As promised late last year and confirmed in May, Ethiopia has launched a tender for a new mobile telecoms licence – the country’s second new licence, opening the door to the third national operator in the country alongside state-owned incumbent Ethio Telecom and recent entrant Safaricom Ethiopia.

Botswana’s Consumer and Competition Authority has unconditionally approved the proposed acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital and all sale claims of MTN Business Solutions Botswana by Mascom Wireless Botswana, the country’s leading mobile telecoms company.

Chinese equipment vendor ZTE aided a project to win the ‘5G Industry Challenge Award’ at the GSMA 2023 Asia Mobile Awards (AMO) held during MWC Shanghai. 

Thai operator AIS partnered with ZTE and Qualcomm to complete a trial of mmWave 5G standalone technology in Bangkok, a step towards the operator commercialising the technology. 

Telecommunications giant Huawei is to offer equipment and solutions to help the ICE Group deploy private 5G networks for companies in Costa Rica.

The ongoing Digicel debt saga has seen an agreement between Denis O’Brien, the founder of the group, which is active as a mobile operator across Caribbean and Central America, and bond investors that will see the businessman lose most of his stake in the telecoms group in exchange for a US$1.7 billion debt write-off.

Indonesia’s new Telecommunication Equipment Testing Center (BBPPT) has selected Spirent Communications technology to conduct high-speed Ethernet network equipment and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing.

DZS and Summit Technology Solutions have partnered to deliver hyper-fast fibre optic broadband connectivity to Africa’s tallest building.

Nokia and Telefónica have announced an alliance to accelerate digital transformation for enterprises in Latin America.

Cambodian operator CamGSM, which is branded as Cellcard, has listed its Class A common stock on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX).

Globe Telecom showcased Voice over New Radio (VoNR) in the Philippines as it moves to enhance its service against rival offerings.

RingCentral, a US-headquartered provider of AI-powered global enterprise cloud communications, video meetings, collaboration and contact centre solutions, has announced that it is the first global cloud provider to offer fully compliant cloud phone services in India.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has teamed up with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to pilot the delivery of high-speed internet services across India’s rural and remote regions via a laser technology that uses light beams.

TerraPay has partnered with Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank to facilitate real-time and seamless global money transfers directly to bank accounts in Morocco.

Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (Comision Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, Conatel) has published its National Telecommunications Plan for 2023-2025.

Network operator Paratus Group has announced plans to construct Angola’s first Tier-IV-by-design data centre in Luanda.

Following last week’s news that satellite operators Intelsat and SES have ended talks about a possible merger, there’s been evidence from both companies that it’s still business as usual with Intelsat highlighting a significant Indonesian deal and SES announcing a collaboration related to space situational awareness services.

Digital payment solutions provider and fintech enabler Arab Financial Services (AFS), and Moamalat Financial Services, which specialises in electronic payment services in the Libyan market, have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enter into a strategic partnership for the development of Libya’s electronic payment ecosystem.

Indian operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi) says it is in advanced talks with various network vendors for finalisation of its 5G rollout strategy and has concluded device testing of all major OEMs on its upcoming next-generation mobile broadband network.

In a rather surprising move, an Angolan government minister has said that plans to privatise the troubled state-owned operator Angola Telecom have been cancelled and the government is now focusing on restructuring the company.

State-owned Indian operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has entered into a strategic partnership with engineering services company L&T Technology Services (LTTS) to drive and enable global enterprises in their private 5G network deployments.

Mobile service revenue in Indonesia was predicted to stay flat over the next four years as the decline in revenues from voice services outweighs steady data returns.

The Philippines’ telecoms regulator revealed over 100 million SIM cards have been registered since the country-mandated SIM registration programme, in a bid to tackle cyber-crime as the Philippines connects more citizens to the internet. 

Reliance Jio is reportedly negotiating loans with several banks to raise US$1.6 billion to purchase equipment from Finnish vendor Nokia. 

Kazakhtelecom JSC is working with A10 Networks to improve the reliability of broadband access for businesses and consumers nationwide.

Safaricom Ethiopia announced its first-ever CEO Anwar Soussa will depart his role on July 31 after taking the helm of the unit almost two years ago.

Ooredoo Qatar has announced two high-profile agreements this week, one with Dell Technologies and one with Ericsson.