Israel’s Ministry of Communications (MoC) has stated that the country is in the final stage of its 5G spectrum tender.

The Telkom Kenya merger with Airtel Africa is off after lengthy regulatory delays have apparently contributed to both parties abandoning the deal.

MTN Group has confirmed that it will focus its strategy on its core African markets in the medium-term future.

Motorola Solutions has launched a new two-way radio device specially designed for small and medium businesses in Sub Saharan Africa.

Orange Niger, the second largest mobile operator in Niger, has selected wireless backhaul solutions and services from wireless hauling specialist Ceragon Networks Ltd to modernise its nationwide backbone network to 4G.

Bharti Airtel has selected Ribbon Communications’ 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

Africa Mobile Networks has extended its satellite cellular backhaul contract with Gilat Satellite Networks.

Brazilian business outlet Valor Economico has named Banco BTG Pactual as one of the ten investors that have bid for Oi’s holding in fibre firm InfraCo.

Remote connectivity is a continuing focus in African telecommunications, and a recent announcement from Telecom Namibia underlines the relevance of satellites and VSATs to this drive.

According to the Reuters news service, South African operator Telkom has launched a life insurance business that, it has said, will initially sell funeral insurance.

Kazakhstan’s largest operator Kcell has tapped Gilat Satellite Networks for a cellular backhaul project that will provide connectivity to hundreds of rural villages.

The government of Namibia is reportedly undertaking an assessment of the environmental impact of 5G before introducing the technology to the market.

Leading Kenyan operator Safaricom has announced the launch of a scheme that will allow customers to access a brand new 4G-enabled smartphone by paying as little as KES20 (about $0.19) daily for the devices.

Angola’s state-owned fixed provider Angola Telecom is scrapping its mobile partnership with Angorascom Telecomunicacoes.

Claro Colombia has started deploying its 700MHz 4G network in Bogota and Ciudad Salitre.

Ooredoo Qatar has launched a Nokia-powered cloud-native core network for commercial 5G services.

Zimbabwe’s government has asked the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank to act as transaction advisors as it seeks to privatise the state-owned telcos NetOne and TelOne.

Telefonica Moviles Mexico (Movistar) is enabling customers in several new regions of the market to access 4G services for the first time.

Orange has deployed spectrum capacity with Infinera’s submarine solution on its MainOne submarine cable, a new network built to provide large-scale international capacity to support the development of a digital ecosystem in West Africa.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology has claimed that the country has completed successful trials of 5G technology.

According to Reuters, the Ugandan government has decided that the sale of a 20 percent equity stake in MTN Uganda will be restricted to East Africa.

Millicom, a leading provider of cable and mobile services in Latin America, has selected virtualized cable access and video delivery solution company Harmonic as its strategic partner to build what is described as a high-speed broadband infrastructure of the future.

Pan-African telecommunications and mobile money services company Airtel Africa has announced a deal with African remittance organisation Mukuru.

Liberian incumbent operator Libtelco is looking to push its broadband offering outwards from the country’s capital of Monrovia.

Orange has partnered with bancassurance leader NSIA to launch Orange Bank Africa in Abidjan and Côte d’Ivoire.

Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata is allowing its subscribers with 5G-capable devices to register on its trial 5G network as a way of understanding the benefits of the technology.

Turkcell is deploying Odine's end-to-end wholesale voice management platform to drive business automation and routing intelligence for its wholesale voice interconnect network.

As many as 250 million children across Africa are currently unable to access primary and secondary schools as a result of COVID-19-related closures.

Angola’s new licensee Africell has set a goal of launching commercial services by mid-2021.