The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Huawei

  • Digital transformation market will hit $23t, says Huawei

    Digital transformation market will hit $23t, says Huawei

    Chinese information technology giants, Huawei Technologies says it create a digital transformation market worth $23trillion.

    The firm said it is forging commercial ties with big telcos across Europe and Asia, putting the company in prime position to lead the global race for next-generation 5G networks with over 30 global carriers.

    Ahead the opening of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, the Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) had presented Huawei Technologies with the  Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Mobile Industry.

    The award was presented during a special ceremony, where Huawei was recognisd for decades of advocating new technology standards, driving digital transformation and building the digital ecosystem.

    At the ceremony, Ken Hu, huawei Rotating and Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) accepted the award on behalf of the company.

    “Over the years, we have worked with many of you to advance 3G, 4G – and now 5G and other ICT technologies.

    ‘’Huawei has connected over one-third of the world’s population. Since the mobile industry is evolving, it will soon become the cornerstone of a fully connected, intelligent world,” he said.

    Huawei also launched its HUAWEI 5G customer-premises equipment (CPE), the world’s first commercial terminal device supporting the globally recognised 3GPP telecommunication standard for 5G. This device marks a milestone as Huawei sets the stage for the next generation of wireless connectivity.

    To ensure peak performance from its 5G CPE, Huawei uses its self-developed Balong 5G01 chipset – the world’s first commercial chipset supporting the 3GPP standard for 5G, with theoretical downlink speeds of up to 2.3Gbps. It supports 5G across all frequency bands, including sub-6GHz and millimeter wave (mmWave) to offer a complete 5G solution suitable for multiple use cases. The Balong 5G01 makes Huawei the first company offering an end-to-end 5G solution through its network, devices and chipset-level capabilities.

    Hu said: “5G standards and technologies are maturing. Huawei will continue to develop new technologies and work with industry partners to develop a 5G ecosystem. The ultimate goal is to build a fully connected, intelligent world.”

    Huawei has been innovating and investing in 5G for years. Since 2009, Huawei has invested $600 million in research and development into 5G technologies from connected vehicles and smart homes to AR/VR and hologram videos. At present, Huawei has more than 2,000 5G R&D engineers and 11 5G R&D centers around the world, including three centers in Europe and six centers in China. Huawei has forged alliances with ecosystem partners from around the world. By March 2016, HUawei had more than 30 partners, including leading global carriers, industry alliances, organisations, and vertical leaders.

    5G networks, now in the testing stage, will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and the cloud to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks and serve as critical infrastructure for a range of industries.

    2018 will mark the first year of commercialization for 5G, the CEO of the maker of fixed line and mobile network equipment and the world’s No.3 smartphone maker told reporters.

  • Huawei seeks more funding for ICT sector’s education

    WITH fresh investments and improved standard of education in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Nigeria’s economy can witness a major turnaround, Huawei Technologies has said.

    It stressed that more emphasis on education from the basic level and opportunities for entrepreneurial youths to embrace ICT will keep the country moving after emerging from its first recession in more than two decades.

    Huawei Nigeria Managing Director, Frank Li, who spoke during media interaction, in Lagos, said: “As a foreign investor, my greatest fear in the ICT sector is not the devaluation or the scarcity of dollar, but it’s the uncertainties that cloud the economy. However, ICT has countless potential in developing Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP.”

    According to him, during the recession, many foreign investors had the fear of shutting down and moving out of Nigeria. “But with increase in international oil price, Nigeria is gradually experiencing more economic fortunes in external reserves, sovereign weight fund and purchasing manager index (PMI), which have restored the confidence of foreign investors to invest in Nigeria,” Li added.

    The Huawei chief noted that the company has huge responsibilities in meeting the demands of over 90 million Internet users in Nigeria and also reaching over 200 communities, which house about 40 million people in rural areas, who still don’t have access to basic telecommunication service.

    Li further noted that the company has being supporting the government in its various methodologies with the aim of creating more jobs and increasing more revenue for government agencies.

     

  • Huawei: operation web services’ll accelerate digital operations

    Huawei: operation web services’ll accelerate digital operations

    Global tech firm, Huawei Technologies, has introduced Operation Web Services (OWS) which it said is an open, programmable, software driven platform with micro-services architecture that can manage networks in real-time and on-demand, across both communication technology (CT) and information technology (IT) domains. It added that this would help in improving operational efficiency and performance. 

