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. 

The long-awaited scrapping of roaming charges between Brazil and Chile, promised by a free trade agreement between the two countries some years ago, finally looks like happening.

South Africa's Telkom and Rain appear to have abandoned plans for the country’s third-biggest operator to buy the major name in fixed wireless access (FWA) service provision. But what could this mean for other potential mergers or acquisitions in the telecoms space?

MTN Uganda chose Huawei as its supplier for a network upgrade through a cloud-native 5G-Capable Core, as part of a group-wide move to digitally transform its units and other sectors. 

Qatar’s Es’hailSat and AXESS Networks have announced a strategic partnership agreement to provide teleport and VSAT services for multiple sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

International insurtech bolttech and Thailand’s leading mobile network operator AIS have partnered to deliver embedded protection services, including mobile device switch and replacement services, to AIS customers for the recently launched AIS Care+ programme.

There’s been some slightly disconcerting financial news for operator Safaricom in the past few days. The Kenyan giant expects to sustain losses from mobile termination rate (MTR) cuts and, possibly, to be hit with tax demands if plans to split mobile money service M-Pesa from its main business go ahead.

Cropin, which describes itself as the global agritech pioneer that has built the world's first industry cloud for agriculture, says it has secured 1.130 billion rupees (about US$13.8 million) in funding from new investors Google and JSR Corporation, as well as existing investors ABC Impact and Chiratae Ventures.

Widely reported Indian government plans (though they have not been officially confirmed) suggest winding up the Digital Communications Commission (DCC), described as the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Regional media outlets are reporting that newly launched operator Safaricom Ethiopia has apparently claimed that price competition in the market will not be part of its strategy to win customers from state-owned operator Ethio Telecom.

T-Mobile Poland is accelerating its timeline for shutting down its 3G network and now expects to meet this target by April 2023.

Saudi operator Zain KSA sealed the sale of tower assets to the Saudi Public Investment Find (PIF) for SAR3.02 billion (US$803.5 million), a move to cut debt for the company.

Hungary’s 4iG has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement that will see it take a 100% stake in Vodafone Hungary.

Airtel Africa revealed it spent US316.7 million on 4G and 5G spectrum as part of wider plans to bolster connectivity in Nigeria, from an auction where it was the sole bidder.