A group that gives African farmers improved access to localised weather data has enjoyed a major boost to its efforts to supply value-added weather intelligence services.

Axiata Group reported profits were hit by an asset charge stemming from its Nepalese unit however growth was reported across most of its operators.

The Smart Africa Alliance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with pan-African digital connectivity solutions company Bayobab and infrastructure investment platform Africa50 to support the fibre optic cable initiative Project East2West with regulatory and policy engagements.

Chinese smartphone vendor Realme announced it had shipped 200 million units since launching in 2018, making it the fifth largest vendor according to Counterpoint Research. 

Sri Lankan operator Dialog Axiata connected over 200,000 users to its 5G network in a trial of the technology before a wider nationwide rollout. 

Indonesian operator XL Axiata revealed that Garut Resort Police have arrested a group of fraudsters who ran a scam by impersonating XL Home service officers to steal home broadband routers.

Mobile operator Hutch Lanka has announced a strategic partnership with payments company Bancstac to enable new payment acceptance capabilities across all of Hutch’s digital payment channels in Sri Lanka.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Orange have joined forces to support over the next two years the establishment of a viable business model for a high-quality standard secondary market of mobile devices and networks/IT equipment in Egypt.

AMD, which describes itself as a high-performance and adaptive computing leader, has inaugurated its largest global design centre in Bengaluru. This, the company says, marks a milestone in its commitment to expand research, development and engineering operations in the country.

The African Development Bank and The US Commercial Service, the trade promotion arm of the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA), have announced what they describe as a new strategic collaboration in a move to drive digital transformation across Africa.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) expanded its broadband business with the acquisition of rival MNC Play, as the company bets on broadband being a growth accelerator from 2024. 

Malaysian telecoms infrastructure services provider REDtone Digital says it has signed an authorised reseller agreement with SpaceX to offer Starlink's LEO satellite broadband services in Malaysia.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced on Monday that it has expanded its 5G coverage to the remote Zanskar valley in Kargil district, making it the first 5G service in the valley.

Korean telco SK Telecom said on Monday it has signed several new publishing partnerships, including one with Malaysian operator CelcomDigi, to expand its metaverse product “ifland” to Southeast Asia.

At the recent Africa Digital Expo in Kinshasa Fast Congo, a subsidiary of the pan-African operator the Paratus Group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), announced that it had signed a long-term agreement with Group Vivendi Africa (GVA) to provide fibre capacity between Muanda and Kinshasa in the DRC.

Pan-African operator MTN and technology giant NEC Corporation say they have launched Africa’s first 400G optical transponder.

Operator Ooredoo Qatar has partnered with Ericsson, which will supply and implement a 4G network for Ooredoo’s oil and gas enterprise customers. The network will be deployed offshore to connect oil and gas enterprise facilities with arriving ships.

Safaricom Kenya and Nokia have announced an initiative to save on network energy usage and cost – one that makes use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.