Mobile industry association the GSMA has urged what it calls a sharper, investment-led push to accelerate Indonesia’s digital transformation and drive innovation.

Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest bank by assets, says it has partnered with Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications provider, to provide funding of US$138 million as part of investment towards operator Safaricom Ethiopia.

The Kenyan government has reportedly imposed conditions on the sale of a 15% stake in Safaricom to South Africa-based Vodacom Group aimed to making sure Safaricom retains its local identity.

Vietnamese telco Viettel said on Tuesday it has officially surpassed its commitment to the government to deploy 20,000 new 5G sites in Vietnam before the end of this year.

The long-anticipated merger of Telenor Pakistan with Pakistan Telecomm­unication Company Ltd (PTCL) does now appear to be close to becoming a reality after it received the approval of The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) late last week.

Mauritius Telecom (MT), the country’s leading service provider across fixed and mobile, has unveiled what it calls a new vision set to accelerate the country’s digital transformation and position Mauritius as a world-class digital hub linking Africa and Asia.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel is reportedly coordinating with Google to use its platform to launch rich communication services (RCS) messaging – making it the last of India’s private telcos to do so – once anti-spam measures are sorted out.

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison announced on Saturday it has deployed Qualcomm’s Dragonwing RAN automation suite to boost the performance and efficiency of its expanding multi-vendor network.

America Movil, a provider of telecommunications services across Latin America, says it will no longer insist on a joint purchase of financially challenged operator Telefonica Chile with another operator, Entel.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for digital technologies, has announced that the next Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27) will take place in Shanghai, China, from 11 October to 12 November 2027.

A UNDP report, published this week, warns that unmanaged artificial intelligence (AI) could reverse the trend of narrowing development inequalities that has marked much of the last half-century.

Madagascar’s Ministry of Digital Development has confirmed that the country’s operators will cut internet tariffs from this week, following talks aimed at boosting digital access, as reported by TechAfrica News.

Zimbabwe plans to introduce what it calls a 15% Digital Services Withholding Tax from January 2026. The new levy will apply to a wide range of services supplied by foreign companies with no physical presence in Zimbabwe.

Ukraine will develop a national large language model (LLM) based on Google’s Gemma, with operator Kyivstar acting as strategic partner and operational lead alongside the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agreed on a roadmap to bring connectivity to everyone around the world as the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25) closed last week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Paratus Botswana said on Friday it has updated its uncapped fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages and pricing in response to growing market demand for faster speeds at lower prices with shorter or no contractual commitments.

A partnership agreement has been announced between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies, and Senegalese regulator ARTP. The aim of this agreement is to support young women in digital development.

Vodafone Idea Telecom Infrastructure has scaled back the size of its planned bond issuance, with the company now expected to raise around INR32 billion (US$359 million) instead of the previously targeted INR50 billion, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

South African operator Vodacom and Remgro, a diversified investment holding company, have announced that regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved Vodacom’s acquisition of a minority stake in Vumatel’s parent company. The transaction will be implemented on 1 December.

The three member states of the confederation known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – have signed an agreement to coordinate the use of radio frequencies along their shared borders.

Vodacom Group has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, adopting the company’s data analytics and generative AI technologies to build new digital services tailored for African consumers and enterprises.

An interesting announcement relevant to Africa has come from official sources in the UAE, which has announced the launch of the AI for Development initiative, worth US$1 billion, to support and finance artificial intelligence projects in African countries.

There’s been a flurry of announcements from Humain, a Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned company delivering global full-stack artificial intelligence solutions, referencing names like Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), xAI and Luma AI.

Thailand is offering another strong reminder of its intentions in the data centre market with the recently reported approval of US$3.1 billion in new investments by the country’s Board of Investment (BOI) for four new data centre projects.

Globe Telecom has signed a new JPY20 billion (US$127 million) loan facility with Japan’s Mizuho Bank, adding fresh financing to support its capital expenditure plans and debt refinancing efforts.

Airtel Malawi officially launched its 5G network in select districts on Tuesday along with the nationwide rollout of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for its 4G network.

IFC, a global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, has announced a partnership with operator Orange Mali to support the company in upgrading its infrastructure, expanding broadband coverage, and ensuring equal access to telecommunications services for all communities.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is set to sell around half of its stake in Ooredoo Group in a move to raise additional capital on the Qatar Stock Exchange.