Nokia and Zain KSA announced on Wednesday they are partnering to deploy a 4G/5G femtocell solution for enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia to fill indoor mobile coverage gaps and optimise connectivity.

Indian operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) is clearly getting 2025 off to a busy start in terms of network upgrades and rollouts. This week has seen the news that it has partnered with HCLSoftware, the software business unit of Indian global technology company HCLTech, to make its 4G and 5G networks smarter and more efficient.

Local media reported that India-based Adani Group is planning to release the 5G spectrum it acquired in 2022 as India’s telecoms regulator pushes the company to fulfill its coverage obligations.

BDx, the largest data centre operator in Indonesia, has announced what it calls a landmark data centre cooperation agreement with the Association of Indonesia Internet Service Providers (APJII), saying that it will bolster the nation’s digital ecosystem.

Revenues from fixed wireless access (FWA) equipment are set to exceed US$48 billion over the next five years, driven by growing adoption across enterprise and residential markets in North America and India, according to a report from Dell’Oro Group.

Veon announced plans to float its Ukrainian operator, Kyivstar, on the Nasdaq stock exchange through the signing of a letter of intent (LOI) with investment company Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp.

Malaysian telco U Mobile announced on Wednesday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CIMB Bank to extend financing support for its upcoming 5G network rollout.

Data centre developer Stack Infrastructure said on Tuesday it is joining the Malaysia data centre frenzy with plan to establish a new 220MW campus in Johor Bahru in two phases.

4iG Group, a leading ICT company in Hungary and the Western Balkans, has announced a partnership with tech giant Ericsson for the deployment of a next generation mobile network in Albania after the recent acquisition of 5G frequencies by One Albania, a subsidiary of 4iG.

Global smartphone shipments grew by 3% to 330 million units in the last quarter of 2024, marking a fifth consecutive quarter of growth, but analyst house Canalys noted this was a significant slowdown in growth.

Nigeria and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) have announced the award of a USTDA grant to Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy (FMCIDE) for a feasibility study to support internet access for 12 million people through the deployment of new fibre optic backbone infrastructure across the country.

Indian space data company Pixxel says it is about to launch three of its six hyperspectral imaging satellites in a first for the private satellite market.

Financial services platform Mukuru says it has launched a mobile wallet in Zimbabwe called Mukuru Wallet. This follows Mukuru’s award of a Deposit-Taking Microfinance Institution (DTMFI) licence in the country by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Seven prequalified companies have confirmed to Costa Rica’s regulator Sutel their participation in the 5G spectrum auction in Costa Rica, which will take place this month.

A new data centre campus is being developed in Leopoldina in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a large inland state in southeastern Brazil, by two major names in their respective fields.

Burkina Faso has announced the launch of plans to tax e-commerce. Sales of goods and services rendered through e-commerce platforms in Burkina Faso are now subject to value added tax (VAT) for the year 2025.

Malaysian telco U Mobile is reportedly set to deploy between 5,000 and 7,000 5G sites across the country as it prepares to take on the role of the country’s second 5G operator, and is likely to collaborate with other telcos in the process.

Iraqi operator iQ Networks says it has signed the country’s first dark fibre IRU framework agreement with Qatar-based subsea cable operator Gulf Bridge International (GBI), whilst also announcing its terrestrial transit network now has over 1 Tbps of capacity.

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison announced on Friday it is collaborating with ZTE to deploy extensive microwave backbone networks across Indonesia to expand coverage of its 4G network, especially in remote islands and rural areas.

Nokia and Saudi Arabian telco STC Group say that they’ve successfully wrapped up what they claim is the first trial in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region of a long haul terabit optical solution for data centre interconnectivity.

Indian telco Reliance Jio is reportedly moving to ramp up onboarding of new customers for its AirFiber 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) business over the next year in an apparent move to boost 5G ARPUs ahead of a planned IPO later this year.

The dispute between the Indonesian authorities and Apple is rumbling on as the smartphone giant apparently remains barred from selling the iPhone 16 in Indonesia despite a recent investment deal.

Malaysia, already a semiconductor powerhouse, is looking to locally produce GPU chips in the next five to ten years, according to Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.

Data discovery, classification and remediation company Spirion LLC, has announced the opening of its first data centre in South Africa and its third international expansion in the past five months to support customers moving to Spirion’s software as a service (SaaS) offering.

Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said on Wednesday it has extended its high-speed fibre broadband network to all inhabited islands in the Maldives in a project that took five years to complete.

Amazon Web Services has officially launched its AWS Asia Pacific (Thailand) Region as part of its overall commitment to invest more than US$5 billion in the country up to 2037.

Proposed new licensing rules and fees from regulator the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) could financially impact distributors of terminal electronic devices and complex network equipment as well as satellite internet service providers (ISPs).

Tecto, the data centre subsidiary of global end-to-end digital infrastructure solutions company V.tal has announced some of the details of its first hyperscale data centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Depending on which news outlet you access, the latest strategic move by British multinational corporation Lyca Group either implies a sharper focus on markets like Africa, a cost and staff-cutting exercise in the face of a number of economic challenges, or both.

Cameroon’s state-owned telco Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has reportedly revealed a budget of XAF326.2 billion (US$514.7 million) for 2025 to upgrade its network infrastructure and improve service quality, along with a strategic roadmap to steward its evolution to 2027.

State-owned Indian telco BSNL and local IT systems integrator Echelon Edge have reportedly landed a deal with Coal India Limited (CIL) to deploy a private 5G network at the Amlohri Open Cast Coal Mines facility in Madhya Pradesh.