Industry News

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has backed a telecommunications expansion project aimed at improving internet connectivity across Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire through the deployment of about 1,500 mobile communications base stations.

The initiative, announced on Tuesday, is expected to target underserved and off-grid communities where millions of residents still rely on weak 2G and 3G networks for communication and internet access.

The project will deploy wireless infrastructure developed by Vanu Inc, a US-based company focused on low-cost mobile network systems for rural and hard-to-reach areas.

USTDA said the rollout forms part of broader efforts to strengthen digital infrastructure and reduce connectivity gaps across West Africa.

Thomas Hardy, USTDA deputy director, said the initiative would help expand affordable and trusted internet access while providing an alternative to insecure telecommunications infrastructure in the region.

According to the agency, a feasibility study funded for Vanu Côte d’Ivoire will assess the project’s commercial viability, existing telecoms infrastructure, regulatory requirements and financing models needed for large-scale deployment.

The study will receive technical support from Vernonburg Group LLC.

Andrew Beard, CEO of Vanu Inc, said the company’s technology is designed to help mobile operators expand broadband and voice services into economically challenging areas while maintaining profitability and long-term sustainability.

West Africa’s telecoms sector has expanded significantly in recent years, with Nigeria alone estimated to host between 30,000 and 40,000 base stations, most of them concentrated in urban areas, leaving many rural communities underserved.

USTDA said initiatives such as the new rollout are intended to help narrow the region’s persistent connectivity gap.

Industry analysts say improved rural connectivity could strengthen digital inclusion, support small businesses, improve access to education and accelerate fintech adoption in underserved communities across West Africa.

Source : www. extensia.tech.com

MTN Group plans to convert its African tower estate into a distributed AI compute fabric, installing open GPU infrastructure at base-station sites so that the same hardware can run both the cellular network and edge AI inference workloads.

The plan was set out by MTN Group chief technology and information officer Charles Molapisi at an event hosted by law firm Bowmans in Johannesburg on Wednesday. It was MTN’s most detailed explanation yet of how it plans to position itself as the infrastructure layer of Africa’s AI economy.

Today every cellular tower has a baseband unit at its base – a piece of single-purpose hardware that exists only to drive the radio access network. Molapisi said MTN will replace these with open GPU configurations capable of running the radio plus AI inference, or what the company has described as a “distributed AI grid”.

A pay-off, he argued, is latency. AI workloads that today have to be hauled back to a central data centre could be processed at or near the tower instead. He gave the example of children playing PlayStation on an estate served by a tower in the estate: with edge compute installed, the workload could be served locally rather than backhauled to a distant data centre and returned, freeing capacity and cutting round-trip time.

The edge layer sits alongside the centralised half of MTN’s AI infrastructure plan. The group confirmed in its 2025 financial results in March that it will build two new AI-enabled data centres, one in South Africa and one in Nigeria.

Edge AI grid

Molapisi described an MTN AI strategy that spans a relatively full stack – procuring silicon, building data centres, running its own cloud platforms, curating models and co-developing applications with partners. The company is also building terrestrial fibre across multiple African markets, including some where it has no GSM licence, to plug what Molapisi called the continent’s missing “rails”.

The investments sit inside MTN’s Ambition 2030 strategy, which reorganised the group around three platforms – connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure. The tower-to-inference push is the most concrete articulation yet of a thesis MTN has been laying out for more than a year, including an investment in March in US AI-native networking start-up ORAN Development Company alongside Nvidia, Cisco, Nokia, AT&T and Telecom Italia. At the time, MTN Digital Infrastructure CEO Mazen Mroué described the move around “sovereign AI” – the principle that African countries should host AI compute locally rather than relying on offshore infrastructure.

Molapisi said MTN is working on the edge AI grid alongside technology partners. The ambition, he said, is for MTN to become “the biggest distributor of edge inference in the continent”.

The strategic case rests on Molapisi’s wider argument that Africa risks repeating its commodity history in the AI era. With about 1% of global computing power on the continent today, he said, Africa stands to “export raw data” the way it has long exported raw minerals, only to import the intelligence built from it at a premium.

