In this week's roundup, we looked at the top news stories from the B2B tech & telecoms industry. The stories cover topics including acquisitions, partnerships, data centres, software, network-as-a-service and fibre.

Here are our highlights:

 monday:

Russia's MegaFon Forms New JV with Ucell to Enter Uzbekistan

MegaFon and USM have set up joint venture Digital Holding with Uzbekistan’s mobile operator Ucell with the aim to become the technological leader of the largest telecommunications market in Central Asia.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3dg1X8W 

Enet spends €1.5m expanding fibre across Dublin

Ireland’s largest open access network provider Enet has invested €1.5 million in expanding its fibre network in Dublin. The network aims to increase the availability of high-speed, low-cost data connectivity options for telecommunications providers.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2ZhDY0H 

Tuesday:

Orange signs $395m network-as-a-service deal for DRC

Canadian company NuRAN has signed a contract with Orange to build a network for itself and other operators in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3jUBMG3 

stc picks Ericsson as its managed services provider

Saudi Telecom Company (stc) has selected Ericsson as its managed services provider in Saudi Arabia. Ericsson will deploy its Operations Engine to support the latest technology solutions to stc’s network.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2Nypw1D 

Wednesday:

Verizon to Acquire Autonomous Mobile Robot Software Firm incubed IT

Verizon has entered into an agreement to acquire incubed IT, the creator of a software platform providing autonomous navigation tools to administer, manage and optimise mixed fleets of robots in industrial settings.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3bb7BXb 

1.8bn people using mobile video calling after Covid causes 50% growth

The use of people using mobile video calling went up from 1.2 billion in 2019 to 1.8 billion last year as the pandemic spread.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2Zp59XK 

Thursday:

IXcellerate to build sustainable data centre campus in Moscow

Russian data centre operator IXcellerate has announced its plans to build a sustainable data centre campus at a newly secured location in the south of Moscow.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3k0RNu1 

Sinch acquires Inteliquent for $1.14 billion

Sinch AB is to acquire Inteliquent, the largest independent voice communications provider in the United States, for a total cash consideration of $1.14 billion.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2NDM7Kg 

friday:

Bharti Airtel to buy back 20% stake in DTH business for $430m

Bharti Airtel has announced plans to buy back a 20% in its direct-to-home (DTH) business from US private equity firm Warburg Pincus for 31.26 billion rupees approximately $430 million.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2ZBtd9z

The Cambodian government announced that it would be adopting what it called the National Internet Gateway as a method of monitoring and controlling all the data flowing into the country.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2Zv7sbE