Ericsson and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for Rwanda have signed an agreement for the launch of a national interoperability switch.

A new subsea cable collaboration will connect Muscat in Oman to Karachi in Pakistan.

Cable & Wireless Seychelles has contracted Syniverse to provide global LTE reach to its inbound and outbound roaming subscribers.

Yahsat and Tele10 have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at improving internet connectivity in Rwanda, Burundi and East Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A new partnership between BSO and IXcellerate is set to improve fibre access to Russia’s MOEX Exchange in Moscow.

Bulgarian wholesale carrier and gateway provider Sofia Connect has deployed 2x100G services from Interoute, linking carriers from the Balkans, Caucasus region and the Middle East to western Internet hubs.

NTT Communications and Omantel have agreed to collaborate on wholesale IP services at several locations worldwide.

Indian market leader Bharti Airtel has launched a new private cloud service and announced a partnership with Microsoft for the firm’s Azure ExpressRoute.

MTN Ghana has selected Ericsson for the deployment of a new LTE network in the Greater Accra region.

TAQNIA Space, Skyware Technologies and Crescent have signed a joint venture agreement in Saudi Arabia with KACST as the technology partner.

Indian operator Idea Cellular is launching Bango’s Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) for Google Play.

Customer experience solutions provider Amdocs has been awarded a five-year managed services contract for business support systems (BSS) modernisation by Botswana Telecommunications Corporation.

Peruvian market leader Telefonica del Peru has placed orders for Gilat’s SkyEdge II-c platform to extend cellular and broadband coverage to rural areas nationwide.

Mobile payments firm Fortumo has launched direct carrier billing in 3 new African markets.

The 72 hour block imposed on WhatsApp by a judge in Brazil’s Sergipe province has been reversed by an appeals court judge.

WhatsApp has run into further trouble in Brazil after a judge in the state of Sergipe ordered the app to be blocked for 72 hours by all five of the country’s major operators.

The GSMA has expressed its belief that the Indian government should lower spectrum prices if it aims to meet its goals for mobile broadband penetration.

Chilean operator Entel is partnering with Ericsson on the Swedish vendor’s global Ecology Management Product Take-Back program.

Global internet of things (IoT) connectivity provider Sigfox announced it has begun deploying a dedicated IoT network throughout Brazil.

ZTE Corporation saw operating revenue grow 4.09 per cent year-on-year to RMB21.859 billion (US$3.375 billion) in the first quarter of 2016.

OTT Video services in the Philippines are set to expand with the launch of a new service from the country's second largest MNO Globe Telecom.

Nokia and Hutchison 3 Indonesia (H3I) have signed an agreement that will see Nokia expand H3I's core network in Indonesia.

Ericsson has partnered mobile financial services company Trriple to provide mobile wallet services for consumers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well its banking and smart city sectors.

Mobile network operator Zain Group has become the first to launch a high-speed 4G-LTE network in Sudan, the sixth market in total where it has launched the technology.

Millicom achieved revenues of US$1.53 billion in the first quarter of 2016, spurred by double digit growth in all but one of its African markets, while Latin American growth dwindled.

Pakistani mobile operator Zong has signed an MoU with the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology for 4G services to the university.