Nokia unveils 4 Android smartphones, reloads Nokia 8110 for 4G

ITREALMS:

The acclaimed home of Nokia phones, HMD Global, has unveiled four new additions to its award-winning portfolio of Android smartphones, reports ITRealms.

The latest entrants include Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, new Nokia 6 and Nokia 1. ITRealms gathered that in efforts at delivering all the craftsmanship expected from a Nokia phone, each new smartphone offers durability and reliability as standard, with the range setting new benchmarks in materials and design.

The chief executive officer of HMD Global, Florian Seiche, noted that in furtherance to earlier promise to pure, smart, secure and up-to-date Android experience, HMD Global unveiled the first global partnership to have a full suite of devices selected into the Android One programme by Google.

“The unwavering commitment to deliver a pure, secure and up-to-date Android experience has ensured Nokia smartphones become the natural fit for the global programme,” Seiche said.

Adding to range of stunning new Android smartphones, the iconic Nokia 8110, Seiche said, has been reloaded to deliver 4G connectivity, apps including Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google Search, Facebook and Twitter, and the return of the slider phone.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus and the new Nokia 6 – join the Android One family, offering a high quality software experience designed by Google. Each phone will stay fresh over time with the latest AI powered innovations to the highest grade of security from Google. With a pure Android installation, Nokia smartphones come with no unnecessary UI changes or hidden processes that would eat up battery life or slow them down so you can enjoy your new phone for longer. Each of the new phones comes with a limited number of pre-installed apps so that you’ll get more storage space, as well as the latest innovations that help you stay ahead of the game every day.

By shipping with Android Oreo out of the box, users will be able to enjoy the latest features, including Picture-in-Picture for multitasking, Android Instant Apps to discover and run apps with minimal friction, 60 fantastic new emojis and battery-maximising features like limiting background app use.

According to Florian Seiche, CEO HMD Global, “This time last year, we started our journey with huge expectations from fans and a massive responsibility to deliver on the legacy of one of the most innovative brands in our space. Since then we have reintroduced well-loved icons, forged partnerships with friends - old and new, and delivered our pure, secure and up-to-date Android experience across our smartphone portfolio. Last year we shipped over 70 million Nokia phones.”

Noting further that HMD Global remains committed to delivering great phones that will offer value to the customers, Mr. Seiche said “As we’ve expanded our portfolio we’ve always maintained one vision: to deliver great Nokia phones that live up to the values our fans expect. It has been an exhilarating time and as we look ahead, we plan to build on our success by expanding our portfolio and giving consumers a wide range of Nokia phones they can love, trust and rely on.”

HMD Global prides itself in making smartphones that address real-world needs, with commitment to pure, secure and up-to-date Android as a core strategy.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Pix: Nokia 8 Sirroco

ntel kicks off commercial roll out in Lagos, Abuja

ITRealms:

… PH coming up in May

Latest entrant into the Nigeria’s telecommunication sector as the fifth Mobile Network Operator (MNO), the ntel, has kicked off commercial roll out of its activities on acclaimed most advanced Fourth Generation (4G) cum Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this, the chief executive officer (CEO) of ntel, Mr. Kamar Abass, informed ITRealms at a media launch in Lagos Friday that he was delighted.

“On behalf of the staff and directors of NatCom, this eighth day of April 2016, we start commercial activities on our newly commissioned 4G/LTE-Advanced network,” he declared.

This commencement of its phased and paced commercial operations, Abass said comes with bumper offers for early bird pioneers and data users.

“The first 100,000 to redeem and activate their ntel SIMs will get free on-net calls for life while data subscribers will get 3 months unlimited data usage on select bundles,” Abass disclosed.

Very earliest customers, he said, would be able to buy and use these services in clusters, across Lagos and Abuja from sales outlets and agents featuring the network bright new brand name: ntel.

ITRealms notes that ntel’s commencement of commercial operations is the culmination of their journey from acquiring the old NiTel/MTel assets to the delivery of successive milestones underlining their growing operating capability on their new fixed and mobile network infrastructure.

With the formal commencement, ITRealms gathered that commercial services will be available on ntel’s 4G/LTE-Advanced network across key site clusters in Lagos and Abuja. While coverage in Port Harcourt will follow during May, along with expanded coverage in Lagos and Abuja, and subsequently to other states, across multiple geo-political zones, during the second half of 2016.