Molapisi conceded in his presentation on Wednesday that chip generations are turning over fast enough – Nvidia’s Hopper to Blackwell inside two years, for example – that procurement decisions made today can be obsolete by deployment. He said MTN is being deliberate about its chip mix and the balance between training and inference silicon, “because if you get that wrong, you’ll get the economics terribly wrong”.

Source : www. techcentral.co.za

Port Nelson is the main port serving Nelson, New Zealand, and is seen as the main maritime gateway to Te Tauihu, at the top of the South Island.

It serves a key role of New Zealand’s economy, handling a range of exports and imports, including forestry products, pipfruit, wine, and seafood.

Spark notes that the Port has suffered from connectivity issues in the past, notably from WiFi dead spots.

“Connectivity was becoming a real operational constraint for us,” said Reagan Pattison, general manager, business transformation at Port Nelson.

“No matter how much we tried to saturate our warehouses with WiFi, we couldn’t get consistent performance. That impacted productivity, created frustration for our operators, and limited our ability to modernize how we work.”

To help modernize the operations at Port Nelson, Spark and Ericsson have paired to deploy a private 5G network that covers 30,000 square metres (322,917 sqm) across three warehouses in Nelson and Blenheim.

According to Spark, this includes its 5G+ private network solution, which uses Ericsson’s private 5G to provide a high-availability core at Port Nelson that connects to small cell radios to provide reliable coverage inside the warehouses and across outdoor yard areas.

On top of this, the Port has also deployed Ericsson Cradlepoint ruggedized R1900 routers for forklift connectivity and tracking.

Because of the dual-SIM capability, the routers are able to switch between Spark’s public and private 5G networks when forklifts move outside the initial private 5G coverage areas.

Private 5G networks are able to deliver dedicated, secure coverage across ports such as Port Nelson, meaning that workers can scan pallets in real time without interruption as they move throughout the sites.

“In a warehousing environment where there are moving vehicles and large volumes of stock moving in and out of the space, reliable connectivity that digital workflows can depend on really matters,” said Ian Ross, head of private networks ANZ, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions.

“Private 5G is the digital backbone of modern industry, increasingly demonstrating the highest standard when it comes to connectivity for critical applications in factories, warehouses, airports, mines, and ports. By using Private 5G, Port Nelson now has a dedicated network using the latest cellular wireless capabilities, that can support real‑time operations today while providing a strong foundation for future digital innovation,” Ross added.

Ericsson is also powering a digital push-to-talk comms platform for workers, via its private 5G. This is aimed at improving real‑time communications and enabling location‑based alerts to help physically separate people from heavy mobile plant. Future applications include geofence intelligence and broadcast messaging.

In the future, the Port’s warehouse private 5G network will support more applications, including real‑time asset tracking, predictive maintenance, enhanced CCTV cameras, AI‑enabled vision, and automation.

Port Nelson is a great example of how private 5G is unlocking new value for New Zealand businesses operating in complex, production‑critical environments,” said Greg Clark, chief customer officer at Spark.

“Spark’s 5G+ Private Network is designed for organizations that need secure, high‑performance connectivity they can rely on. At Port Nelson, it’s enabling safer warehouse operations today while opening the door to automation, advanced IoT, and smarter ways of working across the entire Port in the future.”

Source : www.datacenterdynamics.com

The approach enables the company to scale AI use cases across the business, accelerate decision-making and deliver measurable operational impact. By combining a governed data foundation with the Joule solution and this foundation, Ericsson is creating the enterprise architecture needed to make AI trusted, repeatable and scalable across its global operations.

Ericsson, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, provides mobile network infrastructure across 180 countries, with more than 40% of the world’s mobile traffic passing through its networks. As AI becomes central to both its technology road map and how it runs the business, Ericsson has prioritized building a strong, governed data foundation to support scalable and trusted AI.

“Once you scale AI, it stops being an AI problem—and becomes a data problem,” said Esra Kocatürk Norell, Vice President, Customer Experience, Enterprise IT at Ericsson. “That’s why we invested early in a business data fabric. With SAP Business Data Cloud, we can define what data means once—from revenue to market structures and access rules—and apply it consistently across the enterprise. That’s what allows us to scale AI in a way that is trusted, repeatable and delivers real business value.”

