Emergency communications are in the news again, with operator CelcomDigi in Malysia highlighting its support for flood relief efforts in the country and another service provider, Edotco Bangladesh, announcing a partnership to enhance disaster preparedness.

Orange Money Group, the mobile money service of telecommunications service provider Orange, and payments giant Visa have announced a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating online payments and democratising access to financial services across Africa and the Middle East.

Telkom Indonesia announced on Friday that independent shareholders have approved its plan to spin off Telkom’s wholesale fibre connectivity business and assets to its FTTH subsidiary Telkom Infrastruktur Indonesia (TIF), a.k.a. InfraNexia.

Thailand’s True Digital Group, Vietnam’s VNPT Technology and AIoT integration firm T3 Technology have officially kicked off an initiative to design, develop and sell AI-powered smart home solutions in Vietnam.

China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak, a.k.a. Zong 4G), announced on Friday it has signed a strategic partnership deal with local communication-as-a-service provider Eocean to launch a digital commerce-as-a-service (DCaaS) offering.

Cameroon has finalised an MoU to join the Medusa Africa submarine cable and sent it to the Presidency for approval, Econfin Agency reports.

Telecom services revenue in Indonesia is predicted to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.7% between 2024 and 2029, a trend underpinned by the increasing adoption of mobile data and fibre connectivity.

Veon-owned telco Banglalink announced on Thursday it has received regulatory clearance from Bangladesh Bank to operate as a digital payment service provider in Bangladesh as it seeks to expand into digital financial services.

Brazilian SaaS company Mambo WiFi and US-based decentralized wireless communications firm Helium say they have launched a new joint venture to bring Helium’s network of Wi-Fi offload hotspots to mobile users in Brazil.

Ericsson announced on Thursday it has signed a strategic microwave frame contract with Veon-owned digital operator Jazz to strengthen its network backbone in Pakistan.

API-enabled technology platform Setu, owned by payments technology company Pine Labs, has announced the launch of what it calls India’s first agentic bill-payments experience.

Mobile industry association the GSMA has urged what it calls a sharper, investment-led push to accelerate Indonesia’s digital transformation and drive innovation.

Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest bank by assets, says it has partnered with Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications provider, to provide funding of US$138 million as part of investment towards operator Safaricom Ethiopia.

Southeast Asian wholesale connectivity provider SEAX has acquired a major stake in ITEL (Interlink Telecom), a Thai fixed network telecommunications provider.

Thai market leader AIS (Advanced Info Service) has tapped Netcracker for what the companies describe as the largest cloud deployment in Thailand.

Singapore-based data centre developer and operator Empyrion Digital announced on Tuesday it has secured regulatory approvals for its planned 200+MW hyperscale data centre campus in Johor, which will also be its first campus in Malaysia.

The Kenyan government has reportedly imposed conditions on the sale of a 15% stake in Safaricom to South Africa-based Vodacom Group aimed to making sure Safaricom retains its local identity.

Edotco Bangladesh, an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services provider, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS), a state-owned enterprise under the country's Posts and Telecommunications Division.

Q-KON, an African provider of satellite communications, has signed a strategic trilateral agreement with China’s Guodian Gaoke, a low-orbit communication satellite developer and operator, and satellite communication terminals and antennas specialist StarWin.

Vietnamese telco Viettel said on Tuesday it has officially surpassed its commitment to the government to deploy 20,000 new 5G sites in Vietnam before the end of this year.

Telecom Fiji has officially joined the island nation’s 5G race after launching the first phase of its 5G service, several months after rival telcos Vodafone Fiji and Digicel Fiji launched their own services.

Philippine data centre developer and operator A-FLOW – the JV partnership between PAG-owned FLOW Digital Infrastructure and AyalaLand Logistics (ALLHC) – has officially launched its first data centre in the Philippines, over a year after the facility was topped off.

Veon-owned telco Beeline Kazakhstan announced on Monday it has kicked off construction of a Tier III hyperscale data centre in Almaty that aims to serve as the anchor for Kazakhstan’s sovereign cloud, AI compute and enterprise digital services ecosystem.

TenPay Global, the cross-border payment platform of Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Tencent, and Mastercard Move, payment giant Mastercard’s money movement business, have announced a collaboration.

The long-anticipated merger of Telenor Pakistan with Pakistan Telecomm­unication Company Ltd (PTCL) does now appear to be close to becoming a reality after it received the approval of The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) late last week.

It’s only been a week or two since its launch was formally announced, but it seems that Huawei’s RuralCow, a rapid-deployment, all-in-one mobile base station that provides mobile coverage to remote rural areas, has already made an impact in a major market.

Mauritius Telecom (MT), the country’s leading service provider across fixed and mobile, has unveiled what it calls a new vision set to accelerate the country’s digital transformation and position Mauritius as a world-class digital hub linking Africa and Asia.

Syria’s Central Bank (CBS) has announced a strategic partnership with Visa to accelerate the country’s integration into the global digital economy. Local press reports say that the agreement was formalised during a meeting at the Central Bank late last week.

South Africa's national broadband infrastructure company Broadband Infraco (BBI) has reportedly partnered with Huawei to build a national intelligent all-optical backbone network.

Australia-headquartered satellite IoT company Myriota has announced the general availability of what it says is the world’s first commercial 5G non-terrestrial network engineered for IoT.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel is reportedly coordinating with Google to use its platform to launch rich communication services (RCS) messaging – making it the last of India’s private telcos to do so – once anti-spam measures are sorted out.