Cloud-related deals have been in the news recently – notably in the form of two major announcements affecting Thailand and the MEA region.

The State Bank of Pakistan approved MCB Bank to perform due diligence to acquire a majority stake in Telenor's financial operations in Pakistan.

Open RAN firm Parallel Wireless is collaborating with Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks on a multivendor Open RAN initiative to deliver state-of-the-art broadband communications.

Vietnam announced it will begin researching and developing 6G technology this year with ambitions to become a global leader in the digital world, earmarking cloud computing and digital platforms as beneficiaries to the future standard.

Fast Telecommunication (Fasttelco), an internet service provider (ISP) in Kuwait, has announced the launch of new fibre-optic internet speeds of 200 Mbps within its fibre residential areas in the country.

Cellcom, Israel’s largest cellular provider, and the compatriot telecommunications equipment supplier Novlesat aim to collaborate on a pilot of real-time video content distribution on 5G network infrastructure.

PT XL Axiata, an Indonesia-based mobile telecommunications services operator, said that the total number of base transceiver stations (BTS) on air reached more than 162,282, with 4G BTS increasing to 77,204, as LTE coverage increased to 458 cities/municipalities in the country.

An uplifting recent story of African entrepreneurial success comes from South Africa where Lipa Payments, a local fintech start-up, has secured a R10 million (just under US$660,000) investment from Empowerment Capital’s Imvelo Ventures, which is backed by Capitec Bank.

It appears that Syria has finally awarded the third mobile telecommunications licence it has been promising to deliver for over ten years.

Rival Indian service providers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have made major announcements relating to their undersea cable interests.

South African regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) revealed it has accepted six bidders for its spectrum auction next month.

Makedonski Telekom claimed to beat rivals to the punch by launching the first commercial 5G network in North Macedonia.

Two of Somaliland’s operators, Somtel and Telesom, have agreed to enable interconnecting calls between their networks.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is scrapping its widely criticised device registration tax (Registre des Appareils Mobiles / RAM) from 1^st March.

China Mobile joined hands with Huawei in building an optical network to connect the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area. Huawei says that it is “the world’s largest green all-optical switching hub network”.

Philippines fibre broadband company Converge ICT has launched a new web portal and new app, both working in tandem as a one-stop shop for new and existing customers for application, payment, and other customer services.

Turkcell announced revenues grew  23.4% to TRY35.92 billion (USD2.64 billion) in full-year 2021 results which were supported by ‘upsell efforts, price adjustments, and subscriber growth as well as the contribution of the fintech business, international operations, and equipment sales’.

Ukraine’s Lifecell has launched VoLTE services that it plans to expand “in stages”.

The respective boards of True Corp and dtac have approved a proposed merger of the companies’ Thai mobile operators, leaving the market with just two major players.

Airtel Kenya has reportedly resolved a seven-year dispute with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) over its operating licence in an out of court settlement.

Pakistan’s largest bank network HBL is adopting Temenos’ core banking platform to improve the user experience of its domestic and international operations.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the mobile subscribers count in the country fell by a staggering 12.8 million in December 2021 compared to the previous month.

Following the intense competition, China’s smartphone shipments dropped 11% YoY in Q4 2021 with Apple ending on top and reaching its highest market share ever.

South African mobile communications company Vodacom Group announced that it has invested over ZAR 450 million (USD 30 million) into the network and power backup upgrades across the Mpumalanga, a province in eastern South Africa, during the current financial year (1 March 2021 to end February 2022). 

Iran has announced an ambitious project to connect over 20 million homes and businesses to the high-speed fixed fibre network in the country.

PAIX Data Centres, a Pan-African provider of cloud-and carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, has announced the first stage of a major investment that will be used to fund the company’s data centre capacity expansion and growth plans into new African data centre markets.

The role of entertainment content in offering new revenue streams for mobile operators has again been underlined after recent deals involving Indian giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel and content suppliers.

Telia Lithuania will begin switching off 3G networks from next month as the operator aims to shut down the network entirely by Christmas this year to satisfy rising customer data demands.

Samsung will pump $920 million to upgrade a production factory in North Vietnam, as the South Korean giant bolsters its smartphone manufacturing capabilities.