We are now some weeks into an apparent internet slowdown in Pakistan, but no clearer on what is causing it, albeit activists and the state seem to have decided who is to blame.

North Korea’s Pyongyang Information Technology Bureau is reportedly conducting inspections of the country’s electronic payments network to update equipment and stabilize operations in a drive to boost confidence in the country's transition to digital finance.

India’s state-owned operator BSNL plans to launch 4G services in the country this October, according to local news reports. This follows what seem to be encouraging trial results.

Malaysian operators CelcomDigi and U Mobile, alongside ZTE announced recognition in the Malaysia Book of Records for achieving the fastest mobile speeds in in the world.

The Indonesian smartphone market grew 20% year-on-year in Q2 boosted by the vendor promotion during the holiday season.

A number of news outlets in India are suggesting that cloud services provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking to expand its data centre presence in Hyderabad, India, where it already has facilities that include three big data centres and its largest corporate building globally.

Smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia grew 14% year-on-year in Q2 this year reaching 23.9 million units, as the region continues to recover from macroeconomic effects.

Hard on the heels of recent headlines made by China’s plans to launch a rival to the Starlink service has comes news of an incident that certainly wasn’t part of those plans.

Chinese telecoms infrastructure firm China Tower says it has renewed multi-year framework deals with China Telecom and China Unicom to prepare for an expected surge in demand for IoT monitoring data and data analysis services related to its “Smart Tower” business segment.

The Malaysian Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) has this week said that it will address sustainability issues in the data centre industry – but will that cause problems for some data centre businesses now in development?

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) opened its Digital Intelligence Operations Center (DIOC), a move to leverage AI to enhance its network.  

Indonesia's state-owned service provider Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest telecommunication group, is widely reported to have appointed leading global investment banking, securities, and asset and wealth management firm Goldman Sachs and local investment bank Mandiri Sekuritas to help it find a strategic investor for its data centre business NeutraDC.

A reminder that there has been other telecoms news coming out of Bangladesh recently apart from the recent internet disruption comes from Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecommunications service provider with more than 85 million subscribers, which has partnered with Mobileum, a provider of analytics and network solutions.

India’s telecom regulator TRAI has announced plans to tighten up on quality of service (QoS) requirements relating to 4G and 5G networks, in a bid, it is reported, to reduce instances of call drops and network downtime problems.

Globe Telecoms’ fintech unit Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations) gained fresh investments from Ayala Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a move that will boost the valuation of Mynt to US$5 billion, claimed Globe.

Indian authorities have hit leading IT outsourcer Infosys with a US$3.9 billion tax demand – and some news reports suggest the pursuit of alleged unpaid taxes will soon target other big names.

India’s news media outlets are reporting that there may be government interest in reallocating some broadcasting spectrum for use in 5G networks.

Recent African cable news includes a milestone for Namibia with the inauguration of its Equiano cable station and plans for a 2Africa cable landing in Pakistan.

ArtificiaI intelligence (AI)-ready data centres are in the news this week, with Malaysia and Indonesia playing host to new or planned facilities.

PLDT’s digital unit DigiCo acquired a 10% stake in Bayad Center and the entirety of Multipay Corp, as the operator aims to position itself for the Philippines’ shift to digital payments.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison IOH reported growth across its business in the first half of the year pointing to optimisation of operations, while revealing more AI use cases will come in the latter half of this year.

Small cells are back in the news again with an announcement that local vendor SAR Televenture is to deploy 4G small cell sites for Indian operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi).

Vietnam set a target to shutdown 3G networks by September 2028 to pave the way for 4G and 5G services, and meet subscriber demand.

Cloud computing services company Google Cloud and professional services firm PwC India have announced an enhanced strategic alliance that, they say, will leverage the power of generative AI (GenAI) to augment enterprise solutions.

Globe Telecom announced it gained PHP13.5 billion (US$230 million) from the transfer of more towers as it seeks more cash to pay down debts and fund future capex intensive projects.

The Chinese smartphone market experienced 10% growth in the second quarter with units reaching 70.5 million units, and local vendors occupying the top five spots for the first time.

Digital infrastructure giant Equinix has announced yet another deal in Asia. This one is an estimated US$5 million investment to acquire land from former landowner and now tech hub developer Cyberview in ICT-focused city Cyberjaya in Selangor state.

The mobile economy of the Asia Pacific was predicted to grow by US$130 billion by 2030 and hit US$1 trillion, due to faster adoption of 5G technologies in the region.

Indonesian telecoms service provider Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has announced a new strategic partnership with Garuda Indonesia, the country’s national airline.

Digital infrastructure company Equinix has announced its planned entry into the Philippines with the acquisition of three data centres from Total Information Management (TIM), a technology solutions provider.

Malaysian mobile data service company U Mobile is back in the news only days after a Maxis buyout was reported. This time it is apparently planning a domestic initial public offering (IPO).