Two recent deals, one involving Afreximbank, the other involving financial service provider Absa Group, indicate the growing reach of digital trade and payments in Africa.

Tigo is now officially a mobile operator brand in Ecuador. On 1 October the telecommunications brand owned by Millicom replaced Movistar and Tuenti, after Tigo completed its acquisition of Telefonica's operations in the country.

Brazilian operator Claro has completed the acquisition of a 72.83% controlling stake in fibre broadband provider Desktop.

Nokia has announced that Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP), Brazil's national research and education network (NREN), has selected Nokia and technology company Q13 to modernise rede Ipê, which it describes as critical infrastructure for Brazil’s research and education communities.

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has established a subsidiary in Guatemala as it expands its enterprise ICT business from North America into Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bharti Airtel’s enterprise arm, Airtel Business, announced on Monday it has launched a new omni-channel platform that integrates multiple customer communication channels onto one control plane and provides network-level fraud protection.

Vertiv announced on Monday it has signed an MoU with US-based Cybastion to establish a framework to collaborate on digital infrastructure projects in Northwest Africa.

Orange Tunisie announced on Monday it has signed a strategic partnership deal with digital services firm Focus Tunisie to accelerate corporate access to sovereign cloud and infrastructure solutions.

HBL Engineering, an Indian research-based engineering company, and RAD, a provider of advanced networking solutions, have partnered on a project for Indian Railways.

There’s a new arrival in the African data centre market as Continent 8 Technologies, a provider of managed technology solutions designed for the global iGaming and online sports betting industry, announces its expansion into Africa with the launch of a new data centre in South Africa.

Philippines service provider PLDT has clearly had a busy few days – not only announcing a major acquisition but also planning a transformation of the loyalty ecosystem it shares with its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications.

MTN Ghana and Telecel have bagged licences to provide 5G services in Ghana as the market enters a new era of 5G competition following the government’s decision to scrap the existing wholesale exclusivity deal.

Gilat Perú has signed a $28 million agreement with Pronatel, Peru’s national telecommunications program, to upgrade broadband connectivity across the Ica region.

The GSMA signed a strategic partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Friday that aims to strengthen and accelerate Africa’s AI ecosystem, including deployment of African-language AI.

Vodafone Idea’s enterprise arm, Vi Business, announced on Thursday it is partnering with Cisco Meraki to enhance its hybrid SD-WAN offering by making it easier to manage.

The Medusa Submarine Cable System will extend its reach to Jordan via an agreement with NaiTel, the telecom arm of Jordanian carrier-neutral data centre Aqaba Digital Hub (ADH), to integrate its Coral Bridge cable with Medusa.

State-owned operator Nepal Telecom suffered around NPR88 million (US$5.8 million) in damage after extreme flooding affected parts of South and Southeast Asia.

APTelecom said on Thursday it is joining real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to conduct a feasibility study for a proposed new hyperscale data centre campus in Vietnam.

Safaricom and payment gateway provider Pesapal announced on Thursday they are rolling out new payment features for M-Pesa across Kenya, including dynamic scan-to-pay, tap-to-pay and “AI pay”.

NEC Africa confirmed it has secured a US$75,000 contract with emerging ISP Savannah Uganda to expand 4G connectivity in Kampala and surrounding regions as part of the broader expansion of its business in the country.

Digital infrastructure services provider Edotco Bangladesh, has partnered with Tiger New Energy, a pioneer in sustainable transportation, to give used telecom batteries a second life by repurposing them into Instant Power Supply (IPS) systems, providing backup power when the main utility grid fails.

EllaLink, the operator of the first high-capacity fibre optic submarine cable directly connecting Latin America to Europe, has announced the official launch of the EllaLink Caribbean Gateway (ECG) initiative.

Infineon Technologies, a global semiconductor leader in power systems and IoT, says it has officially inaugurated its new backend manufacturing site in Bangkok. Backend semiconductor manufacturing is the final stage of chip production.

Claro Colombia has entered the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) hosting market for the first time, signing an agreement with Movil Exito to provide network access alongside its existing arrangement with Tigo.

Apple Pay is finally available for users in India across iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Apple says support for Mac is coming soon. The offering’s first banking partner is Axis Bank, the country’s third-largest private-sector lender.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions are again in the news following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between a leading name on the field and Indus Towers, one of India’s leading telecom infrastructure companies.

Spanish satellite telecommunications operator HispaSat, recently in the news thanks to its support for a rail connectivity trial in Poland, says it has signed an agreement to take over the management and signal transport business of Media Networks Latin America.

Telefonica is looking to exit Venezuela, with the Spanish group reportedly waiting for market conditions to improve before formalising a sale within the next year.

The Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has fined Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and DITO Telecommunity PHP100,000 (US$1,600) each per day until they meet required mobile broadband quality-of-service standards.

Veon-owned Beeline Kazakhstan announced on Tuesday that it has commercially launched Starlink Mobile direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service in the country, enabling customers to access apps and messaging in areas outside of its terrestrial coverage.

Private subsea cable operator FLAG announced on Tuesday it has invested in the MIST and I-2SEA cable systems to add more routing options in and out of Mumbai.

Vodacom South Africa said on Tuesday it has partnered with Nokia to test what they claim is the world’s first integrated passive-active massive MIMO solution, which Vodacom will now use to evolve its 4G and 5G network.

Angola Cables is upgrading capacity across its MONET and South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) submarine networks with technology from Ciena, including support for 800Gbps services on the route linking the US, Brazil and Angola.