Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC), the in-flight connectivity provider, has completed the latest phase in its investment in in-flight connectivity with the activation of extreme high throughput (XTS) satellite coverage over China and the Asia Pacific region.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, has acquired a stake in EdgePoint Infrastructure, a telecom towers platform focused on Southeast Asia.

Nepal Doorsanchar Company or Nepal Telecom (NTC), a state-owned telecommunications company, is set to shut down WiMAX internet service based on wireless technology later this year after failing to succeed commercially.

Brazil’s antitrust regulator CADE has given its unconditional approval for the acquisition of Copel Telecom, the telecommunications subsidiary of Paraná state power firm Copel, by local investment fund Bordeaux.

American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services and communications company SpaceX plans to partner local firms to make satcom equipment in India. This is likely to include antenna systems and user terminal devices.

Wateen Telecom, a Pakistan-based converged communication services provider, and Telenor Pakistan, an operator and part of the multinational Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor, have announced a partnership.

The launch of a new operator in any country is newsworthy but the launch of South Sudan’s Digitel Telecommunications has been noted by the country’s leader, not too surprisingly perhaps as this is the first-ever South Sudanese-owned mobile telecom company.

Mexico’s Megacable, the second largest multiple system operator in Mexico, has now received over 500,000 optical network units (ONTs), courtesy, it says, of ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile internet.

India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio continued to lead the market in mobile subscriber additions for the second straight month in April whereas troubled Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost customers.

Deutsche Telekom-owned Croatian telco Hrvatski Telekom and Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA) have signed an agreement with Telemach Hrvatska (priorly TELE2) owned by United Group on the sale and purchase of the shares of the Optima Telekom.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco Bharti Airtel and its Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia have switched on their 5G field trial network in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel.

The largest mobile network operator in Sri Lanka Dialog Axiata has selected the messaging app Rakuten Viber as an international Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging platform.

Eastern Europe is in the data centre news again, thanks to a new deal planned for Poland and potential investment by a recently established fund in even more data centres across the region.

Operator Africell, which already has a presence in Sierra Leone, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, has announced plans to deploy a brand-new 5G-ready network in Angola with the help of vendor Nokia.

The latest African country to attempt to open up its telecoms sector to competition is Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Mobile operator Orange Mali announced the launch of a 5G pilot in Mali's capital Bamako, inviting customers to be the first to test the new network.

Starlink - Elon Musk's wireless satellite internet service - finally received authorisation to operate in Mexico for 10 years. It will be from October 28, 2021, when users in the country will be able to start using it.

Publicly-listed Filipino telecom, media, and tech conglomerate Now Corporation has increased its stake in affiliate, Now Telecom Company Inc. (NTCI), to prepare for the global post-pandemic turnaround.

Spanish telecommunications tower operator Cellnex has closed the acquisition of the Polish infrastructure company Polkomtel Infrastruktura for some 1.6 billion euros after receiving the green light from Poland's competition watchdog UOKiK.

Network upgrades and expansions in developing regions are very much in the news again – this time through a Millicom announcement involving some of its key Latin American markets and through plans from Hormuud Telecom in Somalia to bring 4G coverage to rural areas.

Brazilian telecom operator Mhnet has finalised the purchase of three regional ISPs -Optinet, Frosinet, and GW Telecom - and expanded its presence. The value of the business was not revealed.

Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea Limited, doing business as Vi, is engaging with private equity giants TPG Global, Apollo Global, and Carlyle Group to sell You Broadband along with fibre and data centre assets to raise US$1 billion.

Grain Management, a private equity firm focused on digital infrastructure, has acquired Conexao Group, a Brazilian alternative high-speed internet service provider (ISP) operating in the Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil, from ACON Investments, a private equity firm.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued new regulatory guidelines aimed at encouraging national roaming.

Within the first half of 2021, Cambodia’s Smart Axiata has deployed over 300 new base stations to extend its 4G coverage across nine provinces.

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has launched a plan to build a network of large-scale data centres across the kingdom. The aim is to attract $18 billion worth of investment by 2030 as part of a drive to transform Saudi Arabia into the main data centre hub for the region.

Pan-African data centre developer and operator Raxio Group is establishing a carrier-neutral data centre in Mozambique.

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) is forecasted to have 62 million 5G mobile subscriptions by the end of 2026, representing about 73% of all mobile connections, the second-highest in the world after North America where the adoption rate will be 84%, said a study.

Dr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, a Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament of India) Member of Parliament (MP) from the state of Odisha, and former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer has been allocated with three portfolios - Telecom, Electronics and Information Technology, and Railways.

Orange Poland (Orange Polska) has transferred to its joint venture Swiatlowod Inwesticje (Fibre-Optic Investments) fibre connections covering around 672,000 households, as the new company starts operations.

Zain Bahrain, the Mobile Broadband network operator in the kingdom, has selected Ericsson to expand its 4G and 5G coverage as well as introduce 5G low-band (sub-6GHz FDD) and mid-band (sub-6GHz TDD) carrier aggregation.