The African Union and the European Union have announce plans to step up digital cooperation for sustainable development in Africa following the first Africa-Europe Digital for Development (D4D) Hub Multi-Stakeholder Forum, which took place virtually on 18 March 2022, under the theme Digital Transformation for Sustainable Development in Africa.

TIM Brasil has claimed that it is the first operator in Latin American to launch Core 5G standalone (SA), meeting the requirements of regulator Anatel and allowing it to offer networks and services using the 3.5GHz spectrum.

The Indian government is reportedly going ahead this month with the planned merger of government-owned broadband infrastructure provider Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd (BBNL) with the loss-making state-run operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

Algeria is in the process of clearing and optimising radio frequencies to be used for 5G as it prepares for a widespread launch of the technology “soon”, according to Telecoms Minister Karim Bibi Triki.

Safaricom is considering spinning off its M-Pesa mobile money division into a full subsidiary, in what seems to be a push to align with more traditional banking institutions. 

Thai operators True Corp and dtac have pushed ahead with their proposed merger and highlighted next month they will seek to overcome their next major hurdle in gaining shareholder approval. 

Bahrain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Beyon Connect, the digital services provider for the public and private sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, have signed an MoU that will see the former adopt an innovative digital identity and digital postbox solutions and services delivered by Beyon Connect.

Philippine telecommunications company PLDT Home said that its revenue jumped 82% to PHP 33 billion (USD 630 million) driven by 1.13 million new fibre subscribers in 2021, despite COVID-19 lockdowns and natural disasters.

ZTE Corporation together with China Mobile launched an integrated CampSite solution in Hunan Province, China.

US-based digital infrastructure company Equinix will expand into Chile and Peru through its acquisition of four data centres from Entel for US$705 million.

Fixed broadband providers in Ukraine are continuing to connect bomb shelters with fixed internet and Wi-Fi capabilities to keep citizens connected during the ongoing war in the nation.

Citing next generation telecommunications business opportunities as a driver, Straits CommNet Solutions has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysian telecommunications infrastructure company Edgepoint Towers.

MTN and Airtel were one of many fintech companies to have been given permits by the Ugandan government to operate financial services in the country.

Could established brands be keen customers for a white-label, fully-customizable solution that would turn them into telecom carriers? OXIO, the first telecom-as-a-service platform for brands and enterprises, is hoping so after it raised $40 million in Series B funding. Among the markets it is targeting is Latin America.

Africa’s largest telecom group MTN SA has announced a further investment of $46.4-million (ZAR 700-million) in order to modernise existing, and deploy new, network infrastructure across the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province in South Africa.

The Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) smart home devices market saw its value increase 21.6% year on year in value last year as the market's value reached $9.5 billion in 2021, said a study.

Bite Lithuania (Bitė Lietuva), a telecommunications and media group in the Baltic region, has announced the commercial launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology, providing customers with improved voice quality and faster call connectivity.

Hard on the heels of its announcement that it intends to sell off its data centre business, Chilean operator Entel is back in the news with plans to sell its fibre optic network – for which expressions of interest have already apparently been received from third parties.

For indoor DAS coverage, RF-over-fibre offers an excellent solution, due to abundant fibre resource in modern buildings.

Huawei has kept its place as the number one shipping equipment vendor on the back of high domestic operator demand, despite losing ground due to sanctions.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed over 35 million Nigerians have not taken up telecommunications services, pointing the blame to lacklustre infrastructure in the country.

United Arab Emirates-based operator group Etisalat (e&) has made an offer to increase its stake in Saudi Arabia’s Etihad (Mobily) in a deal that could be valued at up to US$2.12 billion.  

Georgia’s telecom sector has been attempting for many years to overcome the decades of under-investment in its fixed-line infrastructure during the Soviet era. Concerted efforts to privatise state-owned enterprises and open up the telecom market have been mostly successful, with a large number of operators now competing in both the fixed-line and the mobile segments.

Fuelled by the rapid adoption of digital infrastructure amid the pandemic, rising digital usage, cloud consumption, and ensuing 5G rollout, India's data centre industry is poised for a boom.

The Chilean Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MTT) has confirmed that it has completed the deployment of its 247 kilometres long Southern Fibre Optic (Fibra Optica Austral, FOA) rollout, delivering connectivity to more than 536,000 users in 15 districts of the southern zone of Chile.

South African mobile communications company Vodacom Group said that it invested over ZAR 1 billion (USD 70 million) in the last financial year to enable connectivity for rural and urban communities in the Western Cape.

Hispasat, the Spanish operator and satellite solutions and services provider, has been involved in two very different deals recently, covering education and OTT video.