oman’s national space ambitions, while opening the infrastructure to international satellite operators with growing data downlink requirements.

Durri Space selected Cailabs to provide the optical ground station technology for the network. Cailabs’ TILBA-OGS L10 has already been deployed internationally and used to establish bidirectional space-to-ground optical links.

The system combines proprietary atmospheric turbulence mitigation with automated operation. Built on a common technical platform, the three stations will form a distributed optical network across Oman. The TILBA-OGS L10 supports high-capacity communications with low-Earth-orbit satellites and interoperability with optical terminals using widely adopted Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and US Space Development Agency standards.

Beyond deploying the initial infrastructure, Durri Space and Cailabs intend to support the development of Omani talent and local expertise in optical communications. Together, they say, the three stations will give Oman the infrastructure to receive high-capacity satellite data, serve international operators, and strengthen its position in the emerging optical communications ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Iraq has launched a national satellite ground station designed to provide secure communications for government agencies, aviation services and remote areas, while allowing more data to be routed and stored inside the country rather than through infrastructure abroad.

The station is the first satellite teleport ground station established in Iraq since 2003. The facility is operated entirely by Ministry of Communications personnel and will support a range of civilian and security applications.

These will include satellite internet, television broadcasting, communications for security and military agencies, air-navigation services and VSAT-based connectivity for provinces and remote areas where terrestrial infrastructure may be limited.

The station has also been connected to the ministry’s fibre optic network, allowing satellite and terrestrial communications to operate as an integrated system.

According to the Kurdistan24 news service, primary and backup fibre routes have been established, allowing alternative connections if the main route is interrupted.

News

The move comes as the European Union grows increasingly wary of its reliance on Elon Musk’s Starlink

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have announced the signing of a letter of intent to explore a potential joint bid for the future allocation of spectrum for Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in Europe.

The move would see the group build key ground network infrastructure required to support a satellite network. The satellites themselves, however, would be owned and operated by an as-yet-unselected partner.

When combined, the operators would be able to offer customers open and non-discriminatory access to offer Direct-to-Device (D2D) services, as well as enhancing European network resiliency.

The decision relates to spectrum in the 2 GHz band, frequencies ideal for the delivery of D2D services. This band is currently occupied by Viasat and EchoStar, but their licences expire in May 2027.

In May, European policy makers proposed dividing the band into three, with one third reserved for governmental use, another for commercial EU operators entering the market, and one for EU and non-EU satellite operators. This, the European Commission said, would “strengthen the EU’s competitiveness and critical communications capabilities”.

“Satellite connectivity is a key piece of our technological sovereignty, our security, and our defence. technological sovereignty, our security, and our defence,” said the Commission in a statement.

While the proposal received support in Europe, it was lambasted in the US, with representatives threatening retaliation for what they claim would be unfair discrimination against US companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The news comes at a time when Europe is growing increasingly wary of handing control of critical infrastructure to US companies that may be compelled to follow the whims of President Donald Trump.

Last week, Ukraine reported that SpaceX had introduced restrictions affecting military satellite connectivity without advance warning, impacting both battlefield communications and early warning of incoming Russian attack.

Sources speaking to Reuters subsequently indicated that the order to reduce Starlink service to Ukraine came from the White House. President Trump denies these claims.

The incident caused a major diplomatic rift between Washington and Kyiv, with Germany – which pays for Ukraine’s Starlink service – also notably angered.

Ukraine has been using Starlink-supported drone and missile strikes to hit oil infrastructure deep inside Russia, a move which has contributed to the rise of global energy prices.

President Trump – whose approval rating has fallen to a record low ahead of the Midterms, largely due to the surge in household energy costs because of the war in Iran – has decried Ukraine’s targeted attacks as ‘a disgrace’.

It is unclear whether the Starlink and Starshield services have now been fully restored in Ukraine; reports from October 16 suggested they had largely improved but denied a return to previous service quality.