The company, ITRealms further reports, said their 4G/LTE-Advanced technology built on the 900/1800MHz spectrum will deliver an unbeatable and game-changing customer experience of high-speed Internet access up to 230 Mega Bytes per second (Mbps), the fastest available in Nigeria today thus enabling a world of full mobile broadband experiences that will transform both lives and livelihoods.

Equally, Abass, a strong advocate of 4G/LTE, said his team is passionate at ntel about the power of broadband to boost productivity and, thereby, transform lives,

“We expect to see this happen as ntel helps to accelerate the ongoing migration, from existing 2G and 3G services, to genuinely high-speed Mobile Broadband on 4G/LTE-Advanced,” Abass submitted.

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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Pix: CEO, Abass with his team.

Ntel promises pure 4G LTE across Nigeria

ITRealms:

 

The Natcom Development and Investment Limited, trading as ntel has promised to launch into the Nigerian market, a pure play Fourth Generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network commencing with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, reports ITRealms. 

4G is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specification that is evolving for broadband mobile capabilities and enables Internet Protocol (IP)-based voice, data and streaming multimedia at higher speeds and available at least 100 Megabit per second (Mbit/s) with high mobility and up to 1 Gigabit (GBit/s) with low mobility also known as nomadic.

Chief Executive Officer, ntel, Mr. Kamar Abass gave this assurance at a median chat with senior editors in Lagos, in their scale of portfolio roll out that the company which took over the assets of former Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTEL plans to launch a pure play 4G LTE mobile service that would offer high-speed data, high-definition voice and video.

“In its first phase ntel will launch international bandwidth services over SAT-3 and a 4G mobile network covering Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt,” he asserted.

According to him, in the first phase, ntel would deploy estimated 800 cell sites with the projected plan to increase this figure to 2,000 sites.

Abass assured that ntel would not join the league of 4G pretenders in the country, insisting that when the company decided to offer 4G, it was emphatic.

He also said that ntel would leverage its SAT-3 for international voice terminations, stressing that the SAT-3 partnerships would enable direct exchange of International Direct Dialing (IDD) traffic with 35 partners.

“Since July 2015, ntel has delivered 10 million IDD minutes to Nigeria,” he declared.

On the international bandwidth delivery, he said, with SAT-3/WASC, ntel provides connectivity from Lagos to Sesimbra, Portugal and Lagos towards Cape Town in South Africa and countries in between.

ntel, he further said provides international bandwidth cum Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity to carriers and major corporates between Nigeria and international destinations.

While on metro bandwidth, Mr. Abbas pointed out that with over 1,100 kilometres of ducts and over 4,000 kilometres of fibre route in almost all states in Nigeria, ntel is enabled to offer fibre capacity services to all across the nation.

On the Fixed services, ntel CEO said, would in the future provide fixed network services to homes and businesses where extant infrastructure could be leveraged at minimal incremental cost.

Also said explained why they are coming into market and still have high hopes for the Nigerian market is that they believe in technology based on broadband usage, which drives growth drawing its strength from 4G.

As said by him, broadband usage would spur telecommuting, facilitate forestry preservation from less paper with some new services paving the way for smart homes and grids.

People, he said, would be better connected because they would have better social relationships with improved education through electronic learning (e-learning) as well as impact on the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)
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Pix: l-r:  Nik Ogbulie, Publisher BusinessWeek, Tokunbo Adedoja, Editor Sunday Thisday, Kamar Abass, CEO, ntel, Funke Egbemode, Managing Director, New Telegraph and Eric Osagie, Managing Director, Sun after an interactive media parley hosted by ntel for  media executives in Lagos on Wednesday and Thursday.

Samsung, Smile ‘collabo’ on LTE smartphone available in Nigeria

ITRealms:

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Samsung Electronics prides itself as a global technology giant while Smile Communications Nigeria is the first authentic Forth Generation (4G) LTE provider in Nigeria to go into this performance enhancing partnership with Samsung.reports ITRealms.

In a joint press statement available to ITRealms, signed by Chief Marketing Officer, Smile Nigeria, Alero Ladipo, and Director, Information Technology and Mobile, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Emmanouil Revmatas,there is the need for both companies to enhance the customer experience through their product propositions.

They underscored the noble pedigree and innovative streak of both companies which they are determined to harness in serving the best interest of their customers. The offer will be available at all Smile Stores and some selected Samsung stores.

Speaking on the partnership, Mrs. Ladipo stated that Smile Communications is specifically focused on the importance of partnerships of this nature to deliver on the end-to-end needs of the customer.

