The growing appeal of Vietnam as an investment destination for many companies – notably those in the telecoms and IT sectors – has been underlined by announcements from Meta and Ericcson this week.

A digital and intelligent revolution is under way. How can it be managed to benefit us all? Huawei, its industry partners and a number of think tanks have come together and released a set of reports exploring the intelligent world and outlining the way it can change our lives, businesses and environment– for the better.

Oracle announced plans to invest US$6.5 billion to develop a cloud region in Malaysia and prepare the nation for AI and cloud services.

LEO satellite operator Iridium Communications said on Tuesday that it has teamed with critical communicationss provider Satcom Direct Brasil to provide Brazilian freight train operator MRS Logística with satellite connectivity for its railway operations.

Global digital solutions provider Hayo said on Tuesday it has opened new offices in Cameroon, Niger and Sri Lanka to expand its ability to meet growing local and regional demand for digital services.

Ericsson and Malaysian wholesale 5G operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) said on Tuesday they successfully partnered with Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) to conduct what they say is the country’s first live TV broadcast over a commercial 5G network.

IL Cazar, a leading real estate company, has announced a partnership agreement with service provider Orange Egypt to provide Orange's telecommunications services and smart technology solutions to two of IL Cazar's prime projects in New Cairo, a satellite city within the metropolitan area of Cairo.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, a multilateral institution whose objective is to contribute to the sustainable economic development and social progress of African countries, has approved grants for digitising the Comorian economy.

Veon announced it completed the sale of its 49% stake in Kazakh wholesale infrastructure company TNS+ for US$137.5 million following regulatory approval.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel paid INR84.65 billion (US$1 billion) towards its debt for spectrum acquired in the 2016 auction, weeks after the supreme court threw out operator pleas to readjust their dues.

A London High Court has rejected an appeal by former Unitel director Isabel dos Santos to unfreeze assets worth around US$778 million.

At Huawei Connect 2024 held in Shanghai from 19^th September, Huawei’s Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman Eric Xu gave a keynote speech exploring commercial AI adoption across different industries.

Telekom Malaysia’s wholesale business arm TM Global said on Monday it has extended its collaboration with cloud infrastructure provider Radian Arc for another two years to expand TM’s wholesale cloud gaming offering into new markets.

The Connectivity Plan Task Force (CPTF) spearheaded by Philippine telco Globe Telecom has reportedly asked the government to subsidise up to 50GB of data per month to families in rural areas to boost usage of base stations in those areas.

Malaysian telco CelcomDigi and South Korean operator SK Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Monday to work together on initiatives to commercialise AI for the Malaysian market.

The second major announcement related to Indian operator Vodafone Idea and Nokia in only a few days sees Vodafone Idea strengthen its network security with Nokia NetGuard Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).

Will Brazilian neutral network and digital infrastructure company V.tal take over financially troubled operator Oi Brasil’s fibre broadband base, ClientCo? Having last week made the sole bid for Oi’s fibre unit it’s looking very likely that it will.

Genesys, described as a global cloud leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, has announced that it has secured a Unified License Virtual Network Operator (UL VNO) licence in India, obtained under Department of Telecommunications (DoT) guidelines.

Malaysian technology firm Dagang NeXchange (DNeX) and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year deal to provide sovereign cloud services in the country.

A number of agreements signed last week by Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) are said to be aimed at enhancing the digital infrastructure of oil-rich cities in the country.

ZTE Corporation, a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, today announced its collaboration with China Telecom's Suzhou Branch to deploy an innovative 5G IoT integration network solution at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University.

State-owned operator Vietnam signed up Ericsson to build out its 5G RAN across the majority of provinces in Vietnam.

Malaysian telco U Mobile said on Saturday it has scored separate deals with Chinese telecoms vendors Huawei and ZTE to explore and develop 5G use cases in Malaysia focused on verticals and the agriculture sector.

Nokia revealed on Saturday details of last week’s billion-dollar network contract win with Indian telco Vodafone Idea to modernise and expand its 4G network – to include 5G upgrades – over the next three years.

Ericsson announced on Friday announced that it has completed a major tech stack upgrade for Pakistan’s Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), giving its mobile wallet easypaisa a cloud-native platform on which to scale up its services.

Chinese LEO satellite operator Geespace and Malaysian telecoms service provider Altel Communications have agreed to establish an R&D centre to develop use cases for direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications technology.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has approved a $400 million loan for Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), marking a significant step toward its acquisition of Telenor Group’s operations in Pakistan.

South African telco Vodacom said on Thursday its enterprise unit is working with local governments to implement smart city solutions for use cases such as utilities management, healthcare, education and security.

SpaceX has reportedly said it plans to invest US$1.5 billion in Vietnam in the near future as an apparent sweetener to convince the government to allow the company to launch its LEO satellite broadband service Starlink in the country.

In what may seem an unusual form of diversification, Pakistan’s Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) has said it plans to invest in the establishment of data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and related technology ventures.

KaiOS,  whose mobile operating system brings the internet to affordable devices, has announced a partnership with payment giant Mastercard to integrate a range of digital payments solutions for developing markets, beginning with Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.