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Rack Centre, which describes itself as the only carrier and cloud-neutral Tier III Constructed Facility Certified data centre in Africa, has revealed plans to build a new 12MW data centre in the Ikeja area of Lagos in Nigeria.

Africell has launched its mobile money platform Afrimoney in Angola as the operator highlighted low mobile finance penetration in the country in its pursuit of growth.  

Tanzania's incumbent telecom operator Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) has signed a Tsh 37.3 billion (US$15.9 million) contract with tech giant Huawei for the extension of the country’s National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) to 23 districts.

Submarine cable activity seems to be far from slowing down in Africa. In fact plans for two more cables, one connecting France and Tunisia and one involving the ECOWAS region, have recently been announced.

Nokia has announced the results of a trial conducted last year over a 3,551 km subsea cable between Jurong in Singapore and Manado in Indonesia – and they are pretty impressive.

Huawei is set to supply Teletalk Bangladesh with a suite of solutions aimed at preparing the operator for 5G and boosting rural operations.

Hondutel, the national fixed line provider of Honduras, has signed a new agreement with Starlink to deliver satellite connectivity to remote areas of the country.

Mobile money accounts grew 13% to 1.6 billion in 2022 as daily transactions reached in value of US$3.45 billion, according to trade body the GSMA.

Customers of Icosnet , Algeria’s sole private ISP provider, will now be able to access Liquid Dataport’s digital communication services following a new agreement between the firms.

Ericsson says it has enhanced its remote management feature on Etisalat Egypt by e&’s network by implementing the Ericsson Smart Connected Site solution, enabling diesel generators that run in shorter bursts to save up to 40% in fuel cost and in carbon dioxide emissions.

Nokia is supplying its WDM optical network solutions for Lightstorm’s network expansion into the Eastern and Northern regions of India.

The latest landing of the 2Africa cable has been announced: it’s at Port Said, at the northern end of the Suez Canal, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.

Network International, an enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, says it has renewed its partnership with one of Nigeria’s largest financial service providers, Polaris Bank Limited, to deepen financial inclusion and digital transformation.

Cellcom, a leading service provider in Israel, and open RAN software platform provider Parallel Wireless have announced the launch of what they describe as their first-of-a-kind pilot, which will demonstrate the deployment of autonomous 5G standalone (SA) core sites in Israel.

Following on from last year’s announcement, reported on this site, that internet exchange operator AMS-IX had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with MainOne’s Lagos data centre, MainData Nigeria (MDXi), AMS-IX and MDXi have announced the launch of a new internet exchange in the city.

A sustainability-linked debt facility of up to US$170 million in multiple tranches has been secured by Raxio Data Centres, a leading pan-African data centre developer and operator.

Telekom Romania Mobile has entered the country’s 5G market with a stealth launch via its existing spectrum holding.

Apple sales in India surged to hit almost US$6 billion in the year through March according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.

Global communications company Viasat has confirmed that the scheduled launch date for the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite is 18 April this year. The ViaSat-3 satellite will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Digital infrastructure and technology provider Cirion has announced the expansion of its fibre network and data centre capabilities across Latin America “to better serve the growing demands of our customers and continue to migrate workloads to hybrid cloud solutions”, as the company puts it.

Meta Platforms launched a payments tool in WhatsApp designed for SMEs in Brazil, with plans in future to roll out the feature in other markets.

Sri Lanka national ICT solutions provider SLT-Mobitel is to implement Netcracker Digital BSS and Professional Services to consolidate its billing system for upgraded fixed, mobile and online charging capabilities.

The wait is, apparently, nearly over. Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of global conglomerate the Aditya Birla Group, and one of the shareholders of operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi), has been heard on Indian TV saying Vodafone Idea is to begin its 5G rollout soon.

Not long after last year’s efforts by Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) to register SIMs, culminating in over 8 million unregistered SIM cards being deactivated, the NCA now plans to introduce shortcodes to verify SIMs linked to Ghana Cards.

With data drawn from Interpol’s member countries, private partners, and research conducted by its Africa Cybercrime Operations Desk, the latest Interpol African Cyberthreat Assessment Report looks back over 2022 and provides a comprehensive overview of cyberthreat trends in the African region.

Apple officially revealed it will open its first retail stores in India this month, marking a significant expansion in India as the company seeks growth and refocus manufacturing in the South Asian nation.

BDx Indonesia, one the largest wholesale data centre and cloud-focused operations in the Indonesian market, recently held the ground-breaking ceremony for its greenfield data centre, CGK3A, in TB Simatupang, South Jakarta.

There’s been another piece of positive news for the still relatively nascent satellite-direct-to-standard-phone market with a contract in Ghana for Lynk Global.

One of the latest examples of 5G use in an industry-specific context comes from Uganda, where vendor Huawei has, alongside MTN Uganda and Hima Cement Company, launched what it describes as the country's first 5G industrial use case in a Hima cement plant.

UAE-based e& is acquiring a 50.03% stake in Uber’s Middle East subsidiary Careem Super App for US$400 million, in a deal that will significantly expand the operator’s e-commerce standing.

Commercial 5G launches rebounded in the second half of 2022 as operators in developing markets – and notably Africa – turned on their networks. That’s one of the key findings of 5G Tracker, a report from Kagan, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Zain Jordan has selected Nokia in a multi-year deal to supply 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment throughout the country. Through the deal, says Nokia, Zain will be able to support the digital transformation of the country by offering superior 5G services with enhanced connectivity and capacity to customers. A major part of the deployment is expected to be completed during 2023.