O2 UK inks M2M contract with G4S Utility Services
O2 UK has announced that it is entering into the smart metering market by signing a multi-million pound contract with UK smart meter operations service provider G4S Utility Services.
Under the 3-year contract, O2 UK will provide M2M technology, including around 200,000 SIM cards to connect smart meters across the UK to the G4S data centre.
G4S will use the operator’s SMS gateway to securely relay information from its smart meters to its data centre and back again. Outbound messaging will allow G4S to monitor the working order of its smart meters remotely, reducing the cost of maintenance and servicing as well as carbon emissions associated with travel. O2 UK will also provide connectivity to run the annual testing of its disaster recovery process.
Expresso Telecom re-launch operations in Ghana
The United Arab Emirates Expresso Telecom, a mobile telecommunication service provider, has resumed operations in Ghana with an official launch of the network after acquiring Kasapa Mobile Network.
The company aims to expand its CDMA mobile networks in the sub-regional market, after acquiring the Intercellular mobile network in Nigeria, as well as licenses to operate in Mauritania and Senegal.
Chief Executive Officer of Expresso Ghana Limited, Isham Ayum, noted that tremendous opportunities exist in the telecommunication industry in Africa, and that the growth of the industry has the potential of spurring the continent’s pace of development.
According to Isham Ayum, the company has undergone several remarkable innovations by extensively expanding its network to provide subscribers nationwide coverage and revamped its billing system to be able to handle the numerous offers it intends to introduce on the market. The introduction of fast and reliable data service is necessary to be able to offer consumers on the Ghanaian market an experience that has been missing for a while – adding that the company is focused on introducing flexibility to offer a more customer-oriented service so as to unleash the potential that is locked up in the Kasapa network.
According to Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, the 74% penetration of mobile telephony in the country is remarkable, thanks to a strong and effective oversight and regulatory environment. Ghana’s mobile telecommunication industry has simply exploded and is thriving due to the continuous development in the country, a fast-growing customer-base and a competitive array of competent providers.
Mr. Haruna added that competition is important in the mobile telephony industry in order to inject efficiency into the system and also give consumers a wide range of products at relatively affordable cost.
TATA and BSNL enter Network Sharing deal (India)
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan India telecom service provider, today announced the signing of a landmark ‘Master Services Agreement for Passive Infrastructure Sharing’ with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
Becoming the first Indian private telecom operator to enter into an agreement of this nature. The agreement which is valid for 15 years will be applicable to both Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited in all of India’s 22 telecom Circles.
This is a moment of pride for us, as we have become the first private telecom operator to enter into such a strategically important agreement with BSNL, one that will allow us to expand our telecom footprint across the country much more quickly,†Mr Madhav Joshi, President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Teleservices Limited, said.
The agreement comes at a very strategic time for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), as both companies have been aggressively expanding their network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom, while also rolling out GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name. In the short space of just three months, we have already rolled out our GSM services in nine Circles—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Haryana,†Mr AG Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Teleservices Limited, said. This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and rollout process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,†he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country.
