Indian operator Bharti Airtel has teamed up with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to pilot the delivery of high-speed internet services across India’s rural and remote regions via a laser technology that uses light beams.

TerraPay has partnered with Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank to facilitate real-time and seamless global money transfers directly to bank accounts in Morocco.

Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (Comision Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, Conatel) has published its National Telecommunications Plan for 2023-2025.

Network operator Paratus Group has announced plans to construct Angola’s first Tier-IV-by-design data centre in Luanda.

Digital payment solutions provider and fintech enabler Arab Financial Services (AFS), and Moamalat Financial Services, which specialises in electronic payment services in the Libyan market, have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enter into a strategic partnership for the development of Libya’s electronic payment ecosystem.

In a rather surprising move, an Angolan government minister has said that plans to privatise the troubled state-owned operator Angola Telecom have been cancelled and the government is now focusing on restructuring the company.

Reliance Jio is reportedly negotiating loans with several banks to raise US$1.6 billion to purchase equipment from Finnish vendor Nokia. 

Kazakhtelecom JSC is working with A10 Networks to improve the reliability of broadband access for businesses and consumers nationwide.

Safaricom Ethiopia announced its first-ever CEO Anwar Soussa will depart his role on July 31 after taking the helm of the unit almost two years ago.

Ooredoo Qatar has announced two high-profile agreements this week, one with Dell Technologies and one with Ericsson.

Cashless innovation continues across Africa. This time Kenyan bank KCB is partnering with payment giant Visa and technology company Thales to enable contactless payment transactions.

The Indian government approved chip manufacturer Micron Technology’s plan to build a US$2.7 billion semiconductor packaging and testing facility in West India.

Guatemala’s regulator SIT (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones) is reviewing several requests for spectrum licences in the 700MHz band.

American Tower Corporation has rebuked Smile’s allegation that it “illegally disconnected” the Ugandan operator from its network.

Satellite company SES ceased merger talks with rival Intelsat, it confirmed in a statement today (June 22). 

South African operator Cell C has announced the successful completion of its move to a virtual radio access network model – some months before its originally announced target date.

Somalian service provider Somtel is deploying the DZS Saber compact and environmentally hardened coherent optics solutions to future-proof its dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) backbone network for reliable, cost-effective delivery of high-bandwidth aggregation and transport services.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) has talked up the potential benefits of privatising state-owned ICT companies.

Nicaragua’s telecoms regulator Telcor (Instituto Nicaraguense de Telecomunicaciones y Correos / Nicaraguan Institute for Telecommunications and Posts) is set to have its powers expanded by the country’s National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional).

Winity, which became a new Brazilian national mobile operator in 2021, and satellite operator Hughes have announced a pilot project involving prepaid mobile internet in remote areas.

Malawian asset financier Yellow has closed $14 million in series B funding to expand its business, which involves digital and financial products related to connectivity and solar power.

Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has lost its longstanding legal battle against Turkmenistan after it was allegedly forced to abandon its operations in the market in 2017.

Telefonica-owned business-focused company Movistar Empresas and Nokia have announced a strategic alliance to accelerate the digital transformation of companies in the Latin American region through the development of industrial IoT networks.

Digital communications technology corporation Cisco has announced plans to establish a data centre in Saudi Arabia dedicated to cloud-delivered security.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of pan-African technology group Cassava Technologies, says it has successfully installed the Mauritius Telecom T3 subsea cable connecting Mauritius to South Africa.