MTN Group announced on Wednesday it has officially inaugurated a Technology Innovation Lab in partnership with Huawei Technologies that aims to help accelerate digital transformation and sustainable development across Africa.

Telkom Indonesia’s international arm Telin announced on Thursday that it has signed a new Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata to provide managed services for international A2P SMS traffic to help it combat spam and fraud.

Egypt’s National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) has partnered with Arab Security Consultants (ASC), a distributor of the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) in Egypt, to bolster collaboration in network security and cybersecurity.

Operator Tigo Tanzania has announced the launch of what it calls a first-of-its-kind fibre-to-home and fibre-to-office internet service that is designed to enable consumers and businesses to have access to reliable, low-latency and high-speed internet for households and businesses.

Suriname’s Telesur has completed the migration of its fixed line customers onto Cerillion’s convergent BSS/OSS platform.

Indian operator Vodafone Idea’s Rs 5,400 crore (about $645.5 million) offer of shares to anchor investors was fully subscribed on Tuesday.

PLDT’s wireless unit Smart Communications said on Tuesday that in the first quarter of this year, it has blocked more than 13 million SMShing (a.k.a. “smishing”) messages designed to help criminals take over people’s social media accounts.

Ciena announced on Tuesday that Indonesian internet services and integrated network access provider PT Parsaoran Global Datatrans (a.k.a. HSPnet) launched high-capacity services of up to 6 Tbps on two fibre cable systems using Ciena gear earlier this year.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a leading provider of pan-African digital infrastructure, has partnered with Kampala-based telecommunications company ATC Uganda to expand Liquid’s public Wi-Fi network to 320 hotspots across the city.

Satellite communications company Starlink has halted internet services in Zimbabwe until it receives licensing approval from the nation’s telecommunications regulator.

Remittance deals continue to hog the fintech headlines in Africa. MTN MoMo, Mastercard and Equity Bank Kenya are the latest companies to make announcements about plans to serve the vast African remittance market.

The benefits that broadband delivers are proven and measurable in terms of economics, and few would dispute that fibre is the optimal broadband technology in situations where it is feasible to deploy.

Mastercard and pan-African digital payments company Onafriq announced on Monday that they are collaborating to increase accessibility to mobile payment services for consumers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.

Paratus Group announced on Monday that it has launched what it claims is the fastest fibre express route from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Europe after completing a terrestrial fibre link linking Johannesburg to Google’s Equiano subsea cable.

Oman fixed broadband provider Awasr announced that it has officially launched the "Oman-IX" internet exchange point in collaboration with regional digital infrastructure services provider Alliance Networks and internet exchange provider AMS-IX.

Earth observation and data analysis are in the news again thanks to two MoUs of strong relevance to Africa.

Indian company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a major name in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has announced the opening of a new delivery centre in Londrina, a city in southern Brazil.

Submarine cable network operator and managed connectivity service provider Seacom has launched a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite service for its enterprise clients in South Africa.

Global smartphone shipments increased 7.8% year-on-year to 289.4 million units in Q1 2024, marking a third consecutive quarter of growth and indicating that recovery of handset sales is well underway. 

Indian telco Vodafone Idea reportedly plans to raise as much as Rs180 billion (just over US$2.1 billion) this week in what is expected to be India’s biggest follow-on public offering (FPO) as it seeks to pay off debts and get back in the 5G game.

Lebanon-based OTT video platform provider Mangomolo says it has won a deal with UPICtv, the OTT commercial wing of Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet), to provide a turnkey solution for The Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport & Culture (MYSC) of Botswana.

Viettel Business Solutions, a subsidiary of Viettel Group, announced on Friday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singtel to collaborate on deploying the first subsea cable directly connecting Vietnam and Singapore.

This week saw a potentially highly significant signing ceremony take place when representatives of Iraq’s Informatics and Telecommunications Public Company (ITPC) and the Kuwaiti service provider Zajil Telecom signed a strategic collaboration agreement to create a communications route from the Gulf to Europe.

Executives at Philippine broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions have reportedly said that two major international subsea cable networks it’s participating in are behind schedule and may not be completed until next year.

Technology giant Huawei has been busy with information and communication technologies (ICT) education initiatives in recent weeks – in Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt.

The Togo Digital Agency (Agence Togo Digital or ATD) is said to be working on a plan to speed up the digitisation of Togo’s public services.

Among the many businesses dealing with Zimbabwe’s attempt to move to a new currency last Friday was operator Econet, which last weekend said it was preparing its systems to allow trading in the new currency.

South African operator MTN has responded to the country’s ongoing power blackouts with further investment in generators in an attempt to make up for the deficiencies of state electricity provider Eskom.

Orange and online learning company Coursera are launching a free certification training programme for young people in Africa and the Middle East, to provide them with key skills in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Saudi oil giant Aramco has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GCT Semiconductor Holding, a leading designer and supplier of advanced 5G and 4G semiconductor solutions.

MTN’s super-app Ayoba had 35 million monthly active users in 2023 a year-on-year increase from 20 million due to feature upgrades and expansion into new markets, and now the operator aims to chase growth through expanding its B2B front.