    Speaking on the development, President, Huawei Southern African Region, Mr. Li Peng, said: “By efficiently managing and operating both current IT and telecoms network, Operation Web Services (OWS) has continued to evolve, enabling swift transformation and easily adapts as the infrastructure transition to ICT hybrid, NFV/SDN virtual networks and future technologies like 5G, IoT, and others.”

    Shedding more light on the platform, Mr. Li said OWS is flexible in creating unique services, adding that it ensures that all operational data is online to break the data silos. He said by using the data, it can build up the capability (operation visibility) and scenario-based data application programming interface (API) development.

    The platform allows engineers to utilise third party APIs to extend application capabilities, and provides more flexibility for them to create unique services while mitigating risk through automation which in turn ensures they focus on more important work, increasing overall productivity.

    He added that adopting the DevOps approach, the software architecture empowers the operational teams to create new applications quickly and simply, by removing the need for complex coding and time-consuming IT infrastructure management.

    OWS has adopted a modular approach to address the needs of the business, instead of using its legacy approach which included a lengthy and costly, centralised IT development process. Through this approach and orchestration capabilities, it allows operation engineers with no coding background to become application developers with little training, allowing them to design, develop, deploy and maintain their own applications, reducing the development cycle for a new application from between five and six months to between six and eight weeks.

    Enabling the use of a DevOps model and establishing a developer ecosystem helps operators realise full automation and intelligent operations, as the OWS self-learning engine is able to capture structured and unstructured data, and perform data analysis based on the specified algorithm with real-time insights.

    Through its highly automated operational processes, the software can accelerate the transition from rules based automation to autonomous operations. OWS takes advantage of the elasticity, scalability and cost benefits, spurs greater efficiency and creates substantial business value.

    Mr. Li further highlighted that the overriding value of a cloud-based software development approach within OWS has moved technology into the hands of the operations team. This radically accelerates the development and deployment of applications while enabling innovation across the wider global developer’s ecosystem sharing applications in our APP store. Currently, there are more than 140 thousand registered users within OWS, with 207 projects deployed, and more than 5 500 registered developers. There have been over 900 locally developed APPs launched.

    According organisation report, within three months of OWS deployment, one customer reported that automation and analytics helped reduce the average site downtime by 60 per cent and fault recovery time by 25 per cent, while engineers were able to improve efficiency by 12 per cent and reduce travel time by 13per cent. The operator ultimately was able to realise significant monetary saving, business outcomes and ensure superior customer experience, with the critical metric of network utilisation, increasing from 99 per cent to 99.55 per cent.

    In today’s digital era, many operators are evolving from offering traditional services to digital services. Industry analysts’ research shows that global telecoms revenue grew from $2-trillion in 2012 to $2.45-trillion last year. While revenues from traditional services such as voice and text message continue to decline, digital services have recorded growth of 25 per cent year-on-year. However, the switch to providing digital services requires full operational visibility, automation, analytics done in real time, and an agile, flexible adaption to technology changes to offer end to end service assurance and deliver best quality to end customers.

    Other challenges include limited budgets, infrastructure and operating systems that often come from multiple vendors, creating communication barriers and making it very difficult to quickly address customers’ service requirements.

    Operators recognise that managing telecom networks and IT in silos is not viable and CEOs are left asking questions such as: “Why is my operating cost so high? What does it take to transform my business culture? Why does it take six months to launch a new service?”

    While CTO and operation manager’s pain-points focus on how to run an efficient operation, how to remove the software & process silos, how to implement more automation, and where to acquire new skills and competences. 

    The innovative software of OWS has been recognised by the industry and in May 2017, for the 2017 Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Awards, Huawei and South Africa MTN OWS-based cloud management platform in the transformation of digital O&M practices won the “Software & Application Innovation” award. In earlier November 2016, at the 2016 Telecoms global annual Awards, Huawei OWS cloud management platform was awarded first place for “Cloud Innovation”.  In September 2016, Informa hosted the tenth annual global Managed Services World Congress (MSWC 2016), where Huawei OWS also won “Best Management Service Innovation Award”.

