The MANTA subsea cable consortium has selected MDC Data Centers as its neutral landing partner in Mexico, marking further progress in the rollout of the regional connectivity project.

The continuing relevance of USSD-based transactions is underlined by news from Sudan where the country’s telecommunications ministry is launching a service using USSD that allows citizens to access banking apps without recourse to the internet.

Kuwaiti conglomerate Alghanim Industries announced on Tuesday that its tech venture Sama X is officially reselling Starlink’s LEO satellite broadband services in Kuwait, a day after the country’s regulator granted Starlink an operating licence.

TelCables Brasil announced on Monday it has added three new Points of Presence (PoPs) in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais state, bringing its total number of PoPs in Brazil to ten.

Vodacom Tanzania has claimed to launch Africa’s first mobile money-native contactless payment feature, following a collaboration with Visa and Paymentology to upgrade its M-Pesa app.

PLDT Global Corp, part of Philippines’ telco group PLDT, has expanded its Tindahan ni Bossing (TinBo) digital platform, described as the go-to app for all the needs of overseas Filipinos, with the launch of a new service called ePadala.

M-Pesa Ethiopia last week announced the signing of an agreement with the country’s postal service EthioPost, officially designating EthioPost as the primary agent within the M-Pesa ecosystem.

The TAM-1 submarine cable system has reached Colombia, marking a key milestone in its rollout across Latin America and the Caribbean.

MTN Group hailed its full-year 2025 performance as “exceptional”, reporting a return to profit and surpassing the milestone of 300 million customers, driven largely by strong growth in its Nigerian and Ghanaian businesses.

Mirova, a global asset management company dedicated to sustainable investing, has announced a US$15 million senior secured facility for iSAT Africa Mauritius Limited, a leading rural connectivity platform, to support the deployment of fully solar-powered mobile towers in Liberia and Zambia.

Orange Tunisie announced on Friday it has launched satellite broadband services in Tunisia via an earlier deal with Eutelsat, offering connection speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Work on the Middle Eastern segment of the 2Africa Pearls subsea cable system has reportedly stopped due to the war between the US, Israel and Iran as Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) says it’s unsafe to continue operations.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and Safaricom revealed on Friday they have signed an agreement to combine their collective experience in AI and fintech to co-develop better customer experiences within their respective digital ecosystems.

The World Bank Group (WBG) Board of Directors earlier this week approved what is described as a transformative regional initiative that will directly boost job creation in Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It includes a strong focus on digital infrastructure.

ZTE revealed on Thursday it has signed an MoU with Bangladesh telco Grameenphone to collaborate on deploying large language model (LLM) and agentic AI technologies to build autonomous networks.

The Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) has announced that Botswana and five other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have collaborated to substantially reduce and harmonise mobile roaming tariffs in line with the One Network Area (ONA) framework.

Ooredoo Algeria says it has expanded its 5G network to all provinces in the country, well ahead of the government’s rollout schedule, although actual coverage in each province remains limited.

A new system in Kenya will ensure that motorists who commit traffic offences will receive instant notifications on their mobile phones informing them of the violation.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has reportedly kicked off a technical audit of Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell (D2C) technology as part of a review of Airtel Kenya’s application to offer the service in the country.

Paymentology, a global issuer-processor, has announced a partnership with Chikwama Pay, a pan-African neobank providing accessible financial services through WhatsApp.

State-owned Uzbektelecom (a.k.a. Uztelecom) revealed on Tuesday it has expanded its 5G network coverage across the country over the past two months as part of its broader infrastructure modernisation programme.

State-owned service provider Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT)and technology giant ZTE Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) establishing a strategic partnership between the two parties.

Cameroon has approved a loan agreement of about US$195 million with the Export-Import Bank of China. The funding will support phase four of the country’s national fibre optic backbone expansion.

Global data centre solutions provider Equinix has announced a renewable energy deal in Brazil with Auren Energia, an energy generator in the country that claims 100% renewable production. The contract is scheduled to begin this year.

Bangladesh telcos reportedly urged the country’s telecoms regulator on Monday to prioritise fuel and energy supplies for telecoms infrastructure to avoid service disruptions as the government takes measures to deal with supply-chain disruptions stemming from the widening conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.

UPDATE: Ethio Telecom says it lined up several vendor deals to modernise its telecoms network at last week’s Mobile World Congress, with agreements with Ericsson and ZTE already signed and others with Huawei and Nokia in the pipeline.

Kenya’s Court of Appeal has set aside a 2020 High Court judgment endorsing the country’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act (2018), ruling two sections unconstitutional.

Saudi Arabian telco stc Group announced on Friday it has rolled out the second phase of its ‘New Calling’ initiative with a pilot that enables real-time Arabic–English translation during voice calls using AI.

MTN Zambia announced on Friday it has formed a strategic partnership with LEO satellite operator Starlink to offer its Direct to Cell (D2C) service in the country after a successful field test of the technology.

Turkcell made moves at Mobile World Congress 2026 this week to beef up its planned 5G network, deploy AI in its mobile core and get started on 6G via separate deals with Ericsson and Mavenir.