Bayobab hires Seacom manager as regional MD for South and East Africa
AFRICA 12:41

Bayobab hires Seacom manager as regional MD for South and East Africa

MTN Digital Infrastructure, trading as Bayobab, announced the appointment of Sajid Ahmad Khan as regional managing director for South and East Africa, effective 05 January 2026. In this role, Khan will oversee Bayobab's operations across the region, while directly leading the Bayobab Kenya business.

Comarch signs new BSS proof of concept pact with Hatif for fibre broadband
LIBYA 12:33

Comarch signs new BSS proof of concept pact with Hatif for fibre broadband

Comarch, Hatif Libya and Makman Technology Consulting have signed a Proof of Concept (PoC) agreement in Tripoli focused on validating selected Business Support System (BSS) capabilities supporting fibre-based broadband services. The new PoC follows an OSS pilot project contract signed earlier in 2025.

Cassava and Gebeya launch AI-powered creator platform
AFRICA 18 DEC

Cassava and Gebeya launch AI-powered creator platform

Cassava Technologies and Gebeya are launch Gebeya Dala, a suite of AI tools to enable Africans to create digital content using Cassava's data centres and GPU infrastructure. Gebeya Dala is designed for users without technical expertise. Its initial modules include an AI-powered app builder to create functional applications without coding experience and using instructions in their local language, as well as a service to create comics and manga from Africa's oral traditions and stories without prior artistic

Algeria plans to start building new submarine cable imminently
ALGERIA 18 DEC

Algeria plans to start building new submarine cable imminently

The government plans to connect to a new undersea fibre-optic cable to boost internet speeds, Algeria Press Service reported citing ICT minister Sid Ali Zerrouki. He said construction of the cable project would begin by 20 December, but gave no details such as the name of the infrastructure, its capacity, cost, technical partners or commissioning schedule.Algeria is currently connected to five submarine cables, namely the TE North/TGN-Eurasia/SEACOM/Alexandros/Medex, SeaMeWe-4, Oran-Valencia (ORVAL), Med Ca

Medusa cable lands in Morocco
MOROCCO 17 DEC

Medusa cable lands in Morocco

The Medusa submarine cable officially landed in Nador, Morocco, marking a major milestone in the country's international connectivity and digital infrastructure development. The landing follows the recent deployments in Marseille (France) in October and Bizerte (Tunisia) in November, reinforcing the system's steady progression across both shores of the Mediterranean. The landing establishes a new strategic access point linking Morocco to European Mediterranean connectivity networks and expanding data exchan

Airtel Africa to launch Starlink direct-to-cell service in 2026
AFRICA 17 DEC

Airtel Africa to launch Starlink direct-to-cell service in 2026

Airtel Africa said it has partnered with SpaceX to introduce Starlink's direct-to-cell satellite technology to all fourteen of its markets serving 174 million customers. Under the Starlink Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity partnership, Airtel Africa customers with compatible smartphones in regions without terrestrial coverage can have network connectivity through Starlink. The satellite-to-mobile service will begin in 2026 with data for select applications and text messaging.

WIOCC Group secures another USD 65 mln debt financing to expand digital infrastructure in Africa
AFRICA 15 DEC

WIOCC Group secures another USD 65 mln debt financing to expand digital infrastructure in Africa

WIOCC Group said it has secured another USD 65 million in sustainability-linked debt financing arranged by International Finance Corporation (IFC), Proparco, Emerging Africa Infrastructure and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF) and Ninety-One. It will fund WIOCC Group's ongoing expansion of connectivity capacity and digital infrastructure across Africa. WIOCC CFO Samuel Ndungu said the new financing underscores the continued confidence of the development finance partners in WIOCC Group's long-term growth stra

Senegal, Benin, Gambia, Mali and Togo commit to implement free roaming regime in March 2026
AFRICA 15 DEC

Senegal, Benin, Gambia, Mali and Togo commit to implement free roaming regime in March 2026

Senegal's telecom authority ARTP announced that it has signed reciprocal agreements to end roaming surcharges with its counterparts in Benin (ARCEP), Gambia (PURA), Mali (AMRTP) and Togo (ARCEP). The free roaming regime is scheduled to take effect on 01 March 2026. Mobile customers travelling within the participating countries will be billed based on local tariffs for voice, text and data services. They will also be able to receive calls without surcharges for 30 consecutive days.

