Enterprise Ecosystems

Asia Pacific spending on artificial intelligence (AI) systems will rise from $17.6 billion in 2022 to around $32 billion in 2025, said a study.

India’s networking market which includes Ethernet Switch, Routers, and WLAN segments witnessed a 13.6% year-over-year (YoY) growth in terms of vendor revenues during 4Q 2021 (Oct-Dec), said a study.

Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel and compatriot information technology services and consulting company Tech Mahindra announced a strategic partnership to build and market innovative solutions for India’s digital economy by bringing together their core strengths. The partnership will co-develop and market 5G use cases in India.

To enhance its wireless products offering, Tata Group’s company Tejas Networks will acquire a 64.40% stake in the wireless solution company Bengaluru (Bangalore)-based Saankhya Labs for INR 2.84 billion (USD 38 million) in a cash trade.

Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) and L&T Smart World & Communication (SWC) have created a use case for a private 5G enterprise network in India.

Netcracker and NEC Corporation announced that e& (formerly Etisalat Group) has deployed Netcracker edge orchestration to innovate with 5G and new edge services in vertical markets.

The total mobile communications services revenue in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from US$320.9bn in 2021 to US$398.4bn in 2026, said a study.

Malaysia's smartphone market closed in 2021 with over 12 million units representing a growth of 10.6% driven by a government subsidy programme plus relatively uninterrupted logistics compared to neighbouring ASEAN markets, says a study.

The Egyptian National Postal Organisation and Bahrain-based Beyon Connect, a subsidiary of Batelco, reached an agreement to establish a new joint venture to deploy digital postbox solutions.

Africa's overall mobile phone market suffered a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 11.3% in Q4 2021 to a total 48.6 million units, said a study.

Despite supply-side hindrances, Indonesia's smartphone market is expected to reach 44 million units in 2022, growing by 8% year-over-year (YoY), said a study.

Shipments of smartphones within China fell 31.8% year-on-year to 14.5 million handsets in February, a government report said.

Indian telecommunications major Reliance Jio Infocomm is raising INR 57 billion (USD 750 million) through an offshore syndicated loan to primarily fund future Capex needs, reports Economic Times.

ZTE Corporation together with China Mobile launched an integrated CampSite solution in Hunan Province, China.

The Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) smart home devices market saw its value increase 21.6% year on year in value last year as the market's value reached $9.5 billion in 2021, said a study.

Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company Ericsson along with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (ITT Kanpur), and Bharti Airtel, is collaborating with the Rajasthan Pollution Control Board to deploy Narrow Board IoT sensors to measure air pollution in the city of Jaipur, India.

Nokia said that the Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta Minerals (Grupo Antofagasta Minerals) has completed the deployment of an industrial-grade private LTE network to provide secure and reliable support to its Minera Centinela operation.

Egyptian operator Etisalat Misr is modernising its Business Support Systems (BSS) using solutions from Ericsson.

Ooredoo Kuwait, the telecommunications company in Kuwait owned by the Ooredoo group, has appointed data analytics specialists LigaData to support data-driven digital transformation projects.

Airtel Africa, the provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, confirmed that it has completed the early repayment of its USD 505 million 5.125% Guaranteed Senior Notes, using cash balances available at the Group level.

South African mobile communications company Vodacom Group stated that its ICT unit Vodacom Business has launched V-Hub, an online resource portal, specifically designed to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Beyon Connect, a subsidiary of Bahrain's operator Batelco, has launched OneBox, as the first country in the Middle East to deliver digital postbox services.

Zain KSA and Huawei announced the launch of the Middle East and Norther Africa's first 5G LAN network in the country, as the operator aims to tap into the growing B2B demand for 5G services. 

Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel and compatriot banking and financial services company Axis Bank have announced a strategic partnership to bring to market a range of financial offerings and digital services exclusively for Airtel’s more than 340 million customers.

By 2024, 40% of Indian large enterprises will expand the use of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) across all business-critical horizontal functions like marketing, legal, HR, procurement, and supply chain logistics said a study.

South African multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Group and the Open RAN-focused vendor Rakuten Symphony sign an MoU to conduct 4G and 5G OpenRAN trials in South Africa, Nigeria, and Liberia based on Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP).

Driven by 4G phones as well as high pent-up demand in the fourth quarter of the year, Vietnam’s smartphone shipments grew by 11.9% to 15.9 million units in 2021.

STL, ASOCS and VMware have announced what they describe as the launch of the industry's first end-to-end 5G enterprise solution to address the growing demand for private 5G enterprise connectivity for campus, industrial and venue applications.

International communications company Ooredoo Group has announced at Mobile World Congress 2022 the selection of SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software as its partner to enable a complete digital business transformation and consolidation of all its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions across the majority of its ten operating companies.

Driven by the robust growth in the mobile data services segment, the total mobile service revenue in China is poised to increase from US$131.8bn in 2021 to US$173bn in 2026, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6%, said a study.

Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel has acquired a strategic stake in Singapore-based Blockchain platform Aqilliz for an undisclosed sum.

Saudi Arabia’s Salam (formerly ITC) has selected Optiva’s BSS Platform to enable its new MVNO.

Dubai-based telecom infrastructure solutions provider Arc Solutions has signed an agreement with Israel ISP and IT solutions provider Bezeq International (BI) to deploy its network in Bezeq International’s data centre in Tel Aviv.