Recent announcements from Oman and Nigeria underline the continuing growth of data centres across multiple regions outside their traditional homes in the US and Europe.

Algeria’s regulator has issued fines to the country’s three mobile providers for failing to improve their 4G/LTE coverage.

Batelco has announced that it has successfully activated 5G coverage across Bahrain.

Two connectivity deals have been announced in Oman in the past few days, both relating to the extension of communications services to remote parts of the country.

Ooredoo Qatar’s CEO Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Thani has claimed that the operator’s coverage in the market has reached “more than 90% of populated areas.”

Turkey’s regulator has cleared the government-backed Turkey Wealth Fund to take a controlling stake in fixed and mobile operator Turkcell.

Morocco has developed one of the most advanced telecommunications markets in Africa, supported by the government’s Maroc Digital 2020 strategy to encourage the development of a digital economy and on the National Broadband Plan which aims to provide fixed or mobile broadband access to the entire population by 2022. The country had the fastest mobile broadband data rates in Africa as of June 2020, a testament to investments made by the MNOs over the years.

The United Arab Emirates’ telecommunications regulator set an ambitious target of 100% 5G coverage in the country by 2025, in a bid to become technology leaders of the network standard in the Middle East.

Turkcell has completed the next phase of its OSS transformation using Netcracker’s suite of solutions.

Telecom Egypt has applied to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to acquire a holding of 2600MHz TDD spectrum.

MFS Africa and Moroccan mobile money provider inwi money are bringing smooth and affordable international digital money transfers and payments to Morocco.

Marketing and communications industry publication Campaign Middle East has reported that the news service Sky News Arabia is the first TV broadcaster in the region to have a live 24/7 channel output in what is referred to as mobile-friendly vertical mode.

Six days after agreeing to the Dh800 million (about $218 million) deal, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company has reportedly formalised the sale of a 26 percent indirect stake in Khazna Data Centre to another UAE group, Technology Holding Company.

According to a report last week from Ecofin news agency, Algeria can soon expect reinforcements to its existing compliment of undersea fibre connections.

As another reminder of the growing strength of OTT services in mobile-dominated markets, OSN, (Orbit Showtime Network) has signed a multi-year partnership with Vodafone Egypt.

The recent news of a deal between leading aerospace industry company Airbus and Al Yah Satellite Communications Company, a leading global satellite operator in the UAE, has been quickly followed by another contract announcement – this time involving L3Harris Technologies.

Cellcom Israel has announced the conclusion of the purchase of former rival operator Golan Telecom.

Algeria is issuing its three mobile operators with additional spectrum holdings in a bid to restore connectivity after extensive network outages.

Israel is about to join the ranks of 5G countries after the award by the Israeli regulator of licences for the country’s 5G networks.

Another long-running merger saga appears to be close to an end with the news that Israel’s communications minister has approved the merger of operators Cellcom and Golan.

Israel’s Ministry of Communications (MoC) has stated that the country is in the final stage of its 5G spectrum tender.

MTN Group has confirmed that it will focus its strategy on its core African markets in the medium-term future.

Ooredoo Qatar has launched a Nokia-powered cloud-native core network for commercial 5G services.

In what is described as a “tech milestone”, operator Ooredoo Qatar and Ericsson have successfully trialled 200MHz mid-band spectrum and achieved a claimed record system throughput of 4.2 Gbps using the latest Ericsson Radio System products.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology has claimed that the country has completed successful trials of 5G technology.

Turkcell is deploying Odine's end-to-end wholesale voice management platform to drive business automation and routing intelligence for its wholesale voice interconnect network.

Tata Communications has procured a local licence to provide telecoms services in Saudi Arabia.

5G trials are on the way to Algeria and Mexico, according to recent reports, though the uses of 5G being tested will be very different.