Infrastructure company IHS Towers completed the sale of assets in Brazil and Colombia to Macquarie Asset Management, a deal announced in February as being worth $952 million.

IHS noted the sale signals its exit from the Latin America region and is part of a strategy around “shareholder value-creation”.

Macquarie noted the transaction includes 8,700 sites in Brazil and 250 in Colombia, strengthening its position as a “long-term investor in the digital infrastructure sector” and “supporting the growth of critical infrastructure across Latin America”.

The investment company’s Brazil country manager Fernando Lohmann added the market he heads “continues to be one of the most attractive infrastructure markets globally, supported by growing demand for connectivity and long-term investment in critical services.”

“As digitalisation accelerates across Brazil and the broader region, resilient communications infrastructure will play an increasingly important role in supporting economic growth and social development”.

Completion of the sale comes as operator group MTN continues to work towards an acquisition of IHS Towers, a company it already owned around a quarter of before announcing its intent for a complete buyout in February.  

The deal with MTN is still undergoing the regulatory process. Earlier this week, IHS shareholders formally approved the takeover bid at the company’s extraordinary general meeting.  

In a stock market notification today (7 August), the operator group noted the sale of the IHS’s Latin American assets aligned with its intention “to acquire only IHS’s African assets”.

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NTT Docomo Business partnered with Chilean state-owned copper mining company Codelco to assess the viability of remotely operating heavy machinery over high capacity, low latency communications architecture.

The pair plan to connect the El Teniente mine to a remote operations centre 1,500km away using an Innovative Optical and Wireless Network All Photonic Network (IOWN APN), which the technology company hopes will provide the means for remote operations and HD video monitoring at the site.  

For Codelco the test is part of an ambition to up safety and efficiency at its mines. It aims to move towards advanced monitoring and remote operations, partly to address working condition issues including easing a risk of mine collapses.

NTT noted the mining company was also struggling from a lack of access to skilled operators.  

Among the specific areas set to be assessed in the project are: the type of communication environment needed; evaluation of network configurations with a view to cutting down the number of operations centres required; and examining the use of IOWN APN more generally in the mining sector.

NTT noted it planned to use insights from this project to create new use cases for IOWN APN technology, which the company has been heavily pushing for industrial uses.  

“The company will explore the potential for further applications in the mining and energy sectors, as well as across other sectors where remote operations are required,” it added.

The project is part of a research programme commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

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Deutsche Telekom held its latest pilot of delivering mobile connectivity from base stations on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), using two aircraft and direct satellite backhaul to deliver signals during a trail running event in the Czech Republic.

The pair of so-called flying base stations were used in alternating operation to provide uninterrupted coverage, with the satellite backhaul removing the need for an additional ground station on site.

Deutsche Telekom asserted the experiment, held in collaboration with its T-Mobile Czech Republic unit and drone company Primoco UAV, brought “resilient airborne mobile connectivity one step closer to practical application”.

During the test the UAVs flew at altitudes of 2-3 kilometres and provided coverage across 20 square kilometres. They used the same frequency bands as the Czech operator’sterrestrial network and provided data rates of up to 100 Mbit/s.

The test took place during the Behej lesy trail run, which is held in a protected area with limited standard mobile coverage. A compact portable tower supplied coverage at the start and finish with the drones covering the remainder of the route.

Deutsche Telekom noted around 1,900 runners remained reliably connected throughout the event with the successful handover between the two aircraft confirming “the technical feasibility of the concept”.

It added with seamless operation using alternating craft and satellite backhaul new “deployment scenarios with flying base stations for temporary mobile coverage” had opened up.

Examples include where “infrastructure is unavailable or damaged, or where additional capacity is needed at short notice” such as during wildfires or floods. This is alongside the large outdoor events, which have been the focus of trials of the technology so far.

In 2025 the three companies combined to demo a single unit providing coverage at a ski race in the Czech Republic.

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Telefonica detailed an operation to increase connectivity provision across more than 2,700 sites in Spain for an expected boost in network demand from viewers turning out to see a solar eclipse on 12 August.

The operator has undertaken network optimisation and capacity expansion work in locations across 31 areas of Spain covering the thousands of kilometres where the event is likely to be visible.

Tasks included actions to “parameterise the mobile network”, intelligently reconfiguring base stations and adapting them to traffic demand.

Telefonica noted preparations started five months ago and form part of wider planning to bolster coverage for events expected to be popular during the local holiday season.

In planning for the eclipse, it analysed coverage in more than 400 potential observation points identified by the country’s Autonomous Regions. It expects “extraordinary demand for connectivity from national and international observers” at the sites.

The astronomical event is expected to be visible in areas including Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Catalonia, Community of Madrid, Valencian Community, Galicia, La Rioja, Navarra and the Basque Country.

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