SoftBank Vision Fund’s first investment in an African start-up has been announced – and it’s a big one for fintech company OPay.

MTN Ghana’s CEO Selorm Adavehoh has expressed his hope that the operator will be able to launch 5G services as early as next year.

Last month, we reported that Angolan operator Unitel was preparing to launch a mobile money offering. Now, Unitel Money has gone live.

SpaceX-owned Starlink satellite internet operator will probably start providing its services in the Czech Republic soon. It has already obtained regulatory approval.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), a regulatory body whose key role is the regulation of the communications and multimedia industry, is holding a public inquiry to review the Access List.

South Africa's Competition Commission has unconditionally approved the merger of ISPs Afrihost and Cool Ideas.

Brazilian Internet broadband services provider Vero SA has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM).

Vodafone Ukraine, the second-biggest mobile carrier in the Ukraine market, has announced plans to enter the fixed broadband market.

Ciena, a networking systems, services and software company, says it is working with Djibouti Telecom to increase digitisation in the East Africa region by deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme solution to upgrade one of Djibouti Telecom’s submarine cable systems.

AAC Clyde Space, which describes itself as a leading ‘New Space’ company, has founded AAC Space Africa, an entity which, it says, will capitalize on the rapidly growing market for satellites and space services in Africa.

Namibia’s market leader MTC (Mobile Telecommunications) has been cleared for a public listing by the main board of the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX).

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has outlined its plans for auctioning 1800MHz and 2100MHz spectrum in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan regions.

China United Network Communications Group (China Unicom) is considering a proposed spin-off and separate listing of China Unicom Smart Connection Technology Ltd in the mainland China stock exchange.

Russia's biggest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) reported a profit jump in the second quarter - its group net profit increased 46.5% to 17.2 billion roubles ($232 million).

Telefónica Global Solutions (TGS) partnered with Viasat to provide satellite communications services in Brazil.

Brazilian telecommunications company Embratel has announced plans to build 15 edge data centres in the country.

The government of Kyrgyzstan is reportedly evaluating a number of proposals for the sale of the state-owned mobile provider MegaCom, with the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan one of several potential buyers.

Brazil’s Minister of Communications Fabio Faria has indicated that the country’s delayed 5G spectrum auctions will finally take place in October this year.

SES, the provider of global content connectivity solutions, granted Gilat Satellite Networks a multi-million-dollar contract for multiple broadband applications in Latin America.

American telecommunications software company Mavenir announced to have been selected by the Romanian telecommunications company Telekom Romania Mobile Communications to deploy a cloud-native IMS (vIMS) platform together with VoLTE and VoWi-Fi microservices.

ZTE Corporation together with the Hangzhou Branch of China Telecom has conducted 300MHz 5G QCell verification in Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center.

Uganda's Smart Telecom (Suretelecom Uganda Limited) announced its decision to end operations in the country on August 31, said local media.

A new industry association focused on accelerating Industry 4.0 transformation in India has been announced.

African vendor-neutral data centre and interconnection services provider Teraco Data Environments Proprietary Limited says it has completed the JB3 data centre facility, which is sited on the Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

Vodafone Ukraine, the second-largest mobile operator in Ukraine, is all set to acquire a stake of over 50% in Farlep-Invest, which runs Vega Telecommunications.

Brazilian Internet Service Provider (ISP) Desktop Sigmanet (Sigmanet Comunicação Multimídia SA) has acquired Net Barretos, a small-scale broadband provider that serves the interior of Sao Paulo.

Serbia Broadband (SBB) said that it would begin free digitalization of the Serbian cities of Kraljevo and Vrsac in September by extending its ‘GIGA’-branded fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network.

Partner Communications Company, formerly Orange Israel, has reported a 9% year-on-year increase in total turnover for the three months ended 30 June 2021, with the company seeing increases in both service and equipment revenues.

The Indian government is apparently gearing up to address the role of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites in the country – but whether this will mean a favourable regulatory system is as yet unclear.

Targeting in particular the 1.7 billion consumers that it says have joined the world’s middle class in the past decade, most of them in emerging markets, fintech Boku has launched M1ST (Mobile First), which it calls the world’s largest mobile payments network.

The Cuban Ministry of Communications (Mincom) has officially implemented several new laws concerning the country’s telecoms sector.