Against the background of this furore, it should come as little surprise that Europe’s biggest telcos are looking for alternatives to Starlink. In fact, Europe has long aspired to create its own satellite communications system in the form of IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite), a LEO platform designed to support defence and government users across the bloc.

IRIS²’s delivery, however, has been slow. The constellations first satellites are currently targeted for launch in 2029, with full operation via 348 satellites expected in 2032.

The proposed mobile satellite partnership could therefore offer Europe a more immediate route to sovereign D2D connectivity while IRIS² remains years from full deployment, reducing reliance on US-controlled satellite infrastructure.

How is the UK’s satellite landscape evolving? Join the discussion at Satellite Live 2027, co-located with Connected Britain 2027

Also in the news
Shared Rural Network rollout extends to UK national parks with over 150 4G masts live
Vodafone touts latest attempt to bridge the UK’s digital divide
Virgin Media O2 cuts 5,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions

Interview

At Connected Britain 2026 we caught up with NETS International MD, Jahangir Ahmad, to discuss the company’s entry into new markets and its embrace of new verticals like the smart home and even electric vehicle (EV) charging

Having entered the UK market in 2020 with just two people, NETS has grown to approximately 180 employees, contributing to the expansion of fibre networks and the creation of jobs across the industry. With operations now spanning the UK, Germany, and the United States, the company is applying its infrastructure expertise to new markets while expanding into data centres, 5G, and energy infrastructure.

In this interview, Jahangir discusses the company’s journey so far and how it has adapted to a maturing UK telecom market where customer installations, network maintenance, operational efficiency, and long-term value are becoming increasingly important.

Check out our full interview with Jahangir below!

How is the UK’s digital economy evolving? Join the connctivity industry in discussion at Connected Britain 2026

Indonesia’s PRT BRIN, and Indian companies Signaltron and Signalchip Innovations have signed a letter of intent for collaboration and co-development in the field of electronics, telecommunications, networking and drone technologies.

Under this arrangement, government agency BRIN, connectivity products company Signaltron and fabless semiconductor company Signalchip aim to collaborate to create secure, high-performance, and customised connectivity solutions in supporting the goal of connecting the unconnected in Indonesia, particularly in remote, under-served and island regions. 

Research Centre for Telecommunication (PRT) under the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN), is a sovereign research arm which works in the fields of advanced communication technologies including next-generation antennas, 6G and sub-Terahertz communication, among others, focusing on solutions for connectivity in Indonesia.

India’s Economic Times news service points out that Signaltron has developed advanced communication technologies ranging from small cells for local area deployment to micro and macro-level base stations like 4G and 5G using chips developed by Signalchip.

The areas of cooperation that the parties intend to work on include network customisation and the development of connectivity topologies suited to Indonesia’s archipelagic conditions, inter-island and intra-island solutions to provide last-mile connectivity to the underserved regions and pilot deployments of 4G/5G connectivity solutions, and future-generation solutions (including 6G), in both urban and rural settings. 

Signaltron, Signalchip and BRIN also intend to pursue joint research and co- development of advanced solutions for tropical and maritime environments in telecommunications, networking, positioning, optical networks, high-speed data and drone/unmanned aircraft system (UAS) integration.

A partnership expansion, some intercity momentum, and a bit of M&A: … [visit site to read more]

Press Release

Compact customer-premises appliance pairs with the MaiaEdge PBC 2000 to deliver automated, encrypted Ethernet connectivity over any available transport

MaiaEdge has introduced the PBC 100 Series, compact customer premises equipment (CPE) that helps fiber operators and service providers extend private Ethernet beyond their owned fiber footprints, directly to customer sites.

With the PBC 100 Series, part of the Path Border Controller product family, a service provider’s reach no longer stops where its fiber ends. Operators can extend private Layer 2 services to off-net customers over available transport, without an expensive new fiber build or a manually negotiated NNI. Instead of spending weeks or months extending network reach, providers can automatically establish the connection and start delivering services faster.

