Another African country has begun a SIM card registration scheme. More accurately, Mauritius is bringing in registration for new cards and re-registration for existing cards.

Raxio Data Centres, a provider of carrier-neutral, Tier III data centres in Africa, has announced that it has secured an additional US$46 million in equity funding.

Three telecommunications companies have been awarded 20-year licences to develop 5G in Argentina, after bids for spectrum that netted over US$875 million for the government.

Malaysia’s Bank Rakyat has tied up with CelcomDigi to boost its digital banking services, starting with providing 5G connectivity to its fleet of portable banking vehicles.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison announced that its project with Ericsson to consolidate its two nationwide circuit switch (CS) core networks has been completed ahead of schedule.

Thai telcoms player Jasmine Group and Korean telco KT Corp have revealed plan to co-develop an AI language model that supports the Thai language.

Kenya has enacted new health laws, among them a Digital Health Act, 2023, which provides for the establishment of an integrated telemedicine and m-health system.

Brazil’s minister of communications, Juscelino Filho, has signed into  law the ConectaBR programme, whose aim is to improve the quality and coverage of mobile broadband.

The Middle East and North Africa continued to be a bright spot in Orange Group’s financials posting a 12% increase in revenue as 10 markets recorded double-digit growth for the operator. 

Thai operator AIS is still awaiting a final regulatory decision on its buyout of broadband operator 3BB, but a new study on the impact of the merger could finally spur a ruling one way or the other.

Telekom Malaysia’s Unifi TV has started producing its own original content, including TV series and movies, to diversity its content portfolio and compete against other streaming services.

Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) is in discussions to issue 5G licenses in Egypt, according to local press reports.

The government of Burkina Faso has announced a new bill that will limit SIM card ownership in the country.

Chinese equipment vendor ZTE announced it it will supply equipment to Claro Ecuador to extend its fibre network. 

Airtel announced the milestones of connecting 900,000 customers to its 5G network in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and 1.7 million in Kerala.

Malaysian operator CelcomDigi has unveiled a new unified corporate logo almost a year after the merger of Celcom and Digi, and says that almost a third of its network will be fully integrated by the end of this year.

Philippine operator Globe Telecom says it is now bundling popular digital content brands into its prepaid fiber broadband service, including video streaming, e-commerce, gaming and online dating.

Benin and Togo have signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) enabling free international mobile network roaming between the two countries.

UAE operator etisalat by e& has been busy of late. Two more partnerships with Ericsson have been announced to add to this week’s 5G downlink speed record achieved alongside the tech giant.

China Mobile and Huawei say they have established a ‘New Calling Innovation Center’ to develop new use cases for 5G calls beyond standard voice by leveraging VoNR and IMS.

The Africa-focused GSMA event MWC Kigali 2023 is well under way and is proving a useful platform for some major service providers to comment on government policy across the continent – notably on taxation.

A recent Indian Supreme Court licence fee ruling could mean that some of the country's operators will be hit with large retrospective tax demands.

Chilean regulator Subtel has published the outline of a new 5G public tender that, it says, “seeks to continue providing better connectivity to the country and be a contribution to the reduction of the digital divide”.

Globe Telecom’s corporate venture builder unit, 917Ventures, says it’s embracing generative AI to boost its tech chops as it makes plans for its existing digital products and sets its sights on new ventures.

Malaysian operator Maxis has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Digital Penang to develop a digital tech ecosystem space for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Penang’s digital start-up district.

Malaysian wholesale 5G operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), incumbent telco Telekom Malaysia (TM) and ZTE said on Tuesday they have banded together to conduct a trial of millimetre-wave 5G that promises downlink speeds of up to 28 Gbps.

Airtel Uganda has pushed back the closing date for its initial public offer (IPO).

The Government of Rwanda and SoftBank Corp have confirmed the successful testing of SoftBank's proprietary 5G communications payload in the stratosphere installed on a solar-powered High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype.