An IX expansion, some FTTx, and a bit of destruction: … [visit site to read more]

Airtel Africa has reported double-digit revenue growth for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, as rising smartphone adoption, surging data usage and continued expansion of its Airtel Money platform helped boost both customer numbers and profitability.

Revenue increased 31% year-on-year in reported currency to US$1.85 billion, reflecting constant currency growth of 21.1%. Mobile services revenue rose 19.1% in constant currency, while mobile money revenue grew 25.8%. Data remained the strongest-performing segment, with revenue increasing 27.2% and voice revenue growing 11.2%.

The operator’s customer base grew 11.6% to 189 million subscribers, with data customers rising 15.5% to 87.3 million. Smartphone penetration reached 51%, up from 45.8% a year earlier, helping drive monthly data usage per customer from 7.8GB to 10.6GB and increasing total data traffic across the network by 56.3%.

Airtel Money also continued its strong growth trajectory. The platform’s customer base increased 23.3% to 56.5 million, while annualised total processed value (TPV) rose 51.5% to more than US$245 billion as the company expanded digital payment services and financial inclusion initiatives.

EBITDA increased 36.6% in reported currency to US$928 million, with the EBITDA margin improving by 206 basis points to 50.1%, despite higher energy costs linked to recent geopolitical developments. Profit after tax rose to US$198 million from US$156 million in the same period last year, although earnings were impacted by a US$37 million exceptional finance cost relating to the settlement of a commercial dispute at one of its subsidiaries.

During the quarter, Airtel Africa significantly increased network investment, with capital expenditure rising to US$389 million from US$121 million a year earlier. The operator deployed more than 920 new sites – its highest first-quarter rollout on record – and expanded its fibre network to 82,100km as it seeks to improve network quality and capacity ahead of future demand.

CEO Sunil Taldar said the company had made a strong start to the financial year, with customer growth accelerating across all business segments.

He added that continued investment in the network, combined with greater use of AI and digital technologies to improve customer experience, had supported rising smartphone adoption and data consumption across its markets.

Taldar also confirmed that Airtel Africa continues to target London as the preferred listing venue for Airtel Money later this year, saying the move would provide access to international investors while helping unlock the long-term value of the fintech business.

Four projects from four parts of the world to keep up with: … [visit site to read more]

Co-location data centre services provider ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (India) has announced the launch of STT Jaipur 1, described as the first high-performance data centre in Rajasthan.

STT Jaipur 1 is being developed with an IT design capacity of 6 MW, a total power load of 10 MVA in a three-storey building with a campus area of 5,971 square metres. The facility has been designed in line with STT GDC India’s long-term commitment to sustainable and responsible growth, with a strong focus on energy efficiency, operational resilience and ESG principles. This enables customers to scale their digital operations while advancing their sustainability goals.

STT GDC India explains that as demand rises for more compute-intensive applications across industries, organisations are seeking infrastructure that can support high-performance workloads, scalable cloud environments and increasingly data-intensive use cases.

STT Jaipur 1 has been purpose-built to address these needs, providing resilient and scalable capacity for enterprises, government institutions, cloud providers and digital-native businesses in and around the region.

The launch also expands STT GDC India’s national footprint, which recently added a fourth data centre in Chennai, to ten cities, 34 data centres and 613 MW IT load capacity, reinforcing its role in extending high-quality digital infrastructure beyond Tier 1 markets and enabling emerging technology hubs such as Jaipur to participate more fully in India’s digital economy.

Mr Bimal Khandelwal, Chief Executive Officer of STT GDC India, explains: “The launch of STT Jaipur 1 represents a strategic investment in Rajasthan’s digital future and reflects our conviction that the next wave of digital infrastructure growth will extend well beyond India’s Tier 1 cities. Rajasthan is emerging as an important destination for technology-led investment and innovation. As the state’s first enterprise-grade data centre, this facility will play a pivotal role in supporting Rajasthan’s digital economy and strengthening India’s broader AI infrastructure ecosystem.”

Four interesting infrastructure items from around the industry: … [visit site to read more]

Ahead of the World AI Conference in Shanghai, 30 countries joined the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an initiative proposed by China to facilitate global collaboration on AI governance.

WAICO will be headquartered in Shanghai and is intended to act as an independent intergovernmental organisation with the aim of encouraging cooperation between nations to ensure AI is beneficial, safe, and fair for all, in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter.

Among the signatories to WAICO are China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cuba, Belarus, Serbia, and numerous other countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The organisation’s agreement enshrines the principle of open participation without conditions based on values or systems of governance, and emphasises the need to reduce the gap in access to technology between developed and emerging markets.

In an address at the World AI Conference, China’s President Xi Jinping described WAICO as a response to calls from the Global South, saying AI governance should not be a “solo performance by one country, but rather a symphony of global cooperation”. Xi framed WAICO as a forum with no barriers to entry in which members can freely collaborate on training programs, projects and governance – rather than an organisation led from the top by China.