  • Huawei: Digital transformation’ll create value for telcos, customers

    Huawei: Digital transformation’ll create value for telcos, customers

    Leading Chinese information communication technology (ICT) solutions provider, Huawei has urged African telecom operators on digital operations transformation, arguing that this should be geared towards creating long term strategic value both for the telcos and their customers.

    As global voice revenue and growth is declining, data and digital services are now driving revenue growth, digital operations transformation is crucial for operators’ business growth and evolution and digital operation transformation must return to the commercial nature, what specific problems to be solved and what value to be delivered, the firm said.

    During the telecoms industry Operations Transformation Forum at AfricaCom in Cape Town, Huawei identified three key elements for digital operations transformation. These are a set of industry-based best practices and methodologies, open industry reference models and a series of executable targets.

    As a leading telecom service and solution provider, Huawei plans to invest $1billion in the next three years, to propel progress in digitisation solution to build business and technical capabilities, and has already seen the benefits in research and development (R&D), supply chain and delivery.

    Huawei stated that operators can maximise value and efficiency through digitisation and it is ready to partner with our customers and third-party partners to walk this journey of digital transformation together.

    The company has developed a set of effective digital transformation methodologies and solutions which are aimed at assisting operators. The key benefits are geared towards releasing network value, improving subscriber loyalty, optimising operating efficiency and accelerating digital operation transformation.

    During the Operation Transformation Forum, speakers from International Data Corporation (IDC), a global ICT analyst firm and Hong Kong Telecoms, among others, shared their insights and experiences of digital transformation that has vastly shorten time to market business, improved the end user experience, and brought them more digital services including mobile financial services.

    The forum which had: Enable new Growth by Operation Transformation, as theme, attracted over 50 industry analysts and operators.

  • Liquid Telecoms partners Huawei to deliver 100G links across South Africa

    Liquid Telecoms partners Huawei to deliver 100G links across South Africa

    Leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global, has partnered with Huawei, the global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, to deliver 100G upgrades to its network in South Africa.

    The upgrade to 100G wavelengths will take advantage of the latest DWDM technology from Huawei, enabling Liquid Telecom to offer additional capacity, faster speeds and greater redundancy to customers across South Africa.

    The first phase of the project will see Liquid Telecom deploy Huawei’s OptiX OSN Solution along 1200km of its long-haul network connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town.

    The 100G link will support growing demand for cloud-based services and provide customers with high-speed access to Liquid Telecom’s data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town, which are currently undergoing major expansions to meet the needs of global cloud players and enterprise customers.

    In the second and third phase of the project, the DWDM core network will be extended to the north west then north east regions of South Africa, providing more enterprise and wholesale customers in South Africa with high bandwidth connectivity.

    In addition, the network upgrades will support Liquid Telecom’s new CloudConnect for Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute service, which enables customers to create private, predictable, high performance, SLA-based connections between Azure data centres and infrastructure on their premises or in a colocation environment.

    “Higher networks speeds and bandwidth will play an integral role in supporting the rise of the African cloud. Through our partnership with Huawei, Liquid Telecom is ensuring that its network is ready to meet the increasing demand from businesses for cloud-based services,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO: Liquid Telecom.

    OptiX OSN  Solution is Huawei’s next-generation core packet-optical OTN platform for 100G/400G/1T and beyond, which is used for building high-performance backbone and metro networks. It integrates Huawei’s advanced Packet, OTN, and SDN-oriented Optics Transport technologies, and offers a high-density architecture with ultra-low power consumption per bit.

    “We are delighted to be supporting Liquid Telecom with next-generation network technologies that are ready for the new cloud era,” said Li Peng, President of Huawei Southern Africa region.

    “The deployment of our OptiX OSN  solution in South Africa further demonstrates our technology expertise and commitment to deliver innovative optical transmission solutions, “ he concluded.

  • Liquid Telecom partners Huawei

    Liquid Telecom partners Huawei

    Leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global, has partnered with Huawei, the leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, to deliver 100G upgrades to its network in South Africa.

    The upgrade to 100G wavelengths will take advantage of the latest DWDM technology from Huawei, enabling Liquid Telecom to offer additional capacity, faster speeds and greater redundancy to customers across South Africa.

    The first phase of the project will see Liquid Telecom deploy Huawei’s OptiX OSN Solution along 1200km of its long-haul network connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town.

