A joint venture to develop high-quality, highly connected scalable data centres to meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and digital services companies in India has been announced.

There has been a significant boost for Tanzanian operators with the government’s decision, announced late last week, to slash the country’s telecommunications right-of-way (RoW) fee from US$1,000 per kilometre to only US$200 per kilometre.

Malaysia approved Elon Musk’s satellite company Starlink to operate in the country and connect remote locations.

Malaysia’s communications minister revealed the government has reached a deal outlining stakes in its wholesale 5G company Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) for the nation’s five MNOs.

There’s been significant data centre and undersea cable-related news from service provider PLDT in the Philippines this week, underlining the growth in data demand in that country that we reported on earlier today.

Total mobile services revenue in the Philippines is predicted to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% to US$4.3 billion, as subscribers adopt more data services and consume over four times more data by 2028.

Mobile money growth continues across Africa. Two recent announcements, from IDT Corporation, a global fintech company, and from TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure company partnering with operator Safaricom, are the latest example of companies targeting consumers in Africa – and notably the remittance market.

As the number of Indian cities covered by 5G grows, India's 5G smartphone user base has passed the 100 million mark and monthly sales have overtaken those of 4G smartphones for the first time, according to recent research.

SLA Digital, which works with many of the world’s major mobile operators to power mobile revenues through carrier billing and mobile identity, has partnered with Vietnam-headquartered Viettel Business Solutions Corporation (Viettel Solutions) – a member of Viettel Group – for carrier billing.

Is India about to relax its data storage rules? A widely reported (though as yet unconfirmed by government) new draft version of a planned privacy bill seems to indicate that it is.

Malaysian operator Maxis announced it will sign an access agreement with state 5G wholesaler Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) to advance the country’s 5G rollout and remain competitive against rivals who have signed.

Nokia trimmed its sales and profit forecast for 2023 blaming a tightening economic landscape for cutting customer budgets.

Telekom Malaysia (TM) confirmed hackers breached its defences with the private information of customers from broadband provider unit Unifi affected.

Mongolian service provider Mobicom Corporation has started using NEON-dX, the full stack customer value management (CVM) software as a service (SaaS) from Flytxt, a provider of AI-powered customer lifetime value (CLTV) maximisation solutions.

Globe says it is the first communications service provider in the Philippines to deploy the end-to-end (E2E) network slicing function of 5G standalone (SA).

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) responded to a media report criticising the body for not enforcing cheaper broadband services, since a new mandate took effect in March.

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has withdrawn from a U$19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta.

Axiata Group, Malaysia’s biggest wireless carrier by revenue, has a number of potential strategies under review to reduce its debt.

Fiji’s Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH) has completed a full takeover of three ICT businesses via its majority stake in Vodafone Fiji.

SpaceX’s Starlink has been licensed to provide low earth orbit satellite broadband in Mongolia.

Pune in India is now host to what is described as a state-of-the-art 5G lab thanks to Persistent Systems, a digital engineering provider, which recently inaugurated the lab as part of a partnership with technology giant Cisco Systems.

Globe Telecom announced plans to follow the trend and tap into AI technology to automate routine tasks to significantly improve customer experience, cut costs and improve efficiency.

The Philippines' third operator DITO Telecommunity stated ambitions to turn a profit in 2028, as it continues to invest in coverage expansion to fulfil regulatory coverage targets.

Fibre broadband provider Converge ICT Solutions says it has rolled out 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) fibre connectivity at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 4 (NAIA T4) in Manila as part of its Free Wi-Fi project for the benefit of the country’s international and local gateways.

India’s Minister of Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has announced the introduction of the Bharat 6G Alliance. This initiative is said to bring together key stakeholders from the public and private sectors to foster the development of 6G in India.

Chinese equipment vendor ZTE aided a project to win the ‘5G Industry Challenge Award’ at the GSMA 2023 Asia Mobile Awards (AMO) held during MWC Shanghai. 

Thai operator AIS partnered with ZTE and Qualcomm to complete a trial of mmWave 5G standalone technology in Bangkok, a step towards the operator commercialising the technology. 

The ongoing Digicel debt saga has seen an agreement between Denis O’Brien, the founder of the group, which is active as a mobile operator across Caribbean and Central America, and bond investors that will see the businessman lose most of his stake in the telecoms group in exchange for a US$1.7 billion debt write-off.

Indonesia’s new Telecommunication Equipment Testing Center (BBPPT) has selected Spirent Communications technology to conduct high-speed Ethernet network equipment and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing.

Cambodian operator CamGSM, which is branded as Cellcard, has listed its Class A common stock on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX).

Globe Telecom showcased Voice over New Radio (VoNR) in the Philippines as it moves to enhance its service against rival offerings.