The Vietnamese government reported 71 million internet users in the country as the nation marked 25 years of internet connectivity while repeating ambitions to become a connectivity powerhouse in Asia.

Following up on its announcement in February of a memorandum of understanding, Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in the region, and Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the independent power transmission operator (IPTO) in Greece, have signed a collaboration agreement to build a subsea system connecting Egypt and Greece.

Satellite communications technology company ST Engineering iDirect has announced that its long-standing partner, the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE), has upgraded its satellite ground network.

Sivers Semiconductors, through Sivers Wireless, has signed a development agreement with an Indian 5G technology supplier that, it says, opens the door to the new 5G mmWave market in India.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix has announced plans to enter the South African market with a US$160 million data centre investment in Johannesburg, which, the company points out, augments its current footprint on the African continent in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The new data centre is expected to open mid-2024.

Operator MTN South Africa and pan-African infrastructure services company MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with the 2Africa consortium, has announced the landing of the 45,000km 2Africa cable in coastal sites Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, South Africa.

Smartphone shipments in Latin America and the Caribbean dropped 13% year-on-year in Q3 2022, with the decline attributed to slowing consumer demand, resulting in declines and stagnation for most top brands. 

Technology services company NTT India has, according to a number of reports in Indian media outlets, earmarked around US$2 billion to boost information and communications technology infrastructure in the country over the next four years. That’s an annual investment of USD 500 million in India.

Helios Towers closed the acquisition of 2,519 passive infrastructure sites from Omantel for US$495 million, its first in the Middle East as part of wider plans to expand in the region. 

Zambia’s fourth mobile player Beeline Telecom is planning to launch commercial LTE within the first month of 2023, according to regulator ZICTA (Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority).

Operator MTN Guinea has launched the pilot phase of its 4G mobile network. The company’s initial aim is to deploy 36 sites in the greater Conakry area, allowing it to serve a potential 13% of the population.

Uruguayan operator Dedicado has chosen Nokia to supply its 5G Non-Standalone (5G NSA) network.

Over 8 million unregistered SIM cards have been deactivated in Ghana since the country began a nationwide drive for SIM registration in October 2021.

Indian telecoms minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has confirmed that state operator BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) plans to upgrade its 4G technology stack to 5G within five to seven months.

In a statement to shareholders, Brazil’s Oi has confirmed that it has agreed to sell some of its tower infrastructure to NK 108 Empreendimentos e Participacoes (NK 108) for BRL1.697 billion (USD324.6 million).

This week saw the announcement of what Somalian regulator the National Communications Authority (NCA) calls an important milestone: an interconnection agreement with Somali telecommunication companies that will allow customers of the various operators in the country to call each other seamlessly across different networks.

MTN South Africa has selected the ASSET 5G planning solution from TEOCO, a provider of analytics, assurance and optimization solutions to over 300 communication service providers (CSPs) worldwide, to deliver 5G services to its 34.5 million subscribers.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), a leading data centre provider, has announced the structural completion of its first data centre facility in Indonesia – STT Jakarta 1.

The Israeli government appears to be keen to encourage operators to make plans for the next 5G spectrum auction with a call for smart city-focused rollout.

Kyrgyzstan’s state-owned MegaCom has rebranded as MEGA.

The near-decade long legal dispute between Turkcell and South Africa’s MTN about shares in an Iranian operator may not be over yet.

Ericsson announced it will operate a key global research site in Brazil in collaboration with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Sao Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP), a move to advance research in cloud computing and AI automated networks by 2030 in Latin America.

It looks like Indian operator Vodafone Idea’s plans to pay at least some of its outstanding debts may have run into trouble.

Smart cities are back in the news in Dubai, where du, part of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, has joined forces with Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) and Derq, a leading provider of AI analytics solutions for road safety and connected vehicles.

OneWeb, a global communications network powered by a constellation of 648 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, has announced the signing of a distribution partnership with Paratus Group, the pan-African telecommunications company.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel and social technology giant Meta Platforms say they plan to jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure and CPaaS-based new-age digital solutions to support the emerging requirements of customers and enterprises in India.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Telecommunications Commission (TCTC) has successfully completed its Emergency Preparedness Agreement (EPA) between the Islands' network operators, Digicel and Flow.