Egypt launches SMS campaign to promote digital safety and Wa3i.net portal
EGYPT 09:07

Egypt launches SMS campaign to promote digital safety and Wa3i.net portal

Egypt's ICT ministry has launched a nationwide SMS campaign to elevate digital literacy and introduce its specialized portal, Wa3i.net. Developed in collaboration with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and local mobile network operators, the platform provides interactive guidance on secure web navigation and data privacy. The portal focuses heavily on child online protection, equipping parents and youth with the necessary tools to prevent cyber threats, the ministry said in a statement. 

Matter 1.6 brings enhanced NFC support, thermostat and alarm features
GLOBAL 09:05

Matter 1.6 brings enhanced NFC support, thermostat and alarm features

The latest iteration of the IoT and smart home interoperability protocol Matter has just been released. Matter 1.6 is the first edition to introduce near-field communications (NFC) contact for end-to-end device provisioning, building on an earlier onboarding payload rolled out in Matter 1.4.1. The original process had still relied on Bluetooth Low Energy to complete onboarding.

CNN All Access now available to Prime Video customers in US
UNITED STATES 08:58

CNN All Access now available to Prime Video customers in US

Media company CNN has made its 'All Access' streaming subscription available on Amazon Prime Video in the US. This allows Amazon customers to sign up for CNN content including 24/7 worldwide live news channels, premium original content from CNN Originals, CNN live events, breaking news coverage and exclusive VoD content. The CNN All Access subscription is available for USD 6.99 per month through Prime Video, or an introductory offer of USD 41.99 for the annual subscription. 

ITV sees peak of 15.4 million viewers for England World Cup match
UNITED KINGDOM 08:52

ITV sees peak of 15.4 million viewers for England World Cup match

UK broadcaster ITV registered a peak of 15.4 million viewers (TV set) for its coverage of England's first game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday 17 June. This is the highest peak UK TV audience of 2026, beating the 9.8 million registered by BBC show 'The Traitors'; and is the highest peak audience on any channel or streamer since the 2025 UEFA Euro tournament.

SRN programme activates over 140 4G masts across Great Britain
UNITED KINGDOM 08:45

SRN programme activates over 140 4G masts across Great Britain

Industry group Mobile UK confirmed that more than 140 UK government-funded 4G masts have now been activated through the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme across Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). The majority of the upgrades have been completed on existing mast infrastructure, instead of building new towers, to help reduce the environmental impact of the scheme and preserve the countryside's natural beauty. The total includes 55 SRN masts in Wales, of which 11 have been activated in 2026. 

Arrcus supports Telus sovereign, distributed AI inferencing PoC
CANADA 08:34

Arrcus supports Telus sovereign, distributed AI inferencing PoC

Canadian operator Telus is working with distributed network infrastructure company Arrcus on a proof-of-concept to deliver sovereign, distributed AI inferencing on a national scale using the Arrcus Inference Network Fabric (AINF) as the networking foundation. The aim of the proof-of-concept is to support secure, low-latency AI for mission-critical applications across public safety, enterprise and government services in Canada.

Court rejects Ruban claim to join L-Mobi appeal against ACM
NETHERLANDS 08:33

Court rejects Ruban claim to join L-Mobi appeal against ACM

A court in Rotterdam has rejected a claim from the company Ruban Holding over the ACM's decision on wholesale access for MVNO L-Mobi at KPN. Ruban is a shareholder in L-Mobi but the court found it could not be considered an interested party in the ACM case. L-Mobi previously asked the ACM to intervene over the wholesale terms at KPN, claiming KPN was abusing a dominant market position. However, the ACM declined to take up the case. Ruban registered as an interested party in the appeal against that decision

Fastweb+Vodafone backs Pride 2026 events across four Italian cities
ITALY 08:29

Fastweb+Vodafone backs Pride 2026 events across four Italian cities

Italian operator Fastweb+Vodafone said it will join Pride 2026 events across four Italian cities as part of its commitment to promoting inclusion and employee engagement. Activities began on 13 June with the Bari Pride parade and will continue in Rome on 20 June and in Milan and Cagliari on 27 June, involving employees along with their families and friends in a shared message of participation.

