Trinidad and Tobago’s Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales has confirmed that TSTT (Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago) is set to shutter its legacy copper networks by September this year.

The government of Botswana is implementing new measures to help expand connectivity across the country.

Brazilian data centre firm Odata has opened its first Mexican data centre to add to its operations in Brazil, Colombia and Chile.

With the Safaricom Ethiopia launch still some months off, the country’s state-owned incumbent Ethio Telecom has again taken advantage of its sole service provider position with the introduction of another mobile finance-related service in Africa’s second most populous country.

Apple has reportedly shifted even more to production outside of its main manufacturing hub of China, as the country continues its strict lockdown measures. 

Avanti Communications has signed a five-year partnership agreement with Free which will see the latter firm build and host a new satellite gateway in Senegal for Avanti’s HYLAS 4 state-of-the-art Ka-band satellite.

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has outlined a five-year plan to spur the adoption of ICT services in rural and remote locations in the country.

stc Bahrain has launched a 5G Standalone network which it claims marks a first for the Kingdom.

Rwandan firms HUI and Annos have signed agreements with off-grid energy equipment vendor Vanu.

Hard on the heels of an agreement with Telefonica aimed at rural and remote parts of both Latin America and Europe, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb has announced another, this time involving Uzbekistan.

Lesotho has joined the rush to register SIM cards, threatening that mobile network users who fail to comply with the legal registration of SIM cards will be cut off until they do so.

IHS Towers reported profit and revenue growth for the first quarter of 2022 (ending March 31), stating confidence to aim toward the higher end of its 2022 earnings guidance.

African internet provider InterSAT has renewed its agreement with SES for capacity on the latter’s satellite.

In a move that seems to buck a recent trend for greater control by governments over online activity, Zambia has suggested it will review its controversial Cyber Security and Cyber Crime law.

The highly diversified Peruvian telecommunications company Optical Networks has announced plans to add two more data centres to its presence in the market. They will be in the city of Lima.

More controversy seems imminent in the row about Safaricom’s alleged dominance of the Kenyan market. African press reports now suggest that the operator’s mobile termination rates (MTRs) are soon going to be controlled by the government in a bid to protect Safaricom’s smaller rivals.

Rural and remote parts of both Latin America and Europe are set to benefit from a deal involving low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb and global telecommunications company Telefonica.

Leading Kenyan operator Safaricom is reportedly planning to raise up to $2 billion from local banks and development finance institutions over the next five years to fund its new Safaricom Ethiopia operation. Part of the proposed funding will also be raised internally and through rental financing from equipment vendors.

The board of Argentina’s regulator ENACOM (Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones / National Communications Agency) has approved the allocation of additional 2600MHz spectrum to the country’s mobile providers as they seek to augment their LTE coverage.

MTN Ghana has selected Tecnotree’s digital transformation stack for B2B and B2C, allowing the operator to meet its enterprise market demand and deliver augmented customer experiences at a reduced cost.

Claro Colombia has announced it will fully dismantle its 2G network by December this year to divert resources to 4G, and is urging customers to trade in their old devices to maintain their services next year.

Guinea’s telecom market is dominated by MTN and Orange. After the entry of these regional players, the number of mobile subscribers grew strongly while revenue also increased steadily.

Mali’s topography includes large tracts of sparsely populated desert, with many settlements being hard to reach and thus rendering it difficult and expensive to provide effective fixed or mobile networks.

Telecom services in Madagascar have benefited from intensifying competition between the main operators, including Orange Madagascar, Airtel, and the incumbent telco Telma.

Zimbabwe’s telcos continue to be affected by the country’s poor economy. This has been exacerbated by the significant economic difficulties related to the pandemic.

The Kyrgyz Republic (more commonly known as Kyrgyzstan) has enjoyed relatively strong economic growth over the last decade – at least in terms of other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries in Eastern Europe and Asia that formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The past week has seen some strong measures from Costa Rica’s incoming president directed at Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (Grupo ICE) the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications services provider.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has selected Nokia’s DWDM solution in the access layer to upgrade its network to 5G for meeting future service capacity and reliability needs.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies and PEACE Cable Company have partnered to introduce 800Gbps of additional subsea capacity in Mombasa on the latter’s global submarine cable.

The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) announced that Telecel, NetOne and Econet are now sharing 267 sites.