The Indian regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has advised that the country’s spectrum auctions be open to new operators as well as the existing providers which had their licences cancelled following a Supreme Court ruling in February...

The Indian government may face legal arbitration from Vodafone if its proposed M&A tax is approved...

Iran's mobile market, by far the largest segment of the country's telecoms industry, exhibited considerably slower growth in 2011 compared with previous years...

The Internet Society has published the results of a study that demonstrates the far-reaching economic and societal benefits of establishing Internet Exchange Points (or IXPs) in emerging markets...

With stable GDP growth of around 5% p.a., a high population density and a high growth rate in a low-penetration mobile market, Burundi is one of the most attractive African telecom markets for investors, despite the fact that it is also one of the world’s poorest countries...

Despite excellent fibre optic connections, Djibouti’s telecoms sector is not growing as fast as it should – largely due to an overly-powerful nation telco...

In Africa, fixed-line operators are considered dead in the water. Mobile took over and flourished, meaning that fixed-line was essentially written off – operators struggle to stay relevant with 100,000 subscribers in countries with populations of 20 million people. While many have looked to privatisation, there are still opportunities for a huge number of African fixed-line operators due to one key factor – many have exclusivity on the national backbone...

Saudi Arabia possesses a steadily growing telecoms market. As with many telecoms markets in the region, lack of strong competition in the fixed-line market meant much of the growth has been underpinned by mobile...

Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding has confirmed that due to “unlawful actions taken since 2008 by the Algerian government against Orascom Telecom Algerie (OTA)” it will take out a Notice of Arbitration against the relevant Algerian authorities...

Kenya's mobile market returned to strong subscriber growth in Q311 after a slowdown in H111, which can be attributed to the discounting of inactive SIMs and increasing mobile saturation in urban areas...

A new agreement will provide buyers of Android phones in India with free airtime...

Bangladesh had an estimated 86.555mn mobile subscribers at the end of September 2011, which would represent a net addition of 4.728mn from the previous quarter...

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has published market data relating to the end of 2011 for fixed-line, mobile and internet sectors. A stronger than expected growth in the broadband sector suggests that the regulator's efforts at liberalising the internet market are driving growth in that sector...

A new roaming service will allow Tanzanian subscribers to use their mobile phones freely across nine African countries...

India’s nationwide cancellation of 2G licences has been upheld by the country’s Supreme Court, which has rejected an appeal against the decision by a number of local operators...

India’s first 4G network is scheduled to go live later this month, with the market-leading operator Bharti Airtel launching services in Kolkata...

Sri Lankan operators have been actively searching for additional growth drivers to offset the declining subscriber growth opportunities...

Africa’s telecommunications industry is now growing at an unprecedented pace and there are three clear areas of growth: 4G, broadband and green energy...

Bharti Airtel has announced that it will expand its African operations into Rwanda, bringing to 17 the total number of African countries where it is present...

Remote and rural areas of the Congo will soon have access to GSM mobile and fixed telephony services via a new partnership. The pan-African satellite operator RascomStar QAF will deliver the services via its VSAT terminals in conjunction with IPX Extenso...

GDP per capita in Gabon is well above the African average, with the country’s oil revenues make it one of the wealthiest nations in the continent - although a distorted income distribution and poor social indicators are evident...

A new money transfer service launching in Uganda will allow subscribers of one of the country’s leading operators to send and receive money across borders using just their mobile phones...

Kenyan market leader Safaricom is threatening to discontinue its involvement in the construction of an LTE network if the country’s government insists that the deployment uses the 2.6GHz frequency band...

As technology has advanced, applications and technology solutions have increasingly been built using open systems. This has made it possible to connect disparate security solutions on a single security management platform easily and cost effectively...

South Africa’s first open and public peering facility with a national presence is now live, running from data centres in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban...

The Middle East and India will soon share a connection via a major international cable network...

The Libyan Investment Authority’s international telecommunications arm LAP GreenN has filed court papers challenging the Zambian Government’s action to seize its 75% share in Zamtel...

The Indian mobile subscriber market has demonstrated strong growth in the past decade or so, but when it comes to the adoption of mobile data services, the results are more mixed...

Reports from news outlets in Uganda are claiming that the African mobile giant MTN has lost billions of Ugandan shillings through fraudulent use of its mobile money service...

The UAE-based telecom giant Etisalat has confirmed that it will bring a close to its involvement in India, shutting down its operations in the country on March 31^st...

The head of one of Somalia’s largest telecommunications firms has been accused by the United Nations Security Council of financing a terrorist cell with links to Al-Qaeda via hawalas, an informal system for transferring money...

Mobile broadband boasting speeds of up to 100Mbps will soon be available in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is upgrading its nationwide GSM and 3G networks, as well as expanding its commercial 4G network...

Budding Zimbabwean app developers will see their unique ideas for SMS-based mobile applications launched to more than three quarters of the country’s 7.7 million mobile subscribers...