Two recent announcements, from smart devices provider Honor and smart mobility specialist Valeo, have underlined the strategic important of Egypt to Middle Eastern and African ITC by growing their presence in the country.

Danish company GomSpace and Ukrainian company STETMAN have launch a satellite communication-related joint venture in Ukraine.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) Philippines has agreed a 40MW renewable supply deal with MPower, a unit of private sector electric distribution utility Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to supply power for its Philippines data centre operations.

The government of Sierra Leone has approved the appointment of private sector operator Africell Sierra Leone as its investment partner for the relaunch of troubled state-owned telecommunications company Sierratel.

NTT Data announced on Monday that it has established active 400 Gbps peering at the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX), adding that it’s the first network operator in Africa to do so.

Nigerian finance firm Credit Direct says it has signed an MoU with Chinese handset maker Vivo Nigeria to make the company’s smartphones more affordable.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Indus Cloud to introduce advanced cloud solutions powered by cloud services provider Huawei Cloud in Pakistan.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and regulator the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at tackling SIM-related fraud and strengthening consumer protection across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

India's government has decided not to go ahead with a proposal to require smartphone makers to pre-install the country's biometric identification app Aadhaar on phones.

Ooredoo Qatar announced on Sunday it has launched what it claims is Qatar’s first LTE-M service, enabling its 4G network to support large-scale IoT applications.

ICT company Azerconnect Group announced on Monday it has signed a GeForce NOW Alliance Partnership agreement with Nvidia to launch cloud gaming services in Azerbaijan.

Mozambique’s Communications Regulatory Authority (INCM) has kicked off plans to allocate 5G spectrum after receiving proposals from the country’s three main telcos – Tmcel, Vodacom Mozambique and Movitel.

SHB (Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank) has enlisted Huawei as a strategic advisor as it seeks to move towards a more digitised operating model.

Operator Econet Wireless Zimbabwe says it has launched Econet AI, which is described as a dedicated standalone business unit created to accelerate artificial intelligence adoption across the country’s economy.

Poland’s railway infrastructure manager, PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (PKP PLK), is apparently close to completing the installation of a GSM-R-based system on the country’s Central Railway Line (CMK), with testing planned for later this year.

Hyperscale data centre platform AirTrunk has announced the acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra, a developer of large-scale data centres with a strong presence in India.

Malaysian telco U Mobile said on Friday that its enterprise arm, U Business, has completed a 5G IoT proof of concept (PoC) with Qualcomm and City-Link Express for high-value air cargo tracking.

Telecom Namibia said on Friday that it’s making progress in dealing with network service disruptions that plagued users during the latter half of last week due to international connectivity problems.

LEO satellite broadband operator Starlink is reportedly facing more regulatory hurdles in India related to foreign direct investment (FDI) and national security that could further delay its commercial launch in the country.

Millicom, a major international operator with a strong focus on Latin America, has officially introduced its Tigo brand in Uruguay and at the same time announced an investment initiative of US$600 million aimed at expanding the country's digital infrastructure.

Russia has recently hardened its restrictions on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), which are a popular way of getting round state censorship and accessing banned news sites, Western services, social media platforms and messengers.

Malaysian telco YTL Communications said on Wednesday it is partnering with US-based identity and fraud prevention platform Shush to deploy network authentication APIs, starting with Number Verification and SIM Swap.

MTN Ghana's independent mobile payments firm MobileMoney Fintech announced on Thursday that it has temporarily restricted some MoMo agent accounts as it conducts checks to ensure agents comply with guidelines and regulatory requirements.

Following yesterday's Hughes-Air India news, another partnership has been announced for in-flight connectivity (IFC). This initiative is designed to support the evolving connectivity needs of airlines and aviation customers across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East Africa (MEA) region.

Ooredoo and DE-CIX have connected Doha IX - Qatar’s first commercial Internet Exchange (IX) – to DE-CIX Marseille.

Kazakh telco Transtelecom JSC says it has signed a partnership agreement with national postal operator QazPost to expand telecoms services to rural areas in Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda region.

Viasat Aviation, Turksat and SkyFive Arabia announced plans on Tuesday to enable seamless roaming for in-flight connectivity (IFC) services across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East-Africa (MEA) region.

Cirpack Software and Summa Networks are deploying Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services for Vodafone Polynésie.

Digital payment deals continue to makes headlines across Africa. This time Nedbank and Mastercard have announced what is called a landmark agreement to transform digital payments across Southern Africa.

The government of Sierra Leone has announced the relaunch of state-owned telecom operator Sierratel through a new private sector partnership.

Hughes Network Systems has announced that Air India has selected the Hughes In-Flight connectivity solution to deliver what is described as a consistent Wi-Fi experience using a common connectivity platform across its mixed widebody fleet.

Mauritanian telcos Moov Mauritel, Mattel, Chinguitel and Rimatel have reportedly bid MRU1.08 billion (around US$27.1 million) in total for 5G licences being auctioned by the Autorité de Régulation (ARE).