Designed to complement the PBC 2000 deployed at an operator’s point of presence (PoP), Metro Ethernet edge or data center, the PBC 100 Series brings the same automated path-provisioning capabilities to the customer premises. Operators can use available fiber, dedicated internet access, satellite or other IP transport to automatically establish a Layer 2 connection to a customer site. A single interface abstracts routing complexity and gives operators end-to-end visibility.

The PBC 100 Series is built on SD-Ethernet, the architecture behind MaiaEdge’s ability to extend Ethernet services simply and programmatically over any available transport. The PBC 100 Series is the newest building block in that architecture, and the first to bring it to the customer premises. This is giving operators a faster, simpler way to reach more customers and deliver more services without waiting on new physical infrastructure.

“For decades, where your fiber ended, your service opportunity ended with it,” said Abilash Menon, CEO and Co-Founder of MaiaEdge. “The PBC 100 Series breaks that link. Providers can reach off-net customers without building fiber or negotiating a new NNI, then turn that connection into private connectivity, cloud access, AI infrastructure, and more. We’re giving operators a way to expand their addressable market without expanding their physical network.”

Beyond the initial connection, the PBC 100 Series turns a newly reachable customer site into a platform for additional services, whether from the operator’s own network or from MaiaEdge-enabled partners. An operator can extend cloud on-ramps, distributed AI access and future services to that same connection, without a separate integration project for each one. With the PBC 100 Series, operators aren’t only able to reach customers they couldn’t before, but can also unlock new revenue from services they couldn’t previously deliver.

For data center and AI infrastructure operators, the same model can speed tenant onboarding by reducing the manual configuration typically required to connect a new customer.

“With the PBC 100 Series, we’re delivering Layer 2 services to customer sites that simply weren’t practical to reach before,” said Victor Rodriguez, CTO at HDCO Group. “It gives us a simple Ethernet experience over infrastructure that may come from multiple sources. Compared with the networking approaches we’ve used before, it is five times easier to operate, and it opens opportunities we previously could not pursue.”

A fiber footprint used to be where Layer 2 services ended. The PBC 100 Series removes that boundary. The first device in the series, the PBC 124-C, is available now. Read the full story at maiaedge.io/pbc100.

Ericsson will merge its North East Asia and South East Asia, Oceania and India operations into a single Asia-Pacific unit from 2027, as part of a broader effort to streamline its structure and improve efficiency.

Patrick Johansson, currently head of Market Area Europe, Middle East and Africa, will lead the new Market Area Asia-Pacific, and remain on Ericsson’s Executive Team. The company said it will begin recruiting a successor to Johansson in EMEA.

Chafic Nassif, who leads North East Asia, and Andres Vicente, head of South East Asia, Oceania and India, will support the transition before handing over their responsibilities on 31 December 2026.

New Ericsson CEO Per Narvinger said the consolidation is intended to help it operate more effectively across Asia-Pacific while maintaining a focus on customers and individual countries. It forms part of a broader simplification of the company’s operating structure, which Ericsson says is designed to strengthen customer focus, make greater use of its research and development capabilities, improve accountability and drive efficiencies.

The announcement came alongside Ericsson’s third-quarter results. The figures offer context for the company’s focus on efficiency, although Ericsson did not say that the APAC changes were a direct response to financial performance or to results in the region.

For the quarter, reported sales rose 6% year over year to SEK 59.5 billion (US$6 billion), while organic sales increased 7%, primarily on higher Networks sales. Organic sales grew in three of Ericsson’s four market areas. Adjusted EBITA was SEK 10.1 billion, down from SEK 15.8 billion a year earlier, but the comparison included a SEK 7.6 billion capital gain in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITA margin was 17.0%, compared with 28.1% a year ago.

Narvinger described the quarter as strong, while pointing to a flat radio access network market, elevated geopolitical uncertainty and higher component costs as challenges ahead. The company said it is pursuing portfolio optimisation, pricing and efficiency measures to offset cost pressures and strengthen competitiveness.

