Orange Group has once again praised its Middle East and Africa (MEA) division for driving revenue growth in the first quarter of 2025, marking the unit’s eighth consecutive quarter of expansion amid ongoing global economic turbulence.

UAE operator Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) has announced a major hyperscale data centre deal with Microsoft.

UAE-based Khazna Data Centers said it has broken ground on two new facilities in the UAE as it looks to expand its data centre footprint and meet demand for AI workloads.

Nokia and Saudi Arabian neutral tower provider Tawal announced on Tuesday they have completed a live demo of a shareable multi-tenant, Open RAN edge cloud platform that could enable operators to share 5G infrastructure more cheaply.

Service provider MTN has officially concluded its operations in Afghanistan, transferring its stake to the Beirut-based M1 Group. The company will now operate under the brand name ATOMA.

Canalys has predicted that Egypt’s smartphone market could stabilise following the enforcement of new regulations aimed at curbing its long-standing grey market, which led to a sharp drop in shipments at the start of the year.

Pan-African operator Orange says it has launched the first-ever 'My Customer, My Boss' initiative simultaneously in its 17 subsidiaries in Middle East and Africa.

Private 5G networks may not be storming the market yet, but there is undoubtedly steady growth. In fact this week has seen the news that Bahrain operator Batelco by Beyon and tech giant Nokia have joined forces to deploy Bahrain’s first 5G private network.

The Moroccan government has signed separate MoUs with Nokia and Ericsson to accelerate its Digital Morocco 2030 plan, with both vendors agreeing to contribute to digital talent development among other things.

Cloud services giant Amazon Web Services (AWS), has announced a collaboration with Manara, a social impact startup dedicated to unlocking the untapped potential of top technology talent in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), including women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Operator e& UAE has announced the launch of its autonomous drone-based cell tower inspection, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), calling it a major leap in telecom infrastructure management and operational safety.

Carbon neutrality has long been a priority for telcos, and despite the surge in AI innovation sweeping through the mobile industry, sustainability remains firmly on the agenda.

Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) says that Sultan Haitham bin Tarik has issued a decree approving a Category 1 telecoms license to Omani Space Communications Technologies (OmanSat) to provide fixed communications services.

Orange Jordan announced on Wednesday it has become the first telco in the country to offer satellite broadband services for consumers and enterprises via the Eutelsat Konnect satellite.

e& UAE said on Monday it has kicked off tests to utilise the 6-GHz and 600-MHz spectrum bands for 5G services, with both bands promising to significantly boost data speeds and extend 5G’s coverage range.

Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia's new premium international airline, has selected satellite communications company Viasat to provide full, fast, free in-flight connectivity for all Riyadh Air loyalty members on initial Boeing 787 Dreamliner factory-installed deliveries.

Tunisie Telecom and Ericsson announced on Friday that the operator has commenced offering NSA (non-standalone) 5G services that partly leverage TDD spectrum to deliver multi-gigabit speeds to customers.

Moroccan operators Maroc Telecom and Inwi have announced the signing of what is described as an expanded partnership agreement aimed at accelerating the deployment of fibre optic and 5G technologies across Morocco.

Oman’s telecoms regulator has approved Starlink to provide broadband internet services across the country using its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.

Satellite-direct-to-device (D2D) provider, Lynk Global has had a busy week with the announcement of successful tests of its service in Turkey followed by further positive news – this time in South Africa.

Zoho, an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools, says it has teamed up with online B2B enterprise marketplace Loita Business, part of the pan-African Loita Group, to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

ACES, a leading Saudi Arabian neutral host operator which provides in-building solutions, Wi-Fi-DAS, fibre optics, data centres and managed services, has announced a collaboration in a strategic open RAN partnership with RANsemi, a British wireless semiconductor innovator specialising in 5G open RAN baseband technologies.

Smarter trade is a continuing aim of digitisation efforts by industries across the world, as shown by two recent deals involving natural gas supply and port management led by companies in the Middle East.

TIM Group's global operator Sparkle and Al-Bawaba for Telecommunications and Informatics, a Libyan ISP provider offering a wide range of ICT solutions, say they have enhanced their commercial partnership to provide international connectivity services to and from Libya.

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement has announced an agreement with Microsoft and Core42, a G42 company specialising in sovereign cloud, AI infrastructure and digital services. G42 is an artificial intelligence development company based in Abu Dhabi.

Qatar-based Ooredoo Group announced on Sunday it has signed a landing party agreement with Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC) to land Ooredoo’s planned Fibre in Gulf (FIG) subsea cable in Iraq.

Operator Ooredoo Qatar and tech giant Ericsson have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate digital transformation for enterprises and public sector organisations in Qatar.

The PEACE subsea cable cut in the Red Sea, reported by a number of news outlets early last week, could be a long-term issue, with repairs taking months.

UAE-based telco du announced at Mobile World Congress 2025 on Thursday it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Nokia to implement 5G cloud RAN technology in its network. 

Viettel High Tech, a Vietnamese end-to-end 4G/5G solution provider and part of the state-owned multinational telecommunications, technology and manufacturing conglomerate Viettel Group, has officially announced the launch of its 5G equipment trial with the UAE's Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du), a leading telecom operator in the Middle East, at MWC25.

Mavenir, the cloud-native network infrastructure provider, and e& UAE, telecom arm of global technology group e&, have announced a collaboration to advance e& UAE’s future of cloud-native converged packet core networks across 4G and 5G (NSA and SA) at MWC25.

Juniper Networks announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabian telco stc will deploy Juniper 400G routers in its core network and select data centres to support expansion of its 5G network to reach 75 cities and regions.