• MTN boosts voice and video call quality in Africa
• Telus launches Sovereign AI Factories in Canada
• SK Telecom uses AI to block malicious apps

In today’s industry news roundup: MTN teams up with Meta for enhanced voice and video calls on real-time apps, such as WhatsApp, in Africa, starting with Nigeria; Telus plots AI factories in Quebec and British Columbia to boost Canada’s secure, sustainable, and sovereign AI infrastructure; SK Telecom prevents $75m worth of loss by blocking 2,610 malicious apps with AI model-based analysis; and much more!

MTN Group has partnered with Meta to enhance the quality and reliability of voice and video calls on real-time calling applications, such as WhatsApp, across the 12 African markets in which MTN operates. By optimising application-aware networks and network-aware applications, the initiative aims to deliver a more seamless, stable and high-quality user experience. The collaboration aims to improve real-time calling experiences by pinpointing areas for enhancement and executing specific interventions. Diego Marí, head of network ecosystems engineering at Meta, said that the move “showcases our dedication to elevating service quality and improving user experience, while striving for continued efficiency in traffic delivery.” Preliminary work has been ongoing since early 2024 and the first market to implement these enhancements is Nigeria. “This implementation further demonstrates our commitment to enhancing our customers’ digital experience,” said Yahaya Ibrahim, CTO at MTN Nigeria. “We’re pleased with the remarkable improvement in our real-time communication services, reflecting our commitment to innovative customer solutions,” he added. Read more.

Canadian telco Telus has announced plans to establish its first Sovereign AI Factories in Quebec and British Columbia. It says that the move is aligned with the goals of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy to advance a secure and self-reliant digital economy, and will provide sovereign, high-performance AI computing resources to power the nation’s digital future. Telus is the first North American service provider to become an official Nvidia Cloud Partner and will, therefore, deploy the latest Hopper- and Blackwell-based supercomputers at these facilities. The facility in Quebec will commence operations this summer. “Located within Telus’ state-of-the-art datacentres in Rimouski and Kamloops, these powerful and secure facilities will ensure every piece of data, every computation and every breakthrough will be born and remain within our borders,” said Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus. The new AI factories are powered by 99% renewable energy, with natural cooling systems that reduce water consumption by more than 75% compared to traditional datacentres. These facilities feature purpose-built infrastructure optimised for AI workloads, which Telus claims makes them three times more energy efficient for excess power usage and eliminates over 300 tonnes of carbon emissions – enough to power a thousand households. The Sovereign AI Factories will be fully owned, operated and secured by Telus, which is keen to demonstrate that the compute power and intellectual property fuelling AI development remains within Canada. It believes this will help ensure data security and privacy in critical and sensitive sectors, such as healthcare, finance and public services. Read more.

South Korea’s SK Telecom (SKT) detected and blocked a total of 2,610 malicious apps between December last year and March this year through cooperation with the National Police Agency. To prevent the damage of voice phishing malicious apps, SKT blocked offending text messages containing malicious links through AI model-based analysis. It also tracked malicious domains and IPs provided by the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA) and implemented blocking measures. The telco then used AI to identify customers who were at risk of installing these malicious apps and provided the data to the National Police Agency who then visited the victims and took action to reduce the damage, especially via secondary financial fraud caused by the installation of these apps. SKT says the recent increase in so-called “smishing” (phishing via SMS messages) crime is to impersonate public institutions, getting customers to unwittingly click on links that will then install malicious apps which will, in turn, attempt to steal personal and financial information. According to the National Police Agency, the amount of voice phishing damage through malicious apps increased significantly from 447.2bn won ($316m) in 2023 to 854.5bn won ($603m) in 2024. SKT is providing a “bait text AI detection notification service” for customers, which has resulted in 9,700 messages being detected since last December. The telco says its preventative action has saved about 107bn won ($75m) of potential damages for the four-month period. For further information on SKT’s AI-enabled fraud prevention services, see – SK Telecom spreads its AI net.

Readers and viewers of our recent MWC Barcelona coverage will know that we are seeing an increase in news around the military use of telecoms services and technologies. Telia is the latest to shake off the stigma of this vertical, and has announced that its Finnish 5G network has enabled the remote operation of unmanned armoured vehicles belonging to Patria, a Finnish provider of defence, security and aviation life-cycle support services, from a distance of nearly 100km. During recent military exercises in Lapland, an armoured vehicle was equipped with remote control capabilities and steered from a command centre via a dedicated 5G network slice. The test took place within the framework of the five-year eAlliance programme, which aims to boost innovation and collaboration across Finland’s defence sector. “The possibilities of advanced 5G slicing have already produced significant results in industry and logistics,” said Janne Koistinen, 5G programme director at Telia Finland. “We now see the rapidly growing defence industry as an important focus of innovation for dual-use cases of technology in the development of Europe’s defence capabilities.”

ZainTECH, the integrated digital solutions provider of Zain Group, has obtained a commercial licence in Saudi Arabia that will allow it to set up its regional offices in the Kingdom. This, in turn, will allow it to scale its advanced technology solutions across key sectors such as internet of things (IoT), cybersecurity, drones, AI and cloud services. As part of ZainTECH’s expansion, it is actively exploring strategic partnerships with both public and private sector organisations. The commercial licence comes after ZainTECH’s participation at LEAP 25 when it announced a number of agreements with local parties, including King Khalid University, Najm Insurance Group and Leejam Sports.

– The staff, TelecomTV