Bahrain Telecommunication Company, trading as Batelco, has announced a net profit attributable to equity holders of the company of BHD65.9 million ($174.8 million) up 16% from the previous year's figures of BHD56.7 million ($150.4 million).

Saudi Arabia’s Salam (formerly ITC) has selected Optiva’s BSS Platform to enable its new MVNO.

Dubai-based telecom infrastructure solutions provider Arc Solutions has signed an agreement with Israel ISP and IT solutions provider Bezeq International (BI) to deploy its network in Bezeq International’s data centre in Tel Aviv.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company invested US$350m (€309m) in Asian data centre operator Princeton Digital Group (PDG), backed by Warburg Pincus.

Open RAN firm Parallel Wireless is collaborating with Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks on a multivendor Open RAN initiative to deliver state-of-the-art broadband communications.

Fast Telecommunication (Fasttelco), an internet service provider (ISP) in Kuwait, has announced the launch of new fibre-optic internet speeds of 200 Mbps within its fibre residential areas in the country.

Cellcom, Israel’s largest cellular provider, and the compatriot telecommunications equipment supplier Novlesat aim to collaborate on a pilot of real-time video content distribution on 5G network infrastructure.

It appears that Syria has finally awarded the third mobile telecommunications licence it has been promising to deliver for over ten years.

Turkcell announced revenues grew  23.4% to TRY35.92 billion (USD2.64 billion) in full-year 2021 results which were supported by ‘upsell efforts, price adjustments, and subscriber growth as well as the contribution of the fintech business, international operations, and equipment sales’.

Iran has announced an ambitious project to connect over 20 million homes and businesses to the high-speed fixed fibre network in the country.

Yahsat Government Solutions (YGS), the dedicated government arm of Yahsat, which offers multi-mission satellite services in more than 150 countries, has been awarded a contract, whose value is estimated at US$247.5 million, to provide enhanced managed services to the UAE government for its satellite communications capabilities.

Saudi operator Zain KSA approved a Public Investment Fund (PIF)-led consortium offer to acquire an 80% majority stake in its 8,069-tower infrastructure for SAR3 billion ($807 million).

Overall spending on information and communications technology (ICT) across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) will top $229 billion this year, an increase of 2.7% over 2021, said a study.

Telecom Egypt, Egypt’s first integrated telecom operator and one of the largest subsea cable operators in its region, and Grid Telecom, subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) in Greece, have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) to connect Greece and Egypt using submarine cable infrastructure.

Eutelsat Communications and network company Marlink signed multi-year extensions to their global maritime partnership to support expansion in Africa and the Middle East.

Nokia bagged a contract to upgrade Saudi operator Zain’s digital infrastructure and enhance network capabilities across all regions in the kingdom.

Emirates Telecommunication Group Company (Etisalat) said that its business unit Etisalat Digital announced a partnership with NICE, an AI-powered self-service solutions provider, to drive the availability of the CXone platform in the UAE.

YahClick, the satellite broadband service of UAE-based global satellite operator Yahsat, is teaming up with an off-grid power company lear Blue Technologies to expand its services of offering high-speed connectivity in Africa.

Israeli operator Cellcom has selected Anodot’s end-to-end  zero touch network monitoring solution to improve service availability and provide early detection of potential network issues before they impact the customer experience.

The National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has allocated new frequencies to Orange Egypt, offering 30MHz in the frequency space of 2,600MHz with a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system.

Quantum Switch Tamasuk (QST), a Saudi company specialising in the design, build, financing and operation of data centres, has signed a key business principle agreement with the kingdom’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to develop and operate new data centres with a total capacity of 300MW by 2026.

Israeli fuel cell company GenCell announced a new solution that generates power from ammonia in off-grid locations for telecom infrastructure and mobile operators.

Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) has become the first telecommunications company in the Middle East region to launch the AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange) service, Manama-IX Reseller Service.

Zain Cloud, the cloud computing service provided by Saudi’s mobile telecom company, Zain KSA, has launched a suite of new cloud computing products and services to support businesses in the kingdom.

Vodafone Oman has tapped Syniverse to enable 5G roaming services in the Sultanate of Oman.

Following yesterday’s news that India is expecting a data centre development boom, activity in that sector also seems to be ramping up in Saudi Arabia, where internal and external investors have announced big plans.

Saudi Arabian operator Zain announced the rollout of the Kingdom’s first 5G standalone (SA) network in a bid to attract partners with ambitions to develop projects in vertical technologies such as IoT, AI and robotics.  

Saudi Arabian efforts to cut back on the kingdom's reliance on oil are continuing. The latest initiative involves $6.4 billion of investments in future technology.

Israeli solutions provider of 5G wireless transport Ceragon Networks announced that it has signed a deal with the Nigerian multinational telecommunications company Globacom to further expand its network and enable it to maintain its cutting-edge technology.

Mobile Telecommunication Company Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) has seen a 17.7 percent decrease in net profit in 2021 as COVID-19 driven repercussions weighed on revenues.

Israel’s Partner Communications has been awarded a contract for a new fibre link connecting two continents.