Polish broadband provider Vectra was slapped with a PLN22 million (US$5m) fine for illegally raising subscription fees by Poland's consumer watchdog, which stated the company had taken advantage of consumers. 

Filipino operator NOW Telecom has selected Nokia’s Bell Labs Consulting to design a nationwide 5G Standalone (SA) network, and to design and plan a national broadband network.

Paratus, described as a full-service network spanning the African continent and connecting customers internationally, has welcomed the Roads Authority (RA) of Namibia as the latest client of its recently opened Paratus Namibia Armada Data Centre in Windhoek.

Operator Ooredoo Kuwait has partnered with Ericsson to implement Ericsson Billing across its network. The billing system upgrade has, Ericsson says, enabled 5G evolution across Ooredoo Kuwait’s network and supported it in developing competitive marketing strategies for a variety of 5G products. 

American Tower Corporation a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate, says it plans to expand its solar energy park in order to support the sustainable expansion of its neutral fibre optic network in Brazil.

Indian market leader Jio has connected 184 cities across India to its Standalone (SA) 5G network, noting that its latest expansion added a further 50 cities across 17 states.

XL Axiata hailed its deployment on the island province of Kalimantan in Borneo, where it increased base station presence by 1,100 sites (42% year-on-year), with coverage now reaching 75% of the location.  

South Sudan’s government has been availed of US$4.48 million by the country’s Council of Ministers to aid its legal appeal against the now defunct mobile operator Vivacell.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said it intends come up with a decision on whether to lift a ban on 5G around airports – but not until it has carried out a detailed study.

The 2Africa subsea cable, described as the largest subsea cable system in the world, has landed at the South African operator Vodacom’s network facility in Gqeberha. This is the first submarine cable landing in the Eastern Cape region.

Maxis, the last Malaysian operator yet to sign an access agreement with state-owned 5G agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), said it would refrain from seeking shareholder approval to join the scheme until the government completes its review of the 5G strategy implemented by the previous administration.

Iraq’s Asiacell has appointed data analytics and AI specialists LigaData to implement a new Data Governance Framework and Data Governance Centre of Expertise.

Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) has announced a six-month-long infrastructure sharing pilot. It will take place in and around Lima, using three base stations, and in Lambayeque, on the coast of northern Peru, using one. The project, supported by operators Telefónica del Perú and Entel, aims to reduce investment, operation and maintenance costs and save energy.

Tigo Panama pledged to invest US$100 million into its network this year as part of its long-term modernisation and expansion strategy, to plug in coverage gaps and ready itself for 5G.

Telekom Malaysia’s TM R&D has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ZTE that will see the companies collaborate on optical network research, bringing the first 50Gbps bandwidth experience to Malaysia.

Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) hyperscale data centre specialist AirTrunk has announced its entry into Malaysia with plans to develop a 150+ megawatt (MW) data centre.

Hard on the heels of Nokia’s collaboration with UNICEF to improve digital education and training in schools in parts of Senegal comes news of a USTDA and AirJaldi Networks partnership focusing on digital connectivity in India.

Apple is under investigation by Brazilian antitrust watchdog CADE over allegations that it is violating antitrust laws, by demanding app developers stay in its allegedly restrictive system and processes.

Madagascar’s Agency for Regulation of Technology and Communication (Autorite de Regulation des Technologies de Communications, ARTEC), revealed technical challenges are preventing operators from launching 5G services but stated commercial launches are on the horizon.  

Telecoms vendor Nokia has announced a new collaboration with UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, to bridge the digital divide by helping to improve digital education and training in schools in parts of Senegal.

Polish operator Play hailed its fixed network build-out in 2022 which resulted in the deployment of 10,500 base stations and over six million FTTH connections.

Operator Orange Madagascar and supplier of mobile and broadband wireless infrastructure solutions NuRAN have announced a network-as-a-service (NaaS) agreement.

Multiple recent data centre development announcements have underlined the growth of the sector in India. This time Airtel, CtrlS Datacentres and Google are involved.

America Movil and Telxius unveiled a new ultrahigh capacity subsea cable to link Guatemala to the US from 2025, as part of wider plans to improve global connectivity through bolstering the link between America Movil and Telxius parent Telefonica.