At the core of Ericsson’s approach is a federated data architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance and lifecycle policies. This reduces duplication, simplifies integration and ensures that consistent business definitions can be applied across both SAP software and non-SAP environments.

By focusing on high-impact use cases and organizing around end-to-end business processes rather than isolated solutions, Ericsson has moved beyond pilot projects to scaled deployment. Today, more than 85,000 users are live on unified Joule, supported by strong executive sponsorship and governance.

Ericsson is advancing its transformation on two parallel fronts. The first is modernization, including its transition to the RISE with SAP journey, the use of side-by-side extensions on SAP Business Technology Platform and a clean core approach that enables faster innovation without disrupting its ERP backbone. The second is what the company defines as “innovate and transform,” focused on unlocking tangible business value from data and AI to improve decision-making, increase efficiency and enable new forms of value creation.

SAP and Ericsson are also collaborating on AI co-innovation initiatives. One example is an intelligent goal recommendation capability developed within the SAP SuccessFactors portfolio. The solution generates contextual, business-aligned goals for employees, improving execution and reducing administrative effort. The capability is now being scaled more broadly, demonstrating how co-innovation can create value beyond a single organization.

“Ericsson’s approach shows how leading companies are moving from AI experimentation to execution by focusing on data, governance and business context,” said Manos Raptopoulos, Global President Customer Success Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa at SAP SE. “Together, we are helping organizations unlock the full potential of AI at scale.”

Looking ahead, Ericsson expects its business data fabric to support increasingly advanced AI scenarios, including automated decision-making, improved productivity and new digital business models, while continuing to strengthen customer experiences in a rapidly evolving telecom landscape.

Source : www.news.sap.com

Over the past year, organisations across every industry have accelerated their adoption of AI, particularly generative AI and autonomous agents. Many are now embedding AI into customer interactions, decision-making and operational processes. However, governance, security and operational controls have not evolved at the same pace.

This is according to Lunga Zonke, CTO at Huawei Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa. He will present a session titled: “From AI hype to AI accountability: Securing what we can no longer control blindly” at the ITWeb Security Summit 2026 in Johannesburg. The summit takes place on 2 and 3 June at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Zonke will explore how AI has evolved from a technology innovation into a business, risk and trust imperative. He will also share Huawei Cloud’s perspectives on the challenges organisations face when securing AI systems at scale.

Drawing on the company’s experience across cloud, data and AI environments, he will examine how organisations can move from experimentation to more accountable production deployments.

“The session will highlight Huawei Cloud’s approach to building trusted AI platforms through secure cloud infrastructure, unified data and AI services, intelligent observability and integrated security controls,” Zonke says.

The conversation has shifted from asking, ‘What can AI do?’ to asking, ‘How do we control, secure and account for AI systems at scale?’” he continues. “Organisations are moving beyond proof-of-concept phases. They must now address the practical realities of production deployment in regulated and high-stakes environments.”

Delegates can expect practical insights into balancing AI innovation with governance, resilience and accountability. This includes understanding what data enters AI systems and how it is protected. It also means ensuring AI outcomes are explainable and auditable, monitoring the full AI ecosystem – not just the model – and embedding governance and controls into day-to-day operations.

“Accountability will become the foundation of trust in the AI era,” Zonke says.

Beyond AI, Zonke believes several factors will drive technology adoption across Africa. “As governments, financial institutions, telecommunications providers and enterprises accelerate digital transformation, cyber security is increasingly becoming a board-level priority,” he says. “The focus is shifting from compliance-driven security to resilience-driven security.”

Source : www.itweb.co.za

The Kenya School of Government and Huawei Kenya have signed a partnership agreement aimed at equipping public servants with skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and digital governance as the government accelerates its digital transformation agenda.

‎The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in Nairobi on Tuesday, will see the two institutions collaborate on digital skills development, ICT capacity building, research and knowledge exchange for the public sector.

‎The agreement comes as KSG marks 100 years of public service training, with the institution seeking to reposition itself as a modern and digitally enabled centre for governance and leadership training.

‎Under the deal, Huawei will support the training and certification of 2,000 government officials and 50 KSG technical staff between 2026 and 2029 in key areas, including AI and cybersecurity.

‎KSG Director General Nura Mohamed said the partnership would strengthen the capacity of public officers to respond to emerging governance and service delivery challenges.

