Celcom Axiata, Digi Telecommunications, Maxis and U Mobile have confirmed that they are in continued discussions with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over the terms of access to the country’s wholesale 5G network.

Philippines-based Alliance Towers revealed it will cut back on its targeted 500 tower build-out plan down to 200 this year due to the pandemic.

The combined industrial revenue of China's telecommunications sector rose 9% year-on-year to 258.6 billion yuan ($40.72 billion), a pace 3.2 percentage points faster than the same period last year, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Kenya’s mobile network operators (MNOs) Telkom, Safaricom, and Airtel have announced the interoperability of their mobile money service platforms, allowing Kenyans to make mobile money payments to a Lipa Na M-PESA Buy Goods Till, from any of the three networks.

China's ZTE Corporation has been ranked first for the shipments of Passive Optical Network (PON) Optical Network Terminal (ONT) devices in the year 2021, said a report.

It looks like one of the potential hurdles to the planned licensing of high-demand spectrum in South Africa may have been overcome after the country’s number three operator Telkom ended its legal battle with regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

Following hard on the heels of yesterday’s report that it is to roll out 112,000 mobile towers across India comes the news that state-owned Indian operator BSNL has appointed a partner with which it will roll out 6,000 of the 4G sites.

Among African countries, Burundi provides an attractive telecom market given its high population density and existing low penetration rates for all services.

Thailand's telecoms regulator threw out internal opposition against its right to approve the merger between True Corp and Dtac.

Rwanda was slow to liberalise the mobile sector, allowing MTN a monopoly until 2006 when the fixed-line incumbent, Rwandatel (since acquired by Liquid Intelligence Technologies) became the second mobile operator.

With few resources, Malawi is one of the world’s least developed countries. There has been little investment in fixed-line telecom infrastructure, and as a result, the country’s two mobile networks Airtel Malawi and TMN provide the vast majority of connections for voice and data services.

Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel is exploring the possibility of punishing vendors of grey market devices with fines up to BRL50 million (US$10.5m) per infraction.

Tanzania’s telecom sector enjoys effective competition, particularly in the mobile segment. There remains considerable movement within the market, with Smart having stopped services in late 2019 and Tigo Tanzania having completed its merger with Zantel. Tigo Tanzania in April 2021 was sold by its parent company MIC as it sought to focus on its operations in Latin America.

Eswatini (or eSwatini) was one of the last countries in the world to open up its telecom market to competition. Until 2011 the state-owned Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications also acted as the industry regulator and had a stake in the country’s sole mobile network, in an uneasy partnership with MTN Eswatini.

The telecom sector in Mauritius has long been supported by the varied needs of tourists. This has stimulated the mobile market, leading to a particularly high penetration rate.

Philippines telecommunications major PLDT has deployed Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) on its commercial network, a technology that enhances network efficiency to deliver 5G, home broadband, and enterprise services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has scrapped rates for unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking and payment services in order to promote the digital economy in the country.

South African multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Group has joined forces with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Meta, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), and Child Helpline International to launch the Help Children be Children campaign.

Now Telecom had its regulatory restraints lifted and is now able to sell mobile broadband services in the Philippines.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published its annual report. It contains a number of complaints about slow decision-making on the part of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

Not too surprisingly perhaps, the Nigerian federal government’s call to operators to bar outgoing calls by subscribers that have yet to link their SIMs with their National Identity Numbers (NIN) has reportedly led to huge crowds at enrolment centres.

Vodafone has reportedly entered a joint venture with Papua New Guinea operator Digitec and will begin rolling out services under the red banner later this month (April).

Telecel Group is acquiring 100% of shares in Mauritanian operator Mattel (Mauritano-Tunisienne des Télécommunications) from BSA Telecommunication and Tunisie Telecom (TT), BSA telecommunication and COMATEL.

Africell has launched commercial mobile services in Angola after months of delays, with ambitions to shake up the telecoms sector with more significant investments.  

India has more than 1.15 billion mobile phone subscribers and nearly 98% of the population is covered with a 4G network, the government informed the Indian Parliament.

India’s telecom minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Lok Sabha (House of the People) that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to install 112,000 mobile towers across India to roll out 4G services.

Asia Pacific spending on artificial intelligence (AI) systems will rise from $17.6 billion in 2022 to around $32 billion in 2025, said a study.

Only a day after we reported that the Indian government had approved a revival plan for the state-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), it seems that the planned merger of the two businesses has again been postponed.

The story of the recently reported US$100 million tax levy in Papua New Guinea that has so far targeted only two companies – one of which is operator Digicel Pacific – has now taken a rather dramatic turn. It appears senior Digicel staff have left the country.

Telecommunications giant MTN South Africa is investing ZAR 820 million (US$ 56 million) to modernise its network and deploy new infrastructure across Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.