Displaying items by tag: partnership

Nokia has announced a new, seven-year agreement to support POST Luxembourg in supplying ultra-high-speed fiber access to consumers and businesses across the country.

The deal confirms Nokia as the main supplier for fixed access to the operator, building on the long-standing relationship of the two companies. POST will deploy Nokia’s Multi-PON line cards, supporting GPON and XGS-PON simultaneously, and thereby reducing migration costs and effort.

POST Luxembourg is the leading provider of fixed fiber access in the country, with an extensive DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) and GPON installed base. 72% of the Grand Duchy is already covered with fiber access. Nokia supports the operator’s plans to upgrade the network to XGS-PON, a new fiber access technology that can provide ultra-fast broadband speeds of up to 10Gbps for both downstream and upstream compared with the current maximum of 2.5Gbps.

As the demand for bandwidth from consumers and businesses grows, Nokia multi-PON technology allows POST Luxembourg to bring new ultra-fast broadband services to the market quickly. In addition, the migration process allows POST to do the upgrades for customers with a minimum interruption to their service.

The deal to bring reliable ultra-fast network services to customers strengthens POST’s position in Luxembourg and its capital, Luxembourg City, a major European hotspot for banks and large international companies, such as Amazon. Being one of the four capitals of the European Community, Luxembourg is also home to the Court of Justice for the European Union: making it a vital component of the region’s infrastructure.

Gaston Bohnenberger, Director of POST Technologies at POST Luxembourg, said: “The choice for Nokia was made based on multiple factors: the long-standing partnership in the fixed access domain, the easiness of migration reducing the customer impact and Nokia’s optical networking technology. Demand for data is growing at a phenomenal rate. We need to make sure we can not only meet the needs now, but offer the fastest access and best service quality for our business and residential customers also in the future.”

Sandra Motley, President of Fixed Networks at Nokia, said: “We are delighted to support POST Luxembourg’s ambitious strategy with our Multi-PON technology. The operator will utilize this technology to provide a futureproof network and up to 10Gbs broadband speeds for its customers, and do that with reduced migration costs and minimal interruption in the current services.”

Emirates has announced a collaboration with Huawei to promote the Emirates app to Huawei phone users and build a more convenient and rewarding experience for passengers as travel demand recovers in the post-pandemic era.

Since January 2020, Emirates passengers have been downloading the Emirates app (Android version) at AppGallery and benefiting from its rich range of functions. The recent enhanced collaboration between the two parties extends the shared platform to include SmartCard Integration, providing a quick booking option for Emirates app users in the Chinese mainland and the UAE, as well as the ability to easily access their travel and flight information. Emirates-themed wallpapers, icons and fonts will also be created for travel enthusiasts to download and inspire their next travel plans and to customize their mobile experience.

Commenting on the partnership with Huawei, an Emirates spokesperson said: "It's our pleasure to build a collaboration with Huawei in order to provide the best possible customer experience, not only onboard and on the ground, but also online. Considering Huawei's strong market position in the Chinese mainland and the UAE, we are proud to collaborate with them on promoting our app. The engaging tools that are available on the Huawei AppGallery can help us create closer bonds and experiences with more customers, especially in China, which is a significant market for us. The next phase of our collaboration will roll out soon and is aimed at benefitting passengers at every step of their journey, from trip planning to arriving at their destination."

Subsequent phases of the joint cooperation will see Emirates and Huawei planning to expand features available to the airline's customers by integrating the Emirates app with the Huawei Wallet platform. The new features will enable Skywards members to store membership details and loyalty points, in addition to boarding passes and vouchers in the Huawei Wallet. Furthermore, Emirates customers will also soon be able to enter any of its worldwide lounges by simply tapping their Huawei device at the door.

