The Philippine government launched the first phase of its National Fibre Backbone (NFB) project on Friday, which it says will boost the country’s economy as well as its digital ambitions.

Internet services in Bangladesh have been partially disrupted since early Saturday morning after the SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable was damaged, knocking out two-thirds of the country’s international subsea capacity.

Apple has complied with an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China to pull WhatsApp and Threads from the Chinese version of the App Store.

Africa Mobile Networks Group (AMN) announced on Thursday that its first of its base stations in Nigeria to connect to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation is now live and using the LEO satellite network for backhaul connectivity.

Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) has published a draft decree in line with the Regulation of the Law for the Promotion of a Connected Peru, passed in June last year, in which it lays out a number of proposals, notably the partial phasing out of public telephones.

A number of news outlets are reporting plans by digital infrastructure company Equinix to build a $130m data centre in Santiago, Chile. This will be the company's fifth Chilean facility.

UAE telco du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global internet provider Expereo to help it provide network connectivity to global enterprises with a local presence.

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.