The storyteller within FirstBank: Olayinka Ijabiyi on transformation and connection by Remmy Nweke | WeekendDigits@ITREALMS

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In reinforcing its commitment to strong corporate governance and strategic evolution, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, West Africa’s premier financial institution, has formally confirmed the appointment of Olayinka Ijabiyi as its substantive Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications.

This appointment, which takes immediate effect, is not merely a personnel change; it is a vital milestone in FirstBank's ongoing journey of growth, innovation, and digital transformation. 

Nokia, Sprint first to demonstrate 5G NR connection over Massive MIMO - ITREALMS

ITREALMS

Nokia and Sprint have conclude plans to show the first live demonstration in the United States (U.S.) of a 5G New Radio (NR) connection over a dual mode-capable Massive MIMO radio, at the Mobile World Congress Americas in Los Angeles, reports ITREALMS.

This, ITREALMS gathered brings this revolutionary technology one step closer to reality.

Shown at Sprint's booth (#S1702) during Mobile World Congress Americas, the companies will use Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum, Nokia's commercial AirScale Base Station and Massive MIMO Active Antenna, and a VIAVI TM500 5G test device emulator. The demonstration highlights Sprint's approach using its 2.5 GHz spectrum and game-changing Massive MIMO technology to deploy mobile 5G in the first half of 2019.

This first in the U.S. live 5G NR system connection using a Massive MIMO Active Antenna can support up to 120 MHz of spectrum in 2.5 GHz. The Nokia AirScale Massive MIMO Active Antenna is expected to deliver up to 3 Gbps peak downlink throughput for a single sector over 5G and LTE simultaneously using Sprint's spectrum.

ITREALMS also gathered that this enables Sprint to offer both 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio to continue meeting its customers' demand for unlimited data and high-bandwidth applications. 5G will enable a great experience using 4K and 8K video streaming, and applications such as HD Virtual Reality.

A press statement made available to ITREALMS quoted Dr. John Saw, Chief Technology Officer, Sprint, as saying: "Sprint has long collaborated with Nokia on its Massive MIMO and 5G innovations, and we're excited by this first live 5G NR system connection to help us bring mobile 5G to the U.S. market in the first half of 2019. Because of our large spectrum holdings Sprint is one of the only operators in the world with enough capacity to operate LTE and 5G simultaneously using Massive MIMO and huge licensed channels of 100 MHz of spectrum on the same radios."

Marc Rouanne, President of Mobile Networks, Nokia, said: "This joint 5G NR demonstration using Nokia's Massive MIMO technology is another proof point of our innovative work with Sprint as part of their Next-Gen Network strategy. The significant cell capacity Massive MIMO offers is why the technology is playing a central role in 5G, which will allow Sprint to provide increased coverage, reliability and speed across its nationwide network."

Massive MIMO, invented by Nokia Bell Labs, will be on display with the live 5G NR connection demonstration. Nokia and Sprint will also be showcasing other 5G demonstrations at Sprint's booth, including low latency use cases for public safety and car platooning, and an Augmented Reality demo for Enterprise.

Nokia will also be showing a variety of innovative 5G demonstrations at the Nokia booth (#S.1102 in the South Hall). Mobile World Congress Americas will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Sept. 12-14, 2018.

 Nenye Dom/GEE

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Nokia entrenches 5G with world's first 5GTF connection

ITRealms:

Nokia also affirmed it has successfully carried out the world's first connection based on the Fifth Generation Technical Forum (5GTF) 'pre-standard', marking a further milestone in Nokia's momentum to make 5G a commercial reality, reports ITRealms.

The test, ITRealms gathered, adds another key component to the development of 5G and the implementation of the first 5G applications, demonstrating the ability to provide fast pace implementation according to early standards including device interoperability.

Recalling that Nokia plays a leading role in defining the path to 5G with last quarter witnessing the introduction of 4.5G Pro and announced plans for 4.9G, thus providing operators with the critical increases to capacity and speed that will be needed for future 5G operations.

Head of the 5G Business Line in Mobile Networks at Nokia, Harold Graham, was quoted in a press statement available to ITRealms that the world's first 5G connection, took place in a laboratory environment in Oulu, Finland, on 23 December, using the 5GTF (Verizon 5G Technology Forum) draft specification and was made possible by Nokia's commercially available 5G-ready AirScale radio access with the Nokia AirFrame data center platform running on Intel architecture, together with the Intel 5G mobile trial platform as an end-user device.

