Movistar, Telefónica’s mobile carrier in Mexico, and Helium, a pioneer in decentralised wireless communications, are beginning to roll out the Helium Network, with plans to activate service to over two million Movistar subscribers across Mexico. We asked Mario Di Dio, General Manager of Network at Helium, to tell us a bit more about the technology and the business model it enables.

Indian media have reported that SpaceX’s Starlink will imminently receive clearance from the country’s authorities to launch satellite broadband services.

Indian billionaire and Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Mittal (pictured) has sold US$976 million worth of Bharti Airtel shares as he looks to secure funds for other ventures.

The chairman of Hungarian operator 4iG, Gellért Jászai, has revealed that he met with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to explore a potential deal involving Starlink and space technologies.

Saudi digital infrastructure firm DataVolt said on Thursday it has signed a deal with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) to lease land to develop an AI-ready data centre in Riyadh.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has reportedly limited bandwidth imports from India to 50% of Bangladesh’s total international capacity, and plans to lower that percentage even further in favour of subsea cables and satellite.

Chinese maritime and marine technology company Highlander has reportedly added a new module to its underwater data centre in Lingshui, off the coast of Hainan island, to support demand for AI workloads.

Apple has launched its latest AI-powered smartphone, the iPhone 16e, in a bid to gain market share in emerging markets such as India, where it has been ramping up its focus.

The role of satellite communications in keeping aircraft connected just keeps on growing. Satcoms specialist Viasat has announced that it is expanding its long-standing relationship with Aeromexico, Mexico’s global airline.

Oman has announced plans to start an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chip manufacturing project in Salalah Free Zone, Dhofar, in the south of the country, following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Monday.

Intracom Telecom, a global technology systems and solutions provider, is once again participating in Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, taking place on March 3-6, 2025.

Safaricom is the market-leading operator in Kenya, and one of the most widely recognised operator brands in Africa. This status was not easily won – the operator has consistently led with innovation, while keeping the experience of its customers at the core of its offering.

Bahrain operator Batelco, part of the technology-focused Beyon Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GSMA to join its Open Gateway Initiative for standardised open network APIs.

State-controlled telco Telecom Egypt said it has signed several service agreements with Orange Egypt worth around EGP15 billion (US$296.2 million) to provide transmission and infrastructure services.

Ciena said on Wednesday that digital infrastructure and technology provider Cirion Technologies will deploy its solutions on subsea and terrestrial cable routes to enable its Latin American data centres to support growing demand for cloud and AI.

Only days after making news in Indonesia, telecom and fibre consulting firm APTelecom is back in the headlines, this time in Malaysia, with an appointment to support another submarine cable project.

Saudi Arabian digital enabler, stc Group, through its AI arm, stc.AI, says it has launched a large language model (LLM) sovereign cloud platform, which will, it claims, run the world’s largest open-source frontier model.

Space42, the UAE-based AI-powered spacetech company, has announced a strategic collaboration with FADA, an entity that is part of UAE’s EDGE, a technology company established to develop the UAE’s sovereign geospatial analytics capabilities, to significantly advance the UAE’s Earth observation (EO) downstream capabilities.

Etihad Salam Telecom Company, a provider of telecommunications services in Saudi Arabia, has announced a number of partnerships in recent days, including agreements with EdgeNext, a prominent leader in the global edge cloud services industry, and with call centre solutions provider Genesys.

UAE-based telco du said on Monday it has signed a partnership deal with PEACE Cable International Network Co Limited to extend the PEACE subsea cable system into the UAE and Gulf region.

Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry is reportedly planning to crack down on scammers using LEO satellite services like Starlink to provide connectivity for their operations.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel said on Monday that it has landed the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in Chennai, two months after establising the cable system's first Indian landing point in Mumbai.

Africa for Information Technology and Aviation (AITA), which specialises in aviation IT solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with Arabia SKYFive, which provides broadband connectivity  for aircraft, to provide high-speed in-flight connectivity (IFC) services for airlines in Egypt.

Multinational telecommunications company Telefonica has announced plans to start insolvency proceedings for its Peruvian subsidiary, Telefonica del Peru. Essentially, according to many reports, this is a strategic move to restructure its Peru unit by filing for bankruptcy protection.

Orange Jordan has upgraded its Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) with Nokia’s 7750 Service Router (SR) platforms.

Amid public backlash, MTN Nigeria has reversed course on a move to increase the price of its 15GB data plan by 200% and issued an apology to customers, saying the tariff hike was a “mistake”.

Ciena says that Indian ISP Tejays Dynamics is using its coherent routing solutions to build an adaptive IP network that will serve the connectivity needs of its enterprise and campus customers.

Orange Tunisia, Ooredoo Tunisia and Tunisie Telecom all launched their respective 5G mobile services late last week, less than three months after receiving their 5G licenses.

Telecom Argentina says it has taken a new step in its sustainability and energy transition strategy with an agreement signed with power company MSU Green Energy for the supply of 60,000 MWh of solar energy per year for the next ten years.

Multinational technology conglomerate Meta has formally announced what it calls its most ambitious subsea cable endeavour yet: Project Waterworth, which will reach five major continents and span over 50,000 kilometres, making it the world’s longest subsea cable project. It will, says Meta, use the highest-capacity technology available.

Cambodian operator CamGSM, commercially known as Cellcard, is planning to migrate its fibre network from gigabit passive optical network (GPON) to 10 gigabit symmetric passive optical network (XGS-PON) using Nokia’s Lightspan and Altiplano broadband solutions.

Telefónica is reportedly accelerating its exit from non-core markets by preparing to sell its Mexico unit, just weeks after it was said to be exploring sales in Argentina and Colombia.