Industry association the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which includes Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea among its members, has questioned the continuation of licence fees in their present form.

Global Tower Corporation Pty Ltd (GTC), described as an independent player licensed for the construction and provision of telecommunication tower and related infrastructure services in the Kingdom of Cambodia, has secured US$19.97 million in financing from EXIM Bank Malaysia to support the expansion of essential telecommunications infrastructure across Cambodia.

Satellite communications company ST Engineering iDirect, says it has been selected for the Phase Two expansion of Indonesia's Satria-1 satellite network.

Brazil has imposed new tariffs on various imports from China and other Asian nations, including iron, steel and fibre optic cable, in what officials say is an effort to combat dumping.

The growing role of advanced wireless communications in transport hubs and transport networks has been underlined by two recent deals in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, southwestern India, involving the city’s metro and a new airport.

Nokia announced another deal in Vietnam, this time with Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to supply equipment for the operator’s 5G rollout.

Philippines-based operator Globe Telecom reduced its carbon emissions by 4.2% through Qualcomm’s AI-powered RAN automation platform, as part of its broader goal to achieve net zero by 2050.

The Intelsat 33e geostationary high-throughput satellite (HTS) covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Asia-Pacific experienced a permanent power failure on Saturday and has since broken up.

Analyst firm Canalys reported that global smartphone shipments grew 5% year-on-year in Q3 2024, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. 

The World Bank, described as one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, says that more than 20 million Filipinos are going to enjoy better internet with the approval of World Bank funding for a Philippines government connectivity project.

The Indian wireless network megadeals keep on coming. The latest, involving tech giant Ericsson, is a multi-billion dollar contract for 5G equipment which it will supply to Indian operator Bharti Airtel.

North Korea is reportedly cracking down on the import of Chinese-made smartwatches that are able connect to mobile networks outside of the country via USIM cards.

Telenor Group has announced an expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate digital transformation across its units in the Nordics and Asia.

Vietnamese operator VNPT has signed an agreement to use Ericsson equipment for its 5G rollout across major cities.

Dito Telecommunity celebrated reaching 13 million subscribers as of this month (October), and CEO Eric Alberto claimed the challenger operator will achieve profitability within a few years.

Vietnam has this week announced that it aims to deploy two undersea internet cables by the end of next year. It has also said that 5G services will be deployed across the country by that time.

The government of the Indian state of Maharashtra has approved the establishment of what are called Green Integrated Data Centre Parks, aiming for an investment of around US$20 billion.

Indian communications service provider Vodafone Idea (Vi) has strengthened its longstanding network partnership with Ericsson through the award of major 4G and 5G contracts which, Ericsson says, will see the tech giant extend its network share.

The battle for India’s end users is not just about coverage on streets and in homes. Continuing the trend of bringing wireless communications to public rail transport, two of the country’s big three operators have just announced new metro coverage achievements in two major cities.

CelcomDigi has enhanced its fibre broadband services to strengthen its position against competitors as demand for high-speed internet continues to grow in Malaysia.

In July, we reported that Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi was planning to merge two companies that he controls - Intouch Holdings, which holds a majority 40.4% stake in AIS, and power firm Gulf Energy Development. Now, shareholders in the firms have reportedly approved the proposal.

Satellite operator Thaicom announced its subsidiary Space Tech Innovation Limited (STI) had signed a deal with SpaceX to launch a satellite to provide gigabit connectivity across the Asia-Pacific.

Following last week’s announcement by data centre company ODATA that is expanding its wind power supply in Brazil, another story, this time from India, underlines the growing importance of offering – and being seen to offer – clean energy.

Papua New Guinea’s state-owned wholesale operator PNG DataCo says that it has completed an upgrade of its internet gateway with a 100-Gbps link that enables it to migrate traffic onto the PIPE Pacific Cable 1 (PPC-1) subsea cable.

The growing appeal of Vietnam as an investment destination for many companies – notably those in the telecoms and IT sectors – has been underlined by announcements from Meta and Ericcson this week.

A digital and intelligent revolution is under way. How can it be managed to benefit us all? Huawei, its industry partners and a number of think tanks have come together and released a set of reports exploring the intelligent world and outlining the way it can change our lives, businesses and environment– for the better.

Oracle announced plans to invest US$6.5 billion to develop a cloud region in Malaysia and prepare the nation for AI and cloud services.

At Huawei Connect 2024 held in Shanghai from 19^th September, Huawei’s Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman Eric Xu gave a keynote speech exploring commercial AI adoption across different industries.

The second major announcement related to Indian operator Vodafone Idea and Nokia in only a few days sees Vodafone Idea strengthen its network security with Nokia NetGuard Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR).

Genesys, described as a global cloud leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, has announced that it has secured a Unified License Virtual Network Operator (UL VNO) licence in India, obtained under Department of Telecommunications (DoT) guidelines.

Malaysian technology firm Dagang NeXchange (DNeX) and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year deal to provide sovereign cloud services in the country.

ZTE Corporation, a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, today announced its collaboration with China Telecom's Suzhou Branch to deploy an innovative 5G IoT integration network solution at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University.