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Nigeria, Others To Benefit From Google’s N410bn Investment Into Africa’s Digital Transformation

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Google has announced a plan to invest $1 billion (about N410.82bn) over five years to support Africa’s digital transformation.

It marks the biggest investment by the US tech company in Africa.

The countries to benefit include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

One of the plans is a new underwater data cable for the continent.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai made the announcement on Wednesday at the first Google for Africa event, which was held virtually.

He said the investment will include the landing of the subsea cable Equiano which will enable faster internet speeds and lower connectivity costs.

The planned $1bn investment, according to Pichai, will enable affordable internet access and build helpful products as Google plans to build global infrastructure to help bring faster internet to more people and lower connectivity costs.

It also includes low-interest loans to support entrepreneurship, small businesses and equity investments in African start-ups.

Pichai said, “One thing we’ve seen is how technology can be a lifeline, whether you are a parent seeking information to keep your family healthy, a student learning virtually or an entrepreneur connecting with new customers and markets. Being helpful in these moments is at the core of our mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

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“Expanding opportunity through technology is deeply personal to me. That’s because I grew up without much access to it. Every new technology — from the rotary phone to the television — changed my family’s life for the better. That’s why I’m a technology optimist. I believe in how people can harness it for good.

“I see so many examples across Africa today, whether it’s startups like Tambua Health that are using machine learning to help doctors diagnose and treat diseases, or entrepreneurs like Tunji, whom I had the chance to meet when I was in Lagos in 2017. His company, Gidi Mobile, is helping low-income students in Nigeria access online learning.

“Increasingly we are seeing innovation begin in Africa, and then spread throughout the world. For example, people in Africa were among the first to access the internet through a phone rather than a computer. And mobile money was ubiquitous in Kenya before it was adopted by the world.

“This momentum will only increase as 300 million people come online in Africa over the next five years. Many of them are young, creative and entrepreneurial, and they’re ready to drive new innovation and opportunity across the region.

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“It’s been incredible to see the rapid pace of change in a short amount of time, and be a partner on that journey. Since we opened our first offices in Africa, we’ve enabled 100 million Africans to access the internet for the first time and empowered millions of businesses and creators with digital tools,” he said.

Google had since 2017 trained six million young Africans and businesses in digital skills with over 60 percent of participants experiencing growth in their career and/or businesses as a result.

It also supported more than 50 non-profits across Africa with over $16m of grants as well as enabled 100m more Africans to access internet services for the first time through Android.

Google’s managing director in sub-Saharan Africa Nitin Gajria  said it would bring 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve the continent.

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Cable cuts: Operators working to restore connectivity, says NCC

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Cable cuts: Operators working to restore connectivity, says NCC

The Nigeria Communications Commission has confirmed that several African internet service providers faced outages due to submarine cable cuts, with cable operators actively engaged in efforts to restore connectivity.

The telecom regulator made this disclosure in a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka, on Thursday.

The NCC identified affected operators to include West African Cable System and African Coast to Europe, along with SAT3 and MainOne, which experienced downtime.

The regulator attributed the disruptions to incidents in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, resulting in subsequent disruptions in Portugal.

The commission noted similar challenges along other undersea cable routes, such as Seacom, Europe India Gateway, and Asia-Africa-Europe 1, which also experienced cuts.

The regulator stated, ” Similar undersea cables providing traffic from Europe to the East Coast of Africa, like Seacom, Europe India Gateway, and Asia-Africa-Europe 1, were said to have been cut at some point around the Red Sea, resulting in the degradation of services across these routes.”

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Many subscribers on Thursday expressed frustrations on social media platforms, citing difficulties in making phone calls and accessing online services.

Despite the setbacks, the NCC assured the public that cable operators have initiated repair efforts, with services gradually being restored.

The commission stated, “Operators of these cables have commenced repairs already, and services are gradually being restored. They have promised to work around the clock to ensure that services are restored to the affected countries within the shortest possible time.

