News

COTONOU, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Benin’s telecommunications regulator has withdrawn the operating licence of Nigerian mobile telecoms company Globacom’s local unit in a dispute over new terms, according to a document seen on Tuesday.

Algar Telecom combined the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz bands to activate LTE-A in Uberlândia, city of Minas Gerais. The company promised speeds three times higher than those offered with traditional 4G although it recognized that the real speed will depend on factors such as the proximity of the antennas and the number of people connected to the same site, among others.

MTN, Africa's biggest telecommunications company, gained more than 3 per cent on the JSE on Friday, despite the government of Benin expelling MTN Benin chief executive Stephen Blewett.

JOHANNESBURG - Nokia and Vodacom have signed an MoU under which the companies will trial Nokia 5G technology to accelerate the launch of the new technology and enable Vodacom to drive digitalization for the benefit of businesses and individuals in South Africa.

Vodacom’s first commercially available Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network is now operational in Gauteng. Vodacom is the first South African and one of the first African mobile network operators to announce the commercial availability of its NB-IoT network.

Vodafone Australia today announced the next stage of deployment of its commercial Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, making it the first Australian telco to launch commercial NB-IoT services.

Vodafone has taken the next steps in the advancement of its mobile network performance by successfully conducting its first field demonstration of Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) using a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band.

Optus has announced the successful live network testing of combined Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and 3CC Carrier Aggregation technologies, 3CC Massive MIMO.

The network trial, conducted on live traffic at Macquarie Park in June 2017, attained a highest speed of 818 Mbps. It was completed with technology partner Huawei.

This decision by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL) is motivated by the fact that Northwave Sarl has renounced its status as licensed telecommunications operator by surrendering its entire capital to Afrimax.

Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) has officially launched a 4.5G network, which the company claims is the first of its kind in the country.

The 4.5G network is expected to improve data service provision, including media streaming and messaging services.

Australia's largest mobile carrier has switched on Cat M1 on its 4GX footprint in an effort to boost IoT uptake on its network.

Optus is spending $1 billion building 500 new mobile base stations around regional Australia to compete better against Telstra and Vodafone. 

SANTIAGO, June 29, 2017.- Nokia and Movistar Chile today held the first demonstration of 4.5G Pro in Latin America, reaching a speed of 1Gbps.

[Brasilia, Brazil, June 26, 2017] Recently, Claro Brazil launched the commercial 4.5G (4x4 MIMO+ Massive CA+256QAM) network in Brasilia in partnership with Huawei. The 4.5G network is the first network intended for commercial use in Brazil, and is expected to be the largest in the Latin America Region.

Brazilian operator Algar Telecom completed the refarming of the band from 1800 MHz to 4G, an idea that had been formalized by the end of 2015 . The 10 MHz previously saved for 2G were compressed at 5 MHz and the other half was used for LTE.

WND, the Latin American operator of Sigfox technology, begins the commercial operation of its IoT network in free frequency in August, with coverage of 50% of the population.

Vodafone Group Plc (“Vodafone Group”) announces today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vodafone International Holdings B.V. (“Vodafone”), has agreed to transfer part of its indirect shareholding in Safaricom Limited (“Safaricom”) to Vodacom Group Limited (“Vodacom”), its sub-Saharan African subsidiary.

The results of the first quarter of 2017 confirm the validity of the transformation actions started by the management, which have brought significant recovery on the domestic market and in Brazil.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) is pleased to have acquired 2 x 5MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band auction, for the reserve price of $286 million. This is $1.25 per MHz, per head of population. The acquisition is on the same terms VHA proposed to government in 2015.

TIM, the leader in 4G coverage in the country, is the first operator in Brazil to use the frequency of 2600 MHz and refarm the 1800 MHz frequency band to 4G LTE. TIM is now ready to make the move to future-proofing its network using the 700 MHz spectrum band, which enables excellent indoor and rural area coverage for 4G-enabled devices.

Luxembourg, 3 March, 2017 –Millicom International Cellular S.A. ("Millicom") and Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”), today announced that they have, through their respective subsidiaries, entered into an agreement for Tigo Ghana Limited and Airtel Ghana Limited to combine their operations in Ghana.

Announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the roll out of the network comes six months after the trial of the LoRaWAN technology and will be released on a project-by-project basis.

Telstra together with Ericsson today announced the upcoming deployment of LTE-B enabled in Telstra Media services and continued investment for the national roll-out of LTE-B in 2017 and beyond.