South African mobile communications company Vodacom Group announced that it has invested over ZAR 450 million (USD 30 million) into the network and power backup upgrades across the Mpumalanga, a province in eastern South Africa, during the current financial year (1 March 2021 to end February 2022). 

Iran has announced an ambitious project to connect over 20 million homes and businesses to the high-speed fixed fibre network in the country.

PAIX Data Centres, a Pan-African provider of cloud-and carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, has announced the first stage of a major investment that will be used to fund the company’s data centre capacity expansion and growth plans into new African data centre markets.

The role of entertainment content in offering new revenue streams for mobile operators has again been underlined after recent deals involving Indian giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel and content suppliers.

Telia Lithuania will begin switching off 3G networks from next month as the operator aims to shut down the network entirely by Christmas this year to satisfy rising customer data demands.

Samsung will pump $920 million to upgrade a production factory in North Vietnam, as the South Korean giant bolsters its smartphone manufacturing capabilities.

Infinet Wireless, the global developer and manufacturer of broadband wireless access solutions, has assisted ASTEL, Internet service provider in Kazakhstan, to expand its backbone network via radio links in the Almaty region.

Cyient, an engineering, manufacturing, and digital technology solutions company, launched its Private 5G Networks Centre of Excellence (CoE) in India.

South African mobile operator MTN says it is on the lookout for 150 digital experts to ensure it keeps pace with growing digital demand.

Yahsat Government Solutions (YGS), the dedicated government arm of Yahsat, which offers multi-mission satellite services in more than 150 countries, has been awarded a contract, whose value is estimated at US$247.5 million, to provide enhanced managed services to the UAE government for its satellite communications capabilities.

International service provider Orange, which has a presence in 18 African countries, along with its subsidiary, Senegalese telecommunications provider Sonatel, has announced a partnership with satellite operator SES.

Cambodia’s government has reportedly pushed back the implementation of its planned National Internet Gateway (NIG), which was due to launch today.

Further evidence of the continuing importance of satellites in extending the reach of mobile services come from Brazil where satcoms equipment and services giant Hughes has announced the successful three-month pilot of what it calls a new Community LTE service in five villages in Brazil.

There’s been a shift in ownership of the dominant telecoms player in the West African island country of Sao Tome and Principe.

Gilat Satellite Networks hailed a strong Q4 as revenues were up 58% year-on-year to $67.3m, crediting this to major contract wins for the company.

5G spectrum auctions and rollout may still be some months off in India, but 5G trials are well under way. Vodafone Idea Limited (aka Vi) is the latest operator to announce that it has successfully demonstrated 5G voice over new radio (VoNR).

Saudi operator Zain KSA approved a Public Investment Fund (PIF)-led consortium offer to acquire an 80% majority stake in its 8,069-tower infrastructure for SAR3 billion ($807 million).

Indian multinational telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel has chosen Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain and Management (SCM) to digitise and simplify its finance, planning, and supply chain processes.

Russia’s largest integrated digital company Rostelecom has launched the second phase of its mega data centre Udomlya.

Brazilian operators Claro Brasil, Telefonica Brasil (Vivo) and TIM Brasil are set to take control of the spectrum licences currently held by Oi Movel, after the country’s National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) granted approval for the transfer.

Sri Lankan operator Dialog Axiata has tapped telecoms systems vendor Intracom Telecom to enhance its fixed wireless access (FWA) technology.

Hungary’s telecommunications regulator the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) launched a mobile device replacement programme to encourage consumers to trade in 2G and 3G phones for 4G devices, before planned network shutdowns.

India’s dream of becoming a semiconductor major saw a big boost with the news that Apple partner and chip manufacturer Foxconn is going to work with steel major company Vedanta in the South Asian country.

Overall spending on information and communications technology (ICT) across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) will top $229 billion this year, an increase of 2.7% over 2021, said a study.

India’s true wireless stereo (TWS) market grew  74.7% YoY (year-over-year) to 20.3 million units in 2021.

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in its region, and Grid Telecom, subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) in Greece, have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) to connect Greece and Egypt using submarine cable infrastructure.

At its 2022 Virtual Investor Day Millicom, a provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications services dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand, has made some key investment announcements.

In another example of the apparently unstoppable growth of digital finance in Africa, the African Development Fund (ADF) and the government of Malawi have signed a grant agreement for $14.2 million to undertake infrastructure upgrades and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system.

Indian digital service provider Jio Platforms and SES, a global satellite-based content connectivity solutions provider, are the latest companies to target the Indian satellite communications market with the formation of a joint venture called Jio Space Technology Limited.