Safaricom’s US$2.1 billion deal to sell a 15% stake to South Africa-based Vodacom Group has reportedly been put on hold after the Kenyan High Court allowed petitions challenging the sale’s constitutionality to go ahead.

On Monday, according to media reports, a panel of three judges appointed by Kenya’s Chief Justice issued a conservatory order blocking Safaricom and Vodacom from proceeding with the sale until a ruling is given on the petitions.

The panel agreed with petitioners that the deal raises significant constitutional questions around national security, data sovereignty, public participation and prudent use of public resources.

“Court process is not a mere inconvenience, and the proposed sale isn’t immune from judicial review and supremacy of the Constitution,” the judges wrote, according to a report from MyBroadband.

TechAfrica News reports that the panel also rejected an application by Vodafone (which owns Vodacom) for both of them to be removed as respondents in the case.

The High Court had previously ruled that the challenge itself was constitutional, and rejected the argument that dispute over the deal is purely a commercial issue, the report added.

Vodacom struck a deal in December 2025 to boost its stake in Kenya-based Safaricom from 35% to 55% by acquiring a 15% stake from the Kenyan government as well as a further 5% stake from Vodafone.

However, although the Kenyan Parliament approved the transaction in March, Kenyan opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka petitioned the High Court last month to block the sale. Two other petitions opposing the sale have also been filed by private citizens, according to media reports.

Collectively, the petitions argue that the government failed to adequately involve parliament and the public in the decision, citing provisions of Kenya’s constitution, as well as laws governing the selloff of public assets. The petitions also argue that the deal is seriously undervalued.

The deal was saddled with strict conditions imposed by the Kenyan government when it was first announced, to include that Safaricom’s chairman and CEO must always be Kenyan citizens.

The government also said that Vodacom can’t change Safaricom’s corporate brand in any way without its consent, and that any restructuring of the business won’t result in employee layoffs “other than in the ordinary course of business”, the report said.

Vodacom would also be prohibited from making any changes to Safaricom’s existing supplier ecosystem for at least three years, and must consult the government regarding any plans to extend Safaricom’s footprint outside of Kenya, although it wouldn’t need the government’s approval to do so.

Two bits of domestic infrastructure news, and two more from across the Atlantic: … [visit site to read more]

Philippine telco PLDT announced on Tuesday that three indigenous cultural communities (ICC) representing the Tagbanua in Palawan province have given the green light to a subsea cable project designed to boost the telco’s network resiliency for the island.

The Palawan Resiliency Submarine Cable Project has been cleared to proceed after PLDT and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) signed two Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) – one with the Tagbanua Central ICC in Napsan and another with Tagbanua Calamian ICC in Busuanga.

PLDT and the NCIP are expected to sign another MoA with the Tagbanua Tandulanen ICC in Sibaltan, El Nido next month.

Under the MoAs, PLDT has committed to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ rights and continue to adhere to cultural, social, and environmental safeguards as it deploys the subsea cable.

Led by PLDT’s Network team, the Palawan Resiliency Submarine Cable Project aims to enhance the reliability, resiliency and capacity of PLDT’s network across the province by adding more subsea cable routes.

“Through network resiliency and expansion projects in critical areas like Palawan, we can help bridge connectivity gaps, improve network reliability, and ensure that even far-flung communities are able to reap the benefits of the internet with no island left offline,” said Menardo G. Jimenez, PLDT’s COO and network head.

Edotco Malaysia said on Friday it has deployed a new fixed wireless access (FWA) solution in Uma Lesong, Sarawak that it’s also pitching as a viable and scalable model for other underserved communities in geographically challenging areas.

The solution – which was first piloted in August 2025 – uses a combination of fibre and LEO satellite backhaul for extra flexibility. It also supports mobile-to-Wi-Fi connectivity, which enables user devices to automatically switch from 4G and 5G to Wi-Fi when they move out of cellular coverage range.

Following the successful pilot, residents are now provided with free Wi-Fi internet access of up to 5GB per user monthly, with additional usage options available through affordable top-ups.

Uma Lesong is a longhouse community of around 1,200 residents across 10 blocks within a valley surrounded by dense forest and hills. While the village is located only 1.45 km from the nearest telecoms tower, the terrain creates severe connectivity challenges, said Uma Lesong’s chief, Huvat Laing.

“Most of the villagers here are elderly, while many of our children work and live in other parts of Sarawak. Before this, many of us had to walk or travel more than one kilometre away from the village just to get a mobile signal or internet connection to contact our families. During emergencies, communication was extremely difficult,” he said. “Our grandchildren also struggled with online learning because connectivity was unreliable. This initiative has brought a huge change for our community, and we are very grateful that Uma Lesong is finally connected.”

The FWA solution was developed by Edotco and its Sarawak-based partner Kejuruteraan Rasshin, and supported by technology partners VSD Communications and Aminia.

