The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has reportedly decided to let mobile operators pay spectrum fees in local currency rather than the costlier option of US dollars.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix is claiming that its third data centre in Rio de Janeiro state, RJ3, is the largest investment ever made by the sector in the Brazilian state. It is said to have an initial budget of US$94 million.

Satellite operator Arabsat has signed a deal with satellite services and technology provider neXat to be able to manage various hubs in a single application for its new multicontinental managed services offering.

Google has announced Umoja, which it says is the first-ever fibre optic route to directly connect Africa with Australia. Anchored in Kenya, the Umoja cable route will pass through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, including the Google Cloud region, before crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia.

Accelerit, a telecommunications company dedicated to providing innovative connectivity solutions across South Africa, has announced what it calls a groundbreaking partnership with a local VSAT provider.

Satellite communications company Eutelsat Group says it has extended its partnership with InterSAT, one of Africa's leading satellite service providers, to support InterSAT’s growth in the pan-African enterprise and retail segments.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned operator Baktelecom is deploying Nokia’s XGS-PON solution to help bring new gigabit services to residential and business customers across the country.

Ericsson and Huawei have made separate announcements showcasing advances in carrier aggregation for 5G microwave backhaul – one with Malaysian 5G wholesaler Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and the other with China Unicom Inner Mongolia, respectively.

Orange and Vodafone announced extension of their open RAN network pilot project in rural Romania to boost coverage and integrate 2G virtualised RAN (vRAN) technology, a vital step towards cloud migration. 

Orange signed a partnership agreement with Digital Africa in a move to accelerate support and investment for startups in its incubator centres across Africa and the Middle East.

Viasat and Azercosmos are partnering to bring L-band satellite services to Azerbaijan.

Saudi Arabia-headquartered satellite operator Arabsat announced on Wednesday it is working with ST Engineering iDirect to deploy cloud technologies into its gateway infrastructure as part of a plan to reach new markets in the Middle East, Africa and West/Central Asia.

Eutelsat Group and YahClick, the data solutions arm of UAE-based Yahsat, have signed a multi-year, multi-Gbps contract under which Yahsat will lease capacity from the Eutelsat Konnect satellite to extend YahClick’s service coverage, particularly to Ethiopia.

Following news earlier this week of major UK development investments in telecoms  in Senegal and Tanzania come announcements from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) of support for projects in two Asian countries.

Co-hosted by the Fiber Network Council APAC (FNCA) and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), China FIBERTalk 2024 was held in China’s Optics Valley on May 17th.

Telecom Egypt, a leading communications and information technology service provider, and Huawei Cloud have joined forces to launch tech giant Huawei’s first locally based public cloud platform in Egypt and North Africa.

Qatari telecommunications company Ooredoo has made two service-related announcements in recent days – one alongside Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multi-cloud computing, for Qatar Airways, and the other, with digital transformation specialist Netcracker Technology, to enhance Ooredoo’s own CRM offering.

Globe Telecom CEO Ernest Cu said the operator group’s fintech division may go public as the company looks to diversify its business away from traditional telco revenue drivers.  

Cambodia-based Smart Axiata tapped telecoms cybersecurity firm SecurityGen for software to bolster its defences, as connectivity adoption rises in the South East Asian nation.

Malaysian wholesale 5G operator Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) has reportedly given the five telcos taking stakes in the company 20 days to finalise the process as the government looks to get on with launching a second 5G operator and encourage private 5G adoption.

Thailand’s state telco National Telecom (NT) is reportedly at risk of losing its partnership with Eutelsat OneWeb, as the LEO satellite operator is said to be considering moving its regional gateway out of the country because of ongoing delays.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded a feasibility study grant to Bangladesh telecoms company CdNet Communications to explore construction of a new subsea cable to improve internet connectivity across the country.

It seems Vietnam’s success as a manufacturing base may be challenging its ability to power growth. Some reports are suggesting that Vietnamese officials have called on Apple supplier Foxconn to reduce power use by 30% at its assembly plants in the north of the country, an area that suffered power outages last year.

Ukrainian operator Kyivstar allocated US$90 million to defend against suspected Russian cyberattacks against its network, a move that affected growth said Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov.

PAIX Data Centres, a provider of data centre solutions, has announced the expansion of its facility in Accra to 1.2 MW in what it calls a critical boost to the digital economy that will also spur job creation.

Pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced a distribution partner agreement (DPA) with Eutelsat Group, described as the world's first satellite operator with an integrated GEO-LEO infrastructure, that will see enterprise-grade low earth orbit (LEO) satellite services being made available in Africa.

Telkom Indonesia’s satellite services arm Telkomsat said on Friday that it has signed a cooperation agreement with LEO satellite operator Starlink to offer the latter’s satellite broadband services to enterprises in Indonesia.

Malaysian mobile operator U Mobile says it has successfully wrapped up a private 5G network proof-of-concept (PoC) with Enfrasys Solutions to automate the container inspection process for transport and logistics company Transocean Logistics.

Malaysian telco Time dotCom and Huawei announced on Monday that they have successfully deployed Segment Routing IPv6 (SRv6) technology in Time’s network, which the operator hopes will give it an edge in the enterprise services market.

The Congolese capital Brazzaville is to house a data centre, supported by funding of €66.55 million (about US$72.2 million) including US$57 million from the African Development Bank (ADB) and US$15.70 million from the government of Congo.

The SpaceX satcoms service Starlink is now live across the more than 300 islands in the Republic of Fiji, marking, the company says, the 99th country, territory or market around the world where Starlink’s high-speed internet service is available.