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New-Gen Site Technology: Unleashing Potential of Pole Sites to Support MBB Growth

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By peter oluka

Mobile Broadband (MBB) is developing rapidly across the world, especially in urban areas.

In this new era, wireless networks will require many small cells across a city to ensure a better user experience, improve network performance, and prepare for 5G-oriented evolution in the future.

This requires telecom operators to shift from pure macro cell towers, which are hundreds of feet tall and transmit wireless signals for miles, to embracing multi-layer networks that enable small cells from virtually any site such as street lamps, utility poles and traffic lights.

Market insights indicate that enormous resources are available around the globe for site deployment, including approximately 1 billion power and street light poles, 100 million monitoring and transmission poles, 10 million phone booths, and 10 million billboards.

Most of these poles already have the core elements required to deploy a site, such as power and transmission resources, and right of way (ROW), making them ideal site locations

It is estimated that the number of outdoor pole sites will exceed the number of traditional tower sites by 2020, and outdoor pole sites will become the mainstream option for the intermediate network layer.

In fact, according to ABI Research, over the next five years pole site usage is expected to grow by 26% per annum.

Challenges To Acquiring And Developing New Sites

The benefits of pole sites are recognized by operators and many are gaining access to sites through third-parties that have already-approved sites.

However, there are still significant obstacles in terms finding appropriate sites, obtaining permits and meeting regulations which have long approval cycles, and high rental fees.

For example, in South Africa the average site approval includes leasing negotiations, aviation approval, environmental approval, government approval, and many other links.

The approval cycle takes up to 6 months and the average success rate is only 30%. Traditional site construction takes at least one month and civil engineering costs account for nearly 50% of the total site construction costs which can impact the operators’ investment in equipment and network supply capacity.

Reducing Site Costs And Increasing Efficiency To Enable MBB Growth

To help operators overcome these challenges and seize growth opportunities, Huawei’s approach is to help operator optimize total cost of operation, shorten ROI and enhance site efficiency.

Huawei has developed innovative scenario-specific solutions namely PoleStar, TubeStar, and RuralStar that enable more sites in a simple, fast and cost-efficient manner.

Huawei PoleStar is for urban areas and can be installed on lamp posts and a variety of other locations in a matter of hours.

Huawei TubeStar enables wireless devices to be embedded in light poles and are therefore environmentally friendly allowing operators to easily obtain permission for installation in sensitive areas.

Huawei RuralStar is useful in rural areas because it decreases power consumption by 85% and cost by 70%.

Huawei provides operators with a total solution package (including site acquisition, equipment supply, and delivery) which helps them find new site resources and reduces on-air time with a 40% TCO saving. Huawei has already applied this model with several African operators.

In South Africa a site alliance has been formed from cooperation between stakeholders, such as the government, businesses and operators. With a wealth of experience in network planning, Huawei is fully aware of the locations where sites must be added and provided valuable insight into which specific sites could be leased to multiple operators.

By deploying pole sites, South Africa MTN which operates in many African countries, hassaved$75K in construction costs for each single site, the site TTM is only 4-5 months, and the investment payback period for central urban areas is less than 1 year.

Given the large investment that operators are planning to make to improve connectivity over the coming years, they must build new sites to optimize network coverage and accommodate the sustained increase in MBB traffic.

Pole sites are an ideal solution to these challenges and by partnering with Huawei, operators can reduce site CAPEX and OPEX to enable efficient MBB networks that improve citizens’ lives, create jobs and increase economic competitiveness.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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Reps Begin Probe of Telcos Over Illegal NIN-SIM Linkage

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The House of Representatives on Wednesday launched an investigation into allegations of telcom providers linking National Identification Numbers (NIN) to subscribers’ lines without their consent.

This decision is sequel to a motion sponsored by Patrick Umoh, member representing Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara federal constituency and Julius Ihonvbere, representing Owan federal Constituency during plenary on Wednesday.

Umoh, leading the debate expressed concerns that this action exposes subscribers to criminal activities and subjects legitimate NIN holders to grave risk.

He argued that the action is a clear violation of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019, which guarantee the right to privacy and protection of personal data of every Nigerian;

“Aware that the National Identification Number (NIN) was established to streamline the verification and identification of persons and enhance security in Nigeria.

“Also aware that the potential risks and consequences of this unauthorized data linking includes identity theft, financial fraud, and other forms of cybercrime that have become rife in Nigeria lately”, he said.

The Lawmaker stressed that innocent citizens have been wrongly implicated in crimes, suffer reputational damage, harassment and legal challenges for crimes they know nothing about.

The House therefore mandated its Committees on Communications and Interior to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and report back to the House for further legislative business within four weeks.

The lower chamber also urged the Nigerian Communications Commission to investigate and take immediate actions against any telecom service provider found to be culpable in this practice.

The House further asked the National Identity Management Commission to confirm whether the linking of NIN numbers by telecom service providers was authorized and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.


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Zoho Corporation Expands AI Capabilities with New Zia Agents and Studio

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Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, today expands the scope of Zia with the announcement of Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace. Together, these solutions empower enterprises to access, build, and distribute intelligent, autonomous digital agents across their organisations.

Zoho

Beginning today, Zoho and ManageEngine will be previewing pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents, which will deploy across Zoho Corporation’s combined portfolio of 100+ products in the coming weeks.

