Tag: Huawei Technologies

Cape Town: Ministers of Communications and Digital Technologies and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) member states, convened in Cape Town, South Africa, for the Ministerial Forum on Building a Future-Oriented, Intelligent Digital Infrastructure for Africa.

The Forum was co-organised by the ATU and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) of South Africa, with the aim of advancing the digital transformation agenda in Africa. The event concluded with the signing of a joint communique underlining the importance of collaboration between all stakeholders in building a future-oriented digital infrastructure for Africa.

Taking place alongside AfricaCom, the continent’s premier ICT conference and exhibition, the forum provided a platform for dialogue and an exchange of views on the development of a future-oriented intelligent digital infrastructure in Africa, which is essential for achieving the socio-economic development goals of the continent.

The event comes at a time when the development of the global digital economy has brought focus on the need for Africa to strengthen the construction of high-speed networks (4G, 5G and fibre), the implementation of high-performance cloud computing capabilities.

“In the space in which this forum operates, we have the ability to create consensus on which way to go in building future-oriented digital infrastructure for Africa,” said African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Secretary General, John Omo. “We know the place of digital infrastructure in the global arithmetic that defines the compass of progress. We also know that to find our bearing on this compass, we must be deliberate about the actions we take to protect the future of Africa.”

“I must note that it is also through the synergy of governments, private sector entities, research institutions, and international organisations that we can realise the full potential of our collective efforts,” he added. “What this means is that inclusivity should be a guiding principle as we shape the future of digital infrastructure. We must ensure that the benefits of technological advancements reach every corner of society, leaving no one behind.”

South African Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Philly Mapulane concurred with the need for collaboration by players across the sector.

“This gathering marks a significant milestone in our collective pursuit of a digitally empowered Africa,” he said. “We are here not merely as representatives of our respective nations and organisations, but we are here as architects of a shared vision — one that envisions an Africa propelled into a future where the possibilities of connectivity are boundless.”

“Today, we are not just building a digital infrastructure; we are laying the foundation for the socio-economic emancipation of our continent,” he added. “Let us envision a future where our digital infrastructure is seamless, intelligent, and accessible to all.”

Leo Chen, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa, underlined how much progress the continent has made when it comes to building the digital infrastructure it needs while also outlining the areas that still need improvement. These improvements, he said, are best achieved through the One Network, One Cloud approach advocated by Huawei.

“To build One Network, countries should continue to build national broadband backbone networks to serve as the arteries of national network connectivity,” he said. “In addition, such backbone networks should be extensible across multiple domains.”

“This means they should be able to connect to different metropolitan area networks and campus networks,” he added. “Similar to a highly-developed neural network, they will connect the last mile of connectivity to meet the needs of different scenarios.”

According to Chen, the benefits of such a network would be considerable. Among the benefits he listed were increased GDPs for countries across the region, enhanced government service delivery, and improved connectivity for individual households. He also mentioned that due to the coverage gap on the continent, it is still important to cover more people through wireless connectivity technologies, such as 4G and 5G, and through rural connectivity solutions, such as Huawei’s RuralStar.”

In dissecting the “One Cloud” segment of the approach, Chen outlined how important cloud technologies have become at a nation-state level.

“The national cloud platform can serve as the foundation for a country’s advanced technological innovation, and can greatly improve the capabilities of governments and enterprises to adopt new technologies,” he said.

“With the national cloud platform and cloud infrastructure, African countries can also unlock huge potential in the ‘e-government’ cloud,” he added. “One example from China can represent a future trend. In Shenzhen, where Huawei is headquartered, citizens can complete almost all of the government service items with at most one visit to the service office, or without even making a physical visit at all.”

According to Chen, “to implement One Network, One Cloud and ensure its steady progress, the governments of all countries should provide strategic guidance and support through specific policies.”

“As we continue our digital transformation journeys, it is important that we share our collective wisdom, vision, and resolve,” Chen concluded. “Thus, it is very important that we share different experiences and best practices across the continent when building the ‘One Network and One Cloud’.”

Other dignitaries echoed the importance of collaboration for the future of African digital infrastructure.

“It’s key that we work collaboratively to ensure that connection costs don’t become a barrier to connectivity for our citizens,” said Thulagano Merafe Segokgo, Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology, The Republic of Botswana. “If we are going to achieve connectivity at the level our citizenries deserve, we must work together.”

“Collaborating is an important aspect if we want to achieve our goals,” said Nape Moses Nnauye,
Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology, The United Republic of Tanzania. “Let’s see how we can work together and face the challenges together.”

