Despite the ongoing uncertainty caused by the conflict in that country, the second operator in Ethiopia is still making plans for next year’s launch, most recently with news of the mobile number prefix it plans to employ.

Chile's telecommunications regulator Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones de Chile (Subtel) announced that Movistar (Telefonica), Entel, and WOM have activated their fifth-generation networks in the country around 10 months after acquiring 5G-compatible frequencies.

Afghanistan’s government – which has been controlled by the Taliban since August - has revealed plans for an extensive restructure of state bodies relating to telecommunications.

Rural communications firm NuRAN Wireless has signed a ten-year deal with MTN Group to deploy at least 250 sites across rural South Sudan.

Brazilian telecommunications operator Algar Telecom has launched a commercial Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G service using its newly acquired 2.3GHz spectrum.

Ooredoo’s flurry of recent agreements continues. As well as an FWA agreement with Nokia and a payment technology agreement with i2c, the international communications company operating across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia recently announced a massive group-wide deal with Huawei.

Omantel has signed a multi-year agreement with Optiva to upgrade Optiva Charging Engine to a cloud-native architecture on Omantel’s private cloud.

Nokia has been selected by Qatar’s Ooredoo Group to supply 5G CPEs and whole-home mesh WiFi solutions to residential and enterprise customers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

WhatsApp shared the results of its pilot digital payments programme across 500 villages in the Indian states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

“Transformational weather intelligence for resilient agriculture to Africa.” That’s the promise of TomorrowNow.org, a global non-profit helping vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, which has been awarded a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Leading Colombian fibre optic networks service provider Integra Multisolutions (IMS) is to use SES’s satellite-based trunking services to enable it to extend and enhance fibre-like connectivity for Colombian municipalities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants located out of the reach of terrestrial infrastructure.

Pakistani satellite communications systems integrator Supernet has signed an agreement with SatADSL allowing it to use the latter’s neXat platform.

Ooredoo Qatar has selected i2C Inc’s agile payments technology to help it launch modern payment solutions for its users in Qatar, including digital-first prepaid cards and mobile wallets.

Omantel, the leading integrated telecom services provider in Oman, has selected the JUPITER System from Hughes Network Systems, a major name in satellite and multi-transport technologies and networks, to extend its mobile networks.

Employees of Lebanon’s two state-owned mobile operators Alfa and Touch commenced a strike yesterday (13^th December).

Telenor Pakistan has signed the GSM licence renewal template created by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) “under protest and without prejudice” to maintain continuity of its services.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) seems to have made a final decision on the licensing of 4G and 5G radio frequency spectrum with the publication of a new invitation to apply (ITA) to the industry late last week.

A parliamentary commission has called for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to abolish a tax on mobile devices.

Senegalese regulator ARTP (L’Autorite de Regulation des Telecommunications et des Postes / Regulation Authority for Telecommunications and Posts) has fined the country’s three mobile providers a total of XOF20.284 billion (US$35 million).

MENA’s largest Open Banking platform Tarabut Gateway has announced a partnership with Zain Bahrain to provide the region’s first use case of Open Banking payments within a telco app.

Pan-African operator Airtel Africa and Ericsson have announced the launch of a data centre in the East African island country of the Seychelles.

Operator AT&T Mexico has announced the start of deployment of its 5G network in the country. It also says it has plans to connect the first 50 mobile devices to the network, in order, it suggests, to test the browsing experience.

Nepal’s Vianet Communications is expanding its high speed fibre network in the west of the country with China Telecom subsidiary CCS (China Communication Service).

Brazilian regulator Anatel (Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes / National Telecommunications Agency) has confirmed that the country’s government has authorised the 700MHz, 2.3GHz, 3.5GHz and 26GHz spectrum bands for 5G use.

CVTelecom (Cabo Verde Telecom) and Angola Cables have signed a joint cooperation agreement to identify synergies to expand connectivity and network capabilities.

Chilean regulator Subtel and the regional government of Ñuble in southern Chile have signed an agreement for a fibre optic and last mile programme.

Recent deals in Kenya and South Africa have highlighted the continuing expansion of the African SME market and the growing number of African fintech and specialist communications companies serving SMEs.

Mexico’s MCM Telecom has announced a collaboration with Telia Carrier that will see its customers in Querétaro benefit from Telia Carrier’s number one ranked global backbone, AS1299.

Infrastructure firm Equinix has acquired West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider MainOne as it seeks to expand into the region.

Kenya’s main power utility Kenya Power is reportedly planning to start offering internet connectivity.