Mozambique is set to introduce biometric SIM verification as it seeks to improve the registration and activation process for SIM cards.

Safaricom expanded its 5G network in Kenya to 21 counties where around 400,000 subscribers are now able to tap into speeds between 400Mbps to 700MMbps.

Latin America and Africa could be among the beneficiaries of plans recently announced  by Gilat and Intelsat to strengthen their strategic partnership.

Troubled Brazilian operator Oi chose to postpone publishing its 2022 financial results, reported Reuters.

Rack Centre, which describes itself as the only carrier and cloud-neutral Tier III Constructed Facility Certified data centre in Africa, has revealed plans to build a new 12MW data centre in the Ikeja area of Lagos in Nigeria.

Panama’s regulator has recommenced its attempts to find a taker for Digicel Panama’s licence after the sole bidder General Internacional Telecom Panama (Gitpan) failed to provide adequate documentation.

Huawei announced it has developed a key enterprise IT management software to cut its use of a solution from Oracle, as the vendor strives to become less reliant on US technology.

Africell has launched its mobile money platform Afrimoney in Angola as the operator highlighted low mobile finance penetration in the country in its pursuit of growth.  

Tanzania's incumbent telecom operator Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) has signed a Tsh 37.3 billion (US$15.9 million) contract with tech giant Huawei for the extension of the country’s National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) to 23 districts.

Submarine cable activity seems to be far from slowing down in Africa. In fact plans for two more cables, one connecting France and Tunisia and one involving the ECOWAS region, have recently been announced.

Huawei is set to supply Teletalk Bangladesh with a suite of solutions aimed at preparing the operator for 5G and boosting rural operations.

Hondutel, the national fixed line provider of Honduras, has signed a new agreement with Starlink to deliver satellite connectivity to remote areas of the country.

Mobile money accounts grew 13% to 1.6 billion in 2022 as daily transactions reached in value of US$3.45 billion, according to trade body the GSMA.

Customers of Icosnet , Algeria’s sole private ISP provider, will now be able to access Liquid Dataport’s digital communication services following a new agreement between the firms.

The Nepalese Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has reportedly pulled Smart Telecom’s licence again for failing to pay its renewal fee and associated fines on time.

Ericsson says it has enhanced its remote management feature on Etisalat Egypt by e&’s network by implementing the Ericsson Smart Connected Site solution, enabling diesel generators that run in shorter bursts to save up to 40% in fuel cost and in carbon dioxide emissions.

Nokia is supplying its WDM optical network solutions for Lightstorm’s network expansion into the Eastern and Northern regions of India.

Network International, an enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, says it has renewed its partnership with one of Nigeria’s largest financial service providers, Polaris Bank Limited, to deepen financial inclusion and digital transformation.

Chinese vendor ZTE has won two more notable contracts. One, in India, is from Vodafone Idea. The other, in Brazil, is from new entrant Unifique.

Cellcom, a leading service provider in Israel, and open RAN software platform provider Parallel Wireless have announced the launch of what they describe as their first-of-a-kind pilot, which will demonstrate the deployment of autonomous 5G standalone (SA) core sites in Israel.

Following on from last year’s announcement, reported on this site, that internet exchange operator AMS-IX had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with MainOne’s Lagos data centre, MainData Nigeria (MDXi), AMS-IX and MDXi have announced the launch of a new internet exchange in the city.

A sustainability-linked debt facility of up to US$170 million in multiple tranches has been secured by Raxio Data Centres, a leading pan-African data centre developer and operator.

Apple sales in India surged to hit almost US$6 billion in the year through March according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.

Within the space of a few hours on Sunday 16^th April, MTN Sudan was ordered by the state regulator to block then restore access to internet services amidst escalating fighting in the country.

There’s been good news recently for South Africa’s telecommunications sector, with Cassava Technologies and AWS announcing major investments and Vodacom saying it plans to enhance its network spending.

Mozambique’s state asset management unit is taking over the daily operations of Mocambique Telecom (Tmcel).

Senegal’s telecoms regulator announced plans to introduce national roaming between operators to bolster coverage in the country.

Digital infrastructure and technology provider Cirion has announced the expansion of its fibre network and data centre capabilities across Latin America “to better serve the growing demands of our customers and continue to migrate workloads to hybrid cloud solutions”, as the company puts it.

Meta Platforms launched a payments tool in WhatsApp designed for SMEs in Brazil, with plans in future to roll out the feature in other markets.

Uruguay’s regulator URSEC (Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones / Regulatory Unit of Communications Services) has agreed to delay the 5G spectrum auctions that it had scheduled for 28^th April in response to an extension request from Claro Uruguay.

Not long after last year’s efforts by Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) to register SIMs, culminating in over 8 million unregistered SIM cards being deactivated, the NCA now plans to introduce shortcodes to verify SIMs linked to Ghana Cards.