‎“This collaboration marks a significant step in positioning the Kenya School of Government as a centre of excellence in digital public service leadership,” he said.

“Through this partnership, we will equip public officers with critical skills in AI, cybersecurity and digital transformation to improve service delivery and governance across the country.”

Huawei Kenya Deputy CEO for Public Affairs James Sun said the partnership reflects a shared commitment to building a future-ready public service.

‎“We are proud to partner with KSG in building a future-ready public service. This MoU reflects our shared vision to strengthen digital skills, support innovation in government, and contribute to Kenya’s transformation into a digitally empowered economy,” said Sun.

‎The partnership will also facilitate joint training programmes, applied research, technical knowledge exchange and staff exchange initiatives between the two institutions.

‎According to officials, the collaboration will focus on improving ICT competencies in the public sector, conducting training needs assessments and promoting the adoption of emerging technologies in governance and public administration.

‎The initiative is expected to support efforts to modernise government services through AI-driven systems while strengthening cybersecurity capabilities across public institutions.

Source : www.the-star.co.ke

MTN Nigeria on Sunday, May 17, 2026, celebrated outstanding alumni of its Media Innovation Programme (MIP) at the MIP Alumni Award Night held at the MTN Event Centre, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos.

The event brought together fellows, media professionals, innovators, and industry stakeholders to recognise impactful storytelling, innovation, and contributions to media development across Africa.

The Social Impact Story of the Year award with a ₦1 million prize, was presented to Johnstone Kpilaakaa, Sub-Editor and Head of Standards at HumAngle Media, for his report, “What’s Left of Benue State’s Deserted Communities?”

The story was recognised for spotlighting the realities of displacement and abandoned communities in Benue State, drawing attention to pressing humanitarian and social issues.

For her report, “360 Tbps at the Shore, Buffering Inland: Why Nigeria’s Broadband Promise Remains Unfulfilled,” Royal Ibeh, Head of Tech Desk at BusinessDay, received the Digital Storyteller of the Year award with ₦1 million prize and one-year MTN internet subscription.

The report stood out for its examination of the disconnect between Nigeria’s broadband infrastructure ambitions and the internet realities experienced by millions of Nigerians.

Recognition for MIP Fellow of the Year went to Victory Wilson, Broadcast Journalist and News Anchor at Silverbird Television, for her contributions to mental health advocacy, youth engagement, and purpose-driven storytelling.

Through broadcasting and public conversations centred on emotional wellbeing, Wilson has continued to use media as a tool for social impact and awareness. She was awarded ₦1.5 million prize.

The Media Innovator of the Year award, regarded as the night’s top honour, was presented to Chioma Chinyere Chukwuemeka, News Lead at Radio Sapientia 95.3FM Onitsha, who also received a ₦3 million prize for Universal Multimedia Impact Resources (UMIR), an AI-powered social impact platform focused on digital safety, ethical technology education, and youth empowerment.

The initiative was recognised for combining media, technology, and education to support women, girls, and young people.

Welcoming the fifth cohort and reflecting on the growth of the programme, Tobe Okigbo, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer, MTN Nigeria represented by Chineze Gbenga-Oluwatoye, described the Media Innovation Programme as a platform built on collaboration, growth, and shared impact.

“You have joined something truly special. MIP is more than a fellowship; it is a community of people committed to learning, growth, and shaping the future of media together.

“For those just joining, this is your opportunity to write your own story, build meaningful connections, and maximise the experiences ahead of you.

https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?gdpr=0&client=ca-pub-3871929244942399&output=html&h=280&num_ads=1&adk=3259916396&adf=1826706513&w=740&fwrn=4&fwrnh=100&lmt=1779269268&rafmt=1&armr=3&sem=mc&pwprc=8676808003&ad_type=text_image&format=740×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng%2Fmtn-honours-outstanding-fellows-at-inaugural-mip-alumni-awards%2F&fwr=0&pra=3&rh=185&rw=740&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&asro=0&aiactd=0&aicctd=0&ailctd=0&aimartd=4&aieuf=1&aicrs=1&fa=27&abgtt=6&dt=1779265440104&bpp=2&bdt=8785&idt=2&shv=r20260519&mjsv=m202605150101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D4d01222c0447853b%3AT%3D1778056441%3ART%3D1779269211%3AS%3DALNI_Mbp4f8kQypklKuDTD5I9giBK8dXbA&gpic=UID%3D0000136da911389d%3AT%3D1778056441%3ART%3D1779269211%3AS%3DALNI_MaSRhs5Af1gFiFsSOpDRp81LU0OCA&eo_id_str=ID%3D5350681f5746faca%3AT%3D1778056441%3ART%3D1779269211%3AS%3DAA-AfjZCd3Vk139468sU4ixBwPxe&prev_fmts=0x0%2C1366x635%2C740x280%2C740x280%2C320x250%2C320x250%2C740x280&nras=8&correlator=2797075657802&frm=20&pv=1&u_tz=0&u_his=2&u_h=768&u_w=1366&u_ah=720&u_aw=1366&u_cd=24&u_sd=1&adx=163&ady=3088&biw=1366&bih=635&scr_x=0&scr_y=726&eid=31098638%2C42533293&oid=2&pvsid=2127843832391395&tmod=896886043&uas=3&nvt=1&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&fc=1408&brdim=-8%2C-8%2C-8%2C-8%2C1366%2C0%2C1382%2C736%2C1366%2C635&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7Cs%7C&abl=NS&fu=128&bc=31&bz=1.01&pgls=CAEaBTYuOC41&ifi=6&uci=a!6&btvi=6&fsb=1&dtd=M “We are proud of what this programme has become, proud of the alumni who continue to make impact across the industry, and excited about the journey ahead for the new cohort.”

Launched in 2022 in partnership with the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, the Media Innovation Programme has become one of Nigeria’s leading media capacity development initiatives.

Through training, mentorship, and international exposure, the programme continues to equip journalists, broadcasters, digital creators, and media professionals with the tools needed to succeed in an increasingly digital media landscape

Source:  www.nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng

Solution includes Ericsson Radio System products, powered by Ericsson on-Demand 5G core network, as well as Net Feasa’sAgentic Control Tower platform

    The partnership provides the maritime industry with reliable, secure connectivity, integrated with Agentic AI-driven data management and operations

    Deployment of the solution is already under way globally. Current use cases include reefer monitoring, dangerous goods handling and early heat detection

STOCKHOLM , May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Container shipping on the high seas, and the broader maritime industry, are set to benefit from transformative real-time agentic AI-based connectivity and monitoring capabilities, thanks to a new global partnership between Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and international IoT service provider Net Feasa.

Secure, carrier-grade 4G/5G connectivity on-board container vessels, delivering agentic AI-ready data, will improve cargo visibility and increase operational efficiency across the maritime industry, regardless of location on the world’s oceans.

Andres Vicente, Head of Southeast Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, says: “Maritime operators need secure, reliable connectivity that follows the vessel, wherever it sails. Alongside Net Feasa, we are bringing onboard 4G and 5G cellular networks to the world’s container fleets, establishing the foundation for data driven operations and AI enabled services from ship to shore. With container vessels as our starting point, the scope of what we can achieve across the entire global shipping industry is immense. Together, we are shaping the future of connected, intelligent shipping.”

Mike Fitzgerald, Chairman and Founder, Net Feasa, says: “Digitalization of the intermodal supply chain is at a tipping point. With the advent of agentic AI, we are gathering data from everything that moves, analyzing and securing this data, and empowering carriers to act on this data across their operations. This landmark partnership has the potential to transform the global maritime industry not just from an operational efficiency perspective but across employee safety, cargo risk reduction and compliance.”

The growth of 5G deployments in major ports has showcased how sea-based supply chain service can benefit from connectivity – whether through smart container fleets or individual vessels at sea. Driven from the maritime hub of Singapore, the Ericsson-Net Feasa partnership will provide vessel owners, shipping companies and port operators with real-time, end-to-end visibility of cargo from the point of departure to the destination port.

The partnership will empower Net Feasa’sAgentic Control Tower, the only platform currently available that enables full visibility of all smart-enabled containers on board, and an agentic AI-ready data layer that enables proactive operations across the supply chain.

