State-owned Uzbektelecom JSC (a.k.a. Uztelecom) and Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) said on Thursday they will collaborate to develop network security services for Uzbekistan as well as the broader Central Asian market, starting with zero-trust access.

Operators Brisanet, Ligga/Sercomtel and TIM have been declared the winners of Brazil's first reverse mobile auction, held by the Ministry of Communications, the regulator Anatel and Seja Digital, the group involved in effecting the transition to digital TV broadcasting in Brazil, which, in turn, has opened up 4G spectrum.

The 10% sell-off of Ethio Telecom is finally going ahead. In fact Reuters reports that Ethio Telecom will become the first company to list on Ethiopia’s new stock market next week when the government sells a 10% stake in the company.

Nokia has partnered with RACSA (Radiográfica Costarricense SA) to deploy the first 5G standalone (SA) network in Costa Rica.

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is reportedly demanding a full review of Starlink’s operations in the country after the LEO satellite operator jacked up its prices without regulatory approval.

Technology innovation giant Nokia and Furukawa Electric LatAm, a communications infrastructure solutions manufacturer, have announced plans to expanded their partnership, which was established in 2022, to immediately bring high-performance solutions in data centre automation to Brazil.

The South African government has revealed plans to close the connectivity coverage gap in rural areas, emphasising this as a key initiative to empower poorer communities and stimulate economic growth.

Nigerian fintech startup Okra launched a new cloud infrastructure service on Tuesday, making it the latest of several startups in the country that aim to provide a local alternative to cloud giants like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

MTC Namibia launched its mobile financial service, MTC Maris, as the Namibian government hailed the operator for “stepping ahead” of its rivals, while urging them to follow suit in order to connect the fifth of the population that remains unbanked.

All four of Egypt’s mobile operators are officially clear to offer 5G services after the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) awarded 5G licences to Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, and e& Egypt on Monday.

Burundi and Zambia are to be connected via an underwater fibre optic cable, following an agreement at the second Digital Government Africa Summit, which took place from 2-4 October 2024 in Zambia’s capital Lusaka.

We’ve written a lot this year about the effect of the devaluation of naira on telecoms services in Nigeria. But another African country where service providers have been hit by the devaluation of its currency is Ethiopia, whose state-owned telecom provider, Ethio Telecom, has now announced tariff increases across many of its services.

Mobile operator Orange Burkina Faso is reportedly unable to access almost 15% of its telecom sites due to the security situation in those areas as fighting between the military government and Islamist armed groups continues.

Ericsson said on Friday that Bangladesh telco Grameenphone has completed deployment of its mediation solution that leverages big data analytics to provide better and more useful insights into how Grameenphone’s network is being used.

Apple will begin selling iPhones manufactured in India and has revealed plans to open four new retail locations in the country.

Dialog Axiata unveiled what it described as Sri Lanka’s first AI-powered health scanning feature in its telemedicine app Doc990, which claims to be able to monitor multiple key indicators of health directly from smartphones.

Omantel and Optiva have upgraded and migrated over 200 Omantel products and services across all business lines to Optiva’s convergent charging engine, hosted on Omantel’s private cloud.

This week saw a significant agreement in the Middle Eastern data centre market as INTRO Technology announced the signing of a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Oman Data Park, the largest data centre and cloud service provide in Oman, to establish what us to be known as the Kemet data centre in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Following last week’s announcement by data centre company ODATA that is expanding its wind power supply in Brazil, another story, this time from India, underlines the growing importance of offering – and being seen to offer – clean energy.

Internet exchange operator DE-CIX has struck a deal to enter the South American market via Brazil’s Elea Data Centers, which will host its first two IX PoPs in Brazil.

5G market share will overtake 3G and 2G next year in Latin America, according to a joint study from industry association 5G Americas and research firm GlobalData. In addition, total data traffic on both fixed and mobile networks in Latin America is expected to more than double in four years.

LEO satellite operator Iridium Communications said on Tuesday that it has teamed with critical communicationss provider Satcom Direct Brasil to provide Brazilian freight train operator MRS Logística with satellite connectivity for its railway operations.

Global digital solutions provider Hayo said on Tuesday it has opened new offices in Cameroon, Niger and Sri Lanka to expand its ability to meet growing local and regional demand for digital services.

IL Cazar, a leading real estate company, has announced a partnership agreement with service provider Orange Egypt to provide Orange's telecommunications services and smart technology solutions to two of IL Cazar's prime projects in New Cairo, a satellite city within the metropolitan area of Cairo.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, a multilateral institution whose objective is to contribute to the sustainable economic development and social progress of African countries, has approved grants for digitising the Comorian economy.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel paid INR84.65 billion (US$1 billion) towards its debt for spectrum acquired in the 2016 auction, weeks after the supreme court threw out operator pleas to readjust their dues.

A London High Court has rejected an appeal by former Unitel director Isabel dos Santos to unfreeze assets worth around US$778 million.

Will Brazilian neutral network and digital infrastructure company V.tal take over financially troubled operator Oi Brasil’s fibre broadband base, ClientCo? Having last week made the sole bid for Oi’s fibre unit it’s looking very likely that it will.

A number of agreements signed last week by Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) are said to be aimed at enhancing the digital infrastructure of oil-rich cities in the country.

Ericsson announced on Friday announced that it has completed a major tech stack upgrade for Pakistan’s Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), giving its mobile wallet easypaisa a cloud-native platform on which to scale up its services.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has approved a $400 million loan for Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), marking a significant step toward its acquisition of Telenor Group’s operations in Pakistan.