Orange and Vodafone announced extension of their open RAN network pilot project in rural Romania to boost coverage and integrate 2G virtualised RAN (vRAN) technology, a vital step towards cloud migration. 

Orange signed a partnership agreement with Digital Africa in a move to accelerate support and investment for startups in its incubator centres across Africa and the Middle East.

Viasat and Azercosmos are partnering to bring L-band satellite services to Azerbaijan.

Saudi Arabia-headquartered satellite operator Arabsat announced on Wednesday it is working with ST Engineering iDirect to deploy cloud technologies into its gateway infrastructure as part of a plan to reach new markets in the Middle East, Africa and West/Central Asia.

Eutelsat Group and YahClick, the data solutions arm of UAE-based Yahsat, have signed a multi-year, multi-Gbps contract under which Yahsat will lease capacity from the Eutelsat Konnect satellite to extend YahClick’s service coverage, particularly to Ethiopia.

Following news earlier this week of major UK development investments in telecoms  in Senegal and Tanzania come announcements from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) of support for projects in two Asian countries.

Co-hosted by the Fiber Network Council APAC (FNCA) and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), China FIBERTalk 2024 was held in China’s Optics Valley on May 17th.

Telecom Egypt, a leading communications and information technology service provider, and Huawei Cloud have joined forces to launch tech giant Huawei’s first locally based public cloud platform in Egypt and North Africa.

Qatari telecommunications company Ooredoo has made two service-related announcements in recent days – one alongside Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multi-cloud computing, for Qatar Airways, and the other, with digital transformation specialist Netcracker Technology, to enhance Ooredoo’s own CRM offering.

Globe Telecom CEO Ernest Cu said the operator group’s fintech division may go public as the company looks to diversify its business away from traditional telco revenue drivers.  

Cambodia-based Smart Axiata tapped telecoms cybersecurity firm SecurityGen for software to bolster its defences, as connectivity adoption rises in the South East Asian nation.

Malaysian wholesale 5G operator Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) has reportedly given the five telcos taking stakes in the company 20 days to finalise the process as the government looks to get on with launching a second 5G operator and encourage private 5G adoption.

Thailand’s state telco National Telecom (NT) is reportedly at risk of losing its partnership with Eutelsat OneWeb, as the LEO satellite operator is said to be considering moving its regional gateway out of the country because of ongoing delays.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded a feasibility study grant to Bangladesh telecoms company CdNet Communications to explore construction of a new subsea cable to improve internet connectivity across the country.

It seems Vietnam’s success as a manufacturing base may be challenging its ability to power growth. Some reports are suggesting that Vietnamese officials have called on Apple supplier Foxconn to reduce power use by 30% at its assembly plants in the north of the country, an area that suffered power outages last year.

Ukrainian operator Kyivstar allocated US$90 million to defend against suspected Russian cyberattacks against its network, a move that affected growth said Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov.

PAIX Data Centres, a provider of data centre solutions, has announced the expansion of its facility in Accra to 1.2 MW in what it calls a critical boost to the digital economy that will also spur job creation.

Pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced a distribution partner agreement (DPA) with Eutelsat Group, described as the world's first satellite operator with an integrated GEO-LEO infrastructure, that will see enterprise-grade low earth orbit (LEO) satellite services being made available in Africa.

Telkom Indonesia’s satellite services arm Telkomsat said on Friday that it has signed a cooperation agreement with LEO satellite operator Starlink to offer the latter’s satellite broadband services to enterprises in Indonesia.

Malaysian mobile operator U Mobile says it has successfully wrapped up a private 5G network proof-of-concept (PoC) with Enfrasys Solutions to automate the container inspection process for transport and logistics company Transocean Logistics.

Malaysian telco Time dotCom and Huawei announced on Monday that they have successfully deployed Segment Routing IPv6 (SRv6) technology in Time’s network, which the operator hopes will give it an edge in the enterprise services market.

The Congolese capital Brazzaville is to house a data centre, supported by funding of €66.55 million (about US$72.2 million) including US$57 million from the African Development Bank (ADB) and US$15.70 million from the government of Congo.

The SpaceX satcoms service Starlink is now live across the more than 300 islands in the Republic of Fiji, marking, the company says, the 99th country, territory or market around the world where Starlink’s high-speed internet service is available.

Three investment groups have partnered to support operator Sonatel’s telecoms expansion in Senegal. The combined €87 million (about $94.5 million) financing package aims to help the company expand telecoms infrastructure, including towers and cables, in rural areas and provide reliable and affordable mobile and internet services to people in Senegal.

The Indonesia smartphone market saw a sharp rise in smartphone shipments due to the holiday season, as it continued its recovery. 

TOA (TowerCo of Africa) Tanzania has signed a US$30 million financing agreement with UK development investor British International Investment (BII).

MTN group president and CEO Ralph Mupita has called on governments across Africa to harmonise tech regulations, which he says is necessary to increase the capital investment in digital infrastructure needed to accelerate economic development.

Bangladesh telcos Robi Axiata and Banglalink have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate ways that they can share and rationalize their network resources to expand and improve 4G access across the country.

SpaceX’s LEO satellite operator Starlink officially launched its service in Indonesia on Sunday, which among other things will be used to bolster healthcare and education services in remote areas under a new agreement.

Malaysian satellite operator MEASAT announced on Thursday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with local healthcare tech company Mudah Healthtech to bring telehealth services to remote communities.

A coalition of humanitarian NGOs in Sudan has warned that the shutdown of telecoms services in the midst of the country’s civil war is making a massive humanitarian crisis even worse, and urged all stakeholders – including Starlink – to restore services as soon as possible.