Mobiuz offers free data on video app for World Cup
UZBEKISTAN 08:23

Mobiuz offers free data on video app for World Cup

Uzbekistan mobile operator Mobiuz has introduced an offer for customers to watch matches of the Fifa World Cup 2026 on their phones. Subscribers are offered unlimited data traffic when accessing the Mobi Cinema mobile application, as well as the website of this service.

Bell, Cohere, Hypertec, Buzz HPC partner to boost sovereign AI
CANADA 08:23

Bell, Cohere, Hypertec, Buzz HPC partner to boost sovereign AI

Bell Canada has announced a major sovereign AI infrastructure agreement with Cohere Technologies, Hypertec and Buzz High Performance Computing. The partnership combines the Bell AI Fabric data centre/connectivity platform with Cohere's secure enterprise-grade AI and LLM solutions, with Buzz HPC's scalable accelerated computing infrastructure. This will be powered by the Nvidia DSX AI platform and built on hardware made by Hypertec in Canada.

CPP to invest INR 70 billion in CtrlS, create data centre JV in India
INDIA 08:19

CPP to invest INR 70 billion in CtrlS, create data centre JV in India

CtrlS Datacenters has announced it has secured an investment from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). CPP Investments will invest up to INR 70 billion (CAD 1 billion) to fund CtrlS' upcoming growth in India's digital infrastructure sector. As part of the partnership, CPP Investments will invest INR 40 billion (CAD 588 million) to acquire an 8.2 percent stake in CtrlS.

Utrecht university claims damages from KPN after data centre fire
NETHERLANDS 08:18

Utrecht university claims damages from KPN after data centre fire

Utrecht University (UU) is claiming damages from KPN following a fire at a NorthC data centre in Almere last month that disrupted the university's IT systems for a week. The amount of the claim is still being calculated according to an article on the university's news forum.  

IRELAND 08:12

NBI completes main fibre network build in Kilkenny

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has completed the main National Broadband Plan (NBP) fibre network build in County Kilkenny. This is the first in multiple county completion milestones NBI expects to achieve in 2026 as the NBP roll-out nears completion.

SPAIN 08:12

Spain to require anti-blackout batteries guaranteeing 75% mobile coverage

Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration is set to require operators to install batteries ensuring coverage for at least 75 percent of the population in a forthcoming Royal Decree on the security and resilience of electronic communications networks, reports business daily Expansion. Following consultation with operators and competition and communications regulator CNMC, the government has agreed to revise down the requirement from at least 85 percent of the population, said the

TURKEY 08:07

Turkcell increases investment in Belarusian subsidiary BeST

Turkcell reports it has increased its investment in its subsidiary BeST (Belarusian Telecommunications Network) by BYN 10.9 million. This raises Turkcell's total funding in BeST from BYN 1.36 billion to BYN 1.37 billion. Turkcell also says it has fully paid for its share of this increase to maintain its ownership stake.

JORDAN 08:05

Orange Jordan and InvoiceQ partner to streamline national e-invoicing requirement

Orange Jordan has finalised a partnership agreement with InvoiceQ Jordan to launch an integrated application that enables enterprise clients to automate invoice issuance and establish seamless connectivity with Jordan's National E-Invoicing System. The partnership aligns with regulatory directives mandating that all commercial entities submit financial data through the National E-Invoicing System to bolster fiscal transparency. To ease this compliance transition, the software features cross-platform accessi

UNITED STATES 08:04

Lightpath uses Oracle solutions to automate business processes

US fibre network operator Lightpath is using Oracle solutions to automate key business processes and shorten time-to-market for new customer services. It is using Oracle Cloud Scale Billing to streamline complex billing process for enterprise customers - including offering concurrent support for multiple pricing and payment modes across large deployment with millions of IoT devices. 

BELARUS 08:03

Life Belarus organises cybersecurity summer camps

The operator Life Belarus plans to carry out its project Cyberclass in summer camps in three regions across the country. Online cybersecurity lessons for fifth and sixth grade pupils will take place in camps in the Minsk, Gomel and Mogilyov regions. Children will be provided with training on recognising fraudulent schemes online, protection of personal data, and using messengers, social networks and digital services safely. 