It is significant that no major US-aligned nations were among WAICO’s founding members as this may result in a geopolitical schism in AI governance, potentially even evolving into different ecosystems of standards, infrastructure and legislation. Xi did not mention the US in his address but pointedly warned against nations “overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or placing one country’s security over that of others”.

The idea for WAICO was first proposed publicly at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, although China was pushing the concept prior to this, arguing in its Global AI Governance Initiative that legislation must give equal weight to the requirements of development and safety.

While China has made great pains to underline that it will not lead WAICO, in practice the organisation will provide Xi with a forum to influence international standards and policy around AI as well as a vehicle through which China will be able to provide technical support to developing nations, which will doubtless strengthen its standing in the Global South as the alternative to Western-led AI initiatives. Indeed, Xi detailed that China would make 5000 AI-focused training places available to applicants from developing countries, as well as establishing cooperation centres with member countries.

Four expansion products of regional interest to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]

South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA has fined B2B telecoms provider Session Telecoms ZAR6 million (US$340,000) after finding the company misused telecoms numbering resources, violating national regulations.

The sanctions follow a complaint filed by MTN in April 2023, which alleged Session used practices including disguising international calls as local ones through techniques such as SIM-boxing and caller ID manipulation. Following a two-year investigation and hearings, ICASA’s Complaints and Compliance Committee concluded that Session had breached the country’s Numbering Plan Regulations.

The regulator said Session violated two regulations governing the use of telephone numbers and imposed separate fines of ZAR3 million for each offence.

Alongside the financial penalties, ICASA ordered the company to stop the offending practices immediately, blocked the telephone numbers involved to prevent further misuse, and said they would be withdrawn where necessary. Session must also submit monthly compliance reports, including call records and international traffic data, for the next 24 months.

ICASA Chairperson of the Numbering Plan Resources Committee, Mushi Mushi, said: « ICASA regards compliance with the Numbering Plan Regulations as essential to maintaining the integrity, efficiency and security of the national numbering system. Numbering resources are a scarce national asset and must be used responsibly by licensed operators to ensure the reliable delivery of electronic communications services. »

Practices such as SIM-boxing have long been a headache for operators across Africa. They allow international calls to be routed through local SIM cards so they appear to be domestic calls, enabling fraudsters to avoid international termination fees and reducing revenues for operators and governments. ICASA said the ruling is intended to protect the integrity of South Africa’s telecoms networks, promote fair competition

This sponsored viewpoint was authored by Bryan Lamphere, Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Engineering, Fidium

Legacy networks still function. That’s exactly the problem.

The move toward fiber-first infrastructure is already underway and accelerating. Still, some assume that because legacy networks continue to function, there is no urgency to move away from them. From an operator’s perspective, that assumption is getting harder to defend. … [visit site to read more]

Viasat has demonstrated what it claims is the first satellite voice call fully integrated into a BMW Group vehicle, highlighting how non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) could extend connected car services beyond the reach of terrestrial mobile coverage.

Showcased at this week’s 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) Meeting Week in Munich, the demonstration enabled a voice call to be initiated directly from a BMW iX3’s infotainment system using Viasat’s L-band satellite network and the NB-IoT protocol.

The proof of concept combined Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2 platform with an AI voice codec from Fraunhofer IIS, allowing compressed voice traffic to be transmitted over a geostationary satellite. The demonstration also builds on Viasat’s collaboration with software-defined vehicle connectivity provider Cubic3, whose eSIM technology enables vehicles to seamlessly switch between terrestrial and satellite connectivity.

Damian Lewis, Market Development Director at Viasat, said demand for always-on connectivity is growing as vehicles become increasingly software defined and reliant on cloud-based services.

“Vehicles are designed to be connected, and terrestrial coverage takes that quite far, but there are gaps,” Lewis said. “Using satellites to bridge those gaps and cover areas that aren’t served by terrestrial mobile connectivity is a really effective way of doing it.”

Lewis said the system uses existing NTN infrastructure, meaning automotive OEMs could deploy the technology without waiting for new satellite networks. While the current demonstration focuses on emergency voice calls, he added that future developments could support higher-bandwidth services as 5G NTN standards evolve.

BMW said satellite connectivity is becoming increasingly important as more vehicle functions move to the cloud.

“The car needs to be connected,” said Olaf Eckart, senior expert for R&D Cooperation and Partner Management at BMW Group. “Our customers want ubiquitous connectivity, and we wanted to move away from proprietary systems to interoperable and scalable solutions.”

Eckart added that narrowband IoT provides an immediate path for emergency messaging and voice services, while future 5G New Radio NTN capabilities are expected to enable higher-data-rate applications in areas without terrestrial coverage.