Maxis, the last Malaysian operator yet to sign an access agreement with state-owned 5G agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), said it would refrain from seeking shareholder approval to join the scheme until the government completes its review of the 5G strategy implemented by the previous administration.

Iraq’s Asiacell has appointed data analytics and AI specialists LigaData to implement a new Data Governance Framework and Data Governance Centre of Expertise.

Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) has announced a six-month-long infrastructure sharing pilot. It will take place in and around Lima, using three base stations, and in Lambayeque, on the coast of northern Peru, using one. The project, supported by operators Telefónica del Perú and Entel, aims to reduce investment, operation and maintenance costs and save energy.

Tigo Panama pledged to invest US$100 million into its network this year as part of its long-term modernisation and expansion strategy, to plug in coverage gaps and ready itself for 5G.

Telekom Malaysia’s TM R&D has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ZTE that will see the companies collaborate on optical network research, bringing the first 50Gbps bandwidth experience to Malaysia.

Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) hyperscale data centre specialist AirTrunk has announced its entry into Malaysia with plans to develop a 150+ megawatt (MW) data centre.

Hard on the heels of Nokia’s collaboration with UNICEF to improve digital education and training in schools in parts of Senegal comes news of a USTDA and AirJaldi Networks partnership focusing on digital connectivity in India.

Apple is under investigation by Brazilian antitrust watchdog CADE over allegations that it is violating antitrust laws, by demanding app developers stay in its allegedly restrictive system and processes.

Madagascar’s Agency for Regulation of Technology and Communication (Autorite de Regulation des Technologies de Communications, ARTEC), revealed technical challenges are preventing operators from launching 5G services but stated commercial launches are on the horizon.  

Telecoms vendor Nokia has announced a new collaboration with UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, to bridge the digital divide by helping to improve digital education and training in schools in parts of Senegal.

Polish operator Play hailed its fixed network build-out in 2022 which resulted in the deployment of 10,500 base stations and over six million FTTH connections.

Operator Orange Madagascar and supplier of mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure solutions NuRAN have announced a network-as-a-service (NaaS) agreement.

Multiple recent data centre development announcements have underlined the growth of the sector in India. This time Airtel, CtrlS Datacentres and Google are involved.

America Movil and Telxius unveiled a new ultrahigh capacity subsea cable to link Guatemala to the US from 2025, as part of wider plans to improve global connectivity through bolstering the link between America Movil and Telxius parent Telefonica.

Tele2 Latvia announced it will invest €20 million to upgrading its network and the deployment of 5G this year, as well as constructing a new data core.

Turkish operator Turkcell has upgraded to the Ericsson Mediation platform, supporting its ongoing business support systems (BSS) evolution.

Nokia has announced that Mada Communications, a Kuwait-based telecommunications service provider offering enterprise solutions and services, will deploy its Wavence microwave solutions.

The Raxio Group, a pan-African data centre developer and operator, has announced that it is investing in and establishing Raxio Angola, which it says is the first state-of-the-art, carrier neutral, Tier III data centre in the country.

HAKOM, the Croatian telecommunications regulator, has announced the start of the latest competitive frequency allocation process in the country.

TOD, described as the fastest growing streaming platform for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has struck a strategic partnership with TPAY, a leading payments company in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META).

Satellite operator SES and du from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), a leading telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, say they have successfully demonstrated the first satellite-enabled 5G backhaul in the Middle East utilising SES’s medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

Guinea has reportedly made progress on its pledge to relaunch state-owned operator Sotelgui, which is apparently going to be operational at the end of January and rebranded as Guinee Telecom.

JioGames part of Jio Platforms Limited, described as India's leading gaming service, has partnered with French white label cloud gaming solutions provider Gamestream to launch a 10-year strategic partnership that, the partners say, will provide 1.4 billion Indians with unlimited access to cloud gaming anywhere, anytime.

Thai operators True and Dtac revealed they are meeting to shape up their corporate structure, and forecasting the end of March as the completion of their long-awaited merger.

Ericsson announced that it would put aside SEK2.3 billion (US$220m) as part of a potential resolution with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), regarding its alleged breaches under a deferred prosecution agreement.

Arch Capital Management, a leading Asia-Pacific-focused private equity real estate investment manager, has this week announced the launch of affiliate Digital Halo (DH), a regional digital infrastructure platform based in Singapore. DH will capitalise on the growing demand for digitized information tech and operations solutions in Southeast and North Asia, starting with a data centre in the Philippines.

Zain Group, a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa, has announced that its operation in Iraq has entered into a 15-year agreement to sell and lease back the passive physical infrastructure of its 4,968 tower portfolio in Iraq to TASC Towers Iraq for US$180 million.

Ethio Telecom posted a 20% rise in H1 revenues to ETB33.8 billion (US$631m) despite fresh competition from international player Safaricom, Reuters reported.

Mexico’s regulator, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), has announced the launch of a public consultation. It wants to receive comments from industry players and stakeholders about the next spectrum tender in Mexico, which could involve auctioning more than 330MHz nationwide.

Orange Slovakia pledged to double its 5G coverage by the end of 2025, which currently covers a quarter of the population, while also repeating that it will sunset 3G networks in the next two years.