Friday Network News: August 1
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Friday Network News: August 1

Capacity brings you the latest network news. If you have network developments you'd like us to share, please tweet us @capacitymag or email editorial@capacitymedia.com.

African and Latin America telecoms player Millicom has launched 4G services in Bolivia. The company said it is aiming to provide the network to approximately 70% of the population by 2018, however there are concerns that users will be put off by a high price tag. [read more]

Chinese vendor Huawei has signed a global licence agreement with Ranplan to implement small cell wireless networks. As part of the agreement, Ranplan's iBuildNet service will replace a series of software tools that are used by Huawei to provide an all-in-one solution for small cell design, simulation and optimisation. [read more]

Subsea cable provider Apollo and Alcatel-Lucent have achieved transmissions of 7.2Tbps of data per fibre pair in a field trial on the existing Apollo South route. The Apollo South system connects France to the US, and the trial utilised the French vendor's 100G technology. [read more]

Manx Telecom has launched the first 4G network in the Isle of Man, UK. The move follows a collaboration with Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei, which replaced Manx Telecom's existing GSM/HSPA networks with 4G LTE technology and implemented its SingleRAN LTE solution. [read more]

Colt is working with the London Metal Exchange (LME) to launch a dedicated high-speed network to provide market participants with a secure connection to the exchange’s electronic systems. The move forms part of the exchange's LMEnet project, which includes a new clearing system, LME Clear, due to launch in September. [read more]

Vodafone Australia is reallocating half of its mobile spectrum for 3G to 4G, and plans to expand the latter network to cover 95% of the urban population by the year end. In what is thought to be a bid to compete with national rivals Telstra and Optus, Vodafone is shifting half of its 850MHz spectrum – which can reportedly reach further than higher frequencies such as 1800MHz, as well as cut through dense materials like brick – for use by its 4G network. [read more]

tw telecom has expanded its network footprint across metropolitan Atlanta, US. The network expansion will extend from the city's central business district north into Marietta and Kennesaw, west into Austell and to other areas south. [read more]

Algérie Télécom’s CEO has said the company intends to deploy an additional 20,000km of fibre-optic cabling in Algeria by the end of 2015. CEO Mehmel Azouaou said that Algérie Télécom had already deployed approximately 57,000km of fibre and hopes this and the additional fibre will help it to improve quality of service and reduce costs. [read more]

Australia’s broadband company NBN Co has selected Thaicom subsidiary IPSTAR Australia (IPA) for a new initiative to boost broadband connections in remote parts of the country. The initiative is designed to provide internet access to Australians that cannot access an existing commercial broadband service. [read more]

Transatel has signed an agreement with the Post Office in the UK to enable the company to launch its MVNO operations. The Post Office announced its MVNO in partnership with UK operator EE earlier this month, and Transatel has now been revealed as official enabler of the service, supporting the Post Office online, over the phone and via its 11,500 branches as it delivers mobile services from autumn this year. [read more]

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