Telecom
ITU Telecom World 2015 Accelerates Global ICT Innovation to help Improve Lives
ITU Telecom World 2015 closed its doors last week at Hungexpo, Budapest following an exceptional week of dialogue, debate, networking and showcasing.
The event, which welcomed over 4,000 participants from 129 countries this week, brought together an impressive line-up of top-level government representatives, leaders of industry – from established players to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and young start-ups, from emerging and developed markets – along with high-level representatives of international organizations, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators and academia. Among these were over 235 ICT leaders from around the world.
The exhibition included big names, countries and SMEs from across the world. Some 50 countries, regions and their SMEs were represented including Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Iran, Indonesia, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Macedonia, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, and Zimbabwe. Gabon, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda came together within the Smart Africa zone on the show floor.
Top global exhibitors and sponsors participating included Airtel, Alibaba, ATDI, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Ericsson, Etisalat Nigeria, GEW Technologies, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, KT, LS telcom, Magyar Telekom, Microwave Vision Group, Rohde and Schwarz, Sonatel-Orange, TDIA, UPC and ZTE.
The Event Opening day, which took place in the presence of H.E János Áder, President of Hungary and H.E Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, was preceded by the launch of a special commemorative stamp issued by Magyar Posta, on the occasion of ITU’s 150th anniversary.
“This week we have marked the 150th anniversary of the foundation of ITU, hosted by Hungary – one of our original 20 founding members. We have also marked the first step in ITU’s new focus; to provide an international platform for SMEs, governments and major industry players to connect, share views, challenges and experiences and hold meaningful dialogues,” said ITU Secretary General, Houlin Zhao.
“Together, with all these stakeholders, we have explored how SMEs are the engine for much innovation, where their ability to take risks and move fast can be key. We hope that now this will lead to a greater cross-pollination of ideas and forging of new relationships between SMEs, governments and established ICT players to help scale and deliver innovative solutions globally, and improve lives.”
“ICT and telecommunication play a crucial role in Hungary’s economy, thus hosting ITU Telecom World this year was a great opportunity for our domestic companies. Innovation is the bridge to the future, and due to this event the Hungarian start-ups and relevant corporations have been linked more intensively into the global ecosystem. The Next Generation Day provided an astonishing example of the creativity of the experts of the future,” said H.E. Miklós Seszták, Hungary’s Minister of National Development.
Spotlight on global innovation
The event’s core themes of accelerating innovation for social impact and they ways in which SMEs are driving this innovation were in evidence throughout the event.
A total of 238 exhibitors made their mark at ITU Telecom World’s exhibition space. National pavilions and world-famous technology brands demonstrated their innovation and talents alongside start-ups and SMEs from across the world.
“Intel believes that driving innovation is an essential goal for government and businesses from all around the world. Solving global problems starts with affordable access, active use of technology and capacity building. Therefore we are supporting great ideas and programmes – such as the Young Innovators Competition – that bring together young innovators and give them the chance to present themselves to the international audience at this event,” said Gordon Graylish, Vice President and General Manager, Governments and World Ahead, Intel Corporation and a key ITU Telecom World 2015 participant and speaker.
The event showcased sponsored sessions from KT, GTI, China Mobile and TDIA, Japan’s MIAC, Huawei and Intel, covering a range of different areas from 5G-enabled applications to TD-LTE, the future potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), industry policy hotspots and trends and technological innovation, as well as tackling the global challenge of youth unemployment.
A number of activities and social events helped participants meet, network and connect throughout the week, including the Opening Ceremony, the Leaders Lunch, a vibrant Welcome Reception, the Smart Africa Panel Lunch discussion hosted by Uganda on behalf of the SMART Africa countries, Nigeria Night, the Gabon networking lunch and the Enterprise Europe Networking matchmaking event.
Over 140 media accredited from 21 countries to learn more and speak to the Heads of State, entrepreneurs and industry figureheads representing the ICT community. Press announcements kept the focus on innovation, an example being Argentina’s ARSAT and AFTIC space satellite programme, which reached a milestone as it moved its second satellite into position 36,000 kilometres from the earth during the event. Workshops, cocktails and on-stand demonstrations kept a flow of visitors involved and entertained on the lively show floor.
“This is a unique opportunity for us to be present with such a great number of like-minded individuals, and for an SME like us, it gives us a wonderful insight to see what our counterparts and peers are coming up with, and of course the main value is to network and gather as much experience and knowledge as we can in these few days,” said Maté Toth, business developer with the company Personal Video, and show floor participant at the event.
Smart ICTs for Sustainable Development
ITU’s own Smart ICTs for Sustainable Development Pavilion, led by the organization’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, was one of the hubs of the showfloor, with a packed programme of activities. Daily presentations were held at the Pavilion’s Speaker’s Corner on diverse subjects such as drones and innovation for agriculture; healthy lives and well-being through e-health; ‘smart cities’; the power of mobile technologies for sustainable development; and how e-commerce requires new flexible, secure and user friendly solutions for digital financial services.
At the country level, Estonia shared its success in e-governance, explaining how its government Cabinet is now working 100% digital and paperless, while Egypt highlighted its efforts to use ICT for empowering persons with disabilities.
In parallel, the Pavilion featured more than 20 Exhibition Pods from a wide range of stakeholders including Bupa health care, Kyushu University in Japan, Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd, Inmarsat and Intervale. A number of Co-creation Sessions were held for show participants, who had the chance to join in-depth discussions on new ideas for harnessing ICTs for sustainable development.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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