Analyst firm Canalys reported that global smartphone shipments grew 5% year-on-year in Q3 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. 

Kenyan and Ethiopian service provider Safaricom has extended its M-Pesa Global service – which enables M-Pesa registered customers to send and receive money globally – to Ethiopia, allowing customers to make mobile money transactions from Kenya to Ethiopia.

Somalian operators Hormuud Telecom, Golis Telecom, and the GSMA have moved to deepen their collaboration with NGOs by developing a strategy to fully harness mobile technology for humanitarian efforts.

Tech vendor Ericsson and service provider e& United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced the successful implementation of low latency, low loss, scalable throughput (L4S), a time-critical communication technology, in a 5G commercial network for the first time in the Middle East and Africa.

A new report from Berg Insight, called The Satellite IoT Communications Market, addresses a market growing at what the independent industry analyst and firm describes as “a good steady pace”.

Vietnamese telco Viettel announced the nationwide launch of its standalone (SA) 5G service on Tuesday, making it the first operator in the country to do so.

Philippine telco Dito Telecommunity has launched a 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service featuring a home Wi-Fi service powered by 5G RedCap technology.

PLDT Group’s data centre arm Vitro, a subsidiary of ePLDT, and Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications said on Monday they have formed a strategic partnership to improve data centre connectivity in the Philippines.

Leading financial services platform Mukuru has announced the launch of its new mobile wallet in Malawi, the Mukuru Wallet, which, Mukuru says, is designed to address the growing demand for a convenient, secure, efficient way to manage funds and make money transfers.

The World Bank, described as one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, says that more than 20 million Filipinos are going to enjoy better internet with the approval of World Bank funding for a Philippines government connectivity project.

The Indian wireless network megadeals keep on coming. The latest, involving tech giant Ericsson, is a multi-billion dollar contract for 5G equipment which it will supply to Indian operator Bharti Airtel.

Veon announced plans to shift its headquarters from Amsterdam to Dubai, as part of a strategic alignment to bring the operator closer to key markets.

After a five-year break, the Whale Cloud Together Summit 2024 made a grand return in Kuala Lumpur, bringing together industry experts, innovators, and telecom leaders.

North Korea is reportedly cracking down on the import of Chinese-made smartwatches that are able connect to mobile networks outside of the country via USIM cards.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly allocated satellite spectrum on a provisional basis to Eutelsat OneWeb and Orbit Connect India – Reliance Jio’s satellite venture with SES – to allow them to test satellite broadband services.

UAE-based Edgnex Data Centres by DAMAC says it has formed a joint venture with Thai ISP Proen Corp to invest over THB32 billion baht (US$962 million) in several data centre development projects in Thailand.

Telenor Group has announced an expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate digital transformation across its units in the Nordics and Asia.

Vietnamese operator VNPT has signed an agreement to use Ericsson equipment for its 5G rollout across major cities.

The government of Ghana said that it has implemented free roaming with Benin and Togo, enabling residents of all three West African countries to use their mobile services without having to pay international roaming charges.

State-owned Uzbektelecom JSC (a.k.a. Uztelecom) and Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) said on Thursday they will collaborate to develop network security services for Uzbekistan as well as the broader Central Asian market, starting with zero-trust access.

Operators Brisanet, Ligga/Sercomtel and TIM have been declared the winners of Brazil's first reverse mobile auction, held by the Ministry of Communications, the regulator Anatel and Seja Digital, the group involved in effecting the transition to digital TV broadcasting in Brazil, which, in turn, has opened up 4G spectrum.

Ukraine’s telecoms industry is about to receive a boost thanks to The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, with support from the European Commission (EC) and the government of France.

Dito Telecommunity celebrated reaching 13 million subscribers as of this month (October), and CEO Eric Alberto claimed the challenger operator will achieve profitability within a few years.

The 10% sell-off of Ethio Telecom is finally going ahead. In fact Reuters reports that Ethio Telecom will become the first company to list on Ethiopia’s new stock market next week when the government sells a 10% stake in the company.

Nokia has partnered with RACSA (Radiográfica Costarricense SA) to deploy the first 5G standalone (SA) network in Costa Rica.

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is reportedly demanding a full review of Starlink’s operations in the country after the LEO satellite operator jacked up its prices without regulatory approval.

Optical networking vendor Infinera says it has won a contract with Philippine broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions to supply submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) for Converge’s landing station for the Bifrost Cable System.

Technology innovation giant Nokia and Furukawa Electric LatAm, a communications infrastructure solutions manufacturer, have announced plans to expanded their partnership, which was established in 2022, to immediately bring high-performance solutions in data centre automation to Brazil.

The South African government has revealed plans to close the connectivity coverage gap in rural areas, emphasising this as a key initiative to empower poorer communities and stimulate economic growth.

Vietnam has this week announced that it aims to deploy two undersea internet cables by the end of next year. It has also said that 5G services will be deployed across the country by that time.

As AI technologies become all-pervasive, they are starting to impact service development and digital intelligence transformation across a range of industry sectors, in turn imposing ever greater demands on existing enterprise and carrier network infrastructures.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel and Nokia announced on Tuesday they will collaborate on an initiative to introduce energy-efficient solutions and practices across Airtel’s 4G/5G RANs using AI and machine learning.

Nigerian fintech startup Okra launched a new cloud infrastructure service on Tuesday, making it the latest of several startups in the country that aim to provide a local alternative to cloud giants like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.