“The customer experience at our shops should create a lasting impression with the customer. A customer must enjoy the simplicity of the service and leave ready-to-go. Our partnership with Samsung gives the customer the opportunity to own the latest Samsung LTE compliant smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S6 edge with a Samsung complimentary clear cover), a 5GB bundle SmileOn plan for a fixed price,” Ladipo said.

Revmatas explained that the Galaxy S6 edge has the world’s first-ever dual curved edge display, which distinguishes the device as the ultimate premium Smartphone. This partnership with Smile on S6 edge is the first of its kind in Nigeria, offering consumers the opportunity to drive productivity with a unique smartphone coupled with the 4G experience that Smile LTE network offers.

“Our collaboration with Smile on the Galaxy S6 Edge LTE launch is a staunch affirmation of Samsung’s drive for novelty in the smartphone market globally. Samsung is committed to continuously engaging in partnerships that highlight innovations that create an impact in the life of consumers’. This partnership with Smile on S6 Edge will give Nigerians the opportunity to drive productivity with a unique smartphone coupled with the 4G experience that Smile LTE network offers,” he said, hence, Samsung is pleased that Nigerian consumers will have the opportunity to reach new and progressive frontiers with their Galaxy S6 edge device.

ITRealms recalls that the 4G LTE mobile network facilitates faster Internet on the S6 Edge which includes video calls, faster music, video streaming and conferencing, faster downloads and more pictures.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE 

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Spectranet unveils new logo, offers 5GB free data

ITRealms 

Chief Executive Officer, Spectranet 4G LTE, David Venn, at a media launch in Lagos, announced a monthly rollover of any unused data and a minimum of 5GB free data for its subscribers as it unveils a new corporate identity targeted at providing fast and affordable internet connectivity to Nigerians, ITRealms reports.

ITRealms gathered that Venn, speaking at the event said consumers all over the world, including Nigerian consumers, are increasingly embracing the Internet as the next revolution in gaining access to information and entertainment, deepening social relationships, as an alternative to traditional means of communication and directly making their voice heard in public debates.

“Internet has become part of our lifestyle in Nigeria and we can see its impact felt in almost every facet of our lives. The individual is now a major player in the happenings around him, powered by Information Communication Technology.” He said.

The Internet Service Provider CEO, ITRealms learnt also described the new logo as the hallmark of a new spirit, noting that the firm understands the needs of its customers very well and has kept on improving services to offer the best internet solution in the country.

ITRealms gathered that Spectranet has gone beyond 3G and is the 1st 4G LTE Network in Nigeria which brings numerous benefits that provide a powerful internet broadband experience that is way beyond current 3G performance.

Daniel Nsolibe/Ed, Ops.

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Ghanaian Surfline goes life with first 4G LTE

ITRealms:

The Ghanaian Surfline Communications has officially launched the nation’s first Forth-Generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) service, reports ITRealms.

This is coming with about 300 cell sites deployed by Surfline which tends to pronounce the network as the largest single LTE deployment on the continent.

In their commitment to bring international standards to Ghana, Surfline has raised the bar on both existing and new operators in the country. From their sophisticated experiential stores and 24/7-call centre to their impressive technology partners and plans for nationwide expansion, Surfline has arrived.

Surfline’s Founder and Executive Chairman, John Taylor, was reported as investing in excess of $100 million to launch the network in Accra and Tema.

“Across the world, people are enjoying super-fast Internet speeds powered by 4G LTE. Surfline is proud to bring this technology into Ghana for the first time and for Ghanaians to experience the difference it brings” he said. 

Stressing that Surfline will open the economy to new jobs and industries in technology, like application development, while also helping other sectors, such as banking, retail and energy, to do business more efficiently.

In order to create a world-class network, Surfline selected last year Alcatel-Lucent to set-up and deploy its industry-leading 4G LTE ultra high-speed mobile roadband product capabilities that include: LTE Radio Access Network, Evolved Packet Core and Professional services to install, optimize, maintain and manage the LTE network.

Daniel Jaeger, Vice-President of Alcatel-Lucent in Africa said: "Alcatel-Lucent is proud to be Surfline's partner in developing and launching its 4G LTE wireless broadband network in Ghana. This network has been built from scratch and based on best-in-class technology to deliver much higher speed than previous deployed technologies. 

Remmy Nweke:

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Ericsson’s router offers scalability

Ericsson has unveiled its router with multi-dimensional scalability which is in the Smart Services Router 8000 family, tagged ‘SSR 8010.’

