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Demand for fixed-line telephone services has reportedly spiked in North Korea’s North Pyongan Province due to the easing of border restrictions with China, which has also led to a spike in installation prices.

The Indian government is reportedly set to classify satellite broadband as a telecoms service, which would make global satellite broadband players eligible for 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) automatically.

Chile’s ClaroVTR joint venture has signed a 15-year agreement with fibre optics company OnNet Fibra, which will allow the migration of the joint venture's cable modem customers to fibre optics.

Satellite and space tech company Thaicom has announced the selection of Astranis, a fast-growing satellite manufacturer and operator, to supply Thaicom-9, the newest addition to the Bangkok-headquartered company's fleet of high-throughput satellites, at 119.5 degrees East.

Inmarsat Maritime, part of satellite communications company Inmarsat, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Aramco, a global integrated energy and chemicals company headquartered in Saudi Arabia, to undertake a 5G mesh network trial that aims to provide high-bandwidth connectivity for Aramco’s offshore work in the Arabian Gulf.

Omantel announced that it has signed a strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to address data residency and security requirements, especially for government entities and regulated industries in Oman.

Ericsson has announced a strategic three-year neutral host provider (NHP) agreement with Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems (ACES), an international neutral host provider, aimed at the Saudi Arabian market.

An educational institution and a technology company in the UAE have announced a collaboration to drive IoT advances.

Zoho Corp, a leading global technology company, has announced the opening of two Middle East data centres in Saudi Arabia. Located in Jeddah and Riyadh, the two data centres are now fully operational. With this addition, Zoho Corp now has 18 data centres worldwide.

Oil and gas production are major industries in the Middle East, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions covered by this publication. But should telecoms monitor the effect of these industries on the environment – and if so, how? Two possible answers come in the form of a recently launched satellite.

BW Digital and Citramas Group announced on Monday they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly develop a carrier-neutral digital ecosystem using BW Digital’s upcoming new data centre in Batam’s Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) in Indonesia.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on Monday that it plans to launch an AWS infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia in 2026, and pledged to invest more than US$5.3 billion in the country.

Indonesian telco XL Axiata announced it has partnered with Cisco to introduce a cloud-based IoT connectivity management platform to help customers in Indonesia securely scale their IoT businesses.

MWC 2024 may be over, but MWC news relating to sustainability is still coming in, this time involving Qatar-headquartered service provider Ooredoo and tech giant Nokia, announcing that they have solidified their shared commitment to sustainable innovation by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Satellite technology company Avanti Communications has been granted the authorisation required for its HYLAS 4 satellite gateway station in Diamniadio, Senegal, about 32 kilometres from Dakar.

Smartphone shipments in Africa grew 6% to 68.7 million units in full-year 2023 due to rising consumer confidence in H2. 

Malaysian telco CelcomDigi on Friday said it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with satellite operator SES to find ways to use SES’s medium-earth-orbit (MEO) and geosynchronous satellites to connect businesses and communities in Malaysia.

Eutelsat Group and satellite engineering enterprise Q-KON have revealed that multiple digital banks in South Africa have now gone live on Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO satellite network.

At Huawei’s Day0 Forum 2024, taking place on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2024, MTN Group’s Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Chika Ekeji, gave a keynote speech to explain how 5G is driving digital progress in Africa.

With the transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy generation, the power systems that drive critical telecoms infrastructure such as key telco sites and data centers are becoming more unstable, says Fang Liangzhou, Vice President of Huawei Digital Power.

Thai telco AIS has released its first batch of Open APIs for app developers, solution providers, and businesses via the GSMA Open Gateway Initiative, mainly aimed at fraud prevention.

Cellular network infrastructure provider Baicells announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Indonesian telco Smartfren Telecom to supply 4G and 5G network solutions for private networks in Indonesia.

Talks between SpaceX and Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) to allow Starlink satellite broadband services in the country have reportedly been put on hold, as has a pilot project with coast guard drones using Starlink connectivity.

Malaysia-based telecoms infrastructure services company Edotco has formed a strategic collaboration with Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Telkom University to create a neutral host ecosystem for Southeast Asia by leveraging Open RAN.

The much anticipated commercialization of 5.5G (5G Advanced) which starts in 2024 has energized exhibitors and speakers at MWC 2024 in Barcelona.

Despite many claims to energy efficiency, data centres still have questions to answer about water usage, something highlighted by a Chilean environmental court’s partial reversal of a permit allowing Google to build a data centre in the country.

Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech have signed a multi-market agreement that will use Mastercard’s technology and capabilities to support MTN’s ambition to become Africa’s largest fintech platform for both merchants and consumers.

Indonesian operator Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and India’s Tech Mahindra, an information technology services and consulting company, have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at MWC 2024 to build Garuda, a large language model (LLM) to preserve Bahasa Indonesia, the official and national language of Indonesia and its dialects.

At Mobile World Congress 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed separate deals with Malaysian telcos CelcomDigi and Maxis to collaborate on generative AI solutions to improve network operations and develop use cases.

Data centre operator Digital Edge announced on Wednesday that its second data centre facility in downtown Jakarta, named EDGE2, is live and ready to serve hyperscaler customers.

Colombian local connectivity service provider INRED and global satellite operator SES have kicked off a project to deliver high-throughput satellite services for the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MinTic) to support digital inclusion projects across the country.

At Mobile World Congress 2024, Ericsson and Turkcell signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance 6G research and development in Turkey.