Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison announced on Thursday it has successfully spun off its fibre business, which has relaunched as Infra Fiber Teknologi (IFT), an independent fibre infrastructure platform backed by Indosat and Arsari Group.

Google Cloud launched several new initiatives to boost AI development in Africa on Wednesday, including new infrastructure, a new AI lab, digital skillsets development and startup funding.

A new partnership has been announced that will build sovereign AI data centre infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.

Yet another India-Southeast Asia undersea cable is in the news after an announcement that a consortium plans to build a new undersea cable linking India with Malaysia and Singapore.

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.

Elea Data Centres says it is partnering with renewable energy company AXIA Energia to launch what they say is the first neutral AI data centre in the Amazon region in the second quarter of 2027.

Malaysian 5G wholesaler Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) announced on Wednesday it’s doubling the mid-band capacity of its network, whilst also confirming that second 5G telco U Mobile has offboarded all of its 5G subscribers from DNB’s network to its own.

The GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) has elected a new President, Patrik Cerwall, who will take the helm from 1^st January 2027.

Zain Group, a Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications company operating in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa and serving 51.2 million customers, has been awarded a 25-year licence to operate the former MTN mobile telecom network in Syria.

Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between French aerospace and defence corporations Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has announced the signing of a contract with Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, to develop a new-generation software-defined satellite.

Communications technology giant Tata Communications has announced strategic investments in subsea cable infrastructure to strengthen its connectivity solutions between the emerging AI hubs of Mumbai and Chennai in India and Singapore.

The Chad QoS saga, pitting authorities against operators, continues. This time operator Airtel Chad has presented a new investment plan to improve service quality as Chadian authorities intensify pressure on telecom operators over network performance.

Globe Telecom announced on Monday it has officially launched Starlink’s direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service across the Philippines after receiving regulatory approval National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Cambodian engineering and infrastructure firm Comin Asia said on Monday that it’s partnering with Nokia to to design and deploy AI-ready data centre infrastructure across Southeast Asia, starting with Cambodia and Laos.

The East African Communications Organisation (EACO) and the Smart Africa Secretariat have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen strategic collaboration in advancing the digital transformation and accelerating the realisation of a single digital market in Africa by 2030.

This week will see Tunisian plans to make mobile IDs mandatory for investment project declarations come into force.

The approval, early last week, of the installation of Google’s underwater cable linking Chile to Asia-Pacific means the Humboldt Cable, as it is known, is on track to be installed in the last quarter of 2026 and become operational in 2028.

Kenya’s Court of Appeal has lifted an injunction blocking the government’s planned sale of a 15% stake in Safaricom to South Africa’s Vodacom, reviving a transaction valued at KES204.3 billion (US$1.6 billion), reported to Bloomberg.  

Cambodian telco Cellcard (a.k.a. CamGSM) announced a strategic partnership on Saturday with auto manufacturer ZDG to launch a new connected electric vehicle from Chinese auto maker Lynk & Co.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar announced on Friday it has signed an MoU with the country’s Ministry of Economy to establish a sovereign AI-ready data centre in Ukraine.

Tencent Cloud announced on Friday that Indonesian telco XLSmart has completed a large-scale migration of its operations to Tencent’s public cloud platform as part of its long-term digital modernization strategy.

China Mobile, the GSMA, Huawei and other partners have officially launched “OpenAN”, an open-source project that aims to enable collaboration and interoperability between O&M agents in autonomous networks, allowing them to evolve to Level 4 autonomy.

Starlink will provide one month of free satellite internet service to users in Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes that struck the country this week, helping restore communications in affected areas.

Satellite operators Amazon, Iridium, Telesat and Globalstar have announced the formation of a new trade association representing the non-geostationary (NGSO) satellite economy: the SpaceConnect Association.

UNESCO said on Wednesday it has launched the rollout of a new mobile-based teacher professional development initiative in South Sudan that focuses on empowering women school leaders and teachers.

Vodacom South Africa announced on Thursday it is expanding its partnership with Amazon South Africa to offer the latter's Amazon Prime membership service to its customers.

Globe Telecom CEO and president Carl Cruz says the key to telcos cashing in on AI is to embrace it, internalise it and make it foundational to their business operations before offering it to customers. It also helps if the population is highly digital, like the Philippines.

A hot topic at MWC Shanghai 2026 is AI tokens that enable telcos to monetise AI services. Chinese telcos are already doing it – but that market's unique environment raises questions over how telcos outside of China can follow their lead.