Plans to build a fibre-optic submarine cable connecting six members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have reportedly been moving forward this month after key meetings in Guinea-Bissau and Guinea.

Vodacom announced it will increase investment into the Free State and Northern Cape provinces in South Africa, a move to boost capacity and resilience particularly in rural areas.

Mobile internet adoption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo surged 40% to 28.9 million subscribers, according to the country’s telecoms regulator.

Two Cameroon utilities, Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) and Cameroon Water Utility Corporation (Camwater), have signed an agreement to share infrastructure.

Orange opened its IoT digital platform to energy suppliers in Africa and the Middle East that tracks payment, solar kits and smart meters in rural locations, in a bid to boost uptake of its services and electricity in emerging markets.

Chile’s Movistar Empresas, the business-focused division of operator Movistar, has announced the deployment of an LTE-M network in the country, which, it says, will allow organisations of various sizes to connect their Internet of Things (IoT) devices with greater energy efficiency.

A financing package from development finance institutions IFC  and Proparco has been announced for digital infrastructure provider WIOCC Group. WIOCC says the package will fund its expansion strategy in three African countries.

Peru-based telecoms operator Global Fiber says it has selected Brazilian fibre-optic vendor Padtec and Peruvian telecoms firm Satelital as primary suppliers for a subsea ‘festoon’ network connecting two provincial capital cities in Brazil.

State-owned telco Kazakhtelecom JSC has reportedly signed separate deals this week – one to finalise the selloff of its mobile unit MTS, and the other to build a subsea cable connecting Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

More space-related announcements have recently been made, this time by Zimbabwe and Namibia, underlining the continuing growth of satellite communications initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa.

Vodafone confirmed media reports regarding its sale of shares in infrastructure company Indus Towers to pay down debts accrued in India.

Chinese LEO satellite operator Geespace said on Tuesday it has successfully tested its ‘Geely Future Mobility Constellation’ network outside of China for the first time with Oman-based satellite services provider Azyan Telecom.

Claro Chile, a subsidiary of giant mobile network operator América Móvil, has won the second 5G tender in Chile, making it the fourth operator permitted to offer 5G services in the country.

A programme of indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi 6 access points, which provides internet resources for 1.3 million students across Morocco, is to use wireless technology from Cambium Networks, a leading global provider of wireless networking solutions.

Mobile money adoption surged 327% in the past five years in Benin showcasing the rising popularity of the technology.

Telecom Namibia said on Monday it has signed a five-year transformative partnership with Huawei Technologies to modernise and expand coverage of its mobile network, to include 5G.

Digitel South Sudan has launched what it says is the first 5G trial in the country, which it hopes can help address the digital divide in South Sudan where the majority of people remain unconnected.

An AI-focused partnership between satellite operator Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) and technology company Vault Hill described as ‘ground-breaking’ may, for once, justify the term.

Hughes Network Systems, a provider of broadband satellite services, products and managed network solutions, has announced a major sale involving Saudi Arabia.

Africa Data Centres, which owns and operates Africa's largest network of interconnected, carrier and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, says it has unlocked funding that will allow it to expand data centre capacity and meet the growing demand for cloud computing services in South Africa.

Senegal’s three mobile operators have reportedly agreed to lower telecoms service costs – potentially as soon as later this week – in response to the government’s call to deal with longstanding complaints from consumers on the issue.

Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata says it has launched a smart tracking solution for vehicle and fleet monitoring, which also uses its 4G network to power various data-based monitoring features.

Recent satellite internet news coming out of Latin America and India is a reminder that Starlink isn’t having things entirely its own way when it comes to satellite internet.

Ethiopia halted the sale of shares of its state-owned operator Ethio Telecom to foreign companies, to prioritise domestic retail investors instead, reported Bloomberg.

­­Smartphone shipments in Africa surged 24% in the first quarter of this year due to lowering inflation and new device launches.

Telecom Italia’s international arm Sparkle said on Wednesday it has signed a deal to provide international capacity services to state-owned telco Telecom Namibia via Google’s Equiano subsea cable.

Only days after the news that multinational telecommunications company Digicel Group had announced that its new subsea fibre cable Deep Blue One, serving the Caribbean and the northeast tip of South America, had gone live, Infinera, a supplier of open optical networking solutions and advanced optical semiconductors, has announced that Digicel has deployed Infinera’s GX Series modular platform.

Google recently published a blog about its sixth annual Google for Brazil event, where it shared news of investments and innovations in the country. Not surprisingly, the innovation that seems to have attracted the strongest press attention has been an anti-theft artificial intelligence (AI) feature for phones.

MTN South Africa and Huawei co-hosted the IP Day Summit themed "Net5.5G Network Development.”

Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia announced on Monday that it has launched commercial operations in the war-torn Tigray region, and is in the process of building a 4G network that will be upgradeable to 5G.

Communications and IT services provider Speedcast says it recently hosted an inaugural event to celebrate the new purpose-built teleport facility in Cali, Colombia that now serves as the ground infrastructure gateway in Latin America for Eutelsat OneWeb.