News

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.

Doha, Qatar – Gaza, Palestine

As part of its continuous efforts to improve and enhance its services in the markets where it operates, Ooredoo Group has announced that its operating company in Palestine, Wataniya Mobile, has officially launched its operations in Gaza.

Nowadays, ofo, remote meter reading, smart watches and many other Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services become a part of daily life in China where trillion connections happen.

China has been a leader in the network construction, launching, innovation of NB-IoT, Wen Ku, Director of Department of Communications Development of MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic China) said at the NB-IoT Summit on Monday.

Paying great attention to the NB-IoT industry, MIIT has set the plan and issued a series of documents.

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.

Kuwait, September 11, 2017: Zain Group, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in the Middle East and North Africa, announces that it has successfully tested 5G technology achieving maximum throughput speeds of over 70 Gbps over 2 GHz spectrum.

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.

Ericsson is continuing to support SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., with 5G Proof of Concept (PoC) activities. The two companies are set to conduct a joint end-to-end trial of 5G in the 4.5GHz band in the urban areas of Japan.

China Unicom with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) have commercially launched a Gigabit LTE network, allowing subscribers to enjoy the services and benefits available with high-speed mobile broadband data.

Minister of Communications and Technology Dr. Ali Al-Zafair held a press conference in the presence of Dr. Abdullah Al-Gharbi, Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, and Mr. Ziad Sebh, Managing Director of MTN Syria and Mrs. Magda Saqr, General Manager of Syriatel.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has become a member of a consortium led by the operator Zain in Kuwait. The consortium will carry out a large digital transformation project for local utilities. The project will be completed by 2024 and as the sole technology partner, Ericsson will deploy a new smart metering solution.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel signed an agreement on Wednesday that would allow Palestinian mobile service providers to offer 3G services to their Palestinian customers.

VIVA Bahrain, the innovative telecom operator and credited with the widest 4G network coverage in the Kingdom, has unlocked a host of new advanced LTE capabilities, paving the way towards 5G services.

MTN Syria today announced that it has launched the pilot phase of the service of 4G LTE in Syria in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Technology, in a move which enhances MTN of outstanding services and products offered by the Syrian market, providing a sophisticated and fast Internet service and in line with the orientation of the leadership in the digital world.

It is reported that MIIT recently announced that China is required to speed up the implementation of NB-IoT in China, and to build 400,000 base stations by the end of this year, 1.5 million by 2020.

NB-IoT has outstanding advantages in depth coverage, large links, ultra low power consumption and ultra low cost, becoming an important push of the IoT industry process.

China Telecom Corp announced it has established the world's biggest coverage in the narrowband internet of things, which has a wide range of commercial applications in fields including smart parking and intelligent manufacturing.

China Telecom announced on May 17, 2017 that it has built world's most extensive new-generation commercial NB-IoT network.

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.

Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces its consolidated financial results for the first quarter (Q1) ending 31 March 2017. Zain served 46.1 million customers at the end of the period, reflecting a 1.4% increase year-on-year (Y-o-Y).

Kuwait, 10th April 2017: VIVA, Kuwait's fastest-growing and most developed telecom operator, has successfully tested the fifth-generation "5G" in its lab and was able to achieve almost 35 Gbps. Being the first telecom company in Kuwait to try the unrivalled 5G, reflects its continuous commitment to its customers to deliver up-to-date technologies that meet their aspirations.

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.

Ooredoo has successfully conducted tests on one of the first-ever 5G trial systems, positioning Qatar as one of the only countries in the world – and the first in the GCC region – to achieve this incredible technical milestone.

Comsol's open architecture, open platform Low Power Wide Area National network deployment, Comsol IoT, has been launched. Backed by a global alliance and driven by international giants such as Cisco and IBM, the latest generation IoT network offers low cost, long range, low power IoT connectivity, capable of supporting geolocation.

Amsterdam (4 October 2016) - VimpelCom Ltd. (NASDAQ: VIP) and Global Telecom Holding S.A.E. (GTH) (EGX: GTHE, LSE: GLTD) announced that Djezzy , their subsidiary in Algeria, has launched 4G/LTE services to meet customers’ increasing need for high-speed mobile digital services. 

The 4G LTE-A network implementation is enabled by carrier aggregation technology, which combines two frequencies in order to significantly improve throughput and spectral efficiency. For Alfa, Nokia combined 20 MHz on the 1800 MHz frequency band with 15 MHz on the 800 MHz band.

Vodafone and Afrimax Group (“Afrimax”) - a 4G telecommunications operator in sub-Saharan Africa - today jointly announced a new Partner Market agreement for Zambia.

Under the non-equity agreement, the two companies will offer customers high speed 4G data services using the ‘Vodafone Zambia’ brand, with market-leading customer services and delivered over a high quality network.

In partnership with Huawei and Nokia, the initialisation of the technology is set to be in September 2016, with 1415 sites to be installed, promising coverage that will span 99.8% of the country.   

Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators today announces the launch of the Orange brand in Egypt. As of today, the Orange brand replaces the Mobinil brand.