Telefonica and Nokia have signed a strategic agreement to bring educational content to remote schools in Latin America through the use of mobile technology.

The two companies aim to transform the delivery of education in isolated areas as a way to close the digital inclusion gap in the region and promote social development.

The agreement is expected to help expand the current scope of Telefonica Foundation’s ‘Pronino’ and ‘Educared’ social programmes focused on using information and communications technologies in the improvement of the quality of education in the region. It also complements Nokia’s work to harness mobile technology for social development.

The first implementation of this agreement is planned for Chile, where Telefonica’s mobile broadband and Nokia’s mobile software Nokia Education Delivery will enable isolated schools in Chile to have access to educational content.

The agreement will be later expanded to other countries in Latin America and will prioritise schools where Pronino works.

The agreement will also extend to the adoption of Nokia Data Gathering software by Telefonica Foundation within its Pronino programme.

Under the framework of this agreement, Nokia and Telefonica will also be working with local governments in Latin America in the use of information technologies to ensure and foster the competitiveness of their economies.

The WACS consortium and Alcatel-Lucent have signed a turnkey contract valued at several hundred million US dollars to deploy a new submarine cable network that will provide the first direct connection between Southern Africa and Europe.

Named the West Africa Cable System (WACS), this 14,000 km-long submarine network system is expected to bolster internet and other communications capabilities to and from the African continent.

The 11 parties that form the consortium are Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Tata Communications, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.

WACS is expected to open access to faster connectivity to support IP-based services such as video applications for e-education and healthcare.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will provide connectivity between South Africa and Portugal. With a minimum design capacity of 3.84 Terabit/s, WACS will connect South Africa to the UK with landings in Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, and Portugal.

SAP has announced the launch of the SAP University Alliances community, an advanced, interactive Web portal designed for the academic population worldwide.

The portal is an online environment that delivers the academic resources for bringing real-life SAP knowledge and skills into university classrooms.

It is also expected to improve related academic and research-oriented projects for professors and students.

Ericsson and pan-African operator Zain have built a green-powered site in a remote village in northeastern Kenya,  as part of the Millennium Villages project.

With the affordable mobile communication the site provides, the villagers of Dertu can make calls, access health services and education, Ericsson informed.

Using a combination of wind and solar power addresses the two key deterrents to building telecommunication infrastructure in remote areas: operating costs and power supply reliability, the company noted.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the ‘Wireless in Education: Vendor and Service Provider Opportunities’ report to their offering.

This iDRD (Insight-based Data-Rich Deliverable) is part of the Education vertical market subscription.

The 12-page insight takes a look at wireless trends and activities in both the K-12 and higher education segments in the US.

Forecasts include Education Telecom Expenditures 2007-2011 and Wireline vs Wireless Equipment Expenditures for 2005-2011.

Topics include Wi-fi, in-building solutions, handset management, and technology used to attract student enrollment.

Education includes all primary, secondary, and higher education institutions including K-12, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. The Expert Guide for this deliverable is Kneko Burney.

MDB Communications, a full-service advertising agency, has finalised an agreement with the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (CDIA), Washington, DC campus to form a strategic alliance with the digital arts institution. This complements the announcement that MDB is launching a new online video production suite within the agency.

The company informed that three senior executives from MDB will be committed to the CDIA partnership. Gary Duke, EVP has been appointed to the Advisory Board at CDIA; Executive Creative Director, Richard Coad will address the CDIA commencement class of May 2009 and CEO, Cary Hatch will be a featured lecturer.

In addition, CDIA will place students at MDB in internship programmes designed to provide them with ‘real world’ experience in an advertising agency, while honing their digital media skills.