KYRGYZSTAN 08:02

Mega adds state bonds to Mega Investments fintech app

Kyrgyzstan operator Mega has added a new option to its fintech service Mega Investments. Users of the application MegaPay from the operator will be able to acquire state securities on smartphones. State bonds will be available for sale on the trading system of the Kyrgyzstan Exchange. The minimum investment is KGS 1,000, and the maximum sum totals KGS 1 million.

GLOBAL 08:01

HMD Secure joins Qualcomm, Streamwide for device-to-device NR Sidelink app

Rugged telecoms vendor HMD Secure is teaming with Qualcomm and Streamwide to launch an NR Sidelink device-to-device technology built for public safety and first responders. The product allows hardened devices to form an immediate, off-grid mesh network, enabling critical voice, messaging and data exchange during cellular outages. A live demo of the product was shown at Critical Communications World in London. NR Sidelink is a 3GPP-standardised technology enabling peer-to-peer 5G device communication without

EGYPT 07:52

Huawei Cloud and Thndr partner to boost Egyptian fintech via AI

Huawei Cloud and Egyptian digital investment platform Thndr signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to drive the adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) across Egypt's financial services industry. The agreement outlines collaboration on operational efficiency, digital financial services, and user experience. The collaboration supports Thndr's ongoing efforts to enhance its digital investment platform using cloud and AI technologies. Both companies will cooperate on selected innovatio

GLOBAL 07:50

Aria Systems, ServiceNow launch agentic telecoms BSS

AI billing specialist Aria Systems has partnered enterprise automation vendor ServiceNow to launch an agentic BSS solution targeted at telecoms. Romit Ghose, technology vice president at ServiceNow's media and telco products unit, identified legacy BSS as the biggest roadblock hampering telecoms agentic AI implementation. The platform pairs ServiceNow's flagship AI platform, including customer relationship management (CRM) tools and workflow automation, with Aria's billing and monetisation stack, driven by

UNITED KINGDOM 07:49

Deloitte opens new London AI Studio; trains UK workers on Gemini Enterprise

Deloitte is opening a new AI Studio on its London campus, developed in partnership with Google Cloud. Announced at the Google Cloud London Summit 2026 and opening in late-July, the Deloitte AI Studio will help UK organisations deploy agentic AI solutions. It will focus on transitioning sectors such as financial services, the public sector retail, consumer products, healthcare and life sciences, and technology, media and telecoms (TMT).

ITALY 07:43

Kena gifts 70GB of summer data to all subs

Telecom Italia's low-cost brand Kena has launched a one-off summer data offer whereby all new and existing customers can access a free 70GB bundle at 5G speeds of up to 250 Mbps. Under the promo, customers have until 21 June to activate the bundle at no extra cost to be used up over a period of 72 hours via the My Kena application and customer area.

Just In

09:07

Egypt launches SMS campaign to promote digital safety and Wa3i.net portal

09:05

Matter 1.6 brings enhanced NFC support, thermostat and alarm features

08:58

CNN All Access now available to Prime Video customers in US

08:52

ITV sees peak of 15.4 million viewers for England World Cup match

Commentary

5 MEI 10:55

KPN: the art of making one-offs structural

4 MEI 14:25

Open Dutch Fiber outlook: time to restart roll-out?

20 APR 10:36

Netflix back to organic growth and doing just fine

11 FEB 12:29

Odido shareholders face tricky exit after abandoned IPO

Background

1 JUN 00:13

The week in telecom: EU telcos push sovereign services as governments question foreign tech investors

23 MEI 23:42

The week in telecom: Starlink ready to go public, Singapore telco M&A and Google courts AI subscribers at I/O

18 MEI 00:31

The week in telecom: US operators mount rural satellite challenge, Cisco cashes in on AI boom

11 MEI 00:53

The week in telecom: Lumen, NTT turn to data centre market to revive growth, Hutchison exits UK