The World Bank's private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has announced plans to invest in Safaricom Ethiopia.

Malaysia-based Axiata Group’s tower unit edotco was reportedly considering the sale of shares to raise US$600 million to support growth plans across the Asia Pacific, reported Bloomberg.

BICS, an international connectivity enabler, and satellite-direct-to-phone telecoms company Lynk Global, have signed an agreement to enable mobile network operators (MNOs) to expand mobile coverage to people in remote areas around the world.

Nigeria has, for now, held off on plans to impose a 5% tax on telecommunications services that the Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian Customs Service had suggested would be imposed in 2023.

Safaricom expanded its network pilot to the Oromia region, as the operator continues plans to deploy its commercial network in stages with the aim of connecting 25 locations by April next year.

Uzbekistan’s state-owned mobile provider Mobiuz has begun offering 5G services in areas of Tashkent.

Investor 3i Infrastructure has completed a $512 million investment to acquire a 100% stake in Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a leading global data communications service provider and owner of the world’s largest private subsea fibre optic networks.

Leading IT infrastructure and services company NTT says it has expanded its hyperscaler footprint in Malaysia with its sixth data centre facility.

Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) has ordered the country’s mobile operators to temporarily block calls and data services for unregistered SIM cards as part of its registration drive.

South Africa’s Communications Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has announced plans to shut down South Africa’s 2G and 3G networks by 2025. The proposal has now been published for public comment.

A war of words appears to have broken out in Burundi following the decision by the authorities to close operator Smart.

Ooredoo reportedly prepared to sell its Myanmar unit to Singapore-based telecoms infrastructure company The One Matrix Ventures (TOMV).

The Indian government has apparently released the first tranche of the recently announced Rs1.64 lakh crore (over US$20 billion) revival package it has agreed to give the state-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Two of the biggest players in the cloud space, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google, are planning to enhance their presence in South Africa.

Smartphone shipments for Latin America declined 2.5% year-on-year to 32.2 million units in Q2 but proved to be a bright spot as the global smartphone market collectively dropped 9%.

African payments technology company Flutterwave says it has been granted a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This license allows Flutterwave to offer a wide range of services to a diverse selection of customers.

The Malaysian government said it is working to get all operators to buy shares in its 5G Agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) this month, after Maxis and U Mobile reportedly declined the offer earlier this week, reported Reuters.

As data demand increases across the world, there’s more pressure to ensure that telecoms infrastructure is able to deal with it  – as shown by recent announcements involving fibre and submarine cables in Bangladesh.

ZTE’s H1 results for 2022 painted a rosy picture, with the Chinese vendor’s operating revenue up 12.7% year-on-year alongside a 12% increase to its net profit.

Vodacom launched its non-standalone commercial 5G network in Tanzania, delivering higher download speeds and enabling new technologies such as IoT in the country.

Philippines-based Converge ICT Solutions is reportedly mulling the sale of its shares in its infrastructure platform, a move to potentially raise US$1 billion in capital for investment across its business.

MTN Sudan has deployed LigaData’s data analytics and AI platform to accelerate its digital transformation strategy.

The Asia-Pacific tower-selling trend may be about to continue with widely reported news that PT Indosat (aka Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison), one of Indonesia's largest telecommunication networks and services providers with around 63 million cellular subscribers, is planning to sell some of its passive infrastructure.

MTN Nigeria has signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Tecnotree, a major player in the business support system (BSS) space, for the deployment of 5G-ready digital BSS solutions.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the loss-making state-owned telecom firm that provides fixed line telephones, WLL services and mobile connectivity in the cities of New Delhi and Mumbai, has defaulted on an interest payment of Rs35.15 (about US$4.4  million crore) to Union Bank of India (UBI) – and has stated this fact in a regulatory filing.

Lebanon has seen nationwide internet shutdowns as employees of state-owned telco Ogero walked out in protest over the company’s failure to adjust their wages in the face of the country’s devastating economic crisis.

Argentina’s sell-off of unused 4G spectrum in the 2600MHz band has raised US$27.7 million for the country’s National Communications Agency ENACOM (Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones).

Mexican operator Telmex offered union workers a new deal that bolsters retirement packages in an attempt to smooth relations with striking workers.

Equatorial Guinea could see its internet services disconnected in as little as two weeks if it fails to make outstanding payments to its bandwidth providers.

Lithuania’s Communications Regulatory Authority (RRT) has concluded the 700MHz spectrum auction that commenced in May.

The private network concept isn’t waiting for 5G, as Nokia and AT&T Mexico have just shown by deploying what they call the first industrial-grade LTE private network in a maritime terminal in the country.

Palestine Cellular Communications Ltd (Jawwal), a leading Palestinian provider of cellular communications, has signed an exclusive interworking agreement with international voice and messaging specialist Vox Solutions for direct termination of A2P (application-to-person) SMS international traffic to Jawwal's network.