News from several countries across Central and Latin America has emerged in the past few days, with regulators laying out plans for the year to come.

Mexico’s Movistar has completed the first phase of it network migration initiative, under which it has connected subscribers across several states to infrastructure operated by AT&T Mexico.

The Colombian Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) demanded operators to pen interconnection agreements with new entrant Partners Telecoms Colombia, ahead of the debutant’s launch of its WOM brand in Colombia.

In the latest step towards a full merger between India’s state-owned operators, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) has assumed control over the Delhi and Mumbai mobile networks of its sister firm MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited).

The Bahamas’ Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) is assessing the viability of introducing a third operator to the archipelago’s mobile market to compete with ALIV and BTC (Bahamas Telecommunications Company).

Slow growth in telecom services in Turkmenistan, a predominantly rural country and former Soviet republic, can be attributed to a large extent to the slow development of the private sector and state control over most economic activities.

The anticipated launch of a third mobile network operator in the Sultanate of Oman will increase competition in the mobile sector. The current operators Omantel and Ooredoo have a similar and sizeable market share.

Malawi remains one of the world’s least developed countries, with few resources to build efficient fixed-line telecom infrastructure. As a result, the country’s two mobile networks provide the vast majority of connections for voice and data services.

Eswatini (or eSwatini) was one of the last countries in the world to abolish an almost complete monopoly in all sectors of its telecom market. 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.

Mexico’s Grupo Alfa has abandoned its plans to sell its telecoms arm Axtel despite a high number of interested bidders.

Airtel Networks Zambia Limited has been awarded 20 MHz of radio spectrum by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) in the 800MHz frequency band.

The Dominican Republic’s fixed-line teledensity is well below the Latin American average, a legacy of under-investment in network infrastructure over the years.

Home-made solar-powered mobile phones are on their way to Uganda, says local manufacturer Simi Mobile.

Ooredoo Group, an international telecommunications company headquartered in Qatar, and Ericsson have announced the signing of a five-year strategic 5G agreement.

India’s market leader Reliance Jio has called on courts in the Haryana and Punjab regions to take action to prevent further destruction of the operator’s infrastructure.

Unlike some neighbouring Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan has developed an open telecom sector that has encouraged foreign and domestic investors.

Telecom services in Lesotho are managed by a privatised national operator, Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL). The mobile sector is a duopoly between South Africa-based Vodacom and ETL, though competition is insufficient to promote effective price reductions for consumers.

The flurry of news from Nigeria in the wake of government threats to block SIMs not integrated with National Identification Numbers (NIN) continues. Now, it seems the deadline has been extended.

Measures to ease access to mobile money in Kenya are about to come to an end, but they appear to have been a success.

Last week saw the opening of the Chile Cloud Region, computer technology corporation Oracle’s 29th cloud region worldwide. Latin American customers and partners will now have regional access to many of Oracle’s cloud services.

The long-running investment saga involving telecoms giant Vodafone, its Egyptian operation and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) seems to have ended with no deal.

Ooredoo has launched commercial 5G services in the Maldives, with the initial rollout covering a large percentage of the capital city of Malé, including key business hubs, hospitals and public spaces.

A year on from its acquisition of Orange Niger, Zamani Com has now rebranded the unit to Zamani Telecom.

Operator Airtel Uganda has finally secured an operating licence to replace the one that ran out a few years ago.

TIM Brasil revealed it acquired the lion’s share of rival Oi’s assets after it, Telefonica Brasil (Vivo) and Claro Brasil joined forces to acquire the troubled operator’s assets for BRL16.5 billion ($3.2 billion).

Nepal’s National Frequency Management Forum has provided its recommendations for the optimal frequencies to release for 5G usage.