Two tower-related stories from Malaysia indicate the continuing need for reliable infrastructure to meet the requirements of underserved rural areas.

Raxio Group, which describes itself as Africa’s premier platform of carrier-neutral, colocation, Tier III data centres, has invested in the first carrier-neutral Tier III data centre in Cote d’Ivoire.

Veon has signed a seven-year agreement with Amdocs to enable innovative digital services for its customers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. 

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has notified the amendment to the Unified Licence (UL) Agreement for calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) for computation of licence fee.

Chinese telecom equipment and networking gear provider ZTE Corp has reported a more than 100% jump in nine-month financial results to the end of September.

JioPhone Next, the smartphone jointly developed by India's largest 4G network Reliance Jio and global internet major Google, will run on a new operating system called Pragati OS. The Pragati OS, powered by Android, has been built specifically for the country.

American multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs, through its Goldman Sachs Asset Management unit, signed a credit agreement with Elea Digital, the digital infrastructure unit of Brazilian group Piemonte Holding, to expand data centers.

The Arabian Internet and Communications Services Co, known as Solutions by STC, a Saudi end-to-end digital solutions innovator, is the latest big name to become involved in the development of the new Saudi Arabian city Neom.

Santa Fe province – an area in northeastern Argentina – is to get a massive fibre boost after the government of the country approved the start of the Santa Fe + Conectada programme, which aims to deploy almost 4,000 kilometres of fibre optics.

Ukraine is set to broaden the remit of its telecoms regulator NCCIR (National Commission for State Regulation of Communications & Informatization) as the country looks to align its legislation with Europe’s.

With network traffic surging, Omantel has deployed Ciena’s coherent optical technology to connect data centres, submarine cable landing stations and telecom exchanges in various regions across Oman.

5G smartphone sales have jumped 8.1 percent to hit 15.1 million units, accounting for 70.5 percent of total sales, reported Shanghai Daily.

Croatian telecommunications company Hrvatski Telekom (HT) has become the first operator in Croatia to trial the capabilities of the 5G+ network, achieving speeds of up to 4 Gbps and network response times of 10ms.

Russia’s national telecommunications operator Rostelecom PJSC has designed a cloud platform in cooperation with the company JSC MCST, which has developed the Elbrus processor.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Saudi Arabia-based digital company that offers telecommunications services, has deployed Huawei's BladeAAU Pro solution on its sites for the first time.

Africell has confirmed plans for an ambitious expansion of its network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Philippines telecoms giant PLDT has announced plans to build its largest and most powerful data centre. The aim, according to local news reports, is to attract global technology giants and cloud service providers to the Philippines.

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s HT Mostar has signed new equipment deals with Croatia’s Ericsson Nikola Tesla (ENT) worth over HRK31 million (USD4.8 million).

India's debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) announced a partnership with private LTE and fifth-generation solutions platform provider Athonet to test 5G-based solutions to build Industry 4.0 for enterprise use cases.

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, announced the formation of the Asia Pacific (APAC) 5G Industry Community.

Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, received the operating permit from Chilean telecoms regulator the Department of Telecommunications (Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones, Subtel) to operate five satellite ground stations, enabling the operator to launch commercial services on a national level.

Emirates Telecommunication Group Company (Etisalat) and Microsoft have joined forces to unlock new 5G scenarios with Azure Multi-access Edge Computer as part of their strategic partnership.

The new mobile communications entrant in the Angolan market, Africell, says it has taken another major step towards launching services in Angola by opening a data centre in Luanda.

Multilateral development finance institution the African Development Bank has signed a grant agreement for $500,000 with Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDFS), a fintech subsidiary of operator MTN Nigeria. The grant will be used for a study into economic, religious, and social factors hampering access to finance for women in northern Nigeria.

Indian operator Vodafone Idea has indicated its willingness to accept a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) offer of a spectrum payment moratorium, part of a number of measures that may offer relief for the cash-strapped company.

Etisalat Group, a leading telecom group in emerging markets, and AI and cloud computing company Group 42 have announced plans to merge their data centre businesses.

After suffering a sharp retraction in the number of subscriptions and revenue during 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis, Peru’s telecom sector managed to stage a small recovery in the first half of 2021. The extent of the decline, however, will take some time to recover from fully.

Bangladesh’s economic resurgence over the last decade took a battering in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country had been on track to move off the United Nation’s Least Developed Countries list by 2026, however the crisis may have pushed that back a few years.

Indian government-owned telecommunications service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has received Inflight and Maritime Connectivity (IFMC) license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to offer Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) mobile broadband services in the country.

Mexican telecommunications company America Movil announced that it was "ready" to launch a 5G market in Mexico.

Analysts from direct carrier billing (DCB) protection firm Evina, and DCB implementation specialists Telecoming, have developed the first Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) Index. This aims to provide an overview of the current state of the DCB business and its potential.