“We need greater collaboration,” said Dr. T A Mavetera, Minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, the Republic of Zimbabwe, who added that this collaboration should extend beyond digital infrastructure and include things like skills transfer and policy formulation.

The communique, issued at the end of the gathering, committed the African countries present to, “collaborate and align our policies and strategies to promote the development of digital infrastructure in Africa, in line with the African Union Agenda 2063, the ATU Strategic Plan 2020-2024, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals among other things.

In an example of the collaboration called for, the event also saw the presentation of the South African Fibre Broadband Development Initiative, a partnership between the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), the Digital Council Africa (DCA) and Africa Analysis, it’s a position paper titled Toward a Gigabit Society in South Africa. The paper analyses the positive impact that increased fixed broadband adoption will have in SA from a social and economic perspective. It outlines the current status and challenges, and proposes recommendations on strategy and policy interventions to turn South Africa into a gigabit society.

HUAWEI CLOUD IaaS revenue surge by a stunning 202.8%, placing it in the top five list of cloud IaaS providers in the world, according to a report from market research firm Gartner Inc.

According to the research firm, this is the second consecutive year of over 200% growth for Huawei Cloud in the IaaS market, braking Huawei Cloud into the top five IaaS vendors with 4.2% in global market share.

HUAWEI CLOUD was one of the first vendors to invest in cloud-native technologies. HUAWEI CLOUD helped establish the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2015, and is the only founding member and the first platinum member of the CNCF, contributing more than 130 core features to the CNCF community.

By December 2020, HUAWEI CLOUD had launched more than 220 cloud services and more than 210 solutions. Through technology partnerships, HUAWEI CLOUD developed more than 20,000 partners, attracted 1.8 million developers, and launched more than 4,000 applications in the Marketplace.

Since its launch on South Africa in 2019, HUAWEI CLOUD has experienced exponential growth in the cloud market. Currently, the technology giant has four points of presence in Africa: two in South Africa, one in Nigeria and one in Kenya.

“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an increased move to the cloud, and need for technology enablers. We plan to increase the number of local, data centre’s as the demand for cloud services grows. We currently serve customers in 12 countries, with plans to grow rapidly as the need arises,” said Stone He, the new President for the HUAWEI CLOUD in Southern Africa.

In South Africa, during 2020, Huawei has seen great business growth in public cloud and hybrid cloud. South Africa’s Automobile Association (AASA), a 91-year-old AASA is a non-profit organisation that provides road security, roadside assistance and vehicle-related services to its five million registered users and 700 000 subscribers. Through its partnership with HUAWEI CLOUD, they have overcome infrastructure challenges and reduced their costs by around 10% per year.

“We have a unique strategy around our business model, with the focus on joint value creation with our partners and customers. We are committed to helping our partners grow their business and strengthen their competitive edge, through joint go-to-market strategies. Our business model is focused on joint value creation,” said He.

Since the Introduction of the World Wide Web (www) in the early 1990s, Information Communications Technology (ICT) has been dominated by men worldwide.

Today, ICT is the backbone driving the prosperity of nations and organization, inspiring a better living for people across the globe.

However, no development is one sided if leaves out the participation of all gender. And increased women participation in the Technology ecosystem in this decade can be inspired by Innovation driven startups and Enrollment for ICT education.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2011 marked the last Thursday of April as a day dedicated to celebrating girls in ICT worldwide. Over 9,000 celebrations attracted 300,000 women participants by 2018, and today we celebrate the Women that have broad passion for Technology and continue growing while excelling in ICT.

In Uganda, the rate of Women owning Internet enabled devices like Smartphones and Personal Computers (PCs) has risen by 40% since 2015 as per social media analytics results.

This is attributed to the dropping of prices for devices, Internet and to a greater extent access to quality digital skilling (ICT education) as well as Innovation competitions and initiatives.

As a Tech company, we attached a great importance to skilling and empowering women in ICT through our various skilling initiatives which include the Huawei Seeds for the future, the Huawei ICT competition and Huawei ICT Academy as well as offering employment. We take pride in seeing women prosper and flourish in ICT through our several initiatives.

I would like to bring to your attention a great success and inspirational story of a woman who has grown with our company in a space of one year from just an intern to a team leader and to a manager.

Ms Cleopatra Ajambo, participated in the 2018 Huawei Seeds for the future program that involves top college students in ICT-related departments for a two weeks study trip in China. Over 3,000 students globally have taken part in this programme. It’s through the competition that Cleopatra changed her life from just a Computer Science Student to an IT networks architect working with Huawei Uganda.

