YahClick, the data solutions subsidiary of the UAE’s flagship satellite solutions provider Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (YahSat), has partnered with Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) to expand broadband penetration in sub-Saharan Africa and boost access to critical electronic services across the region.
Hard on the heels of last week’s long-distance licence award in Nigeria, Pan-African digital connectivity solutions company Bayobab Group has announced that it has been awarded an international network licence in Zambia, authorising the transit of capacity across borders.
Mexico’s CFE TEIT and multi-orbit satellite player SES have announced the delivery of voice and data services enabled by SES’s mobile backhaul solution to 400 underserved, remote villages and communities across the country via the very high-throughput (HTS) SES-17 Ka-band satellite.
Kazakhstan’s largest communications service provider, Kcell, has selected Ericsson as a 5G radio access network (5G RAN) partner in a seven-year partnership aimed at accelerating Kazakhstan’s digital transformation and widespread adoption of 5G technology.
Normally a free data campaign would only be of modest interest in these pages, but when web innovator Opera launches such a campaign in Ethiopia, partnering with new entrant Safaricom, whose Kenyan service it has already worked alongside, it says a lot about how the operator is looking at ways to attract subscribers in this newly competitive market.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) proposed to the government to price tariffs in US dollars and local currency, a move to fight back against hyperinflation in the country.
Saudi Arabia’s largest telecommunications company, STC, has acquired a 9.9% stake in Telefónica, a leading telecoms player in Spain, Germany, the UK and Brazil, along with a number of other Latin American countries through Telefónica Hispanoamérica. The stake is valued at €2.1 billion (about US$2.26 billion).
Pan-African digital connectivity solutions company Bayobab Group has announced that it has been granted a national long-distance operator licence by the regulatory authorities in Nigeria. Bayobab’s subsidiary in Nigeria is now empowered to facilitate long-distance traffic.
Safaricom announced it secured a deal to gain a loan of up to KES20 billion (US$137 million) from a consortium of Kenyan banks to fuel its sustainability plan, in what the operator claims is the first ESG-linked loan facility in East Africa.
Vodafone partnered with Amazon’s satellite connectivity company Project Kuiper, a move to use the latter’s low earth orbit satellites (LEO) to extend 4G/5G coverage for Vodafone and Vodacom subscribers in Europe and Africa.
King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) Development & Management Company and Orange Business, the enterprise division of Orange, have signed a deal through which Orange Business will supply a smart city platform for KAFD.
Huawei opened a cloud data centre in Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh, a move to grow its cloud services in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa.
Green energy is a regular – indeed necessary – part of most data centre development announcements these days. In fact in two recent cases – in Kenya and India – it seems to be the main event.
Following last week’s news that 5G spectrum is finally about to go on sale in Argentina, the country's three main mobile operators have been quick to express concern at the terms laid down by regulator Enacom – and now have been joined by industry association the GSMA.
State-owned Indian operators Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have signed an MoU to synergies their operations and provide pan-Indian telecom services, reported Economic Times (ET).
Chip manufacturer Intel revealed plans to invest US$1.2 billion into its Costa Rican business over the next two years, to fuel development in next-generation technologies.
Operator group Millicom announced its CEO Mauricio Ramos will be promoted to executive chair of the board, as former chair Jose Antonio Rios departs effective immediately.
Inception, the artificial intelligence (AI) applied research unit of UAE technology group G42, has announced the open-source release of Jais, described as the world’s highest-quality Arabic large language model (LLM). Jais is a 13-billion parameter model trained on a newly developed 395-billion-token Arabic and English dataset.
For mobile operators, problems with the power grid can be expensive to manage. Now Vodacom in South Africa has announce a novel solution. It’s called virtual wheeling.
The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) announced it will collaborate with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to address concerns about the drop in mobile service quality.
Latin American markets also saw smartphone shipments fall as the region experienced a 14% year-on-year drop to 27.9 million units in Q2, but is showing signs of recovery according to analyst company Canalys.
The board of Argentine telecom regulator Enacom (Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones) has approved the tender for spectrum for the provision of 5G services, albeit two opposition representatives voted against the approval.
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) has announced that it is joining forces with services platform GoDaddy.
The board of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has greenlit plans to acquire rival Telenor Pakistan with a binding offer to be tabled in September.
MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita (third, from left) met with Cameroon’s Prime Minster Joseph Dion Ngute (second, from left) to reiterate the operator’s commitment to invest in the country’s telecoms sector, despite the operator seeing its accounts frozen and garnished since last year.
Reliance Jio chairman Mukesh Ambani stated the operator is on track to spread 5G coverage nationwide by the end of the year, supported by over one million 5G sites online, reported the Economic Times.
Bahrain’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Abdullah bin Adel Fakhro, has announced the launch of iFactories, described as a national initiative to support the movement of the country’s industrial sector towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (sometimes called Industry 4.0).
Georgia’s Communications Commission has concluded an auction of 5G spectrum that attracted just one participant - Cellfie Mobile, formerly known as Veon (Beeline).
The Ghanaian government revealed plans to build a shared 4G and 5G network with operators and private investors, mirroring the Malaysian government’s strategy, as part of broader plans to build Ghana’s digital economy.
Operator MTN South Africa has announced a move into a new area of financial services. It has launched funeral cover to South African consumers under its new Khava brand – via WhatsApp.
Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) has approved the takeover of an 18.29% stake in Altan Redes by Australian investment group Macquarie.
Analyst company Canalys reported smartphone shipments in the Middle East saw 2% year-on-year growth in Q2, against the backdrop of overall shipments declining globally by 10%.
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