South Africa's national broadband infrastructure company Broadband Infraco (BBI) has reportedly partnered with Huawei to build a national intelligent all-optical backbone network.

Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) and Ethio Telecom are set to sign a master service agreement (MSA) on Thursday to cooperate on accelerating Camtel’s digital transformation, to include Camtel’s launch of its planned mobile money service, Blue Money.

Angola Cables has reportedly launched its third cloud node in Angola as an extension of its pan-African Clouds2Africa platform, along with a new programme to provide free cloud services for startups and local entrepreneurs.

Madagascar’s Ministry of Digital Development has confirmed that the country’s operators will cut internet tariffs from this week, following talks aimed at boosting digital access, as reported by TechAfrica News.

Zimbabwe plans to introduce what it calls a 15% Digital Services Withholding Tax from January 2026. The new levy will apply to a wide range of services supplied by foreign companies with no physical presence in Zimbabwe.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa Ethiopia announced on Monday it has launched a new mobile money platform on Monday called M-Pesa LeHulum that works with any SIM card, effectively opening M-Pesa up to anyone regardless of what mobile network they use.

Gabon has introduced a new platform. Called Kimba, its aim is to drive demand and supply matching in digital services.

Airtel Madagascar and Nokia have launched the first fully off-grid Rural Connect sites in the country, marking a major milestone in extending mobile connectivity to underserved communities.

Paratus Botswana said on Friday it has updated its uncapped fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages and pricing in response to growing market demand for faster speeds at lower prices with shorter or no contractual commitments.

Axian Group says it has formed a strategic collaboration agreement with Mastercard to launch digital payment solutions in the five African markets where Axian operates mobile networks: Madagascar, Comoros Islands, Senegal, Togo, and Tanzania.

A partnership agreement has been announced between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies, and Senegalese regulator ARTP. The aim of this agreement is to support young women in digital development.

MTN Digital infrastructure – a.k.a. Bayobab – says its South Sudan subsidiary, Bayobab Infra Solutions, has been awarded a license from the country’s National Communications Authority to construct, install, and operate fibre networks.

Vodacom Tanzania launched a global payments service for its M-Pesa mobile money platform on Thursday that enables Tanzanian customers and merchants to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments while traveling and doing business abroad.

Beyon Connect, part of Bahrain-headquartered technology company Beyon Group, the Ivorian postal service La Poste de Côte d’Ivoire, and Post Connect, an Egyptian company specialised in technical solutions for electronic trust services, have signed a memorandum of understanding.

It is – as so often these days – a busy time for finance initiatives targeting developing regions. Indeed, two recent announcements relevant to such regions involve pan-African operator MTN.

South African operator Vodacom and Remgro, a diversified investment holding company, have announced that regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has approved Vodacom’s acquisition of a minority stake in Vumatel’s parent company. The transaction will be implemented on 1 December.

South African operator MTN and technology giant ZTE Corporation have announced three major joint innovations in South Africa that they say will transform network performance and customer experience.

Amazon has started trialling its Leo (Project Kuiper) satellite broadband service with selected enterprise customers, marking the first phase of a broader commercial rollout planned for later this year to take on Starlink.

The three member states of the confederation known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – have signed an agreement to coordinate the use of radio frequencies along their shared borders.

Vodacom Group has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud, adopting the company’s data analytics and generative AI technologies to build new digital services tailored for African consumers and enterprises.

ZTE and state-owned Ethio Telecom revealed on Monday that they have successfully deployed 152 rural base stations across Ethiopia’s remote regions, providing 2G, 3G and 4G mobile coverage for over 1 million users in underserved areas.

Ethio Telecom has partnered with Awash Bank to launch Tila, a new digital credit, savings and device-financing service available through the operator’s Telebirr mobile money platform.

Airtel Malawi officially launched its 5G network in select districts on Tuesday along with the nationwide rollout of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for its 4G network.

A move described as “a bold and visionary step” by Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah, CEO of the Digital Chamber of Ghana, has seen the Ghanaian government give the green light to plans to build fibre chambers alongside roads, effectively eliminating the capital cost of digging for telecom operators.

Meta has completed the core build of its 2Africa subsea cable system, marking a major milestone in one of the world’s largest connectivity projects, with further expansions already underway.

IFC, a global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, has announced a partnership with operator Orange Mali to support the company in upgrading its infrastructure, expanding broadband coverage, and ensuring equal access to telecommunications services for all communities.

Ericsson announced on Monday it has inaugurated its new office in Lusaka, Zambia, which it said marks a significant step towards not only enhancing its local and regional presence, but also supporting Zambia’s digital transformation ambitions.

MTN Group has announced a new collaboration with Microsoft to broaden access to AI-enabled learning and productivity tools for millions of people across Africa, marking the operator’s milestone of reaching 300 million customers.

Eutelsat says it has signed a new distribution agreement with Angolan telecoms service provider MSTelcom, to deliver Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO connectivity services across key vertical sectors such as oil & gas and maritime, as well as fixed land operations.