“The speed of disruption and quality of innovation we’re seeing in our industry right now has encouraged me to focus on my passion area, technology. I will devote more time to hands-on technical work for the company, spearheading several deep R&D initiatives, beginning with AI,” said Sridhar Vembu, Zoho Corporation’s Co-founder and Chief Scientist. “Utilising Zoho’s deep engineering expertise, its own data centres, and shared data model, we will develop powerful and usable solutions that drive customer value while retaining our commitment to customer flexibility and data privacy.”

Zoho Corporation’s in-house AI has evolved over the past decade from proactive to prescriptive to generative to agentic:

Zia: Launched in 2015, Zia is Zoho Corporation’s foundational AI, facilitating all intelligent and contextual actions across the company’s ecosystem of apps. Zia possesses a vast and diverse skillset. New skills are being implemented regularly to boost customer experience and drive productivity.

Ask Zia: Launched in 2018, Ask Zia has developed into a system-wide conversational assistant that helps employees work smarter and accomplish tasks more effectively. For example, an account manager can review a report of customers at risk of churn, summarise the outcomes of each customer’s recent interactions, filter and summarise helpdesk tickets, analyse trends in their industry, and reach out to that customer for a meeting based on the employee’s upcoming travel schedule, without leaving the Ask Zia interface. Ask Zia is powered by Zoho’s unified data platform and will be contextually embedded across all applications.

Zia Agents: Today, Zoho Corporation has previewed some of the several dozens of pre-built Zia Agents that will be rolled out in the coming months, including an Account Manager Agent, SDR Agent, HR Agent, Customer Support Agent, IT Help Desk Agent, and a SalesCoach Agent. For customers, partners, and developers looking to create their own agents, Zoho is launching Zia Agent Studio, allowing them to build and deploy customised agents with inherited skillsets, which can then be distributed through Zoho’s Agent Marketplace.

Zia Agent Studio: Offering no-code and low-code experiences, Zia Agent Studio enables users to build autonomous agents with skills relevant to their specific needs. Zia Agent Studio users can also access a wide range of pre-existing Zia Skills, tools from across the Zoho ecosystem, data from a unified data platform, and a range of language models. These can be agents within a function (like an SDR agent or email support agent) or natively cross-functional agents (like an RFP agent or loan approval agent).

They can be deployed on any Zoho application and summoned using Ask Zia. Moving forward, Zia Agents will be deployable in any third-party application as well. Additionally, Zia Agents with complementary skillsets can be combined using Zia Agent Studio, creating a single agent capable of cross-functional work.

Agent Marketplace: Agents created using Zia Agent Studio can be published in the Agent Marketplace. Zoho Corporation will offer a pre-built roster of agents, while the company’s ecosystem of partners and developers can build and distribute specialised AI agents through the marketplace, which can be reused and instantly deployed by organisations.

Organisational Differentiation

Today’s announcement follows record growth for Zoho Corporation, which onboarded 110,000 new customers globally in 2024. With over 850,000 customers globally in diverse industries, using a range of tools across Zoho and ManageEngine, Zoho Corporation’s AI solutions are informed by a vast range of functional data. This is a core differentiator for the company, putting it in a unique position to serve businesses with cutting-edge technology.

Technological Differentiation

Zoho Corporation’s distinct technological breadth and depth is a fundamental differentiator, particularly in AI development and deployment. Leveraging its shared data model, owned and managed tech stack, including global data centres, and a broad application portfolio, Zoho Corporation’s highly secure, privacy-compliant, usable, capable, and deeply knowledgeable AI agents deliver superior technology at a high value to its growing customer base.

Availability

These capabilities will begin to roll out to a limited set of customers, which will expand monthly.


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NBAN to Provide Connectivity to 28m Unserved Nigerians

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National Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN), launched yesterday, aims to close the internet gap for Nigeria’s 27.91 million living in underserved and unserved areas.

According to the Universal Service Provision Fund, 27.91 million Nigerians are living in areas underserved and unserved by telecom service.

NBAN is a policy initiative that aims to expand internet access to these areas, particularly key areas in these communities like schools, healthcare facilities, religious centres, and markets.

It aligns with the National Broadband Plan (2020–2025) and the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy’s strategic blueprint that aims to achieve broadband penetration of 70 percent by 2025, with minimum data speeds of 25 Mbps in urban areas and 10 Mbps in rural areas, expanding population coverage to 80 percent by 2027, and increasing broadband investments by 300–500 percent by 2027.

The initiative aims to achieve its goal through collaboration between public institutions such as schools, hospitals, and government offices, telecom operators and infrastructure providers, technology companies, civil society organizations, and international partners.

“The NBAN is more than just a policy initiative. It is a commitment to a future where every Nigerian has access to the tools and opportunities needed to succeed in a connected world,” said Bosun Tijani, minister of communications.

The initiative will start off in Edo, Ogun, Kwara, Katsina, Imo, Abia, Borno, and Nasarawa states because they have addressed challenges like right-of-way fees and created an enabling environment for broadband expansion.

Broadband refers to high-speed internet connection, and broadband penetration is measured by the number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Expanding broadband access has been linked to increased jobs and reduced poverty.

“In today’s digital era, broadband connectivity is not just a necessity; it is the backbone of economic growth, innovation, and inclusion,” stated Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The government is ramping up efforts to hit its 70 percent broadband target for 2025, with broadband penetration at 44.43 percent as of 2024’s end. In February 2024, it unveiled plans to provide internet and digital access to all the 774 local government secretariats in the country. One year later, implementation has only reached over 50 local government secretariats across nine states.

Tijani says achieving broadband’s transformative goals requires more than just policy. “It requires collaboration. The NBAN is founded on the principle that no single entity can achieve universal broadband access alone,” he added.

 


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