Mastercard announced on Tuesday it has launched Mastercard Pay Local, a new global service that enables digital wallet users in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa to pay locally when they travel.

Saudi Arabian telco Mobily and Telecom Egypt announced on Monday that they have signed a cooperation deal to land the first subsea cable directly linking Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

UAE-headquartered telecom and digital services provider du has this week announced two major deals: one, with tech giant Ericsson, relating to 5G network expansion and another, with strategy and consulting company Accenture, linked to IT application development and maintenance.

The Communications, Space, and Technology Commission (CST), the Saudi Arabian communications authority established to regulate, monitor and empower the communications and IT sector, has granted a licence to provide specialised wireless telecommunication services to Aramco Digital.

Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (NTRA) said it has signed an agreement with the government’s Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) to create a joint digital platform designed to resolve complaints about telecom services more quickly.

Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines have signed on for Airbus HBCplus Ka-band satellite-supported broadband in-flight connectivity.

UAE-based operator e& International revealed on Monday it has signed an MoU with Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and Intel to achieve Level 4 autonomy in all of its mobile networks by 2030, with backing from TM Forum.

Huawei’s technology is revolutionising the energy sector in the Middle East, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia—two nations committed to achieving ambitious clean energy goals. At GITEX Global in Dubai, Andy Ding, Solution Vice President of Huawei Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit, and Dr Moustafa Abdelhady M Shahin, Smart grid expert, discussed the rapid digitalisation of Dubai’s power grid, the role of smart infrastructure, the challenges of renewable integration, and other key issues.

Orange once again highlighted the “outstanding performance” of its Africa and Middle East unit, which led growth in its third-quarter financial results.

The Iraqi government is reportedly in talks with foreign companies to operate the country’s planned 5G network, a year after the 5G network plan was greenlighted by the Iraqi Communication Ministry.

Nokia announced on Tuesday it has opened its first innovation centre serving Africa and the Middle East in Morocco, which will not only provide Nokia's network infrastructure technologies to play with, but also programmes to boost digital skillsets.

Ericsson says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UAE-based operator e& International to explore the potential for developing autonomous networks powered by AI over the next three years.

The Intelsat 33e geostationary high-throughput satellite (HTS) covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Asia-Pacific experienced a permanent power failure on Saturday and has since broken up.

Colt Technology Services says it has formed a partnership with Telecom Egypt to launch two new high-speed internet transit nodes in Cairo and Alexandria that will enable both firms to offer digital services to customers across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Two UAE-headquartered companies, artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer nybl and Space42, which describes itself as an AI-powered spacetech company with a global reach, have unveiled what they call a first-of-its-kind satellite-enabled AI solution for oil and gas companies that, they say, will optimise oil wells’ efficiency and productivity.

From one dynamic city to another, Mobile Broadband Forum 2024 is a must-attend event for anyone interested in technology.

Service provider e& UAE and leading technology company Huawei have announced a strategic collaboration focused on what they describe as  revolutionising voice network innovation through convergence and voice over new radio (VoNR).

Research from Finnish vendor Nokia predicts that one in four mobile subscriptions in the Middle East and Africa will be connected via 5G within the next five years.

Ericsson announced on Tuesday it has completed an automated upgrade of Vodafone Oman’s core network applications and cloud infrastructure, which will enable the telco to deploy standalone (SA) 5G services.

Tech vendor Ericsson and service provider e& United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced the successful implementation of low latency, low loss, scalable throughput (L4S), a time-critical communication technology, in a 5G commercial network for the first time in the Middle East and Africa.

Veon announced plans to shift its headquarters from Amsterdam to Dubai, as part of a strategic alignment to bring the operator closer to key markets.

All four of Egypt’s mobile operators are officially clear to offer 5G services after the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) awarded 5G licences to Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, and e& Egypt on Monday.

Data-driven strategies for customer growth and retention are in the news again – this time thanks to a division of Zain Group, a technology and digital communications provider operating in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa.

Omantel and Optiva have upgraded and migrated over 200 Omantel products and services across all business lines to Optiva’s convergent charging engine, hosted on Omantel’s private cloud.

This week saw a significant agreement in the Middle Eastern data centre market as INTRO Technology announced the signing of a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Oman Data Park, the largest data centre and cloud service provide in Oman, to establish what us to be known as the Kemet data centre in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

IL Cazar, a leading real estate company, has announced a partnership agreement with service provider Orange Egypt to provide Orange's telecommunications services and smart technology solutions to two of IL Cazar's prime projects in New Cairo, a satellite city within the metropolitan area of Cairo.

A number of agreements signed last week by Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) are said to be aimed at enhancing the digital infrastructure of oil-rich cities in the country.

Tunisia’s three biggest mobile operators – Tunisie Telecom, Orange Tunisie and Ooredoo Tunisia – reportedly submitted their applications for 5G licences on Monday, with approval expected in the next three weeks.

Qatar-based Ooredoo Group announced on Tuesday it has signed a QAR 2 billion (US$549.4 million) financing deal to help fund its plan to accelerate its data centre business and establish itself as an AI infrastructure heavyweight in the MENA region.

Continuing a busy week for Nokia in terms of news headlines, operator Zain Iraq has announced a strategic partnership with the technology giant to upgrade its network in the south of Iraq.