This week has seen the launch of a government-supported innovation to attract investors to Cameroon – in the form of SME-centric apps.

Two telecommunications satellites – one Indian and one Malaysian – have been successfully placed into geostationary orbit by the Ariane 5 launcher, operated by satellite launch company Arianespace.

Approved Apple repair centres in Russia are reportedly struggling to find legit parts to carry out repairs for devices after the nation was sanctioned by a raft of nations after beginning the invasion of Ukraine.

Vodafone Romania CEO Achilleas Kanaris stated the company’s parent has no plans to exit the market as a repositioning of the unit is commencing.

Is Kenya aiming to encourage an end to roaming charges in Africa? If reports from the local press are true, the country’s ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru may be hoping to pursue this course.

Axiata Group and its Indonesian arm XL bought a 66.03% stake in broadband and TV provider Link Net for IDR8.7 trillion (US$114 million), a move to leverage the company’s expertise to penetrate the underserved areas.

As the late July date for India’s 5G auctions approaches, operators will have to think carefully about where the money is coming from for the additional spectrum. However, it looks like Vodafone Idea (Vi) is already positioning itself financially, both to bid and to invest in its network, through a planned equity deal and a delay to AGR dues, among other plans.

Ukrtelecom deleted software to prevent Russia from taking control of Ukraine’s internet and phone services, its chief executive officer Yuriy Kurmaz told Bloomberg.

Infrastructure manufacturer Ericsson predicted 5G will account for 40% of all connections in India by 2027 despite operators not launching commercial services yet in the South Asian country.

State-owned operator Copaco announced a cash injection of US$10 million this year to expand mobile coverage and its fibre optics network in Paraguay.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has refused to sign a controversial ICT Practitioners Bill into law.

The debt issues surrounding South African operator cell C are no closer to resolution, although the debtors’ meeting that we reported had been postponed has now been rescheduled.

PLDT mobile arm Smart Communications is throwing its weight behind an attempt to revitalise SIM registrations in the Philippines, despite the proposed law being vetoed by Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.

There’s been some good news for telecoms giant Ericsson after four of its former executives were acquitted in Sweden early this week on charges of bribing high-ranking Djibouti officials.

Elisa Estonia has confirmed the launch for fixed wireless access 5G services over its recently obtained 3.5GHz spectrum.

Etisalat UAE, the telecoms pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), has announced the successful deployment and testing of mobile network slicing through 5G in collaboration with Huawei.

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.