WhatsApp’s forthcoming username feature was meant to solve a simple privacy problem: meeting a new customer, seller, colleague or community group should not require handing over a mobile number that may also be tied to banking, social media and one’s wider personal life.
News from Central & South Asia
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- Category: Blogs & Opinion
- 4041 views
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- Category: Mobile Finance
- 2310 views
Veon Digital Financial Group and Veon-owned Beeline Kazakhstan announced on Tuesday they have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the National Bank of Kazakhstan to explore the development of digital payment services in the country.
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- Category: Enterprise Ecosystems
- 3288 views
Bangladesh telcos Grameenphone and Robi Axiata have launched separate AI subscription services that aim to make overseas AI models easier to access and pay for.
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- Category: Operators
- 2555 views
Azerconnect’s international backbone operator AzerTelecom announced on Friday it has entered into a strategic partnership with DE-CIX to launch a new internet exchange in Azerbaijan.
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- Category: Operators
- 3697 views
Vodafone Idea has secured about US$3.5 billion in debt financing from a consortium led by State Bank of India (SBI), providing the Indian operator with funding to rebuild its network and compete with rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
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- Category: Operators
- 9137 views
Pakistani operator Jazz has reached 1,000 5G sites across the country, claiming the largest 5G network footprint in Pakistan as it targets more than doubling its coverage by the end of 2026.
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- Category: Regulation
- 9228 views
The Bangladesh government’s Posts and Telecommunications Division has reportedly blocked the deployment of two subsea cable vessels into Bangladesh's territorial waters to install the privately-owned Bangladesh Private Cable System (BPCS).
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- Category: Devices & Platforms
- 4395 views
India is set to see the launch of locally designed smartphones from three companies within the next 10-14 months, as the government pushes manufacturers to develop original devices rather than copy existing products.
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- Category: Satellite Networks
- 4784 views
Kazakh telco Transtelecom (TTC) said on Tuesday it’s currently installing Starlink connectivity on trains operated by Passenger Transportation JSC, a subsidiary of national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ).
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- Category: Data Centres & Networks
- 5784 views
According to a number of local press reports, Kazakhstan expects to launch the first facility at Data Centre Valley, a large data centre campus in the country’s northeast, in the summer of 2027.
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- Category: Consumer Ecosystems
- 4044 views
Bangladesh telco Robi Axiata officially retired the Airtel name – which has served as its youth brand for the past ten years – on Monday with the launch of a new digital-focused youth brand called Cirkle.
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- Category: Mobile Finance
- 4883 views
Veon-owned telco Banglalink said on Wednesday it has received a payment service provider (PSP) licence from Bangladesh’s central bank, clearing the way for its entry into the country's digital payments market.
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- Category: Humanitarian Comms
- 25154 views
The world is more connected than ever. Some six billion people were online in 2025, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Yet 2.2 billion remained offline, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Even that figure understates the challenge: the GSMA estimates that more than three billion people live within mobile-broadband coverage but do not use mobile internet.
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- 5678 views
Vodafone Idea (Vi) recorded its first quarter of net subscriber additions since its merger, while reporting stronger revenue, EBITDA and ARPU growth as the Indian operator continues to expand its 4G and 5G networks.
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- Category: Cloud & Virtualisation
- 11503 views
Microsoft has launched its fourth cloud region in India, with a new datacentre region in Hyderabad aimed at supporting growing demand for cloud and AI services among Indian enterprises.
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- Category: Devices & Platforms
- 5810 views
India has proposed extending tax exemptions for foreign companies supplying machinery to electronics contract manufacturers until 2041, in a move to strengthen the country's position as a global manufacturing hub and provide a significant boost to Apple's expanding production operations.
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- Category: Operators
- 4324 views
Bharti Airtel has reported an 18.4% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenue for the first quarter of its 2027 financial year, driven by continued growth across its India and Africa operations, alongside strong momentum in its mobile, home broadband and enterprise businesses.
