Friday Network News: July 26

Bruno Nabagne Kone, minister of technology, information and communication for Ivory Coast, expects the country’s fibre-optic network deployment to enable internet connectivity to up to 30% of its population in the next five years. Work started last year on the $210 million fibre-optic project, which will lead to the deployment of 6,700km of cable. [read more]

Bharti Airtel's terrestrial fibre optic India-Bangladesh cable, designed to link the countries and bolster internet speeds, has gone live. The move is part of a bid to enhance voice and data connectivity between the two countries before India's long-awaited 3G rollout. [read more]

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has started the roll-out of its 4G LTE network in India, according to local reports. The deployment has initially begun in Assam and the Northeast regions, encompassing seven states, and the company is reportedly investing between INR 6 and INR 7 billion in phase one of the roll-out. [read more]

Virgin Media Business has signed an agreement with Birmingham City Council for the roll-out of free public Wifi across major parts of the city centre. The deal forms part of the government’s Super Connected Cities initiative, and is designed to boost connectivity, stimulate economic growth and address digital exclusion in Birmingham. [read more]

Fibre provider Geo Networks and cloud hosting firm Tsohost have partnered for the roll-out of 150km of dark fibre between Slough and London’s Docklands in the UK. The seven-year contract, it is hoped, will provide Tsohost with a low-latency Gigabit fibre connection to support its hosting and domain registration services. [read more]

French operators SFR and Bouygues Telecom have reportedly entered into exclusive talks to share their mobile networks. A deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and it is intended that the agreement will help to reduce costs for both companies. [read more]

Reliance Communications (RCom) and Tata Teleservices (TTSL) have signed a 2G intra-circle roaming agreement, in a bid to reduce costs and enhance network coverage in India. Under terms of the agreement, RCom will use 5,000 TTSL towers across 14 GSM circles, and TTSL will benefit from access to the same number of towers in RCom’s CDMA network. [read more]

Mobile operator EE has added 10 more UK towns to its 4G footprint, bringing the total to 95. The 4GEE service will now cover 60% of the UK population, with the additional towns including Altrincham, Bedford, Camberley, Crawley, Farnborough, Farnham, Maidstone, Rochdale, Tonbridge and Welwyn Garden City added to its footprint. [read more]

Telecom Italia has announced the roll-out of its 4G services to a number of additional cities across Italy. Cities in Tuscany, Apulia, Lombardy, Campania, Lazio, Sicily, Piedmont, Sardinia and Veneto are expected to benefit from the service. [read more]