Ocean Networks has appointed Natixis to act as exclusive equity and debt advisor for the South America Pacific Link (SAPL) fibre optic cable system project currently under way.

Seaborn Networks has raised the US$500 million financing for its Seabras-1 direct point-to-point submarine cable connection between New York and São Paulo.

International communications provider Ooredoo has announced the launch of its mobile money service, AsiaHawala, in Iraq, claiming to be the first mobile money provider to launch in the country.

Hard on the heals of its deal to acquire Cellcom Liberia, Orange is further strengthening its African portfolio by buying Airtel's operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

The second-hand smartphone market will hit a value of US$17 billion worldwide, while one quarter of smartphone users will no longer make a traditional phone call in a given week, according to Deloitte.

Millicom has announced Tigo Paraguay is set to launch 4G/LTE commercial services and high speed internet on all enabled smartphones in March.

Orange has announced it has entered into an agreement with Cellcom Telecommunications Limited to acquire, through its subsidiary Orange Côte d’Ivoire, Cellcom Liberia, the leading mobile operator in the West African country.

A legal suit brought by the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) against the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licence awarded to Equity Bank in 2014 has been dismissed.

Cloud traffic in the Middle East and Africa will quadruple by 2019, according to the Cisco Cloud Index. Personal cloud storage, public cloud services, denser private cloud workloads and the Internet of Everything (IoE) are among the key drivers of growth.

There is a “sweeping trend” across the world towards OTT television consumption on mobile devices, which are now the most popular choices for watching paid OTT TV content.

Lebanese market leader Touch has expanded its use of Astellia’s 2G and 3G monitoring solution to its 4G network.

Using G.fast technology, Cable & Wireless Panama in partnership with Huawei have successfully trialled the fastest copper-based broadband service in Latin America.

Indian operator Tata Docomo has partnered with Syniverse to enable subscribers to manage their mobile expenses.

Israeli operator Partner Communications has ended its brand licensing agreement with Orange.

ABnote and MeaWallet have expanded their strategic partnership to cover Mexico, Central America and South America.

China Unicom has formed a joint venture with Telefonica to offer big data services in its home market.

Telekom Srbija is deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile device management technology to improve its customer experience.

Facebook’s Free Basics continues to be beset by problems, with Egypt imposing a ban on the service while Indian tech companies balk over zero-rating concerns.

Leading Omani operator Omantel has selected Teoco to provide multiyear managed services that cover RAN planning and optimisation.