The collaboration may also extend in the near future to include payment options and rewarding experiences, allowing easy redemptions of Skywards Miles and the ability to earn Huawei points. Users can also earn rewards points from designated banks in the UAE, to be used for the purchase of Emirates tickets or Huawei phones and accessories. The shared platform will also allow redemptions with car rental companies, telecommunication providers as well as airport taxi partners to bring more benefits to Emirates passengers and Huawei users.

Mr. Lu Geng, Director, Middle East and Africa Partnerships and Eco-Development at Huawei Consumer Business Group, added: "Innovation is part of our DNA and in Emirates we have found a like-minded partner whose desire and ability to continuously be at the forefront is integrated into their culture. In this era, where consumer behaviors have changed as we emerge from the pandemic, people rely more than ever on their smartphones to make decisions, including travel-related ones. This encouraging collaboration paves the way for us to explore future solutions and bringing even more inspiration to travelers and making their travel more convenient and rewarding."

HMD Global, the maker of Nokia brand phones, announced it has raised USD 280 million in new financing from investors including Google, Qualcomm and Nokia. The money will go to strengthening its product offering, including 5G devices and new services, and expanding in new markets, such as Brazil, India and Africa.

The company announced four areas where it plans to invest. First, is affordable 5G smartphones, "with an emphasis on strong partnerships with US carriers".

Second, HMD Global will further transition to digital-first offerings as part of a new post-COVID reality, as well as more consumers buying their phones from internet sellers.

Third, the company plans to expand its presence in key growth markets. This includes the recently introduced operations in Brazil, as well as Africa and India.

Fourth, the investment will help the business strengthen its position beyond hardware and into a "holistic mobile service provider".

This year alone, HMD Global launched its international data roaming service HMD Connect, enhanced its mobile cybersecurity capabilities with the acquisition of Valona Labs assets, and started developing its own software, security and services with a new research and development centre in Tampere, Finland.

It last raised external funds with a USD 100 million round in mid-2018. HMD first started selling Nokia phones in 2016 and has since expanded to 91 markets and shipped over 240 million phones.

The Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry, the Chairman of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) and the Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone attended a partnership signing ceremony between AOI and Benya Capital.

The ceremony was also attended by Jonathan R. Cohen, Ambassador of the United States of America to Egypt and representatives of Corning Incorporated via video conference.

At the ceremony, Benya Capital, a leader in telecom and technology solutions and technology infrastructure in Egypt and the region, previously known as Fiber Misr for Communications Information Technology, signed a binding MoU with The Arab Organization for Industrialization, to build the largest fiber optic cable factory in Egypt, Africa and the Arab region with a total investment of more than 1 billion Egyptian pounds at the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

The agreement reaffirms Egypt’s directive and reflects AOI’s strategy to increase local manufacturing, embed the latest technologies and reduce import in cooperation with international expertise.

Arab Organization for Industrialization Chairman Lieutenant General Abdelmonem Eltarras, reaffirmed President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s mandate to increase local production, transfer and embed the latest technologies and reduce imports. This will lead to increasing the local products’ added value and digitize massive national development projects.

Lieutenant General Eltarras also added that Egypt has taken the first tangible steps towards achieving its digital transformation plan. He reaffirmed that the organization is eager to support Egypt’s strategy to digitize, incorporate smart solutions and reinforce telecom solutions locally and across Africa in accordance with global standards.

Lieutenant General Eltarras added that this will be achieved by participating in building secure and high-speed telecom lines for large digital projects.

He also highlighted that this industrial structure will also provide employment opportunities for young engineers and technicians, in addition to training opportunities on the latest technologies in line with the fourth industrial revolution.

Through this partnership, AOI targets the establishment of a national industry that meets local demand for advanced technological infrastructure for the communications networks. The latter will enable the development of smart cities in Egypt and present an export opportunity to the region and Africa. He also highlighted that the organization is supporting the government’s preventative measures against COVID-19 by producing sterilization units. 

