Telkom Kenya, Loon launch balloon internet service for commercial use

Telkom and Loon have announced the availability of mobile Internet service via the Loon technology to Kenyans, starting July 2020.

This important milestone comes as the project partners approach the completion of their network integration tests that have seen them successfully assess service quality across their infrastructure and respective networks.

In one field testing"...

SES Delivers Video Services for BBC Studios

BBC Studios (BBCS) and its subsidiary UKTV have selected SES to manage the playout and distribution of over 50 linear channels, and their associated video on demand (VOD) services, SES announced today.

SES will provide playout, content processing, distribution, and VOD services, delivering BBCS and UKTV content to a network of affiliates globally and in the UK. These services will be based on SES’s European global delivery services with technical"...

Liquid Telecom provides VSAT connectivity to new social enterprise in Malawi

Pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom has announced that it is providing its multi-award-winning managed VSAT connectivity services to mbora, a pioneering new social enterprise in Malawi.

mbora provides people living and working in rural areas with free connectivity at a community hub. It has also built a super app to help increase digital inclusion by providing access to useful and relevant information and services online including finance"...

MTN reports commercial momentum, announces stepping down of CEO

MTN Group has announced an encouraging set of results for the year ended 31 December 2019 and that group president and CEO Rob Shuter would be stepping down from his role at the end of his contract in March 2021.

Commenting on the results, Shuter said: “In 2019, the 25th anniversary of MTN Group, we delivered commercial momentum across our operations as well as great progress in our strategy and strong financial results, despite challenging"...

Zain annual report calls for global sustainable solutions to save the planet

Zain Group, the mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, has published its annual thought leadership report, this year entitled, “The Circular Economy: Embedding Sustainable Solutions in a bid to Save the Planet.”

The report captures how the circular economy fits into helping address some of the devasting impacts of climate change.

This"...

Safaricom unveils new no-expiry postpay plans for its customers

Kenya's leading telco Safaricom has unveiled revamped PostPay plans that will offer customers bundled voice, data and SMS with no-expiry. The new plans launched yesterday will be available on a 30-day basis with any unused resources rolling over to the next month.

The new proposition also adds the convenience of customers joining from the comfort of their phones, removing the need to visit Safaricom Shops and fill application forms.

“Last"...

Telecom Operators Collaborate to Build the Telco Edge Cloud Platform with GSMA Support

Leading operators; China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Telefonica and TIM have joined forces, with the support of the GSMA, to develop an interoperable platform to make edge compute capabilities widely and easily available.

The platform to be developed in 2020, will make local operator assets and capabilities, such as latency, compute and storage available to application developers and software vendors enabling"...

BICS joins SMART Africa Alliance to implement free roaming initiative

BICS, a global communications enabler, has joined the SMART Africa Alliance and is supporting its ‘One Africa Network’ (OAN).

The project is working to reduce roaming charges among the 30 participating African countries, which collectively represent over 750 million people. The partnership was signed on Thursday 27th February in Brussels, Belgium by Lacina Koné, Smart Africa’s Director General and Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS.

GSMA: ICT Industry Agrees Landmark Science-based Pathway to Reach Net Zero Emissions

The ICT industry is today taking an unprecedented step forward in tackling climate change with the release of the first-ever science-based pathway to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions across the telecoms sector. This supports the GSMA’s commitment to helping the mobile industry achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new Science-Based Target (SBT) is the result of a collaboration between the ITU, GeSI, the GSMA, and SBTi to develop"...

Mavenir and MTI Announce First OpenRAN O-RAN Interface Remote Radio Unit (RRU) Portfolio

Mavenir, the industry’s only end-to-end cloud-native, Network Software Provider and MTI announce the first commercial portfolio of OpenRAN RRUs with the O-RAN interface. The initial portfolio consists of 2x20W RRUs for B3, B20, B7 and 2x40W for B5, B28, B71 with general availability in Q2 2020. More variants and additional band support will be added over time.

This portfolio underpins the ability to start transitioning from walled garden systems"...