All Tech News

Vodacom Group revealed on Wednesday it has signed an agreement with Starlink to leverage its LEO satellite service across Africa for enterprise connectivity and mobile backhaul, although not yet in its home base of South Africa, where Starlink has yet to receive regulatory approval.

Thuraya, a subsidiary of Space42, the UAE-based AI-powered spacetech company, has announced the commercial rollout of its next-generation mobile communications satellite, Thuraya-4, in South Africa.

ONATi, the incumbent telecommunications service provider in French Polynesia, has migrated the management of its interconnect voice traffic and national and international partners to Oculeus’ Captura NG solution.

Satellite technology company Avanti Communications announced on Tuesday it has expanded its partnership with Türksat with a new agreement that aims to extend high connectivity solutions across Africa, particularly underserved regions in Southern Africa.

SES and Africa Mobile Networks (AMN) announced on Tuesday they have successfully upgraded over 200 telecoms sites across Côte d’Ivoire to deliver 2G and 3G mobile data services to over 500,000 people in rural and previously underserved areas.

Dhiraagu said on Monday that it has inaugurated its third data centre in the Maldives – this one being a certified Tier III facility in N. Velidhoo, which also makes it the first to be located in the atolls.

A number of major data centre operators in the Philippines have come together to form what is described as a unified alliance that aims to strengthen the country’s position as the next digital hub of Southeast Asia.

BENEFIT, a leading Bahrain company in fintech and electronic financial transactions, licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) as an ancillary service provider to the Kingdom’s financial services industry, has announced a deal that will help to enable real-time cross-border payments between Bahrain and India.

It’s a major news day for data centre developments in Nigeria, and specifically Lagos, a city for which two leading names in Africa, Equinix and Rack Centre, have just announced big data centre and cloud service plans.

DITO Telecommunity and InfiniVAN announced on Friday they have signed a reciprocal fibre-sharing arrangement that they say will enhance network resilience, operational coverage and digital capacity across the Philippines.

Morocco’s three main telcos – Maroc Telecom, Orange Maroc and Inwi – officially launched 5G services in the country on Friday, mainly in urban centres, four months after receiving their 5G licences.

Veon Group’s Beeline Kazakhstan has partnered with Starlink to deliver mobile connectivity across Kazakhstan, extending service to remote regions currently beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.

An interesting memorandum of understanding (MoU) has just been announced in Brazil. It aims to support power infrastructure at the Rio AI City project and involves a number of partners – including one that is part of the Google Moonshot initiative.

Digital transformation projects focused on younger end users have been highlighted this week in West Africa where operator Orange Liberia has signalled its support for digital literacy and the government of Guinea has targeted internet provision for schools.

SpaceX’s satellite internet unit Starlink is reportedly in talks with operators in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to expand coverage to remote and underserved areas.

Satellite communications provider Globalstar has announced the addition of eight new six-metre C-3 tracking antennas to its ground stations across Brazil, supporting its third-generation mobile satellite services across Central and South America.

Multinational telecommunications corporation Orange and satellite operator Eutelsat have announced the inauguration of a new teleport hosting Eutelsat's satellite gateway in the Caribbean island Martinique. This strategic project aims to strengthen satellite coverage for the Eutelsat OneWeb constellation in the Caribbean region.

UAE-based Space42 announced on Wednesday that its next-gen Thuraya-4 satellite is now globally available for customers in Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, with new markets including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia.

Bharti Airtel was given the greenlight to increase its shares in Indus Towers by up to 5%, strengthening its control in India’s largest tower infrastructure provider.

Axian Telecom’s fibre subsidiary, Axian Telecom Fibre, has completed the acquisition of 99.63% stake in Wananchi Group, a fixed broadband provider, as it looks to strengthen its position in high-demand fibre markets across East Africa.

Ericsson announced on Tuesday that it has renewed its partnership with Bahrainian telco Batelco by Beyon, which will deploy Ericsson’s latest RAN solutions to expand coverage of its 5G network.

Telkomsel says it has struck a partnership deal with Indonesian smart home solutions firm BARDI to implement its dashcam smart device as an IoT-based vehicle security solution for Indonesia’s automotive and manufacturing sectors.

Microsoft officially unveiled plans on Tuesday for its second cloud region in Malaysia, Southeast Asia 3, which it said will meet growing demand for cloud services and drive long-term economic growth for Malaysia, as well as accelerate AI uptake across Southeast Asia.

Bahrain-headquartered technology group Beyon has announced the establishment of its second fully green solar-powered data centre with the successful completion of Phase 3 of the Beyon Solar Park developed in partnership with solar solutions company Almoayyed Solar.

Orange submarine cable subsidiary Orange Marine announced the construction of two new cable ships to boost the resilience of digital infrastructure across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Digital Realty has launched ACR2, its first data centre in Ghana, that it says will serve as a critical hub in Ghana’s digital ecosystem by connecting it to global markets and empowering businesses with highly connected infrastructure.

Ericsson said on Monday it has successfully completed MTN Nigeria’s first field trial of a triple-band FDD massive MIMO radio that integrates the telco’s entire 4G mid-band spectrum into a single, compact radio unit.

PLDT’s corporate arm, PLDT Enterprise, said on Monday it has partnered with API exposure platform developer Nabstract to enable direct user authentication via open network APIs rather than one-time passwords (OTPs).

Two submarine cables – one linking the UAE and Kenya and the other linking Tunisia with France – have made news recently, the former thanks to a new launch, the latter because of a successful landing.

Smart utilities are again in the news after InfraX, a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, the digital arm of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, and technology giant Ericsson recently announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate the digital transformation of the utility sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Wingu Africa, a specialist provider of carrier-neutral, Tier III-standard data centres in East Africa, has entered a strategic partnership with Africa Data Centres, which operates the continent’s largest network of interconnected facilities.

MTN said on Friday it has migrated its Enterprise Value Analytics (EVA) platform in South Africa to Microsoft Azure, which it says will give the telco greater agility and intelligence in how it uses data to enhance customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and enable responsible AI deployment.