The Indian government has announced plans to geotag key telecom infrastructure, including telecom towers and optical fibre cables, to facilitate coordination, particularly in disaster situations.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), described as the UK’s leading peering community, has announced that pan-African network provider AFR-IX Telecom is the latest member network to join its new interconnection hub in Kenya – LINX Nairobi.

Last year, Nokia released its Corteca software suite, with the promise of delivering smart broadband for a better experience.

Select customers of Bangladesh state-owned telco Teletalk are reportedly now able to roam onto the network of rival telco Banglalink as part of a beta launch for a national roaming service to help Teletalk cope with availability problems.

CMC Networks announced on Tuesday it has launched its Air Connect solution in South Africa, which promises to deliver broadband wireless connectivity to businesses in remote and rugged environments.

Global digital operator Veon announced on Tuesday that it has signed a deal to sell its 50.1% indirect stake in mobile operator Beeline Kyrgyzstan to CG Cell Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of CG Corp Global.

High altitude pseudo satellites (HAPS), aka high-altitude platform systems, are back in the news, this time thanks to a deal affecting India.

Globe Telecom hailed milestones in building 276 new cell sites and upgraded 2,509 sites to 4G LTE in the Philippines island of Mindanao in 2023, as part of its strategy to connect new subscribers for growth ambitions. 

A remittances-focused partnership has been announced that could see the expansion of M-Pesa, the continent’s leading mobile money and digital payments service, to West Africa.

Actis, a global investor in sustainable infrastructure, has signed an agreement to sell leading South African fibre network operator Octotel to a consortium of investors.

Telecom Egypt and Indian telecoms vendor Tejas Networks announced on Monday they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost telecoms R&D and manufacturing facilities in Egypt, as well as train up local skillsets.

Malaysia's communications minister says the government’s National Digital Network (a.k.a. JENDELA) programme to upgrade its broadband infrastructure is on track to be completed by the end of next year, with much of the work already done.

Ericsson and du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (EITC), announced on Monday that they have leveraged carrier aggregation to achieve a download speed of up to 16.7 Gbps on du’s 5G standalone (SA) network.

Turkcell, the largest mobile operator in Turkey, has said it aims to ramp up investment this year as it plans for a new data centre and infrastructure for 5G services.

Neways, which specialises in mission-critical technology for leading semiconductor, connectivity and smart mobility companies, has announced the establishment of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Klang, a major city in Selangor, on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Nigeria has called for a coordinated and multilateral approach by the West African region to protect shared telecommunications infrastructure and diversify connectivity to ensure uninterruptible connections – with particular reference to submarine cables.

Eutelsat Group says it has signed a multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal with African ICT integrator NEC XON to supply connectivity capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa via Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO satellite constellation.

Nokia announced on Sunday it has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Bahrain operator Batelco, part of the technology-focused Beyon Group, to deliver mission-critical private 5G networks across Bahrain.

NEC Indonesia says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telkom Indonesia to collaborate in developing smart cities in the upcoming new capital city of Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN), as well as other Indonesian cities.

UPDATED: Telkom South Africa confirmed the sale of its tower unit Swiftnet for ZAR 6.75 billion (US$355 million) to infrastructure-focused private equity firm Actis, a move to pay down debts and balance its books. 

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is an attractive play for many operators, and Nokia believes its potential can be further enhanced with the arrival of 5G FWA solutions using higher millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum.

Telecom Egypt says it has added European fibre backbone and transatlantic subsea cable infrastructure provider EXA Infrastructure to its WeConnect ecosystem in its latest move to establish Egypt as a major regional interconnection hub.

PLDT’s enterprise subsidiary ePLDT announced that the planned 50MW hyperscale data centre being built by its data centre unit Vitro is on track to go live as early as this July.

A roadmap for a 5G launch and the system for granting licenses and marketing the service were announced by Tunisa’s Minister of Communication Technologies Nizar Ben Neji earlier this week.

Given the recent damage to many of the subsea cables that provide connectivity to Africa, major connectivity providers have been swift to respond.

Less than two years after it announced the launch of commercial 5G services across several regions of the country, operator WOM Chile is having to refinance US$348 million in debt due this year – and hasn’t yet made it clear how this will happen.

Is Ghana accelerating the pace of satellite internet licensing in response to the disruption caused by the widely reported subsea cable damage off the coast of West Africa?

Vodacom South Africa confirmed up to 80 members of staff might be let go in a move to lower costs and continue its strategy to transition from a telecoms to technology company. 

The mobile money market matured as transaction value grew by 14% to US$1.4 trillion and total global registered accounts reached 1.75 billion in 2023, an increase of 12% year-on-year.

Hormuud Telecom launched 5G in key locations across Somalia with 4G customers receiving free upgrades to the next generation technology starting from today (March 21). 

Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) is the second telco to score 5G spectrum this month after reportedly winning the auction for the 3700-3800 MHz band.