Telecommunications infrastructure Archives | Page 40 of 127

Nokia to build Surge’s 5G fixed-wireless network in Indonesia

Indonesian telecom provider Surge (Solusi Sinergi Digital) and Nokia have entered a multi-year agreement to roll out a 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network across Java, Papua, and Maluku.

Nokia will leverage its existing FTTx, IP and optical infrastructure for backhaul, and deploy a new RAN and customer premises equipment (CPE) tailored for FWA. The deployment will utilise Nokia’s AirScale RAN portfolio, comprising baseband, remote radio heads, and zero-footprint sites, all enabled by its energy-efficient ReefShark chip technology.

To help manage the network, Surge will utilise Nokia’s MantaRay NM network management system, which provides a unified view of operations. The agreement also includes deployment, maintenance and support services, with AI-based performance, efficiency and safety enhancements.

This project supports broader aims of digital inclusion in Indonesia: Surge plans to offer flat-rate 5G FWA services at around IDR 100,000 (~US$6) per month, with speeds of up to 100 Mb/s and no data cap.

From a policy and infrastructure standpoint, the deal is noteworthy. It shows how 5G FWA can be used to address connectivity gaps in regions where fibre rollout is challenging, and how advanced RAN technologies, combined with AI-led operations, can make large-scale broadband deployment more feasible.

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New strategy targets Africa’s connectivity gap

Africa’s latest digital summit in Cotonou presented a growing concern. Coverage has expanded across West and Central Africa, yet adoption remains stubbornly low. Nearly two-thirds of Africans remain offline, despite most already living in areas with mobile networks.

Senior figures at the World Bank argued that the continent now faces an inclusion challenge rather than an infrastructure gap, as many households weigh daily necessities against the cost of connectivity.

Affordability has become the dominant barrier. Mobile Internet often consumes more than twice the global threshold for acceptable pricing, while fixed broadband can account for a striking share of monthly income. Devices remain expensive, and digital literacy is far from widespread.

Women, in particular, lag, and many rural communities lack the necessary skills to utilise essential digital services. Concerns also extend to businesses that struggle to train staff for digital tools and emerging AI solutions.

Policymakers now argue for a shift in strategy. The World Bank intends to prioritise digital public goods such as digital identification, electronic payments and interoperable platforms, believing that valuable services will encourage people to go online.

Governments hope that a stronger ecosystem will make online health, connected agriculture and digital learning more accessible and therefore more valuable.

Benin used the summit to highlight its advances in online administration and training programmes. Regional leaders also called for the creation of an African Single Digital Market that would lower access costs, encourage cross-border investment and harmonise regulations.

Officials insisted that a unified approach could accelerate development and equip African workers with the skills required for the digital jobs expected to expand by the end of the decade.

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Google commits 40 billion dollars to expand Texas AI infrastructure

Google will pour 40 billion dollars into Texas by 2027, expanding digital infrastructure. Funding focuses on new cloud and AI facilities alongside existing campuses in Midlothian and Dallas.

Three new US data centres are planned, one in Armstrong County and two in Haskell County. One Haskell site will sit beside a solar plant and battery storage facility. Investment is accompanied by agreements for more than 6,200 megawatts of additional power generation.

Google will create a 30 million dollar Energy Impact Fund supporting Texan energy efficiency and affordability projects. The company backs training for existing electricians and over 1,700 apprentices through electrical training programmes.

Spending strengthens Texas as a major hub for data centres and AI development. Google says expanded infrastructure and workforce will help maintain US leadership in advanced computing technologies. Company highlights its 15 year presence in Texas and pledges ongoing community support.

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NVIDIA brings RDMA acceleration to S3 object storage for AI workloads

AI workloads are driving unprecedented data growth, with enterprises projected to generate almost 400 zettabytes annually by 2028. NVIDIA says traditional storage models cannot match the speed and scale needed for modern training and inference systems.

The company is promoting RDMA for S3-compatible storage, which accelerates object data transfers by bypassing host CPUs and removing bottlenecks associated with TCP networking. The approach promises higher throughput per terabyte and reduced latency across AI factories and cloud deployments.

Key benefits include lower storage costs, workload portability across environments and faster access for training, inference and vector database workloads. NVIDIA says freeing CPU resources also improves overall GPU utilisation and project efficiency.

RDMA client libraries run directly on GPU compute nodes, enabling faster object retrieval during training. While initially optimised for NVIDIA hardware, the architecture is open and can be extended by other vendors and users seeking higher storage performance.

Cloudian, Dell and HPE are integrating the technology into products such as HyperStore, ObjectScale and Alletra Storage MP X10000. NVIDIA is working with partners to standardise the approach, arguing that accelerated object storage is now essential for large-scale AI systems.

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Eurofiber France reportedly hit by data breach

Eurofiber France has suffered a data breach affecting its internal ticket management system and ATE customer portal, reportedly discovered on 13 November. The incident allegedly involved unauthorised access via a software vulnerability, with the full extent still unclear.

Sources indicate that approximately 3,600 customers could be affected, including major French companies and public institutions. Reports suggest that some of the allegedly stolen data, ranging from documents to cloud configurations, may have appeared on the dark web for sale.

Eurofiber has emphasised that Dutch operations are not affected.

The company moved quickly to secure affected systems, increasing monitoring and collaborating with cybersecurity specialists to investigate the incident. The French privacy regulator, CNIL, has been informed, and Eurofiber states that it will continue to update customers as the investigation progresses.

Founded in 2000, Eurofiber provides fibre optic infrastructure across the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany. Primarily owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners and partially by Dutch pension fund PGGM, the company remains operational while assessing the impact of the breach.