“It is important to bring this information to the knowledge of corporations and consumers on these services.”
Earlier, MTN Nigeria, the leading telecommunications provider in the country, acknowledged the situation and appealed to its subscribers.

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The company also assured them that it is making efforts to resolve the issue and restore services as quickly as possible.
A few weeks ago, a similar issue occurred where major operators across the country, including MTN, Airtel, and 9mobile, grappled with a widespread network connection crisis.

The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, told The PUNCH that the connectivity issue was due to significant fibre cuts made by road contractors employed by the Federal Government.

The ALTON chairman said, “There have been significant fibre cuts across the country, and this has impacted connectivity today, but efforts are being made by affected telecom operators to rectify this situation.”

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IHS grants Airtel five-year tenancy

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IHS grants Airtel five-year tenancy

IHS Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria have sealed a deal that positions the third-largest telecom operator in Nigeria to acquire 3,950 tenancies over the next five years.

The majority of those acquisitions are anticipated in 2024 and 2025, with an extension until 2031 for existing tenancies covering approximately 6,000 sites.

According to a statement from the firms, the agreement comprises 2,500 collocations, 5G amendments, and the creation of built-to-suit sites owned and operated by IHS Nigeria.

They noted that the deal simply meant Airtel would be installing and operating its network equipment in locations owned by IHS.

Instead of constructing and maintaining its infrastructure, Airtel is opting to leverage IHS’s established facilities for five years.

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The Chairman of IHS Towers, Sam Darwish, said, “The expansion and renewal of our relationship with Airtel Nigeria is a testament to our continued commitment to serving our customers and the connectivity demands of Africa.

“Airtel Nigeria, as well as Airtel Africa, whom we serve in other markets in Africa, has been a long-term partner of IHS, and I am delighted that we continue to strengthen our collaboration to help facilitate mobile connectivity in our largest market, supporting our customers in rolling out new sites throughout Nigeria.”

A year ago, Airtel Africa paid $316.7m for the 5G spectrum it won in December 2022 and an additional 4G spectrum.

The telecom operator said the additional spectrum would boost its investments in network expansion for both mobile data and fixed wireless home broadband capability, including 5G rollout.

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The Chairman of Airtel, Sunil Mittal, said the company was willing to invest $700m in the country in the next two years as it rolls out the 5G network.

“To roll and experience the 5G and more fibre into the ground and data centres will require over $700m in order to achieve that, so, $400m is what we generally invest every year, but with 5G the investment is only going to go up for the next two or three years before it comes back to what it used to be,” Mittal added.

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Gemini AI tool will solve complex tasks, says Google CEO

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Gemini AI tool will solve complex tasks, says Google CEO

Google said its advanced Gemini artificial intelligence tool was designed to tackle and solve highly complex tasks such as reasoning and coding.

The search engine disclosed this in a statement during the rebranding of its former artificial intelligence Bard to Gemini.

Gemini comes in two versions the free and premium (Gemini Advanced)

Gemini is the largest and most capable AI model available to users in over 40 languages (free version) and more than 230 countries and territories.

The Chief Executive of Google, Sundar Pichai, said, “In December, we took a significant step on our journey to make AI more helpful for everyone with the start of the Gemini era, setting a new state of the art across a wide range of text, image, audio, and video benchmarks.”

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Google said the advanced model is more proficient at performing highly complex tasks, such as coding, logical reasoning, responding to nuanced instructions, and collaborating on creative projects.

Google explained that some of the capabilities will include getting instructions on fixing a tyre based on a photo, generating a custom image for their dinner party invitation or asking for help writing a difficult text message.

“It’s an important first step in building a true AI assistant, one that is conversational, multimodal and helpful,” Google stated.

Google said Gemini Advanced is going for $14 per month.

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It added that subscribers will get the first two months of trial free of charge and 2TB of storage space, among other benefits.

Gemini Advanced is available in only English but the American multinational assured that it will add more languages as it progresses.

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