South African operator Cell C is apparently in talks with its infrastructure partners to deploy 5G on a launch date yet to be disclosed. Cell C secured 10MHz in the 3500MHz band for ZAR288 million (about US$18.2 million) in March after South Africa’s long-awaited broadband spectrum auction finally took place.

Local press reports in Nigeria are full of dire warnings about online retail superbrand Amazon’s plans for growth and how it could affect home-grown online retail. According to recently unearthed documents the company is apparently set to roll out in Nigeria in April 2023.

Philippines-based operator PLDT stated it blocked over 23 million spam texts over the span of three days, which were attempts to access consumer personal data, reported Bloomberg.

Zimbabwe is the latest African country planning to set to launch its first satellite into orbit. Next month, or possibly in August, ZimSat-1, a nanosatellite, will be launched from the Japanese KIBO Module – Japan's science module for the International Space Station (ISS).

Payments business Cellulant Zambia has announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water and Western Water.

Axiata and Telenor have deferred the deadline for the proposed merger of their Malaysian units, Celcom and Digi.

There’s good news for telecommunications companies in, or serving, India with the announcement by the Department of Telecommunications of additions to the area of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme relevant to telecoms and networking.

The board of directors of Globe Telecom announced plans to raise PHP32 billion ($591m) through a stock rights offering, a move to fund its ongoing network deployment and remain competitive.

MTC has settled a longstanding dispute with the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) over a series of fees imposed by the regulator between March 2016 and June 2018.

Hungary’s Magyar Telekom has stated that its 3G network “will no longer be available anywhere from 1 July”, with phased shutdowns already in effect.

Uruguay’s communications watchdog URSEC, gave permission to Cable Montevideo, Tractoral, Korfield, Praimar and Riselco to sell broadband internet services.

Namibian operator MTC has called for the country’s government to end its ongoing moratorium on the deployment of 5G networks as it lays the foundation for its own fifth generation network.

Orange has launched 5G services in the French overseas territory of Réunion, reported Les Echos.

Is Kenya about to welcome its largest data centre to date? According to US-based cloud hosting company Cloudoon that may well be the case. The company has reportedly secured 6 billion Kenyan shillings (about $51.1 million) for the project.

Zain Group’s digital and ICT solutions unit ZainTech has partnered with LigaData to deliver cutting-edge, data-driven digital services to enterprise and government customers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Media Commerce, a telecoms operator in Colombia, says it has rolled out a new high-speed network using WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) coherent optical technology from networking systems, services and software company Ciena.

Indonesia-based investment company Sarana Menara Nusantara is reportedly considering the sale of its minority stake in tower company Protelindo, seeking as much as US$1 billion, reported Bloomberg.

South African data centre announcements are coming thick and fast. After yesterday’s news from Africa Data Centres comes another initiative, this time focused on edge services, from Open Access Data Centres (OADC), which says it plans to launch nine more edge locations in South Africa.

Togolese regulator ARCEP has issued a formal warning to Moov Africa Togo over its network outages.

South Africa will outright ban retailers from importing and selling 2G devices at the end of March next year as the country pushes to modernise its telecoms infrastructure.

Cloud infrastructure and fibre provider Lightstorm is on a mission to expand connectivity in South and Southeast Asia with its neutral network, as part of aspirations for growth for the India-based firm.

Team Telecom Armenia has secured funding worth US$45 million from three separate banks to help it deploy high speed internet across Armenia, enabling the country’s digital economy.

Ericsson and Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) have successfully demonstrated a 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) call over the operator’s 5G network.

Continuing its fast pace of growth, Africa Data Centres, which boasts Africa’s largest network of interconnected, carrier and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, has announced plans to build its second data centre in Cape Town.

Global payments technology company Mastercard and Ecobank Group, a leading independent pan-African banking group, are to partner to digitize agricultural value chains in Africa.

Hong Kong-based real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners has announced that the firm has completed the acquisition of greenfield land located in Saigon Hi-Tech Park for development into a carrier neutral Tier III Data Centre.

Pakistan’s digital economy received a boost this week with news of a major investment in the country’s e-commerce sector.

Mexico tapped into satellite technology to deliver ubiquitous coverage for its citizens, as part of a major scheme to connect those in extremely remote areas.

The government of Oman has formed a large capacity agreement with Australian submarine cable development firm Subco that will leverage Omantel’s subsea network to provide connectivity between the Sultanate and Europe.