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Salesforce unveils eVerse for dependable enterprise AI

The US cloud-based software company, Salesforce and its Research AI department, have unveiled eVerse, a new environment designed to train voice and text agents through synthetic data generation, stress testing and reinforcement learning.

In an aim to resolve a growing reliability problem known as jagged intelligence, where systems excel at complex reasoning yet falter during simple interactions.

The company views eVerse as a key requirement for creating an Agentic Enterprise, where human staff and digital agents work together smoothly and dependably.

eVerse supports continuous improvement by generating large volumes of simulated interactions, measuring performance and adjusting behaviour over time, rather than waiting for real-world failures.

A platform that played a significant role in the development of Agentforce Voice, giving AI agents the capacity to cope with unpredictable calls involving noise, varied accents and weak connections.

Thousands of simulated conversations enabled teams to identify problems early and deliver stronger performance.

The technology is also being tested with UCSF Health, where clinical experts are working with Salesforce to refine agents that support billing services. Only a portion of healthcare queries can typically be handled automatically, as much of the knowledge remains undocumented.

eVerse enhances coverage by enabling agents to adapt to complex cases through reinforcement learning, thereby improving performance across both routine and sophisticated tasks.

Salesforce describes eVerse as a milestone in a broader effort to achieve Enterprise General Intelligence. The goal is a form of AI designed for dependable business use, instead of the more creative outputs that dominate consumer systems.

It also argues that trust and consistency will shape the next stage of enterprise adoption and that real-world complexity must be mirrored during development to guarantee reliable deployment.

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Firefox expands AI features with full user choice

Mozilla has outlined its vision for integrating AI into Firefox in a way that protects user choice instead of limiting it. The company argues that AI should be built like the open web, allowing people and developers to use tools on their own terms rather than being pushed into a single ecosystem.

Recent features such as the AI sidebar chatbot and Shake to Summarise on iOS reflect that approach.

The next step is an ‘AI Window’, a controlled space inside Firefox that lets users chat with an AI assistant while browsing. The feature is entirely optional, offers full control, and can be switched off at any time. Mozilla has opened a waitlist so users can test the feature early and help shape its development.

Mozilla believes browsers must adapt as AI becomes a more common interface to the web. The company argues that remaining independent allows it to prioritise transparency, accountability and user agency instead of the closed models promoted by competitors.

The goal is an assistant that enhances browsing and guides users outward to the wider internet rather than trapping them in isolated conversations.

Community involvement remains central to Mozilla’s work. The organisation is encouraging developers and users to contribute ideas and support open-source projects as it works to ensure Firefox stays fast, secure and private while embracing helpful forms of AI.

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EU regulators, UK and eSafety lead the global push to protect children in the digital world

Children today spend a significant amount of their time online, from learning and playing to communicating.

To protect them in an increasingly digital world, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the European Commission’s DG CNECT, and the UK’s Ofcom have joined forces to strengthen global cooperation on child online safety.

The partnership aims to ensure that online platforms take greater responsibility for protecting and empowering children, recognising their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The three regulators will continue to enforce their online safety laws to ensure platforms properly assess and mitigate risks to children. They will promote privacy-preserving age verification technologies and collaborate with civil society and academics to ensure that regulations reflect real-world challenges.

By supporting digital literacy and critical thinking, they aim to provide children and families with safer and more confident online experiences.

To advance the work, a new trilateral technical group will be established to deepen collaboration on age assurance. It will study the interoperability and reliability of such systems, explore the latest technologies, and strengthen the evidence base for regulatory action.

Through closer cooperation, the regulators hope to create a more secure and empowering digital environment for young people worldwide.

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Αnthropic pledges $50 billion to expand the US AI infrastructure

The US AI safety and research company, Anthropic, has announced a $50 billion investment to expand AI computing infrastructure inside the country, partnering with Fluidstack to build data centres in Texas and New York, with additional sites planned.

These facilities are designed to optimise efficiency for Anthropic’s workloads, supporting frontier research and development in AI.

The project is expected to generate approximately 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction positions as sites come online throughout 2026.

An investment that aligns with the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, aiming to maintain the US leadership in AI while strengthening domestic technology infrastructure and competitiveness.

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, highlighted the importance of such an infrastructure in developing AI systems capable of accelerating scientific discovery and solving complex problems.

The company serves over 300,000 business customers, with a sevenfold growth in large accounts over the past year, demonstrating strong market demand for its Claude AI platform.

Fluidstack was selected as Anthropic’s partner for its agility in rapidly deploying high-capacity infrastructure. The collaboration aims to provide cost-effective and capital-efficient solutions to meet the growing demand, ensuring that research and development can continue to be at the forefront of AI innovation.

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Meta expands AI infrastructure with $1 billion sustainable facility

The US tech giant, Meta, has announced the construction of its 30th data centre in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a $1 billion investment that will power the company’s growing AI infrastructure while benefiting the local community and environment.

A facility, designed to support Meta’s most demanding AI workloads, that will run entirely on clean energy and create more than 100 permanent jobs alongside 1,000 construction roles.

The company will invest nearly $200 million in energy infrastructure and donate $15 million to Alliant Energy’s Hometown Care Energy Fund to assist families with home energy costs.

Meta will also launch community grants to fund schools and local organisations, strengthening technology education and digital skills while helping small businesses use AI tools more effectively.

Environmental responsibility remains central to the project. The data centre will use dry cooling, eliminating water demands during operation, and restore 100% of consumed water to local watersheds.

In partnership with Ducks Unlimited, Meta will revitalise 570 acres of wetlands and prairie, transforming degraded habitats into thriving ecosystems. The facility is expected to achieve LEED Gold Certification, reflecting Meta’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and community-focused innovation.

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