Nokia announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal with Ooredoo Qatar to modernize its core network to support standalone 5G, which in turn will boost the telco's ability to deliver more advanced services.

Qatar-based telco Ooredoo Group announced on Thursday that US information management services company Iron Mountain has agreed to take a minority equity stake in Ooredoo’s carrier-neutral data centre company, MENA Digital Hub.

Alibaba Cloud announced on Thursday it has launched its second data centre in Thailand to increase its local capacity and launch an enhanced portfolio of services aimed at select verticals, with a particular focus on generative AI apps.

Indonesian operator Super Sistem, which is developing the Indonesian Barat Timur Indonesia (BTI) submarine cable system, has appointed consulting firm APTelecom to engage prospective customers on its behalf to undertake presales for the system.

Payment giant Mastercard has officially announced the launch of TRACE (Trace Financial Crime) in the Asia Pacific region. Described as a sophisticated network-level solution that harnesses artificial intelligence to identify and prevent money laundering and financial crime, it has begun its rollout in the Philippines.

MTN South Africa reportedly plans to shut down its 3G mobile network by the end of this year – a full year earlier than initially planned – following a successful pilot project in Cape Town to migrate 3G users to 4G and 5G.

Cameroon-based cloud services provider ST Digital has launched GPU Cloud Africa, a GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) offering that aims to provide African businesses and institutions with access to Nvidia GPUs to develop AI applications.

Nokia announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal with Cambodian telco CamGSM – a.k.a. Cellcard – to migrate its fibre access network from GPON to XGS-PON, which could boost speeds for its broadband customers as high as 10 Gbps.

AirTrunk, an Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) hyperscale data centre specialist, has announced plans to develop its second cloud and AI-ready data centre in Malaysia.

Tawal, a leading Saudi telecommunications and IT infrastructure company, has entered into a strategic agreement with Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN), part of Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC), a wholly owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) entity that develops and operates entertainment destinations.

India's second biggest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has awarded a contract to tech giants Nokia and Qualcomm focusing on the expansion of 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) and Wi-Fi solutions to facilitate high-speed internet access to millions across India.

Aramco, the giant Saudi Arabian integrated energy and chemical company, has been in the telecoms news recently after the announcement of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AMD and handset innovation with Qualcomm.

5G private networks continue to make waves in a number of markets, this time in Slovenia, with the news that Kontron, a provider of mission-critical communication solutions, and operator Telekom Slovenije have launched the first commercial standalone (SA) 5G private network in the country.

Mobile telecommunications provider Zain Kuwait and Parallel Wireless, a provider of open RAN hardware-agnostic solutions, have successfully completed what they describe as a groundbreaking 5G standalone (SA) proof of concept (POC).

Thai technology company True Corporation has announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GalaxySpace, a leading Chinese company in the low Earth orbit (LEO) internet satellites sector.

Telecentro Argentina has signed a multi-year extension to its existing deal with Netcracker for the vendor’s Digital OSS.

Ericsson announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabian telco Etihad Etisalat (a.k.a. Mobily) to explore technologies to develop intent-driven autonomous networks using AI and automation.

Saudi Arabia’s STC Group announced it has signed a collaboration deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate deployment of cloud-based services and AI infrastructure in the country.

Iran’s state-owned Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC) says it has signed a memorandum of agreement with Omantel and Iranian infrastructure firm Pishgaman to create a data transit corridor between Iran and Oman.

The Southeast Asian smartphone market rebounded in 2024 as vendors shipped 96.7 million units, an annual growth rate of 11%, snapping two years of decline.

National operator Tunisie Telecom has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Medusa, the submarine fibre optic system connecting the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic and the Red Sea.

Nokia has announced that CEO Pekka Lundmark (pictured) will depart this year to make way for Intel executive Justin Hotard, in a move seemingly aimed at sharpening its expertise in AI and data centres.

Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Samuel Nartey George, has revealed plans to establish an interministerial committee aimed at addressing the high cost of data in Ghana.

Kenyan operator Safaricom and global NGO Opportunity International last week announced the launch in Kenya of FarmerAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot aimed at providing real-time, relevant farming best practices to smallholder farmers in underserved communities – notably potato farmers.

The Indian smartphone market grew by 4% to 151 million units in 2024 and became Apple’s fourth largest market as rival Samsung recorded decline. 

Philippine telco Globe Telecom says it has signed a data-sharing agreement (DSA) with digital bank GoTyme in a move meant to combat digital fraud and other online financial crimes.

Nokia announced on Friday that it has signed a deal with internet service provider Puntonet Ecuador to upgrade its fibre broadband network to 10G, with an eye towards 25GPON in the future.

Satellite operator Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) to supply satellite connectivity for the NGO’s operations, while separately announcing it has hit its ITU Partner2Connect target of connecting 1 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa well ahead of schedule.

Indus Towers, regularly in the news in recent months, has now hit the headlines with a major tower purchase in India.

Ecobank Group, a private pan-African financial services group, and Chinese company XTransfer, a cross-border trade payment platform, have signed what they call a landmark memorandum of understanding of cooperation (MoU) to roll out comprehensive cross-border financial services to Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in foreign trade.

Telefónica has requested that Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce evaluate its unit, Coltel, ahead of a potential sale to Millicom as part of its ongoing divestment plan in Latin America.

M-Pesa Safaricom said on Thursday it is partnering with Dashen Bank and CashGo to launch a new international remittance service in Ethiopia that enables users to receive money from abroad directly into their M-Pesa mobile wallets.

Thai telco True Corp says that while it welcomes plans by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to hold a new spectrum auction in April, it objects to the reserve prices and the requirement that telcos must pay at least 50% of their winning bid upfront.