    The 100G link will support growing demand for cloud-based services and provide customers with high-speed access to Liquid Telecom’s data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town, which are currently undergoing major expansions to meet the needs of global cloud players and enterprise customers.

    In the second and third phase of the project, the DWDM core network will be extended to the north west then north east regions of South Africa.

  • Huawei: 76% of Africans unconnected

    The President, Southern African Region, Huawei Technologies, Mr Li Peng, has lamented that 76 per cent of people in Africa still do not have access to information communication technology (ICT) tools.

    Peng who spoke yesterday at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, venue of the ongoing AfricaCom conference in South Africa, lamented that this huge digital divide provides an opportunity for both the public and private sectors to invest to bridge the divide.

    He spoke during the ICT Africa Forum it organised to bring together regulators, operators and other stakeholders in the information communication technology(ICT) ecosystem to chart a way forward in the continent’s challenges.

    Peng said a lot of African leaders have put in place policies that are designed to bridge this gap, but nonetheless, more still needed to be done to create access for the largely rural dwellers that have been disenfranchised in the digital transformation sweeping across the world.

     

     

  • Huawei urges Fed Govt to unlock digital potential

    Chinese Technology giant, Huawei Technology Ltd, has said the time has come for Nigeria to unlock the dividends of digital economy to enable it face the challenges of dwindling oil revenue, infrastructural deficit and massive unemployment.

    Its Managing Director, Mr Tank Li, who threw the challenge, said Nigeria has all its takes to be counted amongst the world’s 20 strongest economies in the next 10 years.

    He spoke during a presentation at a forum organised by the Federal Ministry of Communications  with other key stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry at the Transcorp Hotel, Abuja.

    “The Nigerian government has realised the potential of its digital economy. Unlocking the dividends of digital economy becomes imperative in the face of dwindling oil revenue with increasingly pressure on the economy evident in budget deficits, infrastructural deficit, high unemployment rate, harsh business environment and corruption amongst others,” he said, adding that the Federal Government is about to launch the smart Nigeria digital economy project that aims to solve efficiency problems and create leapfrogging opportunities in the economy for the next 10 years.

    Quoting the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah who said the financial services within the country’s digital economy would add $88 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) and create more than three million jobs within the next 10 years, Li said Huawei would be in the vanguard of support for Nigeria to nurse such ambition into fruition within the period.

    He said: “The potential gains of the digital economy will manifest in digital accounts, payments, mobile money, health and educational services along with other sectors of the economy.

    “Huawei is committed to building the technological infrastructure that will harmonise devices, pipe, and the cloud. These will serve as the backbone of a digital economy. As such, devices, pipe, and cloud technology are the strategic focus of Huawei’s investment in the future

    “As a global leading ICT solution provider, Huawei’s products and solutions have been deployed in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than one third of the world’s population.”

    He recalled that in 1999, Huawei entered Nigeria and over the last 17 years of development and growth, it has become a big family with over 1,200 workers of which 70 per cent are locals.

    “Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider. We advocate customer-centricity, dedication, and continuous innovation based on customer needs. This approach has earned us the respect and trust of our customers, and led to Huawei’s robust growth.

    “Starting out as a Shenzhen-based private company, Huawei has grown into a Fortune 500 company with annual sales of over $75 billion. It is worthy of note that Huawei now ranks 83rd on the Global Fortune 500 list.

    “Our telecom network equipment, IT products and solutions, and smart devices are used in more than 170 countries and regions. Among our  170,000 employees globally, around 80,000 are engaged in Research & Development (R&D).

    “To better present the results of our R&D investment in Nigeria, we spent over $6 million and established the Innovation and Experience Centre. It is built on 500 square meters, including the data centre on the ground floor, to serve Nigerian customers.

    “This is positioned to provide an experience where people can witness global best practice, a center for idea exchange with business solution innovation and also a platform to develop win-win ICT eco-system,” he added.

  • Huawei, Cloud Exchange sign West Africa partnership deal

    Huawei, Cloud Exchange sign West Africa partnership deal

    Cloud Exchange West Africa has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with global information and communication technology solutions provider, Huawei International as the global firm’s only Tier 1 Value Added Partner (VAP) in Nigeria and other West Africa.