The APAC consolidation is one element of a wider organisational reshuffle. Ericsson is also moving the portfolio of its Business Area Enterprise Wireless Solutions into other parts of the company, saying this will help create research and development synergies and provide scale for product innovation. Neutral Host and Ericsson Private 5G will move into Business Area Networks, while Wireless WAN will remain a standalone business reporting to the head of Market Area Americas.

Taken together, the announcements indicate a push to streamline management and bring related activities closer together as Ericsson seeks to improve execution and respond to market pressures. The company’s stated rationale for the new APAC unit, however, centres on operating more effectively across the region and serving customers – not on a specific regional financial shortfall.

Millicom, the digital telecommunications and media company operating primarily under the Tigo brand in Latin America, has announced an investment of approximately US$2.665 billion in Colombia over the next four years.

This follows its acquisition of Movistar Colombia, which we reported in February. The investment in Colombia, which will be added to the US$1.411 billion invested in acquisitions in the country, will be used to strengthen the capacity of the mobile network, expand coverage and increase the capacity of the fibre optic network.

According to the BNamericas website, the company has plans to cover 80% of the main cities with 5G and invest in more than 1,200 sites to cover approximately two million Colombians who do not have mobile service or may not have access to a second provider.

In Ecuador, where it has bought Telefonica Ecuador, Tigo plans to invest around US$460 million over the next three to four years, again on upgrades, including modernisation and expansion of the network, digital infrastructure, and improving the customer experience.

Investments of some US$440 million are also planned in the operations of the former Telefónica Uruguay and in the company’s existing operations in Honduras, where US$1 billion will be spent over the next five years.

According to BNamericas, the projected investments in Colombia added to those announced in Ecuador and Uruguay, bring planned investment to a total of US$3.725 billion over the next three to four years. The company has not yet announced investment figures for its operation in Chile.

Almost 30 suspected scammers have been arrested and 3.7 million online profiles and accounts removed as part of a multi-agency crackdown – also involving private sector companies – against fraud perpetrated from across Africa.

The arrests, which took place in recent weeks, primarily in Ghana and Nigeria, happened as more than 100 people from overseas law enforcement agencies and tech companies gathered in London to participate in an operational intensification targeting crime groups operating across Africa and the infrastructure that they use to target victims in the UK and beyond.

Officers from such organisations as the FBI, Nigeria Police Force and Ghanaian Cyber Security Authority were joined by industry representatives from 15 companies including Meta, Microsoft and Google.

According to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which hosted the event between 6 and 9 October, operational activity took place both during that week and in the run-up to the event. The operations included focus on fraudsters based in West African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria, where social media profiles are used to target victims of a number of fraud types, including investment and impersonation fraud.

Report Fraud, a UK service that enables people to tell the police about cybercrime and fraud, worked with tech giant Meta to provide data to identify fraud enablers. The NCA and other law enforcement agencies worked closely with industry to help locate the suspects behind the scams leading to their arrests. Meta also played a key role in coordinating the event and encouraging broad private sector participation to maximise scam compound disruption.

Over 1,110 West African Facebook and Instagram accounts that were associated with the data provided by Report Fraud were disabled, as were over 490 Facebook accounts and over 490 ad accounts identified by the UK’s OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) Data Enforcement. OCC Data Domain Enforcement identified and disabled over 380 scam domains that were assessed to potentially be associated with the scam domains provided by the OCC.

Arrests and seizure of associated electronic devices took place in the Sasaabi, Accra region of Ghana and the Delta State in Nigeria. This was a multi-agency operation led by the Ghana Cyber Security Authority, supported by the NCA, Ghana Police Service, FBI, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria.

The crackdown also saw 3.7 million online profiles and accounts removed by Meta and a total of $11 million dollars in potential freezable funds were identified by the private sector partners.

Will it be enough? As Ecofin notes, in its cyberthreat assessment published in June 2025, Interpol reported that more than 30% of crimes reported in West and East Africa were linked to cybercrime, based on data provided by the countries surveyed. However, in its African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, Interpol recommends strengthening digital investigation capabilities, cross-border cooperation and partnerships between law enforcement agencies and private companies, so this initiative seems to be a timely one.