Iraqi telco Asiacell announced a slew of AI-related partnerships at this week’s MWC Doha 2025 event with Google Cloud, Cisco, Enea, Evam and Druid AI, most of which are aimed at improving the customer experience.

MTN Digital infrastructure – a.k.a. Bayobab – says its South Sudan subsidiary, Bayobab Infra Solutions, has been awarded a license from the country’s National Communications Authority to construct, install, and operate fibre networks.

Vodacom Tanzania launched a global payments service for its M-Pesa mobile money platform on Thursday that enables Tanzanian customers and merchants to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments while traveling and doing business abroad.

Beyon Connect, part of Bahrain-headquartered technology company Beyon Group, the Ivorian postal service La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire, and Post Connect, an Egyptian company specialised in technical solutions for electronic trust services, have signed a memorandum of understanding.

It is – as so often these days – a busy time for finance initiatives targeting developing regions. Indeed, two recent announcements relevant to such regions involve pan-African operator MTN.

Pakistan has expanded its international connectivity after landing the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable system, adding a major new high-capacity route linking the country to markets between Singapore and France.

South African operator Vodacom and Remgro, a diversified investment holding company, have announced that regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved Vodacom’s acquisition of a minority stake in Vumatel’s parent company. The transaction will be implemented on 1 December.

One Hungary will serve Direct One’s satellite TV subscribers from December following regulatory clearance for the acquisition of the platform’s Hungarian customer base.

Orange Morocco has opened a new 1.5MW data centre in Casablanca, expanding the operator’s local hosting and cloud capacity as the country pushes ahead with its Maroc Digital 2030 agenda.

5G subscriptions across the Asia–Pacific region are expected to reach 4.6 billion by 2030, up from 2.7 billion in 2025, according to GlobalData.

Telkomsat, Indonesia’s leading satellite service provider, has formally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australia-headquartered satellite IoT company Myriota, to bring its connectivity and solutions platform to the country.

South African operator MTN and technology giant ZTE Corporation have announced three major joint innovations in South Africa that they say will transform network performance and customer experience.

Amazon has started trialling its Leo (Project Kuiper) satellite broadband service with selected enterprise customers, marking the first phase of a broader commercial rollout planned for later this year to take on Starlink.

Jiangsu, one of the most economically dynamic coastal provinces in eastern China, has a permanent population of over 85 million and has ranked first nationwide in per-capita GDP for 16 consecutive years. Its 13 cities boast diverse cultural heritages and historical backgrounds, creating a “mega-market” with varied demands.

Thai telco True Corp announced on Tuesday that it has become the first mobile operator in Thailand to achieve Level 4 autonomy validation from TM Forum for 5G service assurance and RAN energy efficiency optimization.

NeutraDC Singapore – a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia-owned NeutraDC – revealed on Tuesday it has signed an MoU with Indonesian operator Super Sistem to connect the latter’s planned subsea cable between Singapore and Indonesia to its data centres in both countries.

Nokia announced on Tuesday it has partnered with Indian neutral telecoms infrastructure provider RailTel to upgrade its DWDM National Long-Distance (NLD) network and metro optical transport networks across India.

China has launched a two-year commercial trial programme for satellite Internet of Things (IoT) services, a move designed to expand low-Earth-orbit (LEO) connectivity and speed up adoption of non-terrestrial IoT across key industries.

The three member states of the confederation known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – have signed an agreement to coordinate the use of radio frequencies along their shared borders.

Technology giant ZTE, operator China Unicom Liaoning and Dalian Changhai Airport have announced the successful launch of a 5G-Advanced (5G-A) ISAC private network aimed at improving low-altitude security and airport safety.

Vodacom Group has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, adopting the company’s data analytics and generative AI technologies to build new digital services tailored for African consumers and enterprises.

ZTE and state-owned Ethio Telecom revealed on Monday that they have successfully deployed 152 rural base stations across Ethiopia’s remote regions, providing 2G, 3G and 4G mobile coverage for over 1 million users in underserved areas.

DigitalBridge’s Vantage Data Centers announced on Monday it has closed its acquisition of Yondr Group’s 300MW+ hyperscale data centre campus in Johor, Malaysia via a US$1.6 billion equity investment in its APAC platform by an affiliate of GIC, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Reported last week but only recently receiving wider coverage is the news that a Brazilian company – Rio de Janeiro-based Sollar Machine – has announced an investment of about US$9 million to build a data centre in Paraguay that will operate independently of the national power grid.

An interesting announcement relevant to Africa has come from official sources in the UAE, which has announced the launch of the AI for Development initiative, worth US$1 billion, to support and finance artificial intelligence projects in African countries.

Space Communication Technologies (SCT), Oman’s national satellite operator, has awarded a contract to Airbus Defence and Space, a major player in the aerospace industry, for OmanSat-1, the first Omani satellite.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel has reportedly accused domestic telecoms vendor Tejas Networks of installing "sub-standard equipment" in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL's) 4G network, which Airtel claims is disrupting its network in the Rajasthan circle.

Edotco Bangladesh announced on Friday it has signed a new five-year space and power lease agreement with tower firm Summit Communications that it says sets the groundwork for a more integrated infrastructure model for accelerating tower rollouts,.

The Solomon Islands is set to get a second international subsea cable connection via a project funded by the Australian government to build a subsea cable that will interconnect with Google’s planned Bulikula system.

Ethio Telecom has partnered with Awash Bank to launch Tila, a new digital credit, savings and device-financing service available through the operator’s Telebirr mobile money platform.