The solution, which is already being deployed globally, is designed to easily scale and connect thousands of assets per vessel. This provides shippers with flexible, future-proofed connectivity that can evolve with their digitalization strategy, as the industry matures. Reefer monitoring, dangerous goods handling and early heat detection are some of the use cases already being managed live at sea. The system allows assets to communicate, generating key data needed to act on real-time alerts at any point in a voyage.

Even the smallest of changes in state to the cargo can have implications to the supply chain, so reliable connectivity at sea as well as the analytical capabilities to understand potential consequences of any changes multiplied over long operational periods, can add substantially to efficiency savings or minimize waste or damage in the case of perishable goods.

In addition to the monitoring, handling and detection capabilities already live, the two companies have a roadmap for further use cases including extending connectivity across other types of shipping vessels and into ports – further enabling end-to-end, SIM-managed visibility and data-driven operations across a connected maritime supply chain.

Net Feasa, a fully licensed Mobile Network Operator, deploys and integrates compact, low-footprint radio access solutions on board vessels, minimizing space and power requirements while delivering carrier-grade performance. The solutions are designed to support multiple frequency bands, enabling seamless connectivity across different regions and operating environments.

The onboard networks are built using Ericsson Radio System products, including Radio 4490HP, Radio 2271, the Radio Processor 6355 with enhanced AI capabilities, and Power 6309. Ericsson On-Demand will power to deliver carrier-grade 5G core as-a-service with international roaming on a global scale running on public cloud. Backhaul connectivity between the vessels and the core network will be realized using low-earth orbit satellite.

Source : www. markets.ft.com

On May 15, 2026, the 2026 Global AIDC Industry Summit & Huawei AIDC Strategy and Product Launch was held in Dongguan, China, with the theme “Power the AI Era Forward.” The summit brought together nearly 1,000 global leaders, technical experts, and core ecosystem partners from the energy, intelligent computing and carrier sectors. They shared insights on the next-generation AI data center (AIDC) architecture evolution and cutting-edge technological innovations, as well as witnessed the launch of Huawei’s grid-interactive AIDC strategy. The sessions on AIDC power supply, AIDC liquid cooling, AI for DC operations and maintenance (O&M), and new AIDC construction mode were also held, exploring pathways to lead the industry into the AI era.

Hou Jinlong, Director of the Board of Huawei and President of Huawei Digital Power, delivered an insightful keynote speech at the event. According to Mr. Hou, the booming AI industry widely adopted large models and numerous AI agents, both of which are creating huge energy demands and accelerating the global AIDC capacity.

Electricity is essential for computing; energy is the foundation for AI long-term development. Computing and electricity will deeply synergize and empower each other, progressively building an integrated framework that brings together new power systems and AI infrastructure. Reliable power supply is crucial to the high-quality and sustainable development of AIDC while grid friendliness is vital for long-term, reliable, and stable operations. High-voltage, DC, and power-electronic architectures are critical to support ultra-high-density computing loads.

In addition, liquid cooling has become mandatory for ultra-high-density computing. Reliable liquid cooling solutions and full-lifecycle intelligent O&M are key. Moreover, the essence of an AIDC is a computing power production system, where delivery speed is closely tied to business benefits and investment returns.

Huawei Digital Power deeply integrates 4T technologies—bit, watt, heat, and battery technologies (digital, power electronics, thermal management, and energy storage management), and focuses on key fields such as new power systems and AIDC. It has established comprehensive capabilities in renewable power generation, grid forming, high-density computing power supply, liquid cooling, and computing-electricity synergy. Facing significant industry transformation opportunities, Huawei Digital Power is committed to becoming an AIDC innovation leader and a long-term, trusted strategic partner. By cooperating with global customers and partners, it aims to promote high-quality, sustainable, and innovative development of the AIDC industry to achieve greener watts, more tokens per watt, and lower costs per token.

Bob He, Vice President of Huawei Digital Power delivered a keynote speech entitled “Building Grid-Interactive AIDC, Maximizing Tokens Per Watt.” According to Mr. He, the global AI industry is booming causing token demand to surge. Consequently, the AIDC industry is entering the Token era. High-density and diversified computing pose great challenges to AIDC’s power density, scale, and load fluctuation. Moreover, the growing penetration of renewable energy intensifies power grid fluctuations, while the frequent heavy-load fluctuations of AI services further compound AIDC reliability challenges.

