NCC urges contractors to protect telecom assets as fibre cuts hit 5,000 in H1 2026 - ITREALMS

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on road construction companies, civil engineers, and infrastructure contractors to implement strict preventive measures to protect fibre-optic networks during road expansion and civil works across the nation, reports ITREALMS.

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, made the call on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, during a high-level stakeholders' workshop hosted at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), in Abuja.

NCC 109th board meeting: 75m consumers compensated as commission pushes for fibre expansion, infrastructure security - ITREALMS

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The Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has underscored its commitment to Quality of Service (QoS) and infrastructure resilience following its 109th Board Meeting held on May 25, 2026, reports ITREALMS.

The session marked a pivotal shift toward aggressive fibre deployment and strengthened governance within the sector.

Liquid launches 2 cross-border fibre routes - ITREALMS

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The Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid), a business of cassava technologies, a pan-African technology group, launched of two new fully redundant terrestrial routes – Kenya to Ethiopia and Zambia to Malawi. This significant achievement will allow for greater efficiency and reliable regional connectivity, both key to the economic development of these countries.

Spanning over 1000 km, the fibre link between Kenya and Ethiopia offers businesses in Ethiopia access to data centres and cloud in Nairobi, Kenya, ensuring that data doesn’t leave the continent. In addition, this link is further supported by the cross-border 711 km link between Zambia and Malawi, providing a direct and reliable connection to content caches and data centres in South Africa.

Smart single fibre fusion splicer, 41S debuts - ITREALMS

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Latest single fibre active cladding alignment fusion splicer, 41S, designed for Fiber To The X (FTTx) .applications, has made a debut, reports ITRealms.

FTTX is defined as all possible optical fiber topologies from a telecom or cable carrier to its customers, based on the location of the fiber's termination point

The next-generation smart 41S splicer, ITRealms gathered would boast innovative features in a compact and robust package, especially for operators to save time and cost with the new wireless solution.

ITRealms gathered that Fujikura Europe launched the service, stressing that wirelessly connecting to the CT50 fibre cleaver using Bluetooth technology, the 41S enables a range of pioneering functions that will improve the overall installation time, cost and efficiency for operators.

Compared to its predecessor the 22S, the 41S has been upgraded and offers installers the convenience of a 5” colour touch-panel display, improved v-groove illumination and the benefit of easy splice protector positioning. The machine re-assures users of reliable splice results using CORE loss estimation using Warm Image Splicing Technology.

The issue of poor fibre cleaving due to worn, incorrectly adjusted or damaged cleaver blades is conveniently dealt with. When the 41S detects a high cleave angle or bad end shape, it sends a blade position change instruction to the cleaver. The CT50 cleaver then rotates the cleaver blade automatically to the next position, restoring optimum cleaving performance.

By utilising the low radio power of Bluetooth technology, other equipment nearby will not be interfered with. Operators can benefit from the “always on” technology due to the low power consumption of the Bluetooth, which means that batteries can last for several months.

“To ensure optimum results, fibres need to be spliced in a safe, hassle-free and efficient manner to avoid unnecessary, extra work for operators,” said Neil Bessant at Fujikura Europe. “Cleaving fibres using a cleaver without the benefit of wireless connectivity for an operator is a tricky, and often a less than successful game to play. If multiple errors are made it leads to increased costs to replace the fibres, as well as lost time and ultimately a decrease in overall optical performance.

“Our latest addition to the splicing family, the 41S, is flexible, smart and efficient and therefore makes a huge difference to this process. The easy-to-handle qualities of the solution means quick and simple splicing, with performance never being compromised.”

In addition to cleave performance, the smart splicer can also wirelessly monitor battery and power usage of the CT50 cleaver. The 41S comes enabled with a touch screen menu as standard, but also maintains the traditional easy-to-use hard button navigation system. The splicer retains all of the unique, class-leading features from the current high-performance flagship line-up of Fujikura splicers, including: quick splice and heat times, fully ruggedized features, and user customizable settings.

The 41S, along with a full range of Fujikura Europe’s fibre optic solutions, will first be displayed at ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communication) in Rome, Italy from the 24th – 26th September 2018

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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‘Terrestrial fibre constraints, mother of bottlenecks’

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The experts at the Africa Session of the International Telecoms Week conference in Chicago have described terrestrial fibre constraints as the mother of all bottlenecks hindering increased Internet penetration on the continent, reports ITRealms.

During his presentation on the theme “Enabling Content on the African Continent”, Chief Executive Officer of research firm, Xalam Analytics, Guy Zibi analyzed the African digital journey, highlighting dramatic changes that have altered the dynamics of the digital transformation of the continent.

According to him, the international capacity challenge has been solved, with most coastal countries exhibiting an oversupply of subsea cables serving the continent.

He also noted that the reach of such capacity was still limited due to limitations in the availability of terrestrial open-access fibre which remains extremely low in most markets especially Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania among others.

“These limitations have translated into retail connectivity prices as a proportion of income being 2X more expensive in Africa compared to Latin America and the Caribbean and 3X when compared to Asia,” he said.

Zibi highlighted the dangers of deepening the continent’s digital divide with services limited to narrow addressable markets and Africa’s inability to fully partake in the fourth industrial revolution.  

He reiterated the need for more aggressive deployment of terrestrial infrastructure, especially in metropolitan and local networks to reach the end users and enhance affordability.

A panel that included high-level representation from Orange, MTN GlobalConnect, MainOne and Kwese challenged African policy makers to proffer incentives to encourage the deployment of broadband infrastructure of scale to support the rollout of much needed infrastructure to rural areas.

The Africa Panel session at ITW was sponsored by MainOne for the 7th year in a row and continues to provide a platform for players to share perspectives on the opportunities and challenges across the region with a global audience.

The discussions focused on infrastructure challenges as well as regulatory and economic constraints that impede increased internet access and proliferation of broadband across the continent.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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