Ooredoo Group, an international telecommunications company headquartered in Qatar, and Ericsson have announced the signing of a five-year strategic 5G agreement.

The long-running investment saga involving telecoms giant Vodafone, its Egyptian operation and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) seems to have ended with no deal.

Orange Morocco is implementing Neural Technologies’ revenue assurance and fraud management solution.

Iraqi operator Asiacell Telecom has selected Nokia to optimise its nationwide network, in a two-year contract beginning in January 2021.

Saudi operator STC hailed successful trials, in collaboration with Ericsson and MediaTek, to demonstrate the first global 5G carrier aggregation using low and mid-band spectrum, a move illustrating its 5G network development.

Saudi operator announced group chief executive officer Nasser Al Nasser resigned from his role and will depart the company on 28 March 2021, due to personal circumstances.

The telecommunications sector in Bahrain is robust and progressive and it contributes about 4% a year to the Kingdom’s GDP. Bahrain is striving to drive further growth in the telecoms sector in 2020 by ensuring it is competitive and adaptable to market dynamics. It has the added pressure of coping with the impact from the global Covid-19 outbreak and ensuring provision of adequate Internet services and applications to home-based citizens.

Zain KSA – the Saudi Arabian operator and part of Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications company the Zain Group – has announced the expansion of its 5G network coverage in Saudi Arabia to Dammam’s Second Industrial City.

Omani company data2cloud has announced that it has achieved official accreditation to provide cloud services to the Omani government.

Another day, another Ericsson deal. This time UAE operator Etisalat has awarded the giant networking and telecommunications company a 5G-related contract.

Western Union has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in the fast-growing Saudi Digital Payments Company (known as stc pay), a fully owned subsidiary of the Saudi Telecom Company).

Ooredoo Oman has selected Etiya to implement its digital Customer Relationship Management (CRM) transformation project.

Saudi Telecom Company has selected Comtech’s Location Technologies group to upgrade its location-based services.

Saudi Arabia is to provide 60,000 free Wi-Fi points in a number of public places thanks to a newly announced initiative.

Nokia has announced plans to deploy an internet gateway for a government-owned network in Iraq.

Oman’s ministry of finance (MoF) in partnership with Ericsson will open a centre of excellence (CoE) to explore the full potential of telecoms technologies, and facilitate 5G and IoT in the country.

Vodafone Egypt and Telecom Egypt bought fresh spectrum for a total of $1.17 billion, as both operators push on to upgrade services by boosting their respective networks.

Tunisia tipped 2022 to be the year the country launches commercial 5G services.

Israeli operator Bezeq made good on a pledge to expand its fibre optic network with the completion of its fibre optic rollout in the town of Metulla, marking the first community in Israel to be entirely connected to the operator’s fibre network.

Network testing company Ookla reported UAE-based operator Etisalat had the fastest mobile data speeds in 2020 so far.

Telecom Egypt tapped Ericsson to leverage the vendor’s technology to migrate its international gateway, in a bid to accelerate services and commence entry into the IoT market.

Telecom Egypt announced plans to construct Egypt’s largest international data centre, in a move to fortify its standing in the country as the largest subsea cables operator in the region.

The Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA) has been quick to add detail to its plans for artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships, with the signing of a number of MoUs during the kingdom’s recent Global AI Summit.

Saudi Arabia has launched a national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. This initiative, widely reported in both the regional and international press, aims to attract $20 billion in foreign and local investments by 2030 and to make the country a global leader in the AI field.

Saudi Arabia watchdog the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) revealed it is on track to becoming a 5G regulator, while unveiling a strategy to leverage multiple facets of communications and technologies to spur the telecoms sector.

Zain Group will transfer management of state-owned operator Touch to the Lebanese government by the end of this month, reported Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

Rakuten Mobile and STC signed a memorandum of understanding, with the aim to collaborate and improve mobile technologies through the use of open technology and wireless infrastructure.

Jordan’s Ahli Bank has implemented Temenos’ cloud-native Infinity solution to help it develop and deploy digital and mobile banking experiences.