To address these challenges, Huawei launched the grid-interactive AIDC strategy centered on “3+1” innovations. This strategy aims to develop a reliable, energy-efficient, fast-delivered, and grid-friendly AIDC solution that maximizes tokens per watt.

• Watt Innovation: Reshaping the Power Supply from the Grid to Chips. Diversified loads determine the diversity of power supply architectures. AC and DC power will coexist for a long time. Huawei will build a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) power supply architecture centered on grid-friendly UPS and grid-forming energy storage system (ESS), which will evolve toward an integrated grid-forming energy router based on solid-state transformer (SST) technology. The architecture will leverage Huawei’s technical expertise in power electronics, grid forming, high/low voltage, and AC/DC power to flexibly meet the high-density power supply requirements of AIDC.
• Heat Innovation: Reshaping Full-Lifecycle Thermal Management Reliability from Chips to Outdoors. The ultimate value of liquid cooling lies not in equipment cooling, but in building a full-lifecyclethermal management system. Huawei has built an innovative AI-powered MW-level liquid cooling system for efficient and reliable heat dissipation, advancing the large-scale deployment of liquid cooling from availability to long-term reliability.
• Bit Innovation: Reshaping full-lifecycle operations by empowering data centers with AI.Digital and intelligent technologies can be applied across the entire lifecycle from design and delivery to operations, achieving full-link visibility, full-link reliability, and efficient full-lifecycle O&M.
• Construction Innovation: Reshaping the Construction Mode Through Engineering Productization, Prefabrication, and Modularization.The entire process of design, production, testing, and verification can be completed in the factory with installation only required onsite, significantly shortening the time to market, improving the delivery quality, and enabling fast product replication.

Bob He noted that the upper limit of AI computing power is ultimately defined by the upper limit of energy supply — Energy as Token. In the AIDC era, the traditional PUE-centric energy efficiency evaluation system can no longer fully measure the value of AIDC. The industry needs to move from “energy efficiency metrics” to “value metrics.” Huawei proposes the TokEnergy Index — the Energy-to-Token Ratio — to measure the end-to-end conversion efficiency from energy to computing power in AIDC.

Zhu Zhaosheng, Director of Huawei Computing Strategy & Business Development Dept, delivered a keynote speech on “AI Computing Trends and Development.” According to Mr. Zhu, SuperPoD aggregates as much computing power as possible which effectively addresses the “token seesaw” challenge — achieving optimal throughput and latency for tokens. At the same time, the power per rack in SuperPoD changes dramatically. From the data center facility perspective, electricity must be supplied safely and steadily, and heat must be dissipated safely and steadily. Therefore, the power distribution and thermal design of data centers need to be adjusted accordingly.

Teng Jianjun, Chief Architect of Huawei Cloud Data Center, shared Huawei Cloud’s innovative practices. According to Teng, as AI advances with hyperscale, ultra-large clusters, and ultra-high-density deployment, traditional data centers can no longer evolve efficiently. To address these challenges, Huawei Cloud is building reliable, sustainable, and secure AIDC through productization and intelligence.

Four sessions were also held during the event, delving into topics such as AIDC power supply, liquid cooling, O&M, and new construction modes. The power supply session focuses on sharing practical experience in hot topics such as computing-electricity synergy and high-voltage direct current (HVDC). The liquid cooling session focuses on high-density cooling bottlenecks and proposes the direction for liquid cooling technology evolution. The O&M session focuses on AI-powered data centers and shares benchmark practices. The new construction mode session focuses on the concepts of 3D data center construction and shares feasible approaches to rapidly build AIDC.

At the AIDC innovation exhibition area, Huawei showcased its grid-interactive AIDC solution, which covers power supply from the power grid to chips, thermal management from chips to outdoors, and AIDC inference. Huawei TaiShan UPS and HengShan DC UPS continue to lead the industry with their efficient and reliable power supply architecture. The AI-powered MW-level thermal management unit (TMU) empowers liquid cooling systems to scale from mere availability to long-term reliability.

