Telecoms giant Airtel Africa and pan-African banking group Ecobank Transnational Incorporated have signed a partnership that could enhance mobile commerce for their customers.

5G may not be here yet as an end-user offering in most countries, but trials and announcements in South America and the Middle East indicate that it may not be too far off.

Kazakhstan’s KaR-Tel has launched a large-scale 5G network trial in the city of Shymkent.

As India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) considers proposals that could ease the stress on operators of spectrum auction payments, Reliance Jio is again arguing against a call connect charges review.

The Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) has changed the dates for the country’s forthcoming 5G spectrum auction.

With its widespread application of modern technologies such as fibre optics, wireless transmission, digitalisation and satellite services, Malaysia has built one of the more advanced telecom networks in the developing world, reports Research & Markets.

Morocco has developed one of the most advanced telecommunications markets in Africa, reports Research & Markets.

News reports from the Czech Republic press indicate that underuse of the country’s phone booths means that they will be dismantled or repurposed by 2020.

PT Indosat Tbk. (Indosat Ooredoo), a leading Indonesian digital telecommunications company, has agreed the sale of 3,100 of its mobile communications towers.

Indian operator Bharti Airtel has selected Ericsson to deploy its 5G-ready Cloud Packet Core in Airtel’s Pan India core network.

The date for the Colombian 700MHz, 1900MHz, 2500MHz auction has finally been agreed.

Qualcomm has announced a collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to support India’s Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), in select chipset platforms across the company’s upcoming portfolio.

Ka-band satellite communications will drive an inflight connectivity agreement coming to the Chinese market.

Vodafone Idea is expanding its Network as a Platform agreement with Mavenir, enabling a distributed presence across all the major industrial, commercial, and services clusters in India.

Vendor Nokia and operator Hutchison 3 Indonesia (3ID) have announced the completion of what is described as the first 5G end-to-end live network trial in Indonesia.

Swedish company Sinch AB, a leading name in cloud communications for mobile customer engagement, has announced its planned acquisition of SMS connectivity provider TWW do Brasil SA.

Recent news from the Indian press has suggested that Nokia is in talks with Indian operators regarding supply deals for rural 4G expansion.

Plans to privatise Angola Telecom came a little closer recently with the appointment of a new board for the loss-making utility.

Myanmar’s state-run operator MPT has been granted a mobile financial services licence by the country’s central bank after a lengthy approval process.

The government of Ethiopia could release additional shares in Ethio Telecom following the planned sale of an initial 49% stake scheduled in 2020.

Vietnam has laid out plans to shutter the country’s 2G networks beginning in early 2022.