Authorities in yet another West African country are responding to consumer dissatisfaction over mobile operator prices and quality of service (QoS). This time it’s happening in Cameroon, whose mobile operators have been instructed to modify off-net and on-net prices within two months.

Internet exchange (IX) operator DE-CIX has announced plans to establish a joint venture company called PT DE-CIX Indonesia, together with PT IDMarco Digital Solusi, a subsidiary of the Salim Group, a major Indonesian conglomerate.

Nokia equipped Mobifone with analytics tools to cut the Vietnamese operator’s overall energy consumption by 14%.

The Equiano submarine cable system is in the news again. This time it’s thanks to Telecom Egypt, which has announced the activation of an agreement with St Helena, the British Overseas Territory. St Helena is a remote volcanic outpost in the South Atlantic Ocean with a population of around 4,400, according to a 2021 census.

Chile’s telecoms regulator pledged it will monitor the shutdown of 2G networks by demanding operators submit their switch-off plans to prevent subscribers from being disconnected.

The four main mobile operators in the Nigerien market – Airtel, Zamani, Moov Africa, and Niger Telecoms – have been fined by the Nigerien telecommunications regulatory authority, ARCEP.

The South African government isn’t interested in selling its 40% stake in number three operator Telkom – in fact it may soon partner with Telkom on rolling out broadband products.

Satellite communications company AST SpaceMobile opened an R&D facility to build space technology in India, as it identified the South Asian market for growth in mobile broadband connectivity.

As of today (25^th July), Chile and Brazil have dropped roaming charges between the two countries following a six-month delay.

Argentinean fibre provider Telecentro has deployed Airties’ portfolio of Smart Wi-Fi software and services across its footprint.

Issues about pricing and quality of mobile communications service are continuing to anger consumers in Burkina Faso, where a new boycott campaign has been announced against the country’s three main operators.

A joint venture to develop high-quality, highly connected scalable data centres to meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and digital services companies in India has been announced.

Ooredoo, Zain and UAE-based tower firm TASC Tower Holding entered talks to combine their tower assets and create the largest tower company in the MENA region.

Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemicals companies, and OQ Technology, described as the world’s first satellite 5G IoT operator that provides global cellular Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) communication solutions through satellites, have announced the signing of a new MoU.

Ubuntu Towers Uganda has announced the successful completion of its rebranding to TowerCo of Africa Uganda, which is 90% owned by TowerCo of Africa (TOA).

Kazakh conglomerate Freedom Holding has confirmed its intent to enter the country’s mobile market with a 5G start-up player.

There has been a significant boost for Tanzanian operators with the government’s decision, announced late last week, to slash the country’s telecommunications right-of-way (RoW) fee from US$1,000 per kilometre to only US$200 per kilometre.

Axian Telecom signed a deal to acquire a further 40% stake in Senegalese operator Free taking its total ownership to 80% to consolidate operations.

Rwanda and Cameroon have recently announced significant education-related technology agreements – Rwanda with investment group SoftBank and Cameroon with UN agency UNICEF.

Malaysia approved Elon Musk’s satellite company Starlink to operate in the country and connect remote locations.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has confirmed that it will end its year-long moratorium on issuing new telecom and broadcast licences on 1^st October 2023.

Malaysia’s communications minister revealed the government has reached a deal outlining stakes in its wholesale 5G company Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) for the nation’s five MNOs.

Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) is taking “a significant step towards correcting market imbalances” with the implementation of technology neutrality for non-dominant players.

There’s been significant data centre and undersea cable-related news from service provider PLDT in the Philippines this week, underlining the growth in data demand in that country that we reported on earlier today.

Costa Rica has confirmed that it plans to commence its multi-band 5G auction on 23^rd October 2023.

Airtel Africa has completed a digital transformation project across its African footprint in partnership with CSG.

Total mobile services revenue in the Philippines is predicted to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% to US$4.3 billion, as subscribers adopt more data services and consume over four times more data by 2028.

Mobile money growth continues across Africa. Two recent announcements, from IDT Corporation, a global fintech company, and from TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure company partnering with operator Safaricom, are the latest example of companies targeting consumers in Africa – and notably the remittance market.

As the number of Indian cities covered by 5G grows, India's 5G smartphone user base has passed the 100 million mark and monthly sales have overtaken those of 4G smartphones for the first time, according to recent research.

Safaricom announced plans to add 595 new 5G sites by the end of March 2023, as it aims to push ahead of rivals in Kenya and capitalise on rising connectivity demand.

Tonomus, the first subsidiary of Neom, a region in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea coast described as 'building a future fuelled by the power of cognitive technology', has announced the opening of its first digital communications facility.