Thales Alenia Space, which designs satellite-based systems, is to build a satellite for Spanish satellite telecommunications operator Hispasat. Its coverage area will include Latin America.

As the Indian government this week inaugurated work on submarine cables between Chennai and the Andaman Nicobar Islands, reports indicate that Reliance Jio may have ambitious plans of its own in the submarine cable area.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released draft guidelines aimed at boosting the use of television white spaces (TVWS) to improve rural connectivity in the country.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has announced that its recently-launched voice over WiFi network service – Airtel WiFi Calling – has passed the one million user mark and that countrywide rollout will be accelerated.

UZI Zambia Mobile has postponed its commercial launch again, with the Zambian government citing financial issues.

Recent press announcements from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the regulator for the converging communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia, indicate a ramping up of 5G activity in the country.

Pakistani operators Jazz and Zong have each been issued 5G test licences valid for six months by the country’s regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

Oman Future Telecoms (OFT) is leasing towers from Oman Tower Company in order to bring its wireless offering to the market.

An entrant in Colombia’s recent spectrum auction has asked to retract its bid after accidentally offering to pay ten times more than the going rate for the licence.

Paraguay expects its national fibre-optic network (Red Nacional de Fibra Optica, or RNFO) to be complete by February.

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) must repay INR1.04 billion (USD14.4 million) to the bankrupt operator Reliance Communications (RCom) after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

Tajikistan’s ZET-Mobile has completed a large-scale expansion of its LTE network.

UAE operator Etisalat has announced two firsts in recent days: the launch of a business unified communication service and the deployment of Open vRAN technology.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes has issued an interim order preventing Nepal’s government from collecting capital gains tax on Axiata’s acquisition of Ncell.

The deployment of fibre-based broadband infrastructure has attracted increased interest in many markets of the Middle East due to the rising demand for data from consumers and enterprises alike, reports Research & Markets.

The government of India has thrown the doors open for vendors to take part in the country’s forthcoming 5G trials, including China’s Huawei.

Will a long-running financial dispute between multinational telecommunications services provider Etisalat and the government of Pakistan be resolved after Etisalat’s latest offer?

Telefonica, one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world, with a strong presence in Europe and the Americas, is to sell a number of its towers and tower sites in Ecuador and Colombia.

American Tower Corporation, an owner and operator of wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure in several countries worldwide, has announced two deals – involving Eaton Towers and MTN – that, it says, will boost its presence in Africa.

America Movil has closed its acquisition of Nextel Brazil for final total of $905 million.

Indian regulator TRAI has opened a public consultation regarding a potential price floor for mobile voice and data tariffs.

In another busy period for state regulators, recent spectrum news includes planned auctions and completed auctions in Thailand and Nepal, and the end of CDMA-800 in Ukraine.

SETAR, a communications provider in the Caribbean island country Aruba, has expanded its current partnership with Nokia with an agreement to provide what is described as a full end-to-end 5G network transformation.

MTN has announced that its mobile money service, MoMo, already available in a number of African countries, will go live in South Africa in January 2020.

Telecoms giant Orange and German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have formed a strategic alliance to, as they put it “enhance digital employability of 20,000 young people in Africa and the Middle East”.

According to Nigerian news reports, the country’s federal government has released a new five-year National Broadband Plan (NBP) to cover 2020-2025. Its aim is to boost broadband penetration from its present coverage of 37.8 percent to over 70 percent in the next five years.