Hard on the heels of recent headlines made by China’s plans to launch a rival to the Starlink service has comes news of an incident that certainly wasn’t part of those plans.

The Latin American smartphone market recorded a fourth consecutive quarter of growth after being fuelled by affordable devices.

Pan-African operator group Axian Telecom poached MTN Nigeria COO Hassan Jaber (pictured) as its new group CEO, as the challenger operator continues to compete on the continent.

On August 8th, operations commenced at Yangtze Optics Mexico Cable S.A. de C.V. in Mexico’s Jalisco State, marking the establishment of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company's (YOFC) first production facility in the nation.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) said on Thursday that its data centre in Jakarta will host a new node for the Indonesia Internet Exchange (IIX) under a new partnership with the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII).

Chinese telecoms infrastructure firm China Tower says it has renewed multi-year framework deals with China Telecom and China Unicom to prepare for an expected surge in demand for IoT monitoring data and data analysis services related to its “Smart Tower” business segment.

MTN Group announced it received regulatory approval to sell its Guinea-Bissau unit to Telecel Group as the operator pushes on with its plan to focus on core markets in Africa.

Clear Mobitel, a UK-based technology data company, has announced plans to invest US$200 million in Zimbabwe’s telecommunications sector.

The Malaysian Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) has this week said that it will address sustainability issues in the data centre industry – but will that cause problems for some data centre businesses now in development?

Independent tower operator IHS Towers announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary in Nigeria has signed a deal with MTN Nigeria to renew and extend its tower master lease agreements until December 2032.

Telecom Egypt said on Wednesday it has signed a multi-year agreement with Mada Communications to be its “preferred strategic provider” for international application-to-person (A2P) messaging services.

Indonesian telco Telkomsel says it has rolled out 49 new base stations to support 5G and 4G services in the country’s new capital of Nusantara (IKN), which would make it the only 5G service provider in the city when it’s officially inaugurated on August 17.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) opened its Digital Intelligence Operations Center (DIOC), a move to leverage AI to enhance its network.  

MTN Nigeria says it has taken full ownership of Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) after buying the 7.17% share owned by Acxani Capital for around NGN6.95 billion (US$4.36 million).

Global data centre company Vantage Data Centres officially broke ground on its second Malaysian data centre in Cyberjaya on Tuesday, whilst also signing a deal with electricity company TNB to power it.

Paymentology, a card issuing and processing platform, has announced a partnership with Salaam Bank’s Waafi in Somalia.

Indonesia's state-owned service provider Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest telecommunication group, is widely reported to have appointed leading global investment banking, securities, and asset and wealth management firm Goldman Sachs and local investment bank Mandiri Sekuritas to help it find a strategic investor for its data centre business NeutraDC.

A reminder that there has been other telecoms news coming out of Bangladesh recently apart from the recent internet disruption comes from Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecommunications service provider with more than 85 million subscribers, which has partnered with Mobileum, a provider of analytics and network solutions.

This week has seen yet another airline announce an alliance with a telecoms company with the news that Kenya Airways has signed a strategic partnership with Kenyan operator Safaricom.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) called for telecoms operators to simplify their tariff plans, bundles and promotional activities in a bid to streamline consumer experience and grow the sector.

Hungarian operator group 4iG’s chairman met with North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minster to explore the possibility of launching its operations in the country.

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has launched an AI-powered digital solution for enterprises in the retail sector that it says can help them optimize business revenues, boost customer satisfaction and improve operational efficiency in their stores.

Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said it has inaugurated the official landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in the Maldives, although the cable is still almost two years away from activation.

BnB, a fintech company that says it is committed to revolutionising financial services in Africa, has launched an initiative that seeks to expand international money transfer services in collaboration with operator Lonestar Cell MTN’s MoMo (a mobile money service).

India’s telecom regulator TRAI has announced plans to tighten up on quality of service (QoS) requirements relating to 4G and 5G networks, in a bid, it is reported, to reduce instances of call drops and network downtime problems.

UPDATE: Bangladesh's Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman has confirmed that he has assumed power following the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has now fled the country. At the time of writing, data from NetBlocks indicates that internet connectivity has been restored and remains available in Bangladesh.

Telekom Indonesia’s telecoms infrastructure subsidiary Mitratel says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with high altitude platform station (HAPS) firm AALTO to look into providing commercial HAPS solutions in Indonesia.

Thai telco Advanced Info Service (AIS) says it will deploy Oracle Alloy in its data centres to launch what it claims will be Thailand’s first locally owned and operated hyperscale cloud service.

Globe Telecoms’ fintech unit Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations) gained fresh investments from Ayala Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a move that will boost the valuation of Mynt to US$5 billion, claimed Globe.

MTN Group announced multiple changes to its executive with its Congo-Brazzaville unit gaining a new Chief Executive.