Tonga has seen its connectivity restored as its international subsea cable was repaired after a volcanic eruption last month caused a communications blackout.

America Movil’s Telcel has switched on 5G services in 18 of Mexico’s largest cities.

Rohde & Schwarz China together with Zhuhai DingLi has won the 2021 China Mobile centralised procurement project for 5G scanners.

Intracom Telecom announced the extension of supply of its Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) WiBAS-OSDR (hub) and WiBAS-Connect (terminal) at 10.5 GHz band to Lintasarta, an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) total solutions company in Indonesia.

From 2G – which is still popular in many regions - to 5G, more and more cellular systems are emerging and co-existing. A solution to balance between new technology and CAPEX/OPEX is necessary for telcos or system integrators.

In a statement to journalists earlier this week, Matano Ndaro, the director of licensing, compliance and standards at the Communications Authority of Kenya, has announced that 5G is coming to the country in 2022.

The Peruvian government has cancelled the auction for airwaves due to concern from interested parties on the concessions they have to meet.

Digicel is replacing its end-of-life IP Transfer Point (ITP) systems in use at 26 of its markets in the Caribbean and Central America with BroadForward’s Signalling Transfer Point (STP).

Ooredoo Maldives has partnered with Rakuten Viber to enable customers in the Maldives to easily send and receive money transfers on Viber’s m-Faisaa messaging platform.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) deployed its L900 technology in the 900MHz spectrum in 5,773 sites in the Indian state of Gujarat to complement 4G services in the 1,800 MHz spectrum band resulting in stronger indoor network.

Indonesian telecommunications provider PT Indosat, trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), recorded a net profit of IDR6.75 trillion (US$470 million) in 2021, overcoming an IDR717 billion setback in its previous financial year.

The Satcom Industry Association of India (SIA-India) and the Indian Space Association (ISpA) have inked memorandum of understandings (MoU) with consultancy company Geospatial World, seeing collaboration as the key to growing India's satellite communications sector. 

There is a new mobile communications provider in Guyana, after the Prime Minister Mark Phillips presented a licence to an operator called, confusingly enough, Green Gibraltar late last week.

PLDT, one of the Philippines' major telecommunications providers, has said it is to develop a 100MW data centre in Santa Rosa, in the Laguna province of the Philippines, which is situated southeast of Metro Manila. The purpose-built facility will be constructed through PLDT’s ICT arm ePLDT.

Cloud-related deals have been in the news recently – notably in the form of two major announcements affecting Thailand and the MEA region.

The State Bank of Pakistan approved MCB Bank to perform due diligence to acquire a majority stake in Telenor's financial operations in Pakistan.

Open RAN firm Parallel Wireless is collaborating with Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks on a multivendor Open RAN initiative to deliver state-of-the-art broadband communications.

Vietnam announced it will begin researching and developing 6G technology this year with ambitions to become a global leader in the digital world, earmarking cloud computing and digital platforms as beneficiaries to the future standard.

Fast Telecommunication (Fasttelco), an internet service provider (ISP) in Kuwait, has announced the launch of new fibre-optic internet speeds of 200 Mbps within its fibre residential areas in the country.

Cellcom, Israel’s largest cellular provider, and the compatriot telecommunications equipment supplier Novlesat aim to collaborate on a pilot of real-time video content distribution on 5G network infrastructure.

PT XL Axiata, an Indonesia-based mobile telecommunications services operator, said that the total number of base transceiver stations (BTS) on air reached more than 162,282, with 4G BTS increasing to 77,204, as LTE coverage increased to 458 cities/municipalities in the country.

An uplifting recent story of African entrepreneurial success comes from South Africa where Lipa Payments, a local fintech start-up, has secured a R10 million (just under US$660,000) investment from Empowerment Capital’s Imvelo Ventures, which is backed by Capitec Bank.

It appears that Syria has finally awarded the third mobile telecommunications licence it has been promising to deliver for over ten years.

Rival Indian service providers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have made major announcements relating to their undersea cable interests.

South African regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) revealed it has accepted six bidders for its spectrum auction next month.

Makedonski Telekom claimed to beat rivals to the punch by launching the first commercial 5G network in North Macedonia.

Two of Somaliland’s operators, Somtel and Telesom, have agreed to enable interconnecting calls between their networks.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is scrapping its widely criticised device registration tax (Registre des Appareils Mobiles / RAM) from 1^st March.

China Mobile joined hands with Huawei in building an optical network to connect the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area. Huawei says that it is “the world’s largest green all-optical switching hub network”.

Philippines fibre broadband company Converge ICT has launched a new web portal and new app, both working in tandem as a one-stop shop for new and existing customers for application, payment, and other customer services.