TELECOMS

A Kenyan court revived the possibility of a merger between Telkom Kenya and Bharti Airtel’s local unit after dismissing regulatory objections which caused the operators to call off talks in 2020, Business Daily reported. The newspaper stated the nation’s High Court dismissed questions raised by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) regarding the sale of Telkom Kenya’s assets. While the EACC last month concluded any sale of Telkom Kenya was free from potential corruption, it required clearance from prosecutors before a deal could be considered. Business Daily stated Kenya’s Communications...

Rakuten announced 2.5 million customers had applied for a free unlimited mobile offer by February 8, as the operator continued to accelerate a rollout across Japan. The mobile unit recorded revenue of JPY60.7 billion (US$577.9 million) in Q4 2020, up 16.8 per cent year-on-year, albeit the figure is not directly comparable as it was still in MVNO mode during Q4 2019. Operating loss of JPY75.4 billion was 43.8 per cent lower. The company launched commercial services on its own infrastructure in April 2020, followed by 5G in September. Parent Rakuten...

By Emmanuel Oluebube, Correspondent UK Ofcom Friday withdrew the licence for China Global Television Network( CGTN) to broadcast in the UK, after its investigation concluded that the licence is wrongfully held by Star China Media Limited. CGTN is an international English-language satellite news channel. In the UK, broadcasting laws made by Parliament state that broadcast licensees must have control over the licensed service – including editorial oversight over the programmes they show. In addition, under these laws, licence holders cannot be controlled by political bodies. However, Ofcom investigation concluded that...

By Nojeed Gandour, Correspondent Egypt Umniah Jordan has announced its partnership with Ericsson with a new contract covering the transformation of its radio access network (RAN) infrastructure in Jordan. This extended partnership will optimize the subscriber experience for both consumers and enterprises. The agreement covers hardware, software and range of services such as network management, system integration and support. It also covers the transformation of existing 4G infrastructure in order to cater for the increased consumer demand on connectivity. Umniah Chief Executive Officer, Ziad Shatara says: “The upcoming transformation of...

By Oystein Bergmann, Correspondent Scandinavia Ericsson has launched a 5G network slicing solution for radio access networks (RAN) that will enable communications service providers to deliver customized 5G services with guaranteed performance. Now commercially available, Ericsson 5G RAN Slicing allocates radio resources at 1 millisecond scheduling and supports multi-dimensional service differentiation handling across slices. This strengthens end-to-end slicing capabilities for dynamic resource management and orchestration that ensure the high-quality end-user experience required by diverse use cases. Network slicing supports multiple logical networks for different service types over one common infrastructure....