    The partnership agreement, signed with Huawei Technology Company Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Huawei International, confers exclusive rights on Cloud Exchange as the sole VAP in West Africa. It is also the first long-term strategic deal that Huawei has struck with a local company in West Africa.

    This partnership is a major milestone for both Cloud Exchange and Huawei as it now positions Cloud Exchange for significant growth by leveraging Huawei’s technology and ICT infrastructure expertise. The agreement was signed by Chief Executive Officer, Cloud Exchange, Mr Glad Dibetso and Executive Director, Huawei Nigeria, Mr Welsion Yang.

    Chairman, Cloud Exchange West Africa, Dr. Akintoye Akindele recently led other officials to Huawei’s headquarters in Dunguan, China to inspect Huawei’s mega factory and sign the agreement.

    Dibesto said the partnership with Huawei as the very first and the only Tier 1 partner in West Africa will unlock value to its clients who are currently looking for quality, agility and different financing models to accelerate their ambitions in challenging economic times.

    “Cloud Exchange and Huawei’s mutually beneficial partnership, will indeed create value that will exceed our customers’ expectations,” Yang said.

    Director, Partner Business Department, Huawei Nigeria Ken Zhao noted that Cloud Exchange is a major player in the Nigeria ICT industry and a Value Adding Partner with Huawei, hence the business collaboration will surely promote fast growth and sustainability in ICT business in Nigeria.

    Cloud Exchange West Africa, formerly known as Dimension Data Nigeria Limited, is the leading West African systems integrator and virtual computing IT company with the ability to provide end to end world class IT solutions adapted to the local terrain. It is a fully indigenous West African company.

    Huawei is the leading global ICT solutions provider, also recognised as the fastest growing and most innovative company in the world. Huawei products and solutions have been deployed in more than 170 countries, serving one third of the world’s population, with a ranking of 128th in the Global Fortune 500 list in 2015.

  • Huawei donates skills centre to Lagos

    Huawei donates skills centre to Lagos

    Huawei Technologies Co. Nigeria Limited has donated a skills acquisition and devlopment centre to Lagos State government in support of the government’s drive to reduce unemployment and poverty in the state.

    Named: Funmilayo Mobolaji Johnson Skill Acquisition and Development Centre Eti-Osa, Lagos, the projected was inaugurated yseterday  by Huawei and Fortis Projects Services.

    The official commissioning was performed by the first lady of Lagos, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode. Other dignitaries in attendance include the Sole Administrator of Eti-Osa East LCDA – Prince Babatunde Ayo Ayeni, the Managing Director, Huawei – Mr. Frank Li, Director Fortis Group – Mr. Richard Dotun Adebayo, Deputy Managing Director, Huawei – Mr. Leo Li, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation – Mrs. Lola Akande, Chinese Consul to Nigeria – Chao Xiaoliang and others.

    The centre was designed as an alternative to white collar jobs, impart knowledge in various fields ranging from catering, hat and bead making, hairdressing, fashion designing, photography, fridge and air conditioner maintenance, leather works, wood and carpentry, adult literacy and computer studies.

    Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Ambode enjoined members of the community to put the facilities to good use so as to enjoy the place for a long time to come.

    The Managing Director, Huawei Technologies, Mr. Frank Li said he was motivated to build the centre by his experience with a young girl and her mother who lacked access to skill acquisition. He said the episode continues to motivate him to help children and teenagers in the community at every opportunity.

    Executive Director at Fortis Group, Mr. Richard Dotun Adebayo,  said  the completion of the project marked the beginning of a new dawn for the young men and women of the local community.

    “The project is here to empower you become all that you hope to become in life. You have the opportunities to break boundaries, cross the line and reach new heights,” he said.

    Mrs. Akande  said she was honoured to be part of the commissioning of the skill centre named after the wife of the first Military Governor of the state. She said the project will complement the investment of the state in women empowerment and skills acquisition, adding that it will enable the women contribute to the economic development of the nation.

    She commended Huawei for partnership with Fortis  for the centre, and used the opportunity to urge all private organisations to follow suit.

    Mr. Xiaoliang described the centre as a bountiful blessing to the people, and another monument of the friendship between Nigeria and China.

    Prince Ayeni said  the centre represents an alternative means of livelihood for the people of the community.