Malaysia’s 5G agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) hit back after new Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim accused the single wholesale 5G strategy  process of not being transparent.

Algeria’s state-backed operators Algerie Telecom (AT) and Djezzy have signed a new partnership agreement focused on boosting quality of service (QoS).

Airtel Africa signed a new US$194 million facility with World Bank sister organisation the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a move to upgrade operations across its footprint in Africa.

Pan-African operator Airtel has announced that it has partnered with child-welfare-focused NGO UNICEF under UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative and will be connecting 620 primary schools in Nigeria to digital learning in the coming three months.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has confirmed to the country’s government that it is preparing for the implementation of commercial 5G services in 2023.

JLG, the real estate and infrastructure arm and wholly owned subsidiary of Johor Corporation (JCorp), described as the principal development institution that drives the growth of the Johor state economy, has signed a data centre-related memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mitsui & Co through its subsidiary Mitsui & Co (Malaysia).

Polish cable operator Vectra is facing fines of up to €10,000 per day for failing to meet regulatory conditions for its acquisition of rival Multimedia Polska.

New market entrant Africell Angola says it is launching mobile services in Benguela Province in the west of Angola, thus accomplishing the second phase of what it describes as its ambitious national roll-out strategy.

The long-running ordeal of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has come to a close, with a US judge issuing the order to dismiss all charges against the executive.

Kuwaiti operator group Zain pledged to invest US$800 million into its Sudanese unit over the next five years, with plans to deploy new and upgrade infrastructure to remain competitive in Sudan.

Cote d’Ivoire’s government is divesting a 9.95% stake in Orange’s local unit via a public offering, set to run between 5^th and 19^th December 2022.

AMD and Viettel High Tech – a member of Viettel Group – have completed a 5G mobile network field trial deployment conducted by Viettel and powered by AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices.

Optical fibre and satellite are driving two very different business models from Ekinops and World Mobile which could, potentially, boost African connectivity.

Allegations of impropriety by Turkish operator Turkcell and its subsidiary East Asian Consortium (EAC) against South African operator MTN over the award of the first private mobile telecommunications licence in Iran have been dismissed by the High Court of South Africa.

A report from ABI Research predicted revenues from 5G private networks and network slicing deployments, will surge private enterprise revenues from US$732 million and US$151 million in 2022, to over US$13 billion and US$12 billion respectively by 2028 in the Asia-Pacific.

Service provider Mauritius Telecom has revamped its Wi-Fi network by implementing Wi-Fi Service Management Platform (SMP) from technology solutions provider Alepo.

Fibre to the home and fibre to the business (FTTH/FTTB) are continuing to make inroads into African markets, as indicated by recent announcements from operator Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) and pan-African full service network company Paratus in Botswana.

Kazakhstan is putting two 1×100MHz blocks of 5G mobile spectrum up for sale, with bidding scheduled for 20^th December 2022.

Samsung says it is planning to hire around 1,000 engineers for its R&D institutes across India. These include Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore, Samsung R&D Institute Noida, Samsung R&D Institute Delhi and Samsung Semiconductor India Research, also in Bangalore.

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has made part of the C-Band spectrum available for 5G private networks. The spectrum will be made available in the 3.8 to 4.2GHz band.

Zambia is aiming for 100% national network coverage by the end of 2024 with the help of the country’s Universal Access and Services Fund and money raised from the sale of spectrum.

Indian IT services provider Tech Mahindra has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian telecoms conglomerate Axiata Berhad to co-develop 5G enterprise solutions across five Asian countries.

Sustainability is in the news again with initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region and Armenia garnering headlines in recent days.

Thai operator AIS abandoned a joint venture with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) to deliver digital banking services.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband provider Starlink has been licensed to operate in Haiti – and applied for a permit in Tanzania.

MegaFon Tajikistan (TT Mobile CJSC) has signed an exclusive partnership with Vox Solutions to help identify Application to Person (A2P) voice (Flash Call) traffic and combat fraudulent routing and illicit bypass attempts.

The Somali National Communications Authority (NCA) issued Hormuud Telecom with the country’s first spectrum licence closing its vetting processing which began earlier this year, a move to promote open markets, competition, and investment in the telecoms sector. 

It appears African operators no longer have the fintech market all to themselves. In fact NCBA Group, a Kenya-headquartered financial services conglomerate, recently announced that is planning to work with partners to bring its mobile phone banking service M-Shwari to Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).