“As a Computer Science Student, you were expected to dig deep into programming as a major which was not, and is not most girls’ passion, so I found myself relying more on getting good grades than building a career as a problem solver,” says Cleoptra, whose goal for joining the Seeds for future competition was to travel to China for exposure.

Amidst stiff competition, Cleopatra qualified for the national round after drafting a project proposal on how ICT can be leveraged to help people with chronic diseases remotely get access to doctors by using their smartphones.

She wrote a proposal addressing people having chronic diseases and through the use of gadgets and networks, their health would be actively monitored remotely by the doctors.

Cleopatra’s dream to visit China became a reality opening up her doors to a brighter career in the ICT Industry. On return, she was offered an Internship opportunity at Huawei Uganda to further enhance her career. Due to her growing passion for ICT, she progressed through various ranks to her current position as a Maintenance Manager in less than two years.

She joined Huawei as an intern without any network skills, but going through a number of trainings and documentation reading, she moved from being an intern of survey, to an IP engineer configuring devices such as cameras, switches, routers, firewall, to a maintenance manager where she coordinated the fiber team, networks team, and the systems team.”

In the light of the Huawei ICT academy at MakerereUniversity that opened doors for Cleopatra to join the annual skills competition, and enrich her career path, we believe increased ICT education in Uganda has attracted Women to enhance their skills, and win positions that were previously known to be dominated by Men.

“Being in a field mostly dominated by men, what motivates is to always be outstanding. I am very competitive while at work, I am personally interested in computer networking Routing and switching, certified in HCIA (Huawei Associate) and currently pursing HCIP (Huawei computer inter networking professional),” Cleopatra explains her motivation.

Among the successful women in Uganda leveraging ICT to lead and solve real-life problems in previously men dominated positions include the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Ms.

Judith Nabakooba, the recently appointed UCC Executive Director Ms. Irene Sewakambo Kaggwa, among others.

As Women continue to rise in the ICT Industry, the role of ICT companies and Government support to nurture girls through quality ICT education and skill competitions respectively, will bring a fair balance in an industry that was once known to be dominated by men. Happy International Women in ICT Day.

Kampala: Huawei’s US subsidiary, Huawei Technologies USA Inc. (HT USA), dropped a lawsuit on Sept. 9 against the US Commerce Department and several other US government agencies that it has filed back in June.

The case was originally filed in response to telecommunications equipment that was seized without justification by US officials in September 2017. After a prolonged and unexplained seizure, Huawei has decided to drop the case after the US government returned the equipment, which Huawei views as a tacit admission that the seizure itself was unlawful and arbitrary. This case was cited among a series of concerns the company recently enumerated with regard to inappropriate and unjustified actions against Huawei by the US government.

The equipment, which includes computer servers, Ethernet switches,and other telecommunications gear made by Huawei in China, should have been shipped back to China after commercial testing and certification at a laboratory in California in September 2017. The US Commerce Department, citing unidentified export violation concerns, seized the equipment while it was in transit. In the two years since, and despite multiple requests from Huawei, the US government failed to make a decision on whether an export license was required for the equipment to be shipped back to China, and continued to hold it.

Huawei had no alternative but to file a lawsuit on June 21 at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the US government’s prolonged and unexplained failure to determine whether the equipment could be shipped to China without an export license. These actions by the US Government violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act, among others.

In August, the US government informed HT USA in writing that, following a belated investigation, it had determined that no export license was required for shipment to China, and Huawei had complied with the Export Administration Regulations whenattempting to ship the equipment back. The US government shipped the equipment back to HT USA at the government’s expense.

Dr. Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer, said Huawei has landed a de facto victory despite its voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit, but is still disappointed by the fact that the US governmenthas failed to provide any explanation for unlawfully withholding Huawei equipment for so long.

In a notice of voluntary dismissal filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, HT USA said it requested in writing the US Commerce Department to explain fully why it detained the equipment in 2017, why it decided to release it now, and why it took almost two years to recognize that the equipment’s detention was not justified. Thus far the government has refused to explain.

“Arbitrary and unlawful government actions like this – detaining property without cause or explanation – should serve as a cautionary tale for all companies doing normal business in the United States, and should be subject to legal constraints,“ said Dr. Song.

In a media statement on September 3, Huawei listed how the US government has been using every tool at its disposal – including both judicial and administrative powers – to disrupt the normal business operations of the company. This includes obstructing normal business activities and technical communications through intimidation, denying visas, and detaining shipments. Dr. Song noted that Huawei will continue to vigorously defend its legitimate rights and interests with legal means.