All Tech News

The Malaysian Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) has this week said that it will address sustainability issues in the data centre industry – but will that cause problems for some data centre businesses now in development?

Independent tower operator IHS Towers announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary in Nigeria has signed a deal with MTN Nigeria to renew and extend its tower master lease agreements until December 2032.

Telecom Egypt said on Wednesday it has signed a multi-year agreement with Mada Communications to be its “preferred strategic provider” for international application-to-person (A2P) messaging services.

Indonesian telco Telkomsel says it has rolled out 49 new base stations to support 5G and 4G services in the country’s new capital of Nusantara (IKN), which would make it the only 5G service provider in the city when it’s officially inaugurated on August 17.

MTN Nigeria says it has taken full ownership of Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) after buying the 7.17% share owned by Acxani Capital for around NGN6.95 billion (US$4.36 million).

Global data centre company Vantage Data Centres officially broke ground on its second Malaysian data centre in Cyberjaya on Tuesday, whilst also signing a deal with electricity company TNB to power it.

Paymentology, a card issuing and processing platform, has announced a partnership with Salaam Bank’s Waafi in Somalia.

Indonesia's state-owned service provider Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest telecommunication group, is widely reported to have appointed leading global investment banking, securities, and asset and wealth management firm Goldman Sachs and local investment bank Mandiri Sekuritas to help it find a strategic investor for its data centre business NeutraDC.

A reminder that there has been other telecoms news coming out of Bangladesh recently apart from the recent internet disruption comes from Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecommunications service provider with more than 85 million subscribers, which has partnered with Mobileum, a provider of analytics and network solutions.

This week has seen yet another airline announce an alliance with a telecoms company with the news that Kenya Airways has signed a strategic partnership with Kenyan operator Safaricom.

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has launched an AI-powered digital solution for enterprises in the retail sector that it says can help them optimize business revenues, boost customer satisfaction and improve operational efficiency in their stores.

Incumbent Maldives telco Dhiraagu said it has inaugurated the official landing of the SEA-ME-WE 6 subsea cable in the Maldives, although the cable is still almost two years away from activation.

BnB, a fintech company that says it is committed to revolutionising financial services in Africa, has launched an initiative that seeks to expand international money transfer services in collaboration with operator Lonestar Cell MTN’s MoMo (a mobile money service).

Telekom Indonesia’s telecoms infrastructure subsidiary Mitratel says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with high altitude platform station (HAPS) firm AALTO to look into providing commercial HAPS solutions in Indonesia.

Thai telco Advanced Info Service (AIS) says it will deploy Oracle Alloy in its data centres to launch what it claims will be Thailand’s first locally owned and operated hyperscale cloud service.

Globe Telecoms’ fintech unit Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations) gained fresh investments from Ayala Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a move that will boost the valuation of Mynt to US$5 billion, claimed Globe.

Singapore-based data centre provider ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) says it has signed a deal to use Malaysian telco U Mobile’s 5G connectivity to help its new data centres in Malaysia better support edge applications.

The Indian smartphone market declined by 2% YoY in the second quarter of 2024, but 5G smartphones saw their highest market share growth so far.

Recent African cable news includes a milestone for Namibia with the inauguration of its Equiano cable station and plans for a 2Africa cable landing in Pakistan.

Malaysian telco CelcomDigi officially submitted its proposal to build Malaysia’s second 5G network on Wednesday, while rival telco U Mobile has signed more MoUs – including a new financing deal – geared towards making its own case to be the new 5G operator.

Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has reportedly changed its strategy for allocating two unsold satellite orbital slots after last week’s auction failed to attract any bids.

Operator du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), in collaboration with Nokia and MediaTek, the world’s fifth largest global fabless semiconductor company, have announced what they describe as a major milestone in the integration and enhancement of 5G technologies in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).

ArtificiaI intelligence (AI)-ready data centres are in the news this week, with Malaysia and Indonesia playing host to new or planned facilities.

PLDT’s digital unit DigiCo acquired a 10% stake in Bayad Center and the entirety of Multipay Corp, as the operator aims to position itself for the Philippines’ shift to digital payments.

Residents of Tonga’s outlying islands will have to wait until at least mid-August for internet connectivity to return to normal, as the ship sent to repair the nation’s only domestic subsea cable is itself being repaired after breaking down.

Malaysian telcos CelcomDigi and U Mobile said on Tuesday they are collaborating with Chinese vendor ZTE to run a live TV broadcast during the upcoming 2024 Sukma Games using 5G-Advanced technology.

Malaysian 5G operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) says it has signed a collaboration deal with national cybersecurity specialist centre Cybersecurity Malaysia (CSM) to boost cybersecurity for 5G networks.

Telecentro, a leading telecommunications operator in Argentina, has selected the cOS broadband platform from Harmonic – a company that delivers virtualised broadband and video delivery solutions – to modernise its broadband network.

Small cells are back in the news again with an announcement that local vendor SAR Televenture is to deploy 4G small cell sites for Indian operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi).

Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced on Monday that it has started refarming its existing 4G mid-band spectrum to support migration of 4G customers to 5G services, as well as its planned launch of standalone (SA) 5G.

Malaysian telco U Mobile said it has established a strategic backhaul partnership with Time dotCom as it continues its preparations to help build the country’s planned second 5G network.