State-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced the awarding of two more BharatNet contracts as the village connectivity project enters its third, and presumably final, phase.

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is set to bring Realme back under its core brand structure as a sub-brand, as parent company BKK Electronics looks to better integrate resources and align its brand strategy alongside OnePlus.

RANext Technologies has been empanelled by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a Digital Connectivity Rating Agency (DCRA), meaning it is authorised to evaluate the digital connectivity infrastructure of properties to ensure seamless connectivity and readiness for smart technologies.

Veon-owned Banglalink has regained ISO 27001:2022 certification for its information security management systems, reaffirming its compliance with international cybersecurity standards.

As it suggested it would in late 2024, Zimbabwe has now started levying a new tax on payments to increasingly popular multinational digital service providers.

Africa-focused payments technology company Flutterwave is to buy Mono, an African open banking and financial data infrastructure provider.

Though it does not yet seem to have been formally confirmed by the Indian government, beleaguered operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) has apparently been granted a ten-year grace period before it has to pay more than 95% of its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.

Veon Group plans to invest US$20 million in its financial services subsidiary Mobilink Microfinance Bank, as the company looks to scale digital banking services in Pakistan.

Cambodian mobile users now have access to 5G services after the country’s three main operators, Cellcard, Metfone and Smart,  launched their respective networks at the start of the new year.

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.