The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has confirmed that talks are still ongoing with satellite company Monacosat over launching a satellite to boost the country’s connectivity.

Amid the regular news of connectivity initiatives and new satellite deployments targeting remote areas, a recent report from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technologies, reminds us that there’s still a long way to go.

Jio Platforms parent company Reliance Industries (RIL) has announced a joint venture with Meta to build agentic AI enterprise platforms and tools for businesses in India and select international markets.

Nokia announced on Tuesday that that it has signed a contract agreement with Malaysian ISP Extreme Broadband (EBB) and its wholly owned subsidiary Open DC to upgrade Open DC’s AI data centres to improve security and network performance.

PLDT announced on Tuesday it has deployed free-space optics technology from Google Taara in three remote locations in the Philippines as an alternative to terrestrial and subsea fibre optic cables.

5G finally arrived in Bangladesh on Monday after telcos Robi Axiata and Grameenphone reportedly launched 5G services within a few hours of each other, and 18 months after receiving licences to streamline 5G rollouts.

The government of Chad late last week ordered mobile operators Airtel and Moov Africa to connect to its national fibre-optic backbone within seven days or face potential sanctions, after the Telecommunications Minister Boukar Michel met executives from both operators on Wednesday.

Two of Africa’s biggest operators – Vodacom and MTN – have, coincidentally, announced technology deployment firsts for the continent in the past few days – one involving MIMO, the other involving 5-band RRU commercial deployment.

Thai operator True Corporation has partnered with China Mobile International, T3 Technology and Tuya Smart to enhance its smart-home platform TrueX, aiming to migrate more than 3 million Thai users from Tuya’s ecosystem.

Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications services provider, has announced that it will boost its current international capacity 23-fold through the integration of the Trans Americas Fiber Systems submarine cable TAM-1.

The past two years have seen an explosion in Generative AI. The ubiquitous technology has had a huge impact on customer service, but it also has a major shortcoming – it is predominantly reactive. While GenAI can respond to prompts, it is unable to take an independent action – to ‘take initiative’ by anticipating a customer’s needs, making a decision, and then interacting meaningfully with its systems to pursue a desired outcome.

Telkom Indonesia revealed over the weekend that it has launched an AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) supported by its digital services arm Telkom Solution that it describes as a “national AI ecosystem enabler.”

Djibouti Telecom has announced plans to extend the regional subsea cable, Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1), southward along Africa’s east coast to broaden reach and enhance route diversity.

Telkom Indonesia’s international arm Telin said it has signed an MoU with Malaysian engineering company ITCO Niaga to collaborate on planning and development of the Indonesia Cable Express II (ICE II) subsea cable system that now includes landing stations in eastern Malaysia.

Vodafone Idea’s infrastructure subsidiary is reportedly seeking loans worth INR50 billion (US$570 million) to finance network expansion.

Telkom Indonesia’s mobile unit Telkomsel has reportedly fully restored 4G internet services in Papua province and the Aru Islands of Maluku after repairing a damaged backup subsea cable that disrupted service in nine areas.

Smart Communications, the wireless subsidiary of PLDT, announced on Friday it has launched 5G Standalone in Iloilo City in the region of Western Visayas, which it says marks the beginning of a broader nationwide rollout of 5G SA across the Philippines.

Techno Digital, the digital infrastructure arm of India’s Techno Electric & Engineering Company Limited (TEECL), has announced the inauguration of its 36MW data centre at SIPCOT IT Park in Chennai.

There’s been a flurry of submarine cable deals in Iraq recently, including two contracts announced this week, one with Batelco and the other involving a company called Breeze Investments.

We’ve been reporting recently on a less than favourable effect of data centre development in Mexico recently: the massive use of water by data centres in areas already suffering shortages.

Digicel Tonga announced that CEO Daniel Horan will step down from his role next month after just two years, citing personal reasons.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and Cisco launched a sovereign security operations centre (SOC) for Indonesia on Wednesday that they say also marks the first deployment of Splunk Cloud Platform and Splunk Enterprise Security in the country.

Liberty Networks has revealed plans to replace its MAYA-1 subsea cable route in the Caribbean with a new system – dubbed MAYA-1.2 – with fewer landing points but double the capacity of the original network.

Argentina has apparently made plans to start allocating spectrum for private mobile networks. Regulator Enacom has assigned the 2300-2400MHz frequency band for private mobile wireless broadband systems. The spectrum allocation will be for ten years and can be used for indoor or outdoor deployments, according to the resolution published on Monday.

A statement from Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology, following a meeting this week between a minister and a Project Kuiper representative, indicates that Amazon is aiming to deploy its Kuiper satellite services in Vietnam.

Drone technology continues to make inroads into developing markets, as recent news stories from the African Development Bank (ADB) and Movistar Chile indicate.

MTC Namibia has fired the starting gun in the country’s 5G race, launching commercial services across four locations.

Two Malaysian companies, clean energy solutions provider Gentari, the renewable energy arm of Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas, and construction and engineering company Gamuda, through its energy arm Gamuda Energy, have entered into a data centre-focused energy collaboration.

Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru (pictured) revealed ambitions for the state-owned operator to almost double revenue at the end of its financial year in June to ETB236 billion (US$1.6 billion), on the back of increasing users and data usage.

UAE-based satellite operator Space42 announced on Tuesday it has signed a comprehensive MoU with Angola's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISM) to collaborate on developing advanced technologies across multiple domains over the next five years.

PLDT Enterprise, the business arm of PLDT, announced on Tuesday it has partnered with the provincial government of Camarines Sur in the Bicol region on Luzon to integrate Starlink’s LEO satellite technology into its operations.

Smartphone shipments in Africa climbed 7% to 19.2 million units in Q2, continuing an upward trend fuelled by easing inflation and currency stability in key markets.