All Tech News

Satellite communications company Eutelsat says it has successfully completed its first rail connectivity trial in Poland aboard a long-distance train, demonstrating its OneWeb LEO connectivity capabilities on a live rail network.

Reliance Jio and T-Mobile US have claimed the world’s first 5G Standalone roaming connection between their respective networks in India and the US.

Australian submarine cable development firm Subco announced plans on Tuesday to build three new subsea cables by 2029 to support demand for AI data centres in Asia-Pacific, one of which will bring more international bandwidth to Indonesia.

Space solutions company SES and JioStar, South Asia’s largest media conglomerate, have announced a new multi-year deal. It comes only weeks after the inauguration of a new SES office in Chennai in southern India.

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable system consortium has selected high-speed connectivity specialist Ciena to upgrade one of the key routes in the system that links Western Europe, West Africa and South Africa.

Cameroon’s state-owned operator Camtel said on Thursday it has received a second delivery of telecoms equipment from China to begin the next phase of its MNE (Mobile Network Expansion) project.

UAE-based telco du said on Friday it has teamed with Nokia to deploy six-carrier aggregation across FDD and TDD spectrum on its commercial standalone 5G-Advanced network, which it’s claiming as a world-first.

Ericsson announced on Thursday that Vodafone Egypt has commercially deployed its AI-powered RAN Processor 6672 that will enable the telco to run AI directly at Ericsson radio sites rather than at a central AI location.

Indonesian service provider XLSmart has announced that it has begun construction work on the 8,000-kilometre Candle Cable System, a subsea cable linking Southeast Asia and Japan.

EllaLink, which describes itself as the first high-capacity fibre-optic submarine cable directly connecting Latin America to Europe, has announced that two branching units have been successfully laid.

Airtel Africa is winding up its Kenyan wholesale fibre and internet subsidiary after two years of operation, following losses and an inability to establish a viable commercial business.

Nokia announced Tuesday it’s collaborating with global connectivity provider Telxius to deploy 800G coherent pluggable optics across its terrestrial transport networks in Latin America, Europe and the US.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed that it’s been unable to restore access to its data centres in Bahrain and one of its three data centres in the UAE after they were damaged by Iranian drone strikes earlier this year.

The Smart Africa Secretariat, an alliance tasked with driving Africa’s digital agenda, and Kitsoft, an international govtech company with Ukrainian roots, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on public sector digital transformation.

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.

Tencent Cloud announced on Tuesday it has signed an MoU with Malaysian 5G operator U Mobile to explore development of practical 5G and AI solutions for enterprises and SMEs.

Russian mobile phone operators have launched their first commercial 5G networks across 16 major cities, according to an announcement last Friday from the country’s Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Ministry.

The GSMA has warned that rising smartphone component costs could widen the digital divide as 3.1 billion people remain offline despite living within mobile broadband coverage.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is funding a feasibility study for a new submarine cable system linking Thailand with the US via up to five other Southeast Asian countries.

Digital Realty announced on Monday it has formed a strategic joint venture with Turkish investment company Rönesans Infrastructure to develop and operate next-generation data centres across Turkey.

Singapore-based global payment platform Thunes announced on Monday that it’s expanding its cross-border payments network across the Middle East in six new markets: Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, South Yemen, Syria and the UAE.

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.

Space42, the UAE-based AI-powered SpaceTech company, and satcoms giant Viasat have signed a binding agreement to co-found Equatys, creating the first shared space and ground infrastructure platform for global direct-to-device and advanced MSS connectivity.

Confirming Nigeria’s plans to expand its satellite resources, telecommunications and technology giant Thales Alenia Space says it has won a contract to build the NigComSat-2A geostationary telecommunications satellite.

The SAMENA Telecommunications Council – the industry body representing the telecoms sectors in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa – has called for stronger practical cooperation between the Arab region and Africa to invest and implement AI.

South Africa-based Digital Parks Africa (DPA) says it’s expanding into West Africa with plans to develop a new carrier-neutral data centre in Nigeria in association with the Master Power Technologies Group.

Liberty Business has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide Jamaican businesses and organisations with access to cloud services supported by local expertise and managed services.

Ethio Telecom revealed on Thursday it has held a stakeholders' workshop with Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Group to push their planned Horizon Cross-Border Terrestrial Fiber Initiative into the pre-commercialisation phase.

Saudi Arabian service provider and digital enabler stc Group, and Astranis, which builds advanced satellites for high orbits, have announced an agreement to deploy a dedicated satellite serving Saudi Arabia.

Mongolian broadband provider Mobinet is deploying Plume Design’s Plume Platform to power its mobihome broadband service.

The growing importance of mobile money in Sri Lanka is underlined by two recent announcements from leading operator Dialog Axiata relating to the remittance market and lifestyle retail.

The installed base of fleet management systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Turkey will reach 12.5 million units by 2030. That’s the headline finding of a new report called Fleet Management in the Middle East.