The Indian smartphone market was flat with a growth rate of only 1% in the second quarter of 2024 due to subdued seasonal demand.

The Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF) announced on Wednesday the launch of its second competitive funding round for enterprises to develop and scale solutions that can narrow the gender digital divide in developing countries.

Chad’s telecoms regulator, Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et de la Poste (Arcep), has renewed the licence of telco Airtel Chad with some new specifications and stronger QoS requirements.

Things are looking difficult for state-owned Zimbabwean mobile operator NetOne, which is now reportedly technically insolvent.

The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA), which as its name implies, brings together the region’s telecommunications and ICT regulators, is apparently hoping to encourage infrastructure sharing to lower the cost of internet access in West Africa.

MTN Benin contracted NuRAN Wireless for 200 sites to deploy  2G, 3G and 4G in rural locations across Benin.

Artificial intelligence apps have the potential to boost the African continent’s economic growth by close to US$3 trillion over the next six years – and mobile operators will be key to unlocking that, says the GSMA, the world’s biggest mobile operator association.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, says it has approved a US$100 million loan to Brazil's federal government to improve digital connectivity and expand fixed broadband coverage in the country.

South African fibre installation company Lightstruck has entered into an agreement with the Namibian City of Windhoek’s City Link initiative to advance the city’s fibre network commercialisation efforts.

Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), which owns and operates Nigeria’s communications satellite systems, has begun the process of replacing its NIGCOMSAT-1R communications satellite. It is reportedly seeking support from investors and collaborators worldwide to do this.

Analyst houses Canalys and IDC reported growth in the global smartphone market fuelled by the hype from gen AI equipped devices.

Orange’s Burkina Faso unit has formed a direct connectivity alliance with A2P voice and messaging solutions provider VOX Solutions.

Starlink has officially launched services in South Sudan with the approval of the National Communications Authority (NCA), which hopes the LEO satellite operator will bring affordable internet services to the country.

Liquid C2, a subsidiary of pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced the expansion of its Cloudmania business into the Egyptian channel partner ecosystem.

The second Mexican data centre from Brazilian company Odata, a provider of data centre services for Latin America that is controlled by US group Aligned Data Centres, has been reported as having started operations.

Namibia has joined the growing list of southern African countries where power outages have affected telecom networks and services.

Nokia and Telecom Egypt are partnering for Egypt’s first 5G launch.

Ericsson announced on Sunday that Jordanian telco Umniah will deploy its artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to reduce energy consumption across its network operations, following a successful proof-of-concept (PoC).

UAE-based operator group e& said it will continue to fight against a half a billion dollar fine for anti-competitive practices in Morrocco.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded more mobile subscribers in 2023 with over half of the country’s large population now connected, reported Ecofin Agency.

A telecoms lobby group in Zambia has warned that lengthy power blackouts caused by load shedding over the past year is taking its toll on the quality of mobile services across the country.

Nepalese telco Ncell says it is collaborating with Meta to allow mobile subscribers to access Facebook Basic Mode and text-only web browsing even if they used up their data balance or don’t subscribe to a data package at all.

Service provider Ooredoo says it has entered into a partnership with Qatar Airways to embark on what is described as a large-scale cloud adoption journey.

Ethiopian state-owned operator Ethio Telecom announced revenues and profits surged over 20% in its full year ending in June.

The GSMA announced a global coalition with major telecom players, the ITU and World Bank to improve the access of affordable handsets and connect three billion people that are not online.

Telecel Centrafrique has reportedly been forced by the Central African Republic’s Ministry of Finance and Budget to close its offices over US$4.4 million in unpaid taxes.

Turkey launched its first domestically produced communications satellite, Turksat 6A, into orbit early this week, widening the country's satellite coverage and meeting its television broadcasting needs.

Satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat Satellite Networks says it has received a follow-on six-year order worth over US$10 million from Internet Para Todos (IPT) to deliver cellular backhaul services across rural areas in Peru.

DIDWW, a provider of two-way SIP trunking services to operators and businesses all over the world, says it has expanded the coverage of its virtual phone numbers to another five territories.

The Sri Lankan government will vote this week to change a law that will pave the way for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite connectivity service to deploy on the island, reported ET Telecom.

Türkiye’s sovereign wealth fund was reportedly mulling the sale of its 26.2% shares in state-owned operator Turkcell.