Mr. Ambani is taking a strong personal interest in his telecom venture, people familiar with the project say.

WSJ: Mukesh Ambani Plans Huge 4G Wireless Network in India

Korea Telecom replaced an Oracle database with Hadoop after a five-year project to support 17 million telephone subscribers, 7.2 broadband subscribes and 15 million mobile users.

FORBES: Asia Looking to Leapfrog in Big Data

New Labour, for example, has been rescued from the possible embarrassment of the collapse of the Millennium Dome project by generous sponsorship from big firms such as Tesco and British Telecom.

ECONOMIST: The new establishment

"What is happening in Egypt just goes to show the leverage that governments have over telecom providers, " said Cynthia Wong, the director of the Global Internet Freedom project at the Center of Democracy and Technology in Washington.

WSJ: Egypt Intrudes on Mobile Operators

His first project on the continent is an undisclosed investment in Sonatel, Senegal's national telecom company, which recently went public.

FORBES: The optimist

To improve technology access, Microsoft also announced the deployment of a pilot project with the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications and Kenyan Internet service provider Indigo Telecom Ltd. to deliver low-cost, high-speed, wireless broadband and create new opportunities for commerce, education, healthcare and delivery of government services across Kenya.

ENGADGET: Microsoft launches 4Afrika initiative with Huawei W1 variant, TV white space broadband project