South Sudan detailed its plan on developing an infrastructure backbone to overcome connectivity challenges associated with being a landlocked nation and become a central hub for communications in eastern Africa.

This week has seen major announcements relating to its Mexican and Indonesian markets from Amdocs, a provider of software and services to communications and media companies.

Recent announcements in Cameroon and Kenya have underlined the importance to African communications of supporting – and being seen to support – sustainable approaches to energy and design.

Orange Côte d’Ivoire has announced a partnership with Vanu to provide connectivity in rural areas of the country.

Telecom Namibia is partnering with OMDis Town Transformation Agency for a new fibre deployment in the formerly privately-owned diamond mining town of Oranjemund.

Paratus Zambia is partnering with Meta to build a new 900km open access metro fibre network aimed at boosting connectivity across the country.

OneWeb, a global communications network powered from space, has announced the signing of a distribution partnership agreement with Airtel Africa, a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across Africa.

Pan-African data centre developer and operator the Raxio Group has held a ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of construction of its fifth – and Côte d’Ivoire’s first – Tier III carrier-neutral colocation data centre.

There’s been further success in Latin America for satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat.

Venezuela’s Digitel has upgraded its network capabilities using Optiva’s BSS platform.

Recent days have brought some cause for celebration for Mexican telecommunication company Altan Redes as it finally emerged from bankruptcy.

MTN Group has named Lebanon’s M1 New Ventures as the buyer of its Afghan unit as it prepares to finalise its exit from the market.

Fintech firm Yabx has announced that it is entering the Nigerian market.

Pan-African network operator Paratus Group has announced a multi-year agreement with global telecommunications provider OneWeb to build a gateway in Luanda, Angola. It will be operational in the second half of 2023.

Cloud services company Amazon Web Services (AWS) has this week announced the opening of its first office in Lagos, Nigeria.

Satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat Satellite Networks has announced that it has been selected to support a multi-million-dollar e-learning project in Peru.

Argentine state-owned satellite company ARSAT has said it has opened a tender for the extension of the national Refefo fibre optic network at border crossings. Offers have to be supplied by 17 November.

Several Latin American operators are set to shut down networks based on older technology standards.

Costa Rican regulator Sutel (Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones) has called on the government to help it regain control over unused 2.6GHz spectrum holdings, which it claims are “vital for the development of 5G in Costa Rica.”

Qatar Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has selected a solution to monitor mobile operators’ network quality supplied by network lifecycle automation expert Infovista.

Digital infrastructure provider Vertiv has completed the installation of Hormuud Telecom’s undersea cable landing station (CLS) in Somalia.

Nokia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nedaa, the security network provider of the Dubai government.

Dolphin Telecoms has been issued an MVNO licence by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).

The role of solar power in enabling a sustainable approach to telecommunications provision has been underlined recently by initiatives in Chile and Zimbabwe.