Orange Money to expand virtual Visa card to more countries
AFRICA 15 DEC

Orange Money to expand virtual Visa card to more countries

Orange Money Group and Visa are expanding their partnership on digital payments in Africa. Already deployed in Botswana, Madagascar and Jordan, where the partnership is renewed, the virtual visa card has been recently launched by Orange Money Cote d'Ivoire as well. Building on the success in these countries, the payment card will be gradually rolled out to new markets such as Guinea, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Bayobab names CTIO, head of South Africa FibreCo
AFRICA 12 DEC

Bayobab names CTIO, head of South Africa FibreCo

Bayobab, MTN Group's digital infrastructure company, is reinforcing its leadership team with new appointments. Rami Farah was appointed chief technology & information officer effective 01 January 2026, to lead technology strategy and innovation across Bayobab's footprint, reporting directly to the CEO of MTN Digital Infrastructure. He was most recently CTO of MTN South Africa and before that held the same role at MTN Uganda for many years. 

Maroc Telecom names new board member
MOROCCO 11 DEC

Maroc Telecom names new board member

Lamia Lemkecher, vice president responsible for litigation at Emirati telecom group E&, has been co-opted as a member of Maroc Telecom's board of directors and audit committee. She takes over the seat left vacant by Luis Enriquez for the remainder of his term. Lemkecher's career spans more than twenty five years, with the last sixteen spent as a legal expert in the telecom sector.

Algerie Telecom achieves 500,000 fibre net additions in four months
ALGERIA 11 DEC

Algerie Telecom achieves 500,000 fibre net additions in four months

Algerie Telecom's FTTH subscriber base has reached 2.9 million as the operator continues to expand fibre coverage nationwide. This marks an increase from 2.4 million reported in the first half of August, representing half a million net additions over four months. Overall, Algerie Telecom's broadband portfolio currently counts over 6.8 million customers across the fibre, ADSL/VDSL and Idoom 4G segments.

AFRICA 11 DEC

TOD expands into Morocco ahead of AFCON

BeIN's streaming platform TOD has expanded to Morocco and brought out a premium sports service there ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025 from 21 December to 18 January. It is offering 4K streaming, automatic post-match highlights and personalised features including watchlists, favourites and intelligent content recommendations. It will use TOD360 to provide fans with live statistics, multi-view options, timelines, player data, heatmaps and fan zones.

AFRICA 9 DEC

Icann opens Africa forum in Ghana to strengthen collaboration on internet governance

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is holding an Africa engagement forum in Accra, Ghana. Organised by Icann and hosted by the Association of African Universities (AAU), the forum focuses on critical levers for digital growth and will feature practical updates from Icann, progress on universal acceptance, regional readiness for the new generic top-level domains (gTLD) programme and ongoing work under the Coalition for Digital Africa. Pierre Dandjinou, Icann vice-president for global sta

AFRICA 9 DEC

Meta announces completion of 2Africa cable system

Meta has announced the completion of the 2Africa subsea cable system. Kojo Boakye, Meta's VP for public policy in Africa, the Middle East and Tuekiye, said this is a monumental achievement not just for Meta, its partners and government partners, but for the entire continent. He said the cable provides more capacity than all of Africa's existing submarine cables combined.

ALGERIA 5 DEC

Ooredoo Algeria and ZTE launch 5G network

Ooredoo Algeria in partnership with ZTE has officially launched its 5G network to advance connectivity and economic development for the country.

