Nokia and Orange are co-developing new strategies to maximise spectral efficiency across existing and future mobile bands, including the upper 6 GHz range, as networks transition toward 6G.

This follows an announcement of a partnership with NVIDIA to develop and evaluate Artificial Intelligence Radio Access Network (AI-RAN) technologies.

The initiative will combine the anyRAN 5G software of Nokia with the AI infrastructure of NVIDIA to improve network performance and energy efficiency.

The collaboration aims to transform service delivery for Orange across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, says Nokia.

Under a new structured co-innovation framework, the partners will explore how GPU-based radio processors can boost performance via advanced receivers.

The goal is to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) directly into the RAN to automate environments, support sensing services and drive resource utilisation.

“By collaborating with Nokia and NVIDIA, we can better understand how the AI-native architecture enabled by AI-RAN can improve the efficiency of key radio algorithms such as scheduling, beamforming, and power optimisation — enhancing both spectral efficiency and energy performance, while also enabling advanced capabilities like predictive optimisation and radio sensing. This collaboration is an important step in our long-term network strategy,” says Laurent Leboucher, group chief technology officer at Orange.

Pallavi Mahajan, chief technology and AI officer at Nokia, comments: “AI is reshaping how networks are designed, introducing new levels of intelligence and flexibility across the radio layer.

“Through this collaboration with Orange, we are exploring how Nokia and NVIDIA’s AI-RAN solution brings advanced AI and RAN functions together in a unified architecture. This will be instrumental in enabling the industry’s transition toward cognitive, AI native networks.”

Orange is currently the fourth-largest telecoms operator in Africa with 18 markets on the continent. The partnership marks a significant attempt to leverage AI to accelerate digital transformation as the first wave of 6G approaches.

Zoho Nigeria partnered with Guardian Newspapers for the Guardian Woman Festival, a month-long initiative celebrating women’s contributions to business, governance, and social development while promoting digital empowerment for female entrepreneurs.

Kehinde Ogundare

Held at the Federal Palace Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, the festival focused on the theme “Reciprocity,” encouraging the exchange of value, networks, and digital innovation to strengthen women-led businesses and foster collaboration.

During the event, Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head of Zoho Nigeria, delivered a keynote address titled “Give Value, Gain Growth: Women Driving Reciprocal Innovation in the Digital Economy”. In his remarks, he highlighted the urgent need to bridge the digital gap for female entrepreneurs.

While Nigeria has the highest concentration of women-owned businesses in Africa, fewer than 30% currently use digital tools to manage or grow their operations. Ogundare noted that technology does not replace the strengths women already bring to business, such as relationship building and community engagement. Instead, it amplifies them, enabling entrepreneurs to reach wider audiences and scale more efficiently.

“The difference is not talent. Not capital. Not ambition. It is digital adoption,” said Ogundare during his keynote. “Smart tools create smart businesses. Smart businesses create strong economies. When women entrepreneurs and leaders have access to the right tools, the possibilities for growth are limitless.”

Zubaida Aliyu, Sales Manager at Zoho Nigeria, also brought her expertise to the festival’s panel session on ‘Women in the Business of Digital Innovation’. She highlighted how women are uniquely positioned to create shared value in digital spaces by building platforms that encourage knowledge sharing, mentorship, and collaboration.

Aliyu also challenged organisations that continue to view women’s digital inclusion primarily as corporate social responsibility rather than a strategic business priority.

“Tech creates a level playing field,” she said, noting that digital platforms remove limitations related to location and infrastructure size. Addressing organisations that overlook the economic value of inclusive digital strategies, she added, “They are leaving money on the table — they need to think of it as a strategy not charity”.

Through its participation in the Guardian Woman Festival, Zoho reaffirmed its commitment to providing affordable and accessible enterprise-grade technology to businesses of all sizes. By helping women transition from manual effort to digital efficiency, Zoho aims to support entrepreneurs build scalable enterprises and ensure their sustained success in Africa’s digital economy.

Telecommunications operators in Nigeria are waxing worriedly over the increasing activities of vandals and thieves who are cutting fiber optic cable, stealing generators and batteries.

According to the operators, the activities of the vandals and thieves have led to degrading quality of service (QoS)- prolonged network downtimes, high rates of dropped calls, and slow internet speeds.

It also directly lead to poor voice quality, interrupted data services, and failures in critical, time-sensitive applications like banking.

According to figures by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the losses run into billions of naira as more than 650 power-related assets were stolen in 2025.

These include; stolen generators, batteries, and other power equipment essential to the operation of base stations across the country, where unreliable electricity supply makes off-grid power systems central to network stability.

Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) said that the scale of theft has shifted the challenge from operational disruption to what it described as an existential threat to the sector.

Tony Emoekpere, president, ATCON, told Punch that operators are now responding largely in a defensive mode, combining physical security upgrades with technological monitoring and redesigning how sites are powered and secured.

“Operators are responding, but largely in a defensive mode,” he said.

“What you’re seeing now is a combination of increased physical security, technology deployment, and changes to how sites are designed and powered.”

Measures include increased deployment of site security guards, collaboration with local vigilante groups, reinforced base station enclosures, and wider use of remote monitoring systems that allow operators to detect tampering in real time.

Operators are also shifting away from easily removable components, such as standalone batteries, toward more integrated and hybrid power systems.

However, ATCON said even solar and hybrid infrastructure is now being targeted by thieves.

“We are spending more to protect infrastructure than we should, and that is not sustainable,” Emoekpere said.

The impact of the theft is already being felt across Nigeria’s telecom network, with operators reporting site shutdowns that translate directly into service deterioration.

“When you lose generators and batteries at that scale, what it means in practical terms is that sites go down,” Emoekpere said.

“And when sites go down, you immediately see increased call drops, poorer voice quality, and slower or completely unavailable data services.”

ATCON said subscribers are already bearing the brunt of the disruption, even if they are unaware of its underlying cause.

The association warned that the financial impact runs into billions of naira annually, with operators currently absorbing much of the cost.

However, it said the losses are increasingly feeding into broader industry economics.

“These losses run into billions of naira annually. While operators are absorbing a lot of it for now, it inevitably feeds into the overall cost structure of the industry,” Emoekpere said.