State-owned Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has revealed plans to enter the country’s 5G race in October as part of a BWP240 million (US$17.8 million) investment plan in the 2026/27 financial year to modernise and upgrade its network.

Ericsson announced on Monday it has signed two MoUs with Saudi Arabian telco Mobily – one for AI-powered RANs, and another to boost Mobily’s network autonomy to Level 4.

The UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has granted LEO satellite operator Starlink a ten-year licence to establish, operate, and manage broadband satellite internet services in the country.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has signed a strategic five-year agreement with the country’s Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a telecom research and development centre, to establish a state-of-the-art end-to-end optical network test bed.

In a move that will benefit mobile operators – and potentially save them money – the Indian government has announced that it will increase the electromagnetic field (EMF) limits for mobile networks to global standards, allowing telecom operators to cover larger areas with fewer towers.

Payment giants Visa and Mastercard have carried out their first international card transactions in Syria, indicating that the country is now much closer to reconnecting with global payment networks.

AMD, which describes itself as a high performance and adaptive computing leader, and Humain, which delivers global full-stack AI solutions, say they have launched a new ‘AI in a Box’ solution for enterprise users across Saudi Arabia.

Malaysian telco Maxis announced that it has officially been appointed by Melaka ICT Holdings (MICTH) as its strategic infrastructure partner to accelerate deployment of fibre backhaul to telecom towers in the state of Melaka.

Telkom Indonesia’s international arm Telin signed a trio of agreements last week to expand its international connectivity business, along with a fourth agreement to adopt TM Forum’s Open APIs and open digital architecture model.

Vietnam is reportedly once again facing disruptions to internet connectivity speeds with four out of six international subsea cable connections now suffering from outages.

Underlining the strategic importance of international cable connections to the country, India is reportedly looking at ways to reduce delays in approvals for submarine cable repairs.

Claro Colombia is investing US$25.5 million in 2026 to expand and upgrade its Triara data centre in Bogota and Megacenter facility in Medellin, as demand for cloud, AI and data processing capacity increases.

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.

Visa announced on Wednesday it has successfully tested its first live international transaction in Syria in its bid to help integrate the country’s financial services sector into the global digital economy.

Alibaba Cloud announced on Thursday it has launched its first cloud region in Brazil, with two new data centres and an upcoming suite of enterprise-grade agentic AI services in the region.

MTN Digital Infrastructure confirmed on Thursday that it has formed a new company in partnership with UAE-based investor Tarek Al Ashram to speed up development of AI-ready digital infrastructure platforms across Africa.

Infineon Technologies, which describes itself as a global semiconductor leader in power systems and IoT, has announced the acquisition of India’s C2i Semiconductors, a technology company specialising in software-defined multiphase controllers and smart power stages for AI data centre applications.

The troubled tale of Brazilian operator Oi took a not unexpected turn this week as a Brazilian court upheld an earlier bankruptcy ruling, putting an end to Oi's attempt at court-supervised restructuring.

Malaysia is reportedly planning to toughen oversight of e-commerce platforms operating in the country, to include requiring them to be registered with the government.

Viettel’s Cambodian subsidiary Metfone announced on Wednesday it has expanded its partnership with Canadia Bank with an MoU to explore ways to cooperate in digital infrastructure, digital solutions, cybersecurity, green energy, and logistics.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison’s digital infrastructure spinoff Infra Fiber Teknologi (IFT) launched a new project called RAIA Grid on Wednesday to build an AI-powered digital infrastructure platform across Indonesia.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo has opened a smartphone assembly plant in Algeria as it looks to increase its local manufacturing presence and tap into the country's growing demand for devices.

MTN is exploring banking licences in selected markets as it looks to expand its fintech business and eventually provide loans from its own balance sheet.

Mozambique Telecom (a.k.a. Tmcel) has started  proof of concept (PoC) tests with Angola’s Angosat-2 satellite as part of an agreement between the two countries earlier this year to cooperate in the space, telecoms and ICT sectors.

State-owned Telikom PNG announced on Monday it has struck an infrastructure sharing and co-location agreement with Vodafone Papua New Guinea, which it said is the first such arrangement in the country’s telecoms sector.

Orange Slovensko, one of the largest telecommunications operators in Slovakia, and Enery, a leading independent power producer in Central and Eastern Europe, have signed a ten-year physical power purchase agreement (PPA) linked to the supply of solar energy.

AI solutions company Mistral and Humain, a global AI company building the full AI stack and backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund have announced a strategic collaboration focused on sovereign AI.

Data centre company Equinix has reportedly expanded its Colombia data centre footprint and increased its investment, bringing online the second phase of BG2, its second data centre in Colombia, doubling the site's cabinet capacity in Bogota.

China has approved its first private-sector commercial trial for satellite Internet of Things (IoT) services, granting a permit to Zhejiang Geespace Technology as part of what are being described as broader efforts to open the country’s satellite communications market to private capital.

MTN Group has reportedly secured conditional approval from Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for its proposed acquisition of the remaining stake in tower company IHS Holding Limited.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has reportedly announced a change of policy that means it will cease direct manufacturing of commercial launch vehicles, though this may boost its other businesses.

MTN Group reported strong growth in the first half of 2026, with service revenue rising 17.5% to ZAR 115 billion (US$7.2 billion) and EBITDA before one-off items increasing almost 25% to ZAR 56 billion (US£3.5 billion) in constant-currency terms.

Paratus Uganda said on Monday it has become the first service provider in the country to launch Starlink’s LEO satellite service after the Uganda Communication Commission approved Starlink’s provisional operational licence in May.