Telecom Egypt and Aqua Comms have signed a crossing and landing agreement for the Europe Middle-East India Connect 1 (EMIC-1) subsea cable in Egypt.

Zain Group revealed it conducted the first trial for 4G/5G open RAN and cloud-native radio access (cRAN) in Kuwait, a move that bolsters the operator’s arsenal to deliver more value to customers.

Intracom Telecom has announced the supply and deployment of its Fixed Wireless Access ecosystem , the WiBAS Point-to-MultiPoint (PtMP) and the uniMS platform, by the operating company of one of the largest mines in the world, located in sub-Saharan Africa.

Connectivity and telecom solution provider Neterra has officially opened its Sofia Data Centre 2 (SDC 2), a second data centre building in the capital of Bulgaria. It is located next to the company's first data centre in Sofia, SDC 1.

The flurry of deals involving Ethio Telecom, the main – and for the moment only – mobile service provider in Ethiopia, has continued, with the purchase of a QoE solution and the introduction of yet another mobile-money-related service.

Industry body the Federation of Companies of Congo (FEC) accused the Regulatory Authority of Post and Telecommunications (ARPTC) of falsely denying it is levying operators with expensive taxes.

Orange has partnered with Moroccan health start-up DabaDoc to launch Orange Santé (Orange Healthcare), a platform dedicated to the health ecosystem in Africa aimed at both patients and doctors.

London Internet Exchange (LINX), one of the world’s largest internet exchange points (IXPs), has announced that it is forming a strategic relationship with Nairobi-based hyperscale data centre provider, IXAfrica.

Ukraine’s Kyivstar is using 2300MHz TDD frequencies to boost the capacity of its 4G/LTE network in cities where demand is escalating due to increased migration.

Estonia has opened bidding for the second of the three 3.5GHz licences that it plans to sell at auction.

Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator has fined operators all four major operators BDT76.5 million ($US823,000) for enabling illegal VoIP activities on SIM cards.

The Mexican government announced it will be the majority financer of a credit agreement of US$388 million to bail out bankrupt operator Altan Redes, a move to maintain competition in the Mexican telecoms sector against dominant player America Movil.   

A remarkable concept that could support power-hungry data centres and reduce power-wasting and environmentally dangerous gas flaring looks like gaining some traction in the Middle East after two recently announced investment deals.

Globe Telecom is reportedly considering a sale of half of its tower portfolio which could net the firm around US$1.5 billion, a move that would fund long-term 5G rollout plans and keep it on the heels of rival PLDT. 

Following years of isolationism and economic under-achievement, North Korea languishes near the bottom of the world’s telecom maturity index alongside Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (who also happen to be struggling under repressive political regimes).

Thailand’s telecom sector is relatively mature and hosts a mix of public and private sector players. The mobile market is highly developed and has experienced strong growth over the last seven years.

SoftBank Corp, a leading Japanese communication and information technology service provider, says it has secured an equity stake in German company 1NCE, described as the only provider of connectivity and software for IoT at a global flat rate. It has also signed an exclusive distribution deal covering the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Indonesian operator XL Axiata has chosen Juniper Networks solution to upgrade its existing network infrastructure, a move to support the growing demand for 5G services.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix is planning to build its fourth data centre in India, which will also be its third facility in the city of Mumbai. The company aims to invest more than $86 million developing the facility.

The return of the Taliban to power in August 2021 following the American-led withdrawal of security forces has thrown the telecom sector – along with the rest of Afghanistan’s developing economy – into disarray.

In spite of the telecom sector being one of the major contributors to Azerbaijan’s non-oil GDP, overall development, growth, and investment in the sector has been held back by years of political and civil unrest coupled with endemic corruption.

Mobileum and Smartfren have announced a multi-year deal for digital insights and network analytics in Indonesia.

Veon has agreed on the sale of its unit in Georgia to a former local partner for US$45 million, as part of plans to simplify the overall group structure.

Globe Telecom is upgrading its support services with Netcracker Managed Services to maintain a higher level of operational efficiency.

Israel’s Minister of Communications, Yoaz Hendel, has announced plans for the gradual abolition over a three-year period of connectivity rates for the networks of cellular companies and landline telephone companies.

Helios Towers has signed up Oman-based equity fund Rakiza Telecommunication Infrastructure to purchase a share in a holding company for Omantel’s passive infrastructure assets.  

In what is accurately described as a rare acquisition of a US tech company by an African tech company, MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments network, has reached an agreement to buy Global Technology Partners (GTP), which specializes in creating innovative processing and payment solutions for the prepaid industry.

Ooredoo Maldives has commenced a trial of its International Money Transfer service via m-Faisaa.

Airtel Africa acquired spectrum to expand its 4G network in the Democratic Republic of Congo to support growing data demand in the country.

Following last week’s report that ExpressVPN has decided to remove its servers from India, a second VPN provider, Surfshark, has also shut down its physical servers in the country.