A press statement made available to DigitalSENSE News, quoted the Head of Product Area IP & Broadband, Ericsson, Jan Häglund, saying that SSR 8010 offers flexibility in capacity planning, lower total cost of ownership and energy efficiency.

Additionally, he said, SSR 8010 allows concurrent scalability in data plane and control plane, as well as the ability to add the most demanding applications.

Ericsson’s SSR 8000 family also offers operators complete flexibility to design their networks with both centralized and distributed architectures.

According to him, the launch of its SSR 8010 Smart Services Router (SSR), the latest addition to the SSR 8000 family and a key component of its portfolio of 4th-generation Internet Protocol (IP) networking solutions launched in 2011.

The portfolio, he noted is ideal for mobile and fixed IP backhaul that can aggregate 2G, 3G, 4G and fixed access traffic.

He pointed out that the SSR 8010 which will be commercially available in Q3 2012, is a 10-slot that complements the 20-slot SSR 8020, thereby enabling operators to deploy the SSR family in different parts of the network: IP Edge and aggregation.

He explained that the SSR 8010 consumes only 3.3 watts per gigabit of traffic throughput and is best suited for applications where 10 available slots will be optimal to meet current capacity and upcoming growth – for example in metro networks. Capacity planning will drive the decision and a customer can deploy both 8010 and 8020 nodes in the same network.

He emphasised that the SSR 8010’s smaller footprint provides additional flexibility for operators to deploy networks with distributed architectures.

“The introduction of the SSR 8010 highlights Ericsson’s ongoing focus on developing 4th-generation IP solutions that can scale in multiple dimensions –  data, control and service. Given we anticipate that the traffic between data centers and end users will quadruple to close to 1,000 exabytes annually by 2016, demand for smart solutions of this type is expected to be strong,” he said.

Remmy Nweke

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Bharti Airtel acquires Qualcomm AP for N257.4bn, expands 4G roll-out

Bharti Airtel has acquired a 49 per cent interest in Qualcomm Asia Pacific’s (Qualcomm AP)’s India BWA entities to spur partnership for the roll-out of state-of-the-art fourth generation (4G) networks on Long Term Evolution-Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) technology in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala, for $165m, about N257,400,000.00 billion.

Bharti equally said the deal would boost its establishment of broadband footprint across India.

Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, said, the world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm, has signed an agreement for Bharti to acquire an interest in Qualcomm Asia Pacific’s (Qualcomm AP) Indian BWA entities.

ITRealms Online gathered that under the agreement, Bharti has made an initial investment of approximately USD 165 million to acquire 49 per cent interest in Qualcomm AP’s India entities that hold BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.

This entails that by way of acquisition of 26 per cent equity interest equally held by Global Holding Corporation Private Limited and Tulip Telecom Limited, and the balance by way of subscription of fresh equity in those entities.

The agreement contemplates that once commercial operations are launched, subject to certain terms and conditions, Bharti would assume complete ownership and financial responsibility for the BWA entities by the end of 2014. 

Further outline of the agreement shows that Bharti already has BWA licenses in four circles, namely Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra and 3G licenses in thirteen circles in India.

“With this agreement, Bharti has secured a nation-wide broadband leadership through a combination of 4G and 3G, with its own networks in 18 circles. Bharti has already taken the lead in LTE TDD space by launching 4G services in Kolkata and Karnataka Circles,” he said.

Mr. Bharti-Mittal, says the company is delighted to partner with Qualcomm, who shares same commitment to the government’s agenda of broadband for all.

“This partnership will combine the strength of Bharti’s national telecom footprint and Qualcomm’s technological leadership in the LTE TDD space. With a broadband ready network across India, Bharti is well positioned to lead the next phase of Indian’s telecom revolution,” he said. 

Chairman and chief executive officer of Qualcomm, Dr Paul E Jacobs, noted that one of the key objectives for Qualcomm has been to include a strong partner in the Indian venture with the scale, experience and resources to deploy LTE TDD networks.

“We are pleased to have Bharti’s participation and support in this effort,” he said, adding that GHC and Tulip have been great partners in facilitating this transaction, hence, Qualcomm remains dedicated to the continued progress and success of the BWA venture and to fulfilling its commitment as a key equity stakeholder. 

ITRealms Online investigation shows that Qualcomm expects to provide technical assistance to Bharti in connection with network architecture and optimization, infrastructure and device testing, as well as continuing to develop and support the underlying technology and the LTE TDD ecosystem.

Remmy Nweke

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