Satellite communications company ST Engineering iDirect has announced a strategic partnership with Solutions by STC, an enabler of digital transformation in Saudi Arabia and the region and part of the massive ICT services company STC Group, to deliver advanced satellite communication services across Saudi Arabia.

Orange Egypt and Huawei have partnered to deploy 5G technology to provide advanced connectivity solutions to consumers and businesses in Egypt.

Global payments network MoneyGram has announced a partnership with tiqmo, a smart payment company and financial app in Saudi Arabia. Through this partnership, tiqmo users across Saudi Arabia can now send international money transfers to over 200 countries and territories via the global MoneyGram network.

Ericsson says it has signed a strategic partnership deal with Orange Maroc to modernize and expand its core network infrastructure to support a planned rollout of standalone 5G in Morocco later this year.

Eutelsat Group and Orange have signed a deal that enables Orange leverage the Eutelsat OneWeb constellation to offer LEO satellite connectivity services to its enterprise and government customers worldwide, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.

After procuring a US$80m loan to cover the cost of its 5G licence, Orange Egypt has now officially launched 5G services in the market.

Iraqi telco Asiacell says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Mobile International (CMI) to collaborate on delivering telecoms and digital solutions for B2B and enterprise services in Iraq.

Qatar regulator the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has announced that it has opened access to more than 4,860 kilometres of government telecom duct infrastructure across Qatar.

The SAMENA Telecommunications Council and the World Broadband Association (WBBA) said on Monday they have signed a MoU to collaborate on advancing broadband access across the South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa region and beyond.

Nokia announced on Monday it has signed a deal with Vodafone Qatar to lead a nationwide network modernisation project to drive expanded 5G coverage, reliability and services for consumers and businesses.

Orange Egypt has secured a syndicated loan worth over US$80 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banque Misr to help cover the cost of its recently acquired 5G mobile licence.

Zain Omantel International (ZOI), a Middle Eastern regional wholesale business with access to more than 20 international submarine cables in the region, has announced a partnership that will enable it to create a digital telecommunications corridor stretching from the Middle East to Europe through Iraq.

Algeria Telecom has reportedly kicked off an online survey asking Algerians to identify areas that are not yet connected by fibre in preparation for planned FTTH rollouts next year.

Operators Maroc Telecom and Inwi have asked Morocco’s telecom regulator to approve a shared infrastructure plan first proposed earlier this year.

Turkish technology and communications company Turkcell has secured US$150 million in Murabaha financing from Dubai Islamic Bank, a prominent bank in the Gulf region.

The African smartphone market recorded its eighth consecutive quarter of growth, with shipments rising 6% year-on-year in Q1 2025 to reach 19.4 million units.

Japanese Open RAN solutions provider Rakuten Symphony said on Monday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Zain Kuwait to collaborate on a pilot project to deploy cloud-native 5G Open RAN sites in Kuwait.

e& UAE announced on Tuesday it has launched what it claims is the first commercial 5G network slicing product in the MENA region for business customers on its standalone 5G network.

Underlining the continuing diversification of space-based telecoms, satellite communications company Viasat has made two very different announcements in recent days – one involving satellite communications for buses and the other for private jets.

UAE-based satellite firm Space42 said on Monday that its high altitude platform stations (HAPS) subsidiary Mira Aerospace has opened a HAPS manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi, making it the first such facility in the MENA region.

UAE-based tech group G42 will lead a consortium of US companies to build a new 5GW AI data centre campus in Abu Dhabi as part of an agreement by the US and UAE governments to build and invest in AI infrastructure in the UAE and globally.

Saudi Arabia-based Arabsat and Canada-based satellite operator Telesat announced on Wednesday they have signed a term sheet under which Arabsat will lease multi-gigabit capacity from Telesat’s planned Lightspeed LEO satellite constellation.

Nokia announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabian telco stc group has successfully completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for network slicing over a GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) infrastructure using its Altiplano Access Controller.

UAE-based telco du has launched a GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offering to enable enterprises and government entities to access the necessary compute power to adopt AI more cost-effectively.

UAE-based satellite firm Space42 announced on Wednesday that its mobile satellite services (MSS) subsidiary Thuraya is collaborating with Danish software company Gatehouse Satcom to demonstrate the commercial viability of Thuraya’s upcoming direct-to-device (D2D) satellite IoT service.

Operator Orange Tunisie has announced the inauguration of a new data centre in Sousse in the central-east part of Tunisia. This latest-generation data centre is described as part of the country's digital transformation and, Orange Tunisie says, has been designed to meet the highest standards of performance, security and resilience.

UAE-based telco du says has officially set a new Guinness World Record for the "longest promotional livestream” with TikTok Live MENA, in which a single smartphone livestreamed across the country’s seven emirates for 48 hours straight over du’s 5G network.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to embed its cloud technology within Orange’s mobile networks in Morocco and Senegal this year, aiming to significantly improve connectivity speed and reduce latency.

Zain Iraq says it has signed a strategic MoU with Krafton Europe – the global games company behind hit titles such as PUBG: Battlegrounds – to develop Iraq’s growing gaming and esports sector and improve the player experience.

Digital infrastructure company Khazna Data Centres, part of UAE-based artificial intelligence-focused technology group G42, has announced plans to build an AI-capable data centre in Turkey, with a potential capacity of up to 100MW, after securing a site in Başkent Organized Industrial Zone in Ankara.

Ericsson said on Tuesday it is partnering with Ooredoo Qatar to modernize its charging system with a cloud-native solution to help the telco more flexibly monetise its  5G standalone (5G SA) network.

UAE-based telco du says it has joined the FreeMove Alliance between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telia, and TIM, which expands the reach of the alliance’s global mobile connectivity solutions for multinational corporations (MNCs) into the Middle East.

Egyptian fintech company Fawry has partnered with global communications platform Truecaller, which calls itself the world’s best caller ID and spam blocking app, to provide its customers with a more secure, transparent, and seamless calling experience.