Google launched its first cloud region in South Africa, a move to provide low latency cloud services to businesses in the continent. 

Digital payments in Cambodia grew significantly in 2023 in terms of digital wallet accounts and transactions, according to the latest figures from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).

Indonesia’s internet penetration rate has reportedly edged up from 78.1% this time last year to 79.5% as of January 2024, with younger people – particularly ‘Generation Z’ – continuing to be the key demographic in terms of usage.

Veon subsidiary Banglalink said on Wednesday it has completed the sale of part of its tower portfolio in Bangladesh to Summit Towers for BDT11 billion (US$100 million).

Service provider Telekom Malaysia is said to be exploring plans to build a new hyperscale data centre, expanding its capacity from the existing Klang Valley Data Centre (KVDC) and Iskandar Puteri Data Centre (IPDC).

Morocco-based telecommunication operator Inwi has announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with the Medusa submarine cable system to reinforce its trans-Mediterranean connectivity.

IHS Nigeria reached the milestone of deploying 10,000km of fibre optic cables across Nigeria, a move to fulfil rising broadband demand. 

Liberty Latin America (LLA) switched on its 5G network in Costa Rica for localised tests as part of plans for commercial launch this year. 

Telkom Indonesia’s startup incubator Indigo and digital entertainment unit Nuon Digital Indonesia have agreed to collaborate with the Ministry of Trade to accelerate development of the country’s games industry.

Indonesian operator Telkomsel announced it has formed a strategic partnership with Google to provide rich communication services (RCS), including a rich business messaging (RBM) feature aimed at enterprises.

Musang Valley Plantation (MVP), a leading integrated plantation company in Malaysia, is using advanced Earth observation (EO) data and analytics solutions provided by SC Solutions to drive and implement sustainable practices and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.

A Moroccan commercial court has this week told Maroc Telecom, the leading telecommunications company in Morocco, to pay compensation of  about US$636 million to its competitor Inwi for unfair competition practices.

The third-biggest South African operator, Telkom, has released an announcement claiming it has helped to win convictions for cable theft and infrastructure vandalism at various operations across the country.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus and Reliance Jio partnered to set up a 5G innovation lab in India. 

Russian operator group MTS offloaded its Armenian unit MTS Armenia to Cyprus-based Fedlico Group after finally gaining regulatory approval.

MTN Group pledged to invest US$215 million in infrastructure into Benin over the next three years after seeing positive results from 5G trials in the country. 

Sri Lankan operator SLT-Mobitel said it has expanded its partnership with insurance company Union Assurance to enable its customers to access tailored life insurance plans via its mobile money platform mCash.

Malaysian ICT distributor VSTECS said on Monday its subsidiary VSTECS Astar has become the latest company authorised by SpaceX to resell Starlink’s LEO satellite broadband service across the country.

Operator Orange Madagascar has announced plans to double its network coverage to reach about 90% of the island country’s 29 million people by the end of this year.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the largest integrated information communication technology (ICT) company in Pakistan, and DE-CIX, a leading internet exchange (IX) operator, have announced the inauguration of what is called the ‘Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) powered by DE-CIX’, which is described as the first carrier- neutral IX in the country.

Synspective, a Japanese SAR satellite data and analytics solution provider, has entered into memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Uzbekistan’s Centre for Space Monitoring and Geoinformation Technologies and Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary (KGS), the national space agency of Kazakhstan.

Israeli operator Bezeq announced it will enter the electricity supply sector this year with aims to be a "major player", and seizing opportunity as the nation opened its energy sector to fresh competition. 

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications has reportedly urged the country’s telcos to find new growth opportunities in digital as the sector’s growth continued to slow down in 2023.

Malaysian telco Maxis revealed on Friday that it has formalised its collaboration with Public Bank to accelerate digital adoption among Malaysia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

China Unicom and Huawei said that they have successfully deployed and tested a pilot large-scale 5.5G (a.k.a. 5G-Advanced) network in parts of Beijing with downlink speeds of at least 5 Gbps.

Bangladesh Infrastructure service provider Summit Communications has signed a deal with Juniper Networks to upgrade its core optical network to 400G in anticipation of a surge in traffic demand once 5G is commercially launched in the country.

As widely predicted, the impending Indian spectrum auction, probably taking place in March, is not going to generate a lot of revenue for the country’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT), something the DoT itself has now admitted.

Millicom, a leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications services in Latin America, has announced that its subsidiary, the operator Tigo Colombia, has agreed to sell approximately 1100 wireless communications towers to affiliates of investment funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm.

Will Costa Rica’s 5G rollout be delayed by problems with telecoms regulator Sutel? That, it appears, is the fear of the country’s IT sector.