Colombia’s Ministry of ICT, the European Union and CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, have signed a cooperation agreement to strengthen connectivity in Colombia and promote development in its territories, especially in rural and remote areas.

A delegation from SpaceX and its LEO satellite unit Starlink has wrapped up a series of meetings with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and other top officials to discuss expanding its investment in the country.

Telefónica has announced it will integrate Generative AI into its digital workplace management software to enhance operations at security firm Prosegur across the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America.

Indian billionaire and Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Mittal (pictured) has sold US$976 million worth of Bharti Airtel shares as he looks to secure funds for other ventures.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has reportedly limited bandwidth imports from India to 50% of Bangladesh’s total international capacity, and plans to lower that percentage even further in favour of subsea cables and satellite.

State-controlled telco Telecom Egypt said it has signed several service agreements with Orange Egypt worth around EGP15 billion (US$296.2 million) to provide transmission and infrastructure services.

Etihad Salam Telecom Company, a provider of telecommunications services in Saudi Arabia, has announced a number of partnerships in recent days, including agreements with EdgeNext, a prominent leader in the global edge cloud services industry, and with call centre solutions provider Genesys.

Multinational telecommunications company Telefonica has announced plans to start insolvency proceedings for its Peruvian subsidiary, Telefonica del Peru. Essentially, according to many reports, this is a strategic move to restructure its Peru unit by filing for bankruptcy protection.

Amid public backlash, MTN Nigeria has reversed course on a move to increase the price of its 15GB data plan by 200% and issued an apology to customers, saying the tariff hike was a “mistake”.

Cambodian operator CamGSM, commercially known as Cellcard, is planning to migrate its fibre network from gigabit passive optical network (GPON) to 10 gigabit symmetric passive optical network (XGS-PON) using Nokia’s Lightspan and Altiplano broadband solutions.

Telefónica is reportedly accelerating its exit from non-core markets by preparing to sell its Mexico unit, just weeks after it was said to be exploring sales in Argentina and Colombia.

MTN South Africa reportedly plans to shut down its 3G mobile network by the end of this year – a full year earlier than initially planned – following a successful pilot project in Cape Town to migrate 3G users to 4G and 5G.

Nokia has announced that CEO Pekka Lundmark (pictured) will depart this year to make way for Intel executive Justin Hotard, in a move seemingly aimed at sharpening its expertise in AI and data centres.

Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Samuel Nartey George, has revealed plans to establish an interministerial committee aimed at addressing the high cost of data in Ghana.

Satellite operator Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) to supply satellite connectivity for the NGO’s operations, while separately announcing it has hit its ITU Partner2Connect target of connecting 1 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa well ahead of schedule.

Indus Towers, regularly in the news in recent months, has now hit the headlines with a major tower purchase in India.

Telefónica has requested that Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce evaluate its unit, Coltel, ahead of a potential sale to Millicom as part of its ongoing divestment plan in Latin America.

Thai telco True Corp says that while it welcomes plans by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to hold a new spectrum auction in April, it objects to the reserve prices and the requirement that telcos must pay at least 50% of their winning bid upfront.

Connectivity solutions provider iBASIS announced on Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Saudi Arabian telco Etihad Etisalat (a.k.a. Mobily) to renew and extend their multi-service IPX agreement for roaming services.

Thailand has said it will suspend electricity supply to some border areas with Myanmar in an effort to curb scam centres.

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC), one of the three arms of government that conduct the affairs of the country at the federal level, has approved two major initiatives to advance Nigeria’s digital economy: the Nigeria Universal Communication Access Project and the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trust.

The Zambian Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has penalised Airtel Zambia with a ZMW4 million (US$143,000) compensation bill following continuous service disruptions on its network.

Malaysian operator U Mobile delivered average 5G download speeds of 597Mb/s in a trial on the 13.5km-long Penang Bridge using Huawei equipment, as the operator prepares to launch the country’s second 5G network.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday issued its recommendations for auctioning off millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum for 5G services at a relatively lower price than previous auctions.

Wholesale fibre optic connectivity services and infrastructure carrier InterNexa has announced a five-year US$100 million investment to strengthen connectivity in Colombia.

The fallout from the recent announcement, reported on these pages, that José Maria Álvares-Pallete had resigned from his position as Chairman & CEO of Telefónica has continued with news that he will not stay in the position of Chair of the GSMA Board of Directors.

Colombian mobile network operator Tigo cut off connectivity access to MVNO Flash Mobile users after the latter failed to pay its last two bills.

The latest African roaming agreement comes from the west of the continent, where the governments of Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at reducing telecommunications costs through improved roaming services.

As well as the revenue projections we covered earlier today, India’s Union Budget 2025 offers mixed but largely positive news for the telecoms sector, notably in areas such as rural coverage, tax on imported electronics, the space sector and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Indian government is reportedly projecting a 33% drop in telecoms revenue in its fiscal year 2026, although that’s partly due to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) raking in more telecoms revenue than expected for FY2025.

It looks like SIM card registration in Ghana, supposedly over and done by May 2023, isn’t quite finished yet, at least according to Ghana’s Minister-Designate for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Sam Nartey George.