by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – NEC XON and PowerX have entered into a strategic partnership aimed at helping telecommunications operators across Africa improve efficiency, reduce costs and strengthen the management of critical network infrastructure through artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solutions.
The collaboration combines NEC XON’s extensive information and communications technology (ICT) integration capabilities across Africa with PowerX’s machine learning and AI-powered energy management platform to provide intelligent remote management system (RMS) and energy optimisation solutions for large-scale telecommunications networks.
The companies said the partnership would create a single technology partner capable of supporting the full lifecycle of telecommunications infrastructure, from design and deployment to ongoing operations and optimisation.
Chris Duvenage, Business Unit Manager: Digital at NEC XON, said the company had spent two years assessing platforms that could effectively address the challenges faced by Africa’s telecommunications operators.
“What impressed us about PowerX is that it goes well beyond power monitoring. It combines AI-driven predictive analytics, asset lifecycle optimisation, proactive maintenance and remote operational control into a single platform,” Duvenage said.
He said the combined solution would enable operators to reduce costs, improve network resilience and gain greater visibility over critical infrastructure deployed across the continent.
Africa’s telecommunications sector continues to face operational challenges, including inefficient energy use, difficulties managing remote sites, declining performance of generators and power assets, and vulnerabilities caused by vandalism and theft at base transceiver station (BTS) sites.
These challenges increase operational expenditure, affect network reliability and threaten the delivery of digital services to millions of subscribers.
PowerX Chief Executive Officer Andrew Schafer said the partnership would provide the company with NEC XON’s regional expertise and pan-African reach needed to deploy its platform in some of the continent’s most demanding environments.
“Together, we are putting data intelligence at the heart of tower and site management decisions, driving down costs, improving performance and sustainability outcomes, and giving operators the visibility they need,” Schafer said.
The integrated solution combines PowerX’s hardware-agnostic AI software-as-a-service platform with proven Internet of Things (IoT) hardware to provide operators with real-time monitoring of telecommunications towers, power systems and environmental conditions.
It will also support AI-based energy optimisation involving generators, solar systems, batteries and fuel consumption tracking, while offering security and tamper-detection capabilities to combat infrastructure theft and vandalism.
The platform will provide predictive and preventative maintenance capabilities aimed at reducing unexpected downtime and operational costs, while ensuring compatibility with existing operator systems and third-party platforms.
NEC XON said the partnership’s applications would extend beyond telecommunications into commercial, industrial, public sector and smart city environments where organisations face similar challenges in managing energy-intensive infrastructure.
Duvenage said customers increasingly required more than basic monitoring tools.
“By combining PowerX’s advanced analytics with NEC XON’s engineering capability and pan-African delivery footprint, we are giving customers a single accountable partner that can implement, integrate and optimise complex infrastructure throughout its operational lifecycle,” he said.
– CAJ News