AFRICA 5 DEC

Microsoft sets up farming fund with AfDB

Microsoft said at the B20 South Africa Summit that it has now provided internet access to over 117 million people in Africa, exceeding its 2025 target. It has done so in partnership with ISPs, middle-mile infrastructure providers, hardware manufacturers, local innovators and multilateral organisations. At the summit, it launched a cooperation with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to set up a pan-African blended finance facility to provide capital and digital tools for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

AFRICA 4 DEC

Finnfund sees rising need for African data centre capacity and more fibre networks in emerging markets

Development finance organisation the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund) says that fibre networks are currently the best way to accommodate rising data growth in emerging markets, adding that Africa will need much more data capacity in the medium term. Senior investment manager and head of digital infrastructure and solutions portfolio Kuutti Kilpelainen said that rapid economic, population and data growth in such countries require new networks. He sees Finnfund's main task in 2026 as investi

LIBYA 3 DEC

Libya Telecom begins shutdown of outdated phone exchanges

State-owned Libya Telecom started a systematic shutdown of traditional telephone exchanges, Libya News Agency reported. The move follows a bilateral meeting between the Libyan Post, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Holding Company (LPTIC), the telecom firm's parent company, and the General Authority for Communications and Informatics to strengthen digital sovereignty, the regulatory framework and infrastructure planning. The first phase included shutting down 70 telephone exchanges.

AFRICA 3 DEC

MultiChoice Group to drop four channels at year-end, may lose WBD channels

MultiChoice Group's DStv says it will shut down four channels from Paramount Africa and CBS AMC at the end of the year, while another twelve from Warner Bros Discovery are in jeopardy. MultiChoice notified customers that negotiations to renew a distribution agreement with Warner Bros Discovery had deadlocked. The agreement also expires on 31 December. While negotiations with the parties are ongoing, the broadcaster warned that no agreement has yet been reached. If this remains unchanged, a number of Warner

AFRICA 3 DEC

NuRAN Wireless revenue fall 4% in first 9 months, leaves Default Issuers list

NuRAN Wireless said its revenue decreased by 3.7 percent year on year to USD 3.55 million for the nine months to September from USD 3.69 million in the same period of 2024. This includes USD 2.33 million attributable to Network as a Service (NaaS) revenue, generating an 80 percent gross margin. It also said it has been removed from the Default Issuers list after a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC).

AFRICA 2 DEC

Canal Plus appoints head of corporate communication at MultiChoice Group

Pay-TV operator Canal Plus announced the appointment of Elvire Charbonnel as head of corporate communications for the MultiChoice Group, reporting to Emilie Pietrini, brand and communications director at Canal Plus. Charbonnel remains responsible for corporate communications at Studiocanal.

AFRICA 1 DEC

Liquid C2 expands Google Cloud access in Africa with AI-driven reseller programme

Liquid C2 announced the launch of its Google Cloud distribution programme. Known as Liquid G, the programme is designed to accelerate cloud adoption and growth for African resellers and enterprises. Delivered through Cloudmania, Liquid G builds on the company's long-standing collaboration with Google Cloud and is designed to reinforce the company's aim of leveraging collaborations to make world-class cloud services more accessible for businesses.

AFRICA 1 DEC

Mastercard and Axian Group partner on digital payments in Africa

Mastercard and Axian Group announced a strategic collaboration to launch a suite of digital payment solutions across Tanzania, Madagascar, Togo, Comoros and Senegal. This collaboration introduces virtual and physical cards, and merchant solutions under Axian's Mixx and MVola brands, giving consumers, SME and entrepreneurs the ability to pay and get paid securely and seamlessly from their mobile phones.

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Italy business and consumer morale rise again in December

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Digita deploys 5G private network at Outokumpu's Kemi mine

Commentary

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Video market set for slower growth ahead

11:38

Netflix buys Warner Bros to deepen content catalogue

11:11

KPN's mixed performance in Q3 raises questions for strategy day

15:26

Stock markets breaking records but what happened to Odido's IPO plans?

Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins