Ground has been broken on a new data centre for the Saudi Arabian government in Riyadh, described as the world’s largest government data centre.

Ethiopian Airlines Group, a leading African airline, has signed a strategic agreement with Nucore Technologies to advance its digital transformation efforts – and in particular to strengthen the services it offers via the platform it calls the Ethiopian Airlines’ Agency Portal.

Satellite service provider Starlink has shut down access to its satellite internet service in Uganda after receiving instructions to do so from the country’s regulator, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and operator Orange Egypt have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at expanding the use of telemedicine and delivering integrated, high-quality digital healthcare services to villages and to remote and deprived areas.

Telenor Group, a leading telecommunications and technology company in the Nordic countries and Asia, has successfully completed the sale of its Telenor Pakistan business to Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), a part of the global technology group (and UAE-headquartered) e&.

Both of Ethiopia’s operators – Ethio Telecom and Safaricom – have announced tariff rises, citing current macroeconomic conditions as the main reason, alongside increased investment requirements for network expansion and service quality.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has formally announced its National Frequency Allocation Plan 2025 (NFAP-2025). It took effect from 30 December 2025 but is already attracting negative comments from operators.

Malaysian 5G operator U Mobile revealed on Monday it has enabled scam protection across its entire network in partnership with signalling security, roaming and analytics solutions provider Cellusys.

Eutelsat announced on Tuesday that it partnering with Airtel Gabon to provide OneWeb LEO satellite connectivity to passenger trains in Gabon to support on-board Wi-Fi services.

Ooredoo, Qatar’s leading ICT provider, and the Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD), a research group with a strong emphasis on sustainability, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

As part of what appears to have been an upbeat overview of the country’s ICT sector the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology recently highlighted some ambitious plans for local phone production.

Data and AI deals are very much in the news at the moment, thanks notably to a South American sale involving digital giant Atos and plans announced by investment company SoftBank Group to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group.

Apple has settled its case with Brazilian antitrust regulator CADE, which had criticised alleged restrictions by the technology giant on certain payment methods.

Orange Middle East and Africa announced on Monday it has signed a deal with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) granting it mobile-only broadcasting rights for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament currently underway in Morocco.

Malaysian telco Maxis said on Monday it has fully restored services to customers following a fire at a telecoms tower that also knocked out services for customers of CelcomDigi and Telekom Malaysia’s Unifi Mobile.

SpaceX’s LEO satellite operator Starlink has shut off service in Papua New Guinea – at least for now – and has reportedly withdrawn from the market amid ongoing legal tangles that have delayed approval of its licence to operate there.

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) says it has officially licensed operators Safaricom and Airtel Money Kenya to operate as what are called intermediary service platform providers (ISPPs).

Professional services company Deloitte India says it has expanded its strategic partnership with cloud computing services business Google Cloud. The firm will serve as a premier partner, reseller and managed security service provider (MSSP) for Google Cloud in India.

The Government of Pakistan has reportedly approved a process for the auction of 600MHz of spectrum within two months. 

The slow but steady growth of private networks in Latin America appears to be continuing with last week’s news from operator Telefonica Movistar Colombia that its business division Movistar Empresas has implemented the first industrial private LTE network in a maritime terminal in Colombia.

Ooredoo Qatar has launched a new eSIM solution for IoT devices, which it says can help enterprises simplify device management, enhance security, and scale IoT operations across borders.

e& UAE says its EMIX IP transit platform has upgraded its UAE core with 400G links in collaboration with Cisco to meet demands for traffic growth that is growing over 20% annually.

Veon-owned digital telco Beeline Kazakhstan and Japan’s Rakuten Symphony have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore ways to collaborate on next-generation connectivity, digital services, and cloud-native network infrastructure.

Edotco Services Lanka says it has commissioned 400 resilient power systems across Sri Lanka to strengthen telecoms network reliability and resilience during natural disasters and prolonged power outages.

Investment firm Stonepeak has agreed to acquire TeleTower, the tower company carved out of Eastern European operator Bite, in a move aimed at tapping growth in the region’s telecoms infrastructure market.

PayTabs Kuwait, a member of the Saudi Arabia-headquartered PayTabs Group, which specialises in payment orchestration, has announced that it has entered a strategic partnership with BEDE Kuwait, a payment services company.

In what is described as a first for the EEMEA region, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and payment giant Mastercard have officially launched Mastercard’s proprietary mobile-first virtual card number (VCN) solution for businesses.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain has announced the launch of satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services in the country, although ‘launch’ may mean ‘authorisation’ in this case.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has signed an investment agreement with a consortium comprising Arsari Group and Northstar Group to form a new joint venture focused on fibre digital infrastructure in Indonesia.

Ericsson and Zain Bahrain announced on Monday they have expanded their strategic partnership to include Ericsson’s 5G Edge User Plane technology, which Zain will deploy to enable Industry 4.0 technologies in Bahrain’s industrial sector.

Vietnamese telecoms player Viettel said it has held “high-level bilateral working sessions” with Japanese companies Nikon Corporation and Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) as part of its preparation to help build Vietnam’s first domestic semiconductor manufacturing plant.