Huawei Power POD and IT POD were also unveiled during the event. The Power POD, an integrated power supply and distribution system for data centers, provides the capacity of up to 3.2 MW in a single container. It offers plug-and-play capability and supports outdoor deployment, making it an ideal solution for flexible power supply in AIDC. The IT POD, with eight containers in one system, builds a fast-delivered, highly reliable, and energy-efficient thermal management system through cooling link productization to enable efficient cooling for AIDC

In the AI era, data centers are no longer just server rooms. They are super factories that produce tokens. Standing at the turning point of industry development, Huawei Digital Power will continue to invest in fundamental technologies and develop an industry-leading grid-interactive AIDC solution to drive high-quality industry development, maximize tokens per watt, and power the AI era forward.

Source : www.media.com

More than 300 pregnant women braved the rain and turned out at the Kasseh Health Centre in Ada for free ultrasound scanning and antenatal support services, organised by the Telecel Ghana Foundation.

This forms part of its bimonthly Rural Ultrasound initiative.

The highly patronised outreach, which forms part of the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to improving access to maternal healthcare in underserved communities, provided expectant mothers with ultrasound scans, medical reports, nutritional counselling and comprehensive antenatal education.

Women whose scans indicated early signs of complications, such as anaemia, were referred to the health facility for continued support and clinical monitoring.

Nurse Manager for the Kasseh Health Centre, Coleman Adator, said the programme is essential to improving maternal health outcomes because pregnant women require these ultrasound scans for safer pregnancies and also to encourage them to consistently attend antenatal services.

“A lot of them cannot do the scans at the private centres because of the financial expense and also the unavailability of the scanning equipment at the public health centre,” Mr Adator said.

“Having this ultrasound scan today will encourage them to come for antenatal services and help the midwives to monitor the progress of the pregnancy to improve maternal health in the district.”

Despite persistent rainfall throughout the afternoon, expectant mothers arrived in their hundreds from Kasseh and surrounding communities, with many travelling considerable distances.

The extraordinary turnout showed the extent of the unmet need for affordable maternal healthcare in rural Ghana and the high level of patronage that community health outreach can generate among the populations it serves.

Health officers used the occasion to deliver nutrition advice tailored to pregnancy, covering dietary requirements, the importance of iron and folate supplementation, and key warning signs for expectant mothers to watch.

Every beneficiary received a formal scan report for subsequent antenatal appointments and a gift package from Telecel Foundation.

Amanda Sewu, 24, said the ultrasound scan at private health centres was costly and is grateful to the foundation for the financial relief the initiative provided.

“I had to spend a lot of money on my two ultrasound scans and couldn’t continue anymore. Thanks to Telecel Ghana Foundation, I have been able to do my scan for free, and we hope they visit Ada again,” the 8-month pregnant mother said.

Another expectant mother, Sandra Agyemang Yeboah, highlighted both the quality of care and the warmth with which women were received throughout the day.

“I’m very excited to have been part of this screening. We were warmly received and well taken care of. The health professionals also educated us on proper nutrition and how to take care of ourselves during pregnancy.”

Head of Foundation, Sustainability and External Communications at Telecel Ghana, Rita Rockson, said the initiative aims to reduce maternal mortality from preventable causes, which can be detected through scans and treated early to save lives.

“Today’s high patronage is a reminder of why maternal health support is a critical need for women in rural communities. Some of the pregnant women got referrals to medical facilities that will eventually save their lives and their babies,” Ms Rockson said.

“Rural Ultrasound is tackling the risks to maternal health by reaching more communities and helping to close that gap.”

Organised in partnership with the Divine Mother And Child (DMAC) Foundation, the Rural Ultrasound initiative forms part of the Telecel Foundation’s Connected Health pillar, a programme designed to bring diagnostic maternal health services directly into underserved communities across Ghana.

By deploying qualified health professionals and diagnostic equipment to community-level facilities, the initiative eliminates the twin barriers of cost and distance that prevent many rural women from accessing essential antenatal care.

The Rural Ultrasound outreach directly supports Sustainable Development Goal 3.1, which calls for a global reduction in the maternal mortality ratio and universal access to skilled antenatal care.

Telecel Foundation said the initiative is part of its sustained effort to connect Ghana’s rural and peri-urban communities to quality healthcare.

Source :  www.myjoyonline.com