It’s clearly been a busy week in Cape Town, where a number of deals have been announced at the Africa Tech/ AfricaCom event, including a strategic agreement between Vanu and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

The government of Guyana and AI infrastructure company Cerebras Systems have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build and operate an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre of up to 100MW in Wales in the Demerara region on the country’s coast.

In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, telecom operators face constant pressure to reduce costs. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the required network infrastructure, data centres, dedicated IT teams and licensing models is constantly escalating – an issue that is often compounded by outdated IT architectures. These rigid systems can hinder or prevent operators from swiftly launching new services or adopting new commercial models, leading them to miss opportunities for revenue generation.

Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata says it has partnered with the Ministry of Environment’s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) to launch a 5G-enabled autonomous water-surface cleaning robot.

Eutelsat and pan-African telecoms network services provider Paratus Group say they have signed a new multi-million, multi-year agreement to expand delivery of Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO satellite connectivity services across Southern Africa.

Efforts to curb alleged misuse of pre-registered SIM cards in Nigeria are continuing. Telecommunications regulator the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced new measures aimed at eliminating the sale and use of these cards, according to local reports.

Operator MTN Zambia and tech company Huawei have jointly launched what is claimed to be the world’s first AI-powered adaptive power backup solution for emergency resilient networks.

Ericsson has strengthened its R&D presence in India with the launch of a new Radio Access Network (RAN) Software Research & Development unit in Bengaluru, focused on advancing 5G and 5G Advanced technologies.

Huawei has secured a contract worth US$70 million to upgrade the network of Ghanaian operator Telecel, as part of a nationwide modernisation effort.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) has teamed up with Nokia and NVIDIA to open an AI-RAN Research Center in Surabaya, Indonesia, marking a major step toward building AI-native telecom networks in the country.

Technology giant Ericsson and Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), to reinforce collaboration over a three-year period and support the development of Egypt’s information and communications technology (ICT) and digital services industries.

More families are streaming High-Definition (HD) movies and play cloud games. Enterprises are increasingly moving their services to the cloud and embracing remote work. AI models are processing massive amounts of data for analysis and decision-making. With all of these changes afoot, the question arises, how should Internet Service Providers (ISPs) adapt in order to better serve their customers?

Orex SAI – the Open RAN joint venture between NTT DoCoMo and NEC – announced on Wednesday its new Indonesian subsidiary has started deploying Open RAN-based 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) 1.4-GHz services across parts of the country with local network service provider Solusi Sinergi Digital (Surge).

Vodacom Group revealed on Wednesday it has signed an agreement with Starlink to leverage its LEO satellite service across Africa for enterprise connectivity and mobile backhaul, although not yet in its home base of South Africa, where Starlink has yet to receive regulatory approval.

Huawei gathered experts in innovation and intellectual property rights (IPR) in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss and promote the importance of IPR in driving innovation, the need to balance openness in IP licencing with vigorous IP protection, and Huawei’s role in both.

Thuraya, a subsidiary of Space42, the UAE-based AI-powered spacetech company, has announced the commercial rollout of its next-generation mobile communications satellite, Thuraya-4, in South Africa.

Cassava Technologies, a technology company with a strong presence in Africa, has announced the launch of its Cassava AI Multi-Model Exchange (CAIMEx), a platform designed to make the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) tools and large language models (LLMs) easily accessible to mobile network operators (MNOs) across Africa.

ONATi, the incumbent telecommunications service provider in French Polynesia, has migrated the management of its interconnect voice traffic and national and international partners to Oculeus’ Captura NG solution.

Satellite technology company Avanti Communications announced on Tuesday it has expanded its partnership with Türksat with a new agreement that aims to extend high connectivity solutions across Africa, particularly underserved regions in Southern Africa.

SES and Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) announced on Tuesday they have successfully upgraded over 200 telecoms sites across Côte d’Ivoire to deliver 2G and 3G mobile data services to over 500,000 people in rural and previously underserved areas.

The United Arab Emirates regulator, The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), has announced the launch of what it calls the 6th Generation (6G) Initiative in the country.

UN partners, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and GSMA, announced on Monday they are working on expanding efforts in Chad and other refugee-hosting countries to provide affordable connectivity to millions of forcibly displaced people and local communities in the next five years.

Pan-African telecoms network services provider Paratus Group announced on Monday it has launched “Paratus 500”, a service that leverages all of its licenced fibre and satellite operations in 15 sub-Saharan markets as a single network.

Dhiraagu said on Monday that it has inaugurated its third data centre in the Maldives – this one being a certified Tier III facility in N. Velidhoo, which also makes it the first to be located in the atolls.

A number of major data centre operators in the Philippines have come together to form what is described as a unified alliance that aims to strengthen the country’s position as the next digital hub of Southeast Asia.

BENEFIT, a leading Bahrain company in fintech and electronic financial transactions, licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) as an ancillary service provider to the Kingdom’s financial services industry, has announced a deal that will help to enable real-time cross-border payments between Bahrain and India.

It’s a major news day for data centre developments in Nigeria, and specifically Lagos, a city for which two leading names in Africa, Equinix and Rack Centre, have just announced big data centre and cloud service plans.

Paratus Botswana announced on Friday it is extending its national network coverage to Tati Siding, near Francistown, as part of its broader strategy to increase access to quality internet services for more communities and businesses across the country.

DITO Telecommunity and InfiniVAN announced on Friday they have signed a reciprocal fibre-sharing arrangement that they say will enhance network resilience, operational coverage and digital capacity across the Philippines.

Morocco’s three main telcos – Maroc Telecom, Orange Maroc and Inwi – officially launched 5G services in the country on Friday, mainly in urban centres, four months after receiving their 5G licences.

Veon Group’s Beeline Kazakhstan has partnered with Starlink to deliver mobile connectivity across Kazakhstan, extending service to remote regions currently beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.