Optical & Fixed Networks

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar announced on Thursday it has purchased regional ISP Shtorm to boost its presence in the fixed broadband space. No financial details were disclosed.

NEC announced on Thursday it has won a contract from Brazilian telecoms and IT infrastructure provider Eletronet to modernize and extend its fibre backbone with optical solutions from Nokia.

Bahrain-headquartered technology company Beyon Group has been selection by the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) as the winning investor for the Fixed Telecommunications Network Development Project in Kuwait.

Tata Communications announced on Monday it is partnering with RailTel Corporation of India to fortify the latter’s fibre backbone infrastructure to support AI development in the country.

Google has announced an investment of US$500 million in the construction of submarine cables and an international digital exchange port for the Dominican Republic. This will apparently be the company’s eighth digital exchange port in the world and the first in Latin America.

MTN Digital infrastructure – a.k.a. Bayobab – announced on Saturday that its subsidiary Bayobab Zambia has partnered with Vodacom Mozambique to interconnect their fibre networks at the Zambia–Mozambique border.

The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has reportedly secured conditional approval from the State Audit Bureau (SAB) to award a KWD19.9 million (US$64.8 million) contract for a project to modernise Kuwait’s fixed-line telecoms infrastructure.

International network services provider RETN says it has launched a new fibre backbone route between Estonia and Latvia as part of its broader expansion plan to diversify connectivity between Northern and Central Europe.

Google Cloud announced on Thursday that it will build three new subsea cables connecting India to the US via South Africa, Singapore and Australia as part of its grand plan to establish an AI hub in India.

Nokia has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iraqi technology and infrastructure investment group T964 to modernise Iraq’s telecoms and digital infrastructure.

e& Carrier & Wholesale and TNS Global announced on Wednesday that they are partnering to launch a new high-performance connectivity corridor between Kazakhstan and the UAE.

UAE-based telco du said on Thursday it is partnering with Cyprus-based independent subsea infrastructure provider Datawave Networks to land the latter’s Singapore-India-Gulf (SING) subsea cable system in the UAE.

IHS Fiber Brasil announced on Wednesday it is quitting the Brazilian fibre sector after parent firm IHS Towers agreed to sell its 51% stake in fibre company I-Systems back to Brazilian operator TIM SA.

Sparkle revealed on Wednesday it has signed deals with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Elettra to build its planned GreenMed subsea cable connecting the Middle East and the Balkans to Italy via the Adriatic Sea.

Pan-African telecoms network services provider Paratus Group announced on Monday it has switched on a new terrestrial fibre route in East Africa connecting cities in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda.

Saudi Arabian telco stc Group announced on Sunday it has signed a deal to build the Syrian government’s SAR 3 billion (US$800 million) Silklink project that aims to boost Syria’s optical fibre infrastructure and create a regional internet hub.

ZTE announced on Thursday that Ecuadorian fixed broadband operator Netlife has commercially deployed its Smart Cloud Platform (SCP) to deliver enhanced smart-home network services to its customers.

The Jamaican government said on Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent with Trans Americas Fiber System to connect the island to the TAM-1 subsea cable.

Papua New Guinea’s National Executive Council (NEC) – essentially its cabinet – has approved the Pukpuk Connectivity Initiative, which it has described as one of the most important digital infrastructure approvals in the nation’s recent history.

China’s Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable (YOFC) revealed on Monday it has completed and launched a national broadband network project for Peru commissioned by the government six years ago.

South African open-access fibre provider Frogfoot says it has expanded its footprint in KwaZulu-Natal after acquiring fibre infrastructure assets built and operated by Mitsol.

Telekom Srbija Group and its subsidiary Mtel are upgrading fibre connectivity between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina using Ciena’s coherent optical technology, as the operator looks to boost cross-border capacity and prepare its network for rising data demand.

Trans Pacific Networks (TPN) said on Tuesday it has struck a deal with Ciena to deploy its optical solutions on the Echo and Tabua cable systems connecting the US to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Brazil is set to receive its largest delivery of fibre optic cable to date from trade partner China, bolstering efforts to connect remote communities in the north of the country with high-speed internet.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has commissioned Malaysian subsea cable developer SubConnex to study the feasibility of a new submarine cable system linking India with Singapore and major data centres across Southeast Asia.

Space World Group subsidiary Constl said on Thursday it is partnering with Nokia to deploy a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport network across India to meet demand for webscale, cloud and AI-driven traffic.

The Republic of Congo has announced plans to connect the country to a, so far unidentified, new undersea cable following a number of reports regarding faults in the long-established WACS cable on which the country heavily relies.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and OMS Group announced on Monday that they have signed a contract with newly formed JV Intra-Asia Marine Networks (I-AM NW) to supply and install the Intra-Asia Marine (I-AM) Cable system linking Japan and Southeast Asia.

NTT Data, Sumitomo and JA Mitsui Leasing announced plans on Tuesday for a new subsea cable, dubbed Intra-Asia Marine Cable (I-AM Cable), that will connect Japan and South Korea to Malaysia and Singapore.

Orange Jordan said on Tuesday it has expanded of its fibre broadband access network to include Tafila and additional areas in Aqaba as part of its commitment to develop Jordan’s digital infrastructure.

A sixth subsea cable has been damaged in the Baltic Sea, keeping regional authorities on high alert amid growing scrutiny of Russian-linked maritime activity, the Financial Times reported. 

State-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced the awarding of two more BharatNet contracts as the village connectivity project enters its third, and presumably final, phase.