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- Category: Data Centres & Networks
- 5973 views
Digital infrastructure and sovereign cloud provider SKY47 and ZTE revealed on Tuesday they have launched what they say is Pakistan's first and largest purpose-built, AI-ready data centre campus in Islamabad.
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- Category: Optical & Fixed Networks
- 4590 views
Kazakhstan said on Friday that the first phase of the Trans-Caspian Submarine Cable System connecting Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is now being deployed, and is on track to be ready for service by the end of this year.
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- Category: Operators
- 4806 views
MegaFon Tajikistan says it has made good progress in modernising and expanding its telecoms network during the first half of this year, including 4G upgrades, core support for VoLTE, fibre transport deployments, and a 5G test.
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- Category: Regulation
- 9223 views
The Pakistani government has reportedly halted plans to rebrand the merged Ufone-Telenor Pakistan business as "e&" while it reviews the legal authority behind the proposed name change.
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- Category: Regulation
- 14073 views
Bangladesh's telecommunications regulator has fined the country's four mobile operators a combined BDT86.8 million (US$710,000) after identifying thousands of SIM cards allegedly being used for illegal international call termination via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
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- Category: Satellite Networks
- 6794 views
Aspiring LEO satellite operator Rivada Space Networks said on Wednesday it has signed a deal with telecoms operator and communications systems integrator Zharyq Kazakhstan to use its constellation to deliver broadband satellite services.
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- Category: Cloud & Virtualisation
- 6070 views
Veon-owned Pakistan telco Jazz says it has successfully completed the virtualisation of its subscriber data management (SDM) platform in collaboration with Nokia as part of its network modernisation programme.
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- Category: Satellite Networks
- 5724 views
Viasat has demonstrated what it claims is the first satellite voice call fully integrated into a BMW Group vehicle, highlighting how non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) could extend connected car services beyond the reach of terrestrial mobile coverage.
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- Category: Investment
- 6073 views
India’s government is injecting a further US$13.30 billion (INR 1.28 trillion) into an existing semiconductor manufacturing initiative, according to Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
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- Category: Mobile Finance
- 4573 views
Veon announced that its Pakistan subsidiary JazzWorld has completed its acquisition of a controlling stake of TPL Insurance for PKR4.55 billion (US$16.4 million), enabling it to expand its digital services portfolio into the insurtech sector.
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- Category: Operators
- 5695 views
Jio Platforms has reportedly appointed long-time executive Pankaj Pawar as its new CEO, replacing Kiran Thomas ahead of the company’s expected initial public offering.
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- Category: Vendors
- 7486 views
India has approved a joint venture between Chinese smartphone vendor Vivo and electronic manufacturer Dixon Technologies, as the government continues to strengthen domestic electronics manufacturing under its Make in India strategy.
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- Category: Mobile Finance
- 9975 views
Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata announced on Tuesday it has launched Dialog Pay, a unified payments and financial services ecosystem designed to boost adoption of digital payments.
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- Category: Devices & Platforms
- 14354 views
India has increased its policing of online technology platforms as it has reportedly demanded messaging services Telegram and Signal explain their safeguards around users keeping their phone numbers hidden, after WhatsApp saw its usernames rollout paused.
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- Category: Optical & Fixed Networks
- 5981 views
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on Friday that international connectivity services on the SEA-ME-WE 5 subsea cable system have been fully restored following a fault on the cable a day earlier.
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- Category: Operators
- 14281 views
The merger between Telenor Pakistan and Ufone has officially completed after the Islamabad High Court approved the amalgamation, bringing one of the country’s biggest telecoms deals to a close.
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- Category: Investment
- 5733 views
Global digital operator Veon – which owns Bangladesh telco Banglalink – announced Tuesday it has committed an initial US$250 million anchor investment as part of a new initiative to attract US$1 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) to Bangladesh.
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