Commenting on this partnership, Benya Capital Chairman and CEO Ahmed Mekky said, “This is the first partnership of its kind in Egypt to achieve smart digitalization for mega digital projects. We aim to develop the technological infrastructure in all development projects, as well as relevant information technology services and solutions. The fiber optic industry is considered the cornerstone for launching cost-efficient digital transformation projects, which is particularly important when launching mega national projects at new cities and establishing technological infrastructure and smart applications.”

“Experimental production of the factory is set to start during 2021 Q3, utilizing up to four million kilometers of optical fibers annually.  This capacity is set to increase successively according to the company’s expansion plan and enabling Egypt’s transformation to one of the most important hubs for data storage and transmission,” he added.

Corning Incorporated, one of the world’s leading innovators in optical fiber, cable, and connectivity solutions, will support the project as a strategic supplier of optical fiber. This collaboration will provide Benya Capital with world-leading innovation and reliable supply based on Corning’s global manufacturing capabilities.

Corning invented the first low-loss optical fiber, which ultimately transformed the way the world creates, shares, and consumes information.

Richard Nevins, division vice president, Optical Fiber Commercial Operations, Corning Incorporated, commented, “We are honored to have been selected as a strategic supplier for this exciting investment by Benya Capital. This will ensure the new factory will be able to provide cables with the most advanced and innovative fibers, with security of supply to meet the growing demands of Egypt and surrounding regions ensured by Corning’s global capacity footprint.”

The Minister of Trade and Industry Mrs. Neveen Gamea, affirmed the government's keenness to take advantage of the tremendous manufacturing capabilities of the Arab Organization for Industrialization to expand the Egyptian industrial base, deepen local manufacturing and increase the added value of Egyptian products to the local and global markets, which contributes to achieving the Ministry's vision of increasing dependence on the national industry In meeting the needs of the local market to replace imports and reduce the trade deficit.

Mrs. Gamea pointed out that the signing of this agreement comes to confirm the main and pivotal role that the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) plays in introducing the latest production technologies and the highest quality standards for the Egyptian industry, stressing that AOI is a key partner of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in implementing the national plan to deepen local manufacturing as well as provide local products that match the Egyptian specifications, and has gained local acceptance and global popularity.

Eng. Yehia Zaki, Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, affirmed that the project is the largest in southern part of the economic zone at Ein Sokhna. The cooperation with AOI will enable achieving sustainable development, attract local investments and support the government’s vision for the economic zone as a global logistics center.  This also falls within the framework agreement signed by both parties last month to establish industrial parks at the economic zone.

Zaki also praised the efforts exerted by the Arab Organization for Industrialization to increase domestic production and embed the latest technologies to support local investments and the government plans to reform local industries.

Instead of going with cloud giants Amazon or Microsoft, Zoom announced it had picked Oracle as a cloud infrastructure partner to support its rapid growth and evolving business needs as the enterprise video communications company continues to innovate and provide an essential service to its extensive customer base.

In a multi-year partnership, Etisalat has announced that it has teamed up with Microsoft to drive public cloud first strategy through a digital transformation program that enables Etisalat to build a digital platform infused with automation and AI providing a simplified network architecture and operations empowering Etisalat subscribers and improving customer experience.

“Today, Etisalat and Microsoft embark together on a bold new digital transformation journey that will allow us to leverage our industry expertise to deliver the next generation of networks,” said Saeed Al Zarouni, Senior Vice President, Mobile Networks, Etisalat.

“Keeping in line with our overall strategy and vision of ‘Driving the Digital Future to Empower Societies, we at Etisalat are committed to nothing less than the total transformation of the consumer and business customer experiences. Etisalat today has transitioned to a digital service provider – the provider of choice for digital services among enterprises and SMB customers, supporting them to monetize services to generate new revenue streams. Together with Microsoft, we are building the communications network of the future.”

Microsoft Azure will power the infusion of AI capabilities into Etisalat’s network by expanding Microsoft Azure solutions into the network, and for Etisalat’s new technologies like Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Network Edge Computing (NEC).  These will significantly speed up computing at the edge, which combined with 5G, will enable new types of applications related to smart cities, autonomous systems, gaming, AR/VR, IoT, and vision computing solutions.

