Spectrum allocation is a slow process in South Africa and has been for many years now. Indeed, it has in fact been almost 17 years since fresh spectrum was released by the regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), and five previous attempts to auction spectrum have failed.
While, naturally, this slow licencing process was lamented by the operators, the urgency of making further spectrum available was ultimately driven by the onset of the coronavirus in early 2020, when demand on national networks soared to unprecedented levels.
At the time…
ISP KCOM Grows UK Broadband Customer Base to 139,700
KCOM, which recently extended their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 250,000 premises across East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire in England (here), has published their annual accounts and revealed that their total broadband customer base has grown to 139,700 (most are now on FTTP, having migrated from ADSL and FTTC). The operator had previously invested […]
Vodafone UK and EE Delay Reintroduction of EU Roaming Charges
Mobile operators Vodafone and EE (BT) have moved to mildly delay the planned reintroduction of EU roaming charges, which will eventually see most customers being charged £2 per day to use their UK allowances (calls, texts and data / mobile broadband) across related countries. Previously, you could do this at no extra cost. Last year’s […]
Startup Stories: Ethical data trading and securing digital lives
Tell us about Praeferre
We help people and businesses to address concerns around data privacy and data sharing through enabling businesses to create informed consent management and offer incentives for the sharing of customer data. Through our one-of-a-kind SaaS platform, PRAEFERRE allows business to bring transparency in customer data management and helps individuals to take control of their data. Our ethical data trading framework help individuals to manage their digital life’s privacy preferences in a seamless manner and receive incentives for the commercial use of their information. So, the businesses in our platform manage their customers information with more confidence and can build a sustainable and loyal user base…
EXA Infrastructure and IslaLink announce agreement for IONIAN cable system
EXA Infrastructure, the largest dedicated digital infrastructure platform connecting Europe and North America, and Islalink, a neutral fibre infrastructure operator specialising in submarine cables, today announced a partnership whereby EXA will become the key landing and terrestrial services partner in Italy and anchor tenant in IONIAN.
Islalink is building IONIAN, a 24 fibre pair ultra-low-loss fibre optic cable across the Ionian Sea from Crotone in southern Italy to Preveza in Greece, offering an alternative to the existing ageing sub-sea cables in the region…
GBP20m Boost Fuels Lothian Broadband’s FTTP Rollout in Scotland
ISP Lothian Broadband, which last year proposed to extend their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 50,000 premises across rural parts of East and Mid Lothian, has secured a major funding boost of £20m from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) and their rollout target has been raised to 70,000 premises. Until relatively recently, the […]
Axione Fibre’s £300m UK fibre rollout may begin in St. Andrews
With ambitious fibre targets for 2025 set by the government, investment in the UK’s fixed broadband sector has been booming in the past couple of years, with numerous new players emerging to fight for their share of the spoils.
In August last year, one such emerging player was Axione Fibre, a new subsidiary of French operator Axione, who announced that they had received £…
Airtel Africa closes $176m Tanzanian tower sale
Airtel Africa have today announced the first closing of a deal that will see them offload roughly 1,400 mobile sites across Tanzania for $176 million.
The buyer in this case is a joint venture between SBA Communications Corp and Paradigm Infrastructure Ltd., in which SBA is the majority owner…
Bharti Airtel not restructuring after all, forms satellite JV
Back in April last year, Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced that it was preparing a major reshuffle that would see its telecom business separated from its own units. As part of the move, the company’s digital and infrastructure assets would remain under the parent business, while the telecoms unit itself would move to the newly created Airtel Ltd.
At the time, the separation made a lot of sense…
Business UK ISP FluidOne Acquires SAS Global Communications
Business focused UK ISP and communications provider FluidOne has today announced the acquisition of SAS Global Communications, a provider of SD-WAN-enabled global hybrid networks, to help enhance its own service offering to mid-market and enterprise customers. The acquisition of SAS builds on the prior acquisition of PSU Business Technology (PSU) in October 2020, that included […]