He also said that data transmission on a 5G network is a significant milestone in the commercialization of the new wireless 5G technology, and indeed in the cross-industry efforts being made by all players in the 5G ecosystem to standardize all aspects of 5G ahead of full commercial service launches expected to begin in 2020 on 3GPP NR.

The 5G connection, Graham said, marks yet another Nokia contribution to the evolution of communications; noting the first GSM call was made in Finland more than 20 years ago using a network built by Nokia.

This tradition, he said, has continued with the world's first 3G voice call, on a commercial 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) system in Finland in 2001, and then with the world's first Long Term Evolution (LTE) call via commercial software in Germany in 2009.

"This first 5G connection is a true landmark for the telecommunications industry, and yet another mark of Nokia's capabilities in 5G. With its low latency and significant capacity and speed increases, 5G will deliver a variety of new and innovative applications, and Nokia is playing leading roles in all aspects of the total 5G proposition. This 'first' highlights our commitment to being on the front line in providing our customers 5G-ready technologies so that they can seize early market opportunities by building 5G-enabled applications," he said.

The solution deployed in the test, he further said, include Nokia AirScale radio access, BTS with system module and radio unit running early 5G software, with 100 Mega Hertz (MHz) frequency band on 28 Gega Hertz (GHz); Nokia AirFrame data center solution, Intel 5G mobile trial platform designed to support sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G Bands; 2 or 4 layer MIMO, Up to 800MHz channel bandwidth.

As said by him, the 5G-TF has been designed to support all pre-standard specifications trending to a common 3GPP NR standard as well as video streaming over the air to the device.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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Google Ghana plans fast, affordable broadband

ITRealms: 

The Google Ghana Country Manager, Estelle Akofio-Sowah, has disclosed plans to use its Project Link in the country to expand Internet access and connection to the populace, reports ITRealms.

In an official blog post by Akofio-Sowah, Google has to expand broadband connection affordability that could transform communities and help people make the most of opportunities online.

Akofio-Sowah also noted that the Research and Education Network of Uganda (RENU), which provides infrastructure to connect universities across the country. Using capacity provided by Google’s Project Link.

RENU, ITRealms gathered, has been able to make its network faster, more reliable, and better equipped to enable the easy exchange of ideas, remote research, and academic collaboration.

“Since we first announced Project Link in Uganda, our work with partners like RENU has shown us what's possible, and we want to see more. That’s why today, we are expanding Project Link to Ghana, our first country in West Africa, so that we can work with local Internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile network operators (MNOs) to bring fast, reliable broadband to more people across the continent,” Estelle said.

While undersea cables reach the coasts, the challenge remains to bring abundant bandwidth closer to Internet users in Ghana’s largest cities—Project Link aims to fill this gap in local infrastructure. 

The Manager said that across Accra, Tema, and Kumasi, Project Link will build more than 1,200 kilometers of fiber to connect local ISPs and MNOs to metro-area fiber networks. By giving them more speed and capacity to work with, providers can meet the growing bandwidth demands of Ghana’s mobile phone users, schools, and businesses.

 +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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NDSF 2015: With technology, youth don’t need human connection, says CFA

ITRealms

The founder, Tech-Trends@Channels, Mr. Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, alias CFA has said that with technology the youth need not worry about having connection in order to succeed, reports ITRealms.

Mr. Agbata made this declaration in Lagos while speaking at the 2015 Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum (NDSF) Series on Internet Governance for Development with the theme: “Net Neutrality and Nigerian Internet Users.” 

He said that there is absolutely no reason why about 50 million Nigerian youths should be unemployed, adding that in online there are a lot of opportunities waiting to be tapped.

As said by him, with technology one does not have to depend on human connection in Nigeria and the world at large to get linked up, insisting that the worse response anyone can get is no. 

Agbata who is equally a Columnist with DigitalSENSE Business News, maintained that the youth have the strength to do extraordinary things on the net without getting tied.

 

ITRealms also reports that Agbata used himself as a example, saying he studied Sociology but he is today doing technology because technology is the future, but was quick to add that the regulator must come in to assert some measure of control even though net neutrality is important, advising that Nigerian Communications Commission should make sure that the SIM card, for instance, is employed harmlessly for optimal performance.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 

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Pix: CFA