“Our partnership with Etisalat is further demonstration of the trust regional enterprises place in the intelligent Microsoft Cloud,” said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE.

“Our mission is to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more. Etisalat’s digital transformation journey centers on a public-cloud-first strategy including network workloads. Its partnership with Microsoft is designed to merge its telecommunications capabilities with our intelligent cloud solutions, including artificial intelligence and self-healing networks.”

Nokia and Innventure, which commercializes innovative technologies, have established a relationship designed to accelerate commercialization of disruptive Nokia Bell Labs satellite communications technology and intellectual property in areas beyond Nokia core businesses. The collaboration with Innventure will be led by Nokia Technologies, the company's licensing arm.

Swiss telecommunications operator Swisscom has launched the continent’s first large scale 5G networks in partnership with Swedish vendor Ericsson.

In a statement released by the Swedish telecommunications behemoth it confirmed that the 5G network was launched in 54 cities across Switzerland after the operator secured a license to operate a 5G network in the country.

Ericsson has seen its financial coffers significantly boosted by its success in the North American market following the publication of its Q1 results.

Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm expressed his delight at the launch of the 5G networks in Switzerland and predicted that the company would up the ante in relation to 5G in the large parts of Asia by the end of this year.

Ekholm said, “To date we have publicly announced commercial 5G deals with 18 named operator customers, which, at the moment, is more than any other vendor. The company would continue to incur costs for field trials and we’re expecting large-scale deployments of 5G to begin in parts of Asia by the end of 2019. Combined, this will gradually impact short-term margins but strengthen our position in the long term.”

Shares of Ericsson rocketed on the Stockholm stock exchange with the company reporting an increase of 3% which represented a four-year high for the vendor.  

Ericsson, one of Chinese telecom giant Huawei's main rivals in the 5G market, said earlier this year it hadn't felt any effects from US pressure on countries to ban Huawei's equipment amid fears that it could compromise the security of the mobile phone networks.

US electronics behemoth Intel has made the decision to withdraw from the 5G smartphone modem business following the unlikely resolution agreement that was brokered between Qualcomm and Apple.

Apple and Qualcomm managed to settle the dispute between both parties over royalty payments and reached a deal ahead of fresh court case that was set to get underway in San Diego next week.

The modems that connect smartphones to telecommunications networks were at the heart of the battle between Apple and Qualcomm. Following the announcement the dispute had been resolved Intel wasted no time in exiting the 5G smartphone modem business.

Intel had clearly recognized and identified that there was an opportunity for them to capitalize on the dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, and then Apple had turned to Intel before reaching the agreement with Qualcomm.

The lawsuit was expected to be a protracted legal battle, but after the unlikely resolution it’s expected that Apple and Qualcomm will now become partners again before there fall out in 2017.

Intel issued a statement in which it indicated that it would complete an assessment of the opportunities for 4G and 5G modems in PCs, Internet of Things devices and other data-centric devices while pursuing investment opportunities in its 5G network infrastructure business.

CEO Bob Swan insisted that 5G will remain a key focus for the US electronics conglomerate and said its diverse portfolio of products will help them to become a major player in the 5G space.

Swan said, “5G continues to be a strategic priority across Intel, and our team has developed a valuable portfolio of wireless products and intellectual property. We are assessing our options to realize the value we have created, including the opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world."

The company also added that it would meet commitments to customers for its existing 4G smartphone modem product line, though it has no plans to launch 5G smartphone modem products, including those previously set to premiere in 2020 

Currently under deployment, ultra-fast 5G wireless networks require terminals that are equipped with 5G models and specific network infrastructure.

Ericsson and Orange have partnered to launch 4G networks in Sierra Leone in the nation’s capital of Freetown which will be providing its residents with fast and reliable 4G access.