The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technologies, has announced that the next Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27) will take place in Shanghai, China, from 11 October to 12 November 2027.

A UNDP report, published this week, warns that unmanaged artificial intelligence (AI) could reverse the trend of narrowing development inequalities that has marked much of the last half-century.

Madagascar’s Ministry of Digital Development has confirmed that the country’s operators will cut internet tariffs from this week, following talks aimed at boosting digital access, as reported by TechAfrica News.

Hytera, a leading provider of critical communications technologies and solutions, and operator Vodafone Qatar have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) targeting some of the specific needs of Qatar's key industries.

Zimbabwe plans to introduce what it calls a 15% Digital Services Withholding Tax from January 2026. The new levy will apply to a wide range of services supplied by foreign companies with no physical presence in Zimbabwe.

Ukraine will develop a national large language model (LLM) based on Google’s Gemma, with operator Kyivstar acting as strategic partner and operational lead alongside the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agreed on a roadmap to bring connectivity to everyone around the world as the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25) closed last week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa Ethiopia announced on Monday it has launched a new mobile money platform on Monday called M-Pesa LeHulum that works with any SIM card, effectively opening M-Pesa up to anyone regardless of what mobile network they use.

TrueBusiness – the enterprise arm of Thai telco True Corp – announced on Monday it has launched “True AI Hub”, an AI platform that provides organisations with access to over 50 AI models from more than 10 AI platform providers.

Papua New Guinea telco Digicel PNG and local microbank MiBank announced on Friday they have formed a new strategic partnership that enables two-way transfers between MiBank accounts and Digicel’s mobile money service CellMoni.

Gabon has introduced a new platform. Called Kimba, its aim is to drive demand and supply matching in digital services.

Hatif Libya, a subsidiary of the state-owned Libyan Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology Holding Company (LPTIC), has announced the gradual shutdown of traditional telecommunication exchanges.

India has announced that, in future, all mobile phones will need to be preloaded with a government app called Sanchar Saathi (meaning Communication Companion) to ensure cybersafety.

TIM will roll out a 5G network at Brazil’s Estacao Comandante Ferraz in Antarctica, using Nokia radio equipment and satellite backhaul supplied through a combination of Starlink’s LEO constellation and Hispasat’s GEO satellites.

Airtel Madagascar and Nokia have launched the first fully off-grid Rural Connect sites in the country, marking a major milestone in extending mobile connectivity to underserved communities.

Paratus Botswana said on Friday it has updated its uncapped fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages and pricing in response to growing market demand for faster speeds at lower prices with shorter or no contractual commitments.

Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar announced the commercial release of network APIs standardised under the GSMA Open Gateway initiative that enable identity verification tools to combat digital fraud in Qatar.

Axian Group says it has formed a strategic collaboration agreement with Mastercard to launch digital payment solutions in the five African markets where Axian operates mobile networks: Madagascar, Comoros Islands, Senegal, Togo, and Tanzania.

Viettel’s Cambodian subsidiary Metfone has reportedly signed a cooperation agreement with Cisco to distribute and deploy its ICT solutions to local enterprises as part of Metfone’s strategy to shift from traditional telco to tech solutions provider.

A partnership agreement has been announced between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies, and Senegalese regulator ARTP. The aim of this agreement is to support young women in digital development.

Vodafone Idea Telecom Infrastructure has scaled back the size of its planned bond issuance, with the company now expected to raise around INR32 billion (US$359 million) instead of the previously targeted INR50 billion, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Iraqi telco Asiacell announced a slew of AI-related partnerships at this week’s MWC Doha 2025 event with Google Cloud, Cisco, Enea, Evam and Druid AI, most of which are aimed at improving the customer experience.

MTN Digital infrastructure – a.k.a. Bayobab – says its South Sudan subsidiary, Bayobab Infra Solutions, has been awarded a license from the country’s National Communications Authority to construct, install, and operate fibre networks.

Vodacom Tanzania launched a global payments service for its M-Pesa mobile money platform on Thursday that enables Tanzanian customers and merchants to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments while traveling and doing business abroad.

Beyon Connect, part of Bahrain-headquartered technology company Beyon Group, the Ivorian postal service La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire, and Post Connect, an Egyptian company specialised in technical solutions for electronic trust services, have signed a memorandum of understanding.

It is – as so often these days – a busy time for finance initiatives targeting developing regions. Indeed, two recent announcements relevant to such regions involve pan-African operator MTN.

Pakistan has expanded its international connectivity after landing the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable system, adding a major new high-capacity route linking the country to markets between Singapore and France.

South African operator Vodacom and Remgro, a diversified investment holding company, have announced that regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved Vodacom’s acquisition of a minority stake in Vumatel’s parent company. The transaction will be implemented on 1 December.

One Hungary will serve Direct One’s satellite TV subscribers from December following regulatory clearance for the acquisition of the platform’s Hungarian customer base.

Orange Morocco has opened a new 1.5MW data centre in Casablanca, expanding the operator’s local hosting and cloud capacity as the country pushes ahead with its Maroc Digital 2030 agenda.

5G subscriptions across the Asia–Pacific region are expected to reach 4.6 billion by 2030, up from 2.7 billion in 2025, according to GlobalData.

Telkomsat, Indonesia’s leading satellite service provider, has formally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australia-headquartered satellite IoT company Myriota, to bring its connectivity and solutions platform to the country.