Edotco group CEO Adlan Tajudin said the project in Uma Lesong reflects a “fundamental shift » in how rural connectivity challenges are addressed, and presents a scalable, cost-efficient blueprint for nationwide deployment to accelerate rural connectivity across Malaysia.

“For too long, rural connectivity has been constrained by geography. What we are demonstrating in Uma Lesong is a shift – from building more infrastructure to designing smarter solutions that work even where infrastructure cannot,” he said.

Five network and infrastructure items from around the globe to catch up with: … [visit site to read more]

NEC and its subsidiary Netcracker Technology have completed the acquisition of US software company CSG Systems International, strengthening their telecoms software and digital services portfolio.

The deal combines Netcracker’s OSS, BSS and AI-driven automation capabilities with CSG’s customer engagement, payments and business support software business.

Following the acquisition, Netcracker will oversee the integration and operations of CSG, while NEC will provide strategic and governance support. Netcracker chair and CEO Andrew Feinberg has been appointed chairman and CEO of the combined business.

The companies said the merged platform will focus on AI-driven automation, cloud-native software and digital service management aimed at telecoms, broadband and digital service providers.

NEC CEO Takayuki Morita said the acquisition strengthens the company’s global digital services business and enhances its ability to provide end-to-end solutions for operators undergoing digital transformation.

Netcracker CEO Andrew Feinberg added that the combined business would create a more integrated platform spanning customer engagement, monetisation and operations, while helping operators adopt more AI-driven business models.

The Kenyan government has given social media platform X, formerly Twitter, three months to establish a physical presence in the country.

Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy William Kabogo has explained that X is currently operating under temporary authorisation while compliance talks continue.

According to ITWeb Africa, Kabogo told senators on Wednesday that the requirement forms part of broader efforts to enforce child protection and content moderation standards on platforms with large audiences in Kenya.

The argument appears to be that if a company has offices in Kenya and is accused of issues arising from its platforms, it can then be held accountable in that country.

In addition, it seems that an expanded framework has been granted to the regulator the Communications Authority of Kenya, which can now suspend the operations of digital platforms that breach local rules or fail to comply with directives issued through the country’s communications governance structure.

Other social media platforms are apparently facing heightened scrutiny, including TikTok and Meta.

There is a wider context to this; the growing influence and reach of social media in Kenya. In fact in early May the Media Council of Kenya, an independent national institution established for the purposes of setting, and ensuring compliance with, media standards, published its State of Media 2025 Survey (available at the MCK website) which revealed that social media has overtaken television as Kenyans’ primary news source. Indeed, 39% of respondents cite it as their main platform.

Television followed at 31%, radio at 19% and other sources made up the remainder. Overall, 74% of Kenyans now use social or digital media platforms for news.

Access to social media is dominated by mobile phones; the figure here is 91%. WhatsApp (19.8%) and Facebook (18.2%) are still the most popular platforms, followed by TikTok (14.9%) and YouTube (12.3%).

More than half of Kenyans do not regularly visit news websites, underscoring the fact, as the survey puts it, that social platforms have become the primary gateway to news.

Ericsson, China Mobile and Chinese handset maker Oppo revealed on Wednesday they have successfully tested network slicing at the consumer device and app level on a live 5G Standalone (SA) network.

The test – which was carried out on China Mobile’s commercial 5G SA network in the city of Dezhou in Shandong province – leveraged existing network capabilities, and covered application scenarios including uplink for livestreaming, short video download and upload, multiple functionalities with AI-powered glasses, and providing a robust connection for mobile gaming.

For example, the application-level slicing test detected when short videos or uplink livestreams were buffering on Oppo devices, which then automatically notified the user and offered to switch the traffic to a dedicated slice for better connectivity if the user agreed to do so. Combined with radio resource partition, network resources were prioritized and allocated to short-video or uplink livestreaming apps.

China Mobile said slicing option enables uplink livestreaming and short-video to achieve a more than a twofold improvement in network performance, while latency for gaming scenarios was reduced by at least 30%.

For Oppo’s AI glasses – which use cloud-based AI agents and sport an object recognition feature – China Mobile and Ericsson leveraged user-level slicing and latency-priority scheduling technologies for the uplink and downlink to reduce round-trip time latency for object recognition by at least 30%.

Ericsson said the test successfully achieved fine-grained resource allocation and isolation at both the user and application levels, delivering validated results for typical services in terms of guaranteed throughput and latency optimization on the existing 5G network.

That said, Ericsson added that the commercial deployment of these slicing capabilities “still requires further ecosystem maturity and broader support from commercial terminals.” Ericsson, China Mobile and Oppo said they will collaborate to jointly advance that ecosystem.

The continued expansion of Lightpath is now taking the company beyond its metro roots and into the longhaul fiber business. The New York-based fiber builder and operator has announced plans to build out a new diverse route between Columbus, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. … [visit site to read more]