This announcement comes in light of the imminent launch of the new terrestrial data superhighway built by Liquid, connecting Kenya and South Africa.

The technology used has allowed Liquid to build its first terrestrial route that will provide 12 terabits of capacity for carriers and service providers in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the DRC. The route, which measures 16,576 km, has been designed to cater to the demand for more capacity from Liquid’s hyperscale customers.

Hardy Pemhiwa, Group President and  CEO of Cassava Technologies, says,

“As a business of Cassava Technologies, Liquid is committed to enabling a digitally connected future for every business and individual in Africa. We are proud to partner with Nokia as we expand our high speed fibre backbone on the continent. This investment further demonstrates our commitment towards Africa’s inclusive digital transformation”.

In addition, the route will provide thousands of businesses and millions of households in many of Africa’s landlocked cities, towns and villages with more resilient connectivity and access to numerous data centres and cloud resources. At the same time, providing an alternative option in case of a subsea cable outage between the two countries.

Rajiv Aggarwal, Head of Central East and West Africa (CEWA) Market Unit at Nokia, said,

“Nokia’s next-generation optical network will enable Liquid Intelligent Technologies to maintain its leadership position and emerge as a preferred partner of organizations requiring massive capacity. We are delighted that our technology and expertise will help Liquid Intelligent Technologies provide the best-in-class digital infrastructure to Africa’s enterprises and will play a role in strengthening the digital infrastructure of the continent”.

Shahzad Manzoor Khan, the Group Chief Technology Officer, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, adds,

“Internet giants, established cloud service providers and other mega-organisations are demanding hyperscale data centres that can support high levels of performance, spikes in demand, and redundancy while enabling massive availability. Our new terrestrial fibre corridor is the first of its kind in Africa in terms of distance and capacity”.

The new route is a validation for existing and potential customers that Liquid continues to deliver intelligent networks that provide increased redundancy and resilience.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Part of this story is from an official press release shared with the Tech Point Magazine team.

As part of NASA’s Artemis Mission which seeks to relaunch Humans to the Moon by 2024, Nokia has secured $14.1 Million in funding off the Program’s joint pool of $370 Million, to deploy 4G LTE networks that will help astronauts communicate better in space.

At the moment, NASA steadily communicates to Space equipment like the International Space Station (ISS), Robots, and the recently deployed Mars Rover (For Mars exploration) through a Deep Space Network (DSN) of antennas located around the world.

Additionally, Special Satellites are also used in support with the DSN antennas to facilitate constant communication between manned and unmanned equipment like autonomous rockets. But in the end, these communication systems would not be very ideal and reliable on the Moon’s Lunar surface.

Hence, Nokia has been contracted as the first Telecommunications company that will build a 4G LTE Communications Network system in Space as assigned by NASA.

Reliable 4G Network connectivity will make it easy for lunar Rovers, astronauts, ISS, and Artemis mission spacecraft to communicate effectively with each other.

According to Jim Reuter – the associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, Nokia has been tasked with a role of planning how reliable cellular communications will be achieved on the Moon’s Lunar surface.

With NASA funding, Nokia will look at how terrestrial technology could be modified for the lunar environment to support reliable, high-rate communications

Said Jim Reuter

Apparently, this is not the first time Nokia will be attempting to launch a 4G network on the moon. Previously the company had connived with Vodafone to partner with German aerospace company PTScientists and carmaker Audi back in 2018.

Through the partnership, Nokia and Vodafone wanted Quality HD Footage from the Moon to be streamed back to earth in real-time instead of telescopic images in a fashion similar to that of the Mars Rover, and other NASA Robotic Vehicles capturing footage of the Red Planet.

Furthermore, the duo had planned to launch a Moon Lander aboard a Space X rocket and set down near the Apollo 17 Crew landing site for further experiments on the Moon Buggy astronauts left behind in 1972.

But in the light of uncertainty, the launch never happened, and now, Nokia is set to resurrect the Plan by deploying working 4G networks as part of NASA’s Artemis Program.

“The system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards,” –– NASA noted during the Nokia contract award announcement.

Well, with NASA’s Artemis Program which includes the construction of Moon Landers under the HLS Program headlined by Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper continuing to evolve for the 2024 deadline, the deployment of a 4G LTE networks by Nokia will facilitate swift communications in Space and drive multi-planetary human presence.

We want to build the [lunar] infrastructure…that is going to enable an international partnership for the biggest, broadest, most diverse inclusive coalition of researchers and explorers in the history of humankind

NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine

Being a 2020 release, the Nokia C3 ships Android 10 straight out the box, but brings to play a micro-USB port with 5W charging compatibility that supports a 3040mAh battery.

If compared to the Nokia C1 and C2 Smartphones, the C3 differs in battery capacity, chipset clock rate, camera, RAM, and Internal Storage. But if compared to entry-level smartphones like Itel’s P36, the C3 deserves to be a yesterday release as per the specs sheet

Nokia C3 Specifications

Given the fact that Nokia’s entry-level releases are tagged to attractive price ranges, we expect the C3 to be priced at around UGX 365,000 on Jumia if compared to the C2 priced at 329,000.

With Global orders starting on August 13th 2020, the Nokia C3 will be available in several markets soon. But by the look of things, the C3 is a 2018-style Smartphone.

No Display Notch, high top and bottom bezels, Micro USB port, and a Small Screen size (5.99Inch). All these downvote the Nokia C3 being a 2020 release. Its only upvote is the fact that it has a dedicated Google Assistant button which has not been a thing in the budget-friendly sphere.