MWC 2023 may almost be over but  there’s still time for at least one more major show announcement involving giant vendor Nokia – this time with Indonesian telecommunications provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH).

At MWC 2023 operator Singtel and vendors Ericsson and Qualcomm have announced the successful achievement of a maximum upload speed of 1.6Gbps on 5G millimetre wave. Achieving this upload speed is described as an industry first.

Rohde & Schwarz, a leading name in test and measurement, has added 3GPP NTN test capabilities to verify the world’s first 5G satellite-to-mobile messaging smartphone from Bullitt, a leading manufacturer of rugged phones.

Etisalat launched standalone (SA) 5G in the United Arab Emirates, claiming this to be the first SA 5G in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ooredoo Group has selected Nokia to upgrade its existing radio access networks (RAN), as well as deploy new sites in Algeria and Tunisia.

Estonian regulator TTJA (Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Jarelevalve Amet / Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority) has opened applications for its upcoming auction of 5G-ready 26GHz spectrum.

Botswana's Debswana Diamond Company Limited and Huawei have jointly announced at MWC 2023 the world's first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project.

iBASIS, a provider of communications solutions for operators and digital players worldwide, and Sequans Communications, a developer and provider of 5G/4G chips and modules, have announced during MWC 2023 that Actility, a leading provider of IoT connectivity platforms, has chosen iBASIS and Sequans to roll out programmable cellular IoT solutions with eSIM and iSIM.

CFE-TEIT, the communications subsidiary of Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, and global communications company Viasat have signed an agreement to provide high-quality satellite connectivity to 850 underserved communities across Mexico.

Mauritius Telecom, the largest ISP in Mauritius, has announced plans to use artificial intelligence-based technology to enhance visibility and optimize its residential Wi-Fi connections through a partnership with Aprecomm, a company that offers cloud-based automated solutions to enhance wired and Wi-Fi network performance.

Indonesia’s Telkomsel is boosting its collaboration with ZTE, with the two parties signing an MoU at Mobile World Congress 2023 that will see them jointly develop enterprise 5G services.

Chinese equipment vendor ZTE and China Mobile won the “Best Mobile Innovation for Connected Economy” award at the Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

UAE operator du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), and Ericsson have announced a strategic partnership at MWC 2023 to transform du’s information technology (IT) operations. du will leverage Ericsson's artificial intelligence (AI) and Ericsson business and operations support systems services (BSS/OSS) to improve quality, unlock efficiencies, and increase agility.

NVIDIA, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) computing, is developing a new AI-on-5G solution that combines 5G vRAN, edge AI and digital twin workloads on an all-in-one, hyperconverged and GPU-accelerated system. Built with NTT DOCOMO, Fujitsu and others, the all-in-one solution enables telcos to deliver immersive graphics, metaverse applications and computer vision from a single server.

New figures from GSMA Intelligence, announced during MWC 2023, show that 5G connections are expected to double over the next two years, expedited by technological innovations and new 5G network deployments in more than 30 countries in 2023 alone. Of the new networks to be deployed in 2023, it is expected that 15 will be 5G standalone networks.