The Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded more mobile subscribers in 2023 with over half of the country’s large population now connected, reported Ecofin Agency.

A telecoms lobby group in Zambia has warned that lengthy power blackouts caused by load shedding over the past year is taking its toll on the quality of mobile services across the country.

Nepalese telco Ncell says it is collaborating with Meta to allow mobile subscribers to access Facebook Basic Mode and text-only web browsing even if they used up their data balance or don’t subscribe to a data package at all.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced plans to develop a unified interactive portal to consolidate information about the telecom industry and users – now found across several websites – onto a single platform.

Service provider Ooredoo says it has entered into a partnership with Qatar Airways to embark on what is described as a large-scale cloud adoption journey.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries and a member of the World Bank Group, has announced a financing package for TerraPay, an Africa-focused digital payments provider.

Ethiopian state-owned operator Ethio Telecom announced revenues and profits surged over 20% in its full year ending in June.

The GSMA announced a global coalition with major telecom players, the ITU and World Bank to improve the access of affordable handsets and connect three billion people that are not online.

Malaysian telco CelcomDigi has launched its “AI Experience Centre (AiX)”, which aims to foster cross-industry collaboration for emerging technologies including 5G, AI, robotics and the metaverse.

Telecel Centrafrique has reportedly been forced by the Central African Republic’s Ministry of Finance and Budget to close its offices over US$4.4 million in unpaid taxes.

Inter-island internet services in Tonga have reportedly been disrupted after an earthquake damaged the Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE),  the island nation’s only domestic subsea cable connection.

A fascinating coming together of satellite networks, artifical intelligence (AI) and 3D mapping is benefiting gold and copper producer Barrick Gold’s copper exploration at its Reko Diq project in Pakistan.

With Vietnam's rules on storing data locally causing a surge in demand, local data centre operators are apparently unable to cope. Thus Vietnam has decided that foreign investors can now own data centres in the country.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has officially revealed its roadmap to switch off 2G mobile services, which stipulates a hard cutoff date of September 16 for 2G-only handsets, and a full cutoff of services in September 2026.

Philippine company DITO CME Holdings, the parent firm of third telco DITO Telecommunity, has denied a report in local media that one of its investors, Singapore-based Summit Telco Holdings, is moving to take over the company.

Turkey launched its first domestically produced communications satellite, Turksat 6A, into orbit early this week, widening the country's satellite coverage and meeting its television broadcasting needs.

Satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat Satellite Networks says it has received a follow-on six-year order worth over US$10 million from Internet Para Todos (IPT) to deliver cellular backhaul services across rural areas in Peru.

DIDWW, a provider of two-way SIP trunking services to operators and businesses all over the world, says it has expanded the coverage of its virtual phone numbers to another five territories.

Targeting an important market of which all Indian operators would no doubt like a slice, Vodafone Idea’s enterprise arm, Vi Business, and digital financial services provider PayU have entered into a strategic partnership to offer bespoke digital payment solutions to Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The Sri Lankan government will vote this week to change a law that will pave the way for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite connectivity service to deploy on the island, reported ET Telecom.

Türkiye’s sovereign wealth fund was reportedly mulling the sale of its 26.2% shares in state-owned operator Turkcell.

Ericsson announced on Monday it has extended its R&D partnership with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) for another two years to continue research related to 5G and 6G technologies.

Telecom infrastructure provider ATC Ghana reportedly restored electricity to Telecel Ghana's telecoms towers over the weekend by order of the regulator after intentionally cutting off the power over a financial dispute.

Digicel Samoa announced on Monday that it has officially kicked off its rollout of 5G services with five 5G sites going live in the Apia CBD.

Vietnamese ICT company CMC Corporation has launched a data centre subsidiary. The new company – CMC AI Digital Infrastructure, or CMC ADI –will be constructing and operating hyperscale data centres.

Another funding win has been announced by for mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure supplier NuRAN Wireless, this time involving Cameroon.

India's new Telecommunications Act contains one little-noticed (until now) provision could benefit the country's regulatory environment. It seems that the eligibility criteria for appointing the chairman and members of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have been relaxed.

Ericsson announced it will book a non-cash impairment of SEK11.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) in its Q2 results, blaming cloud unit Vonage which had previously hit the Swedish vendor in the wallet.

Hungary-based 4iG Group announced the acquisition of regional operator PR-Telecom for an undisclosed fee to expand its optical network coverage.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has called on the telecoms sector to submit proposals for an R&D programme to accelerate development of technologies for quantum communications networks.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced the launch of the Africa Broadband Maps project, which aims to establish broadband mapping systems in 11 sub-Saharan African countries to help narrow the digital divide.

Malaysian telco U Mobile and Axiata-owned telecoms infrastructure company Edotco say they have formed a partnership to accelerate the rollout of 5G under the government’s planned dual network model.