A partnership to help satellite service providers access Brazil’s connectivity market has been announced between satellite connectivity provider SatADSL and Telespazio, a satellite solutions and services company with a wide international network of space centres and teleports.

The only English-speaking nation in South America, Guyana has a small population which traditionally had one of the lowest GDP rates in the region. Although GDP growth had been steady in recent years, the sale of oil from offshore reserves which started in February 2020 promises to completely transform the economy.

The Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) announced it will invest PEN15 billion ($415 million) as part of measures to bring 4G connectivity to over a million citizens who have never had access to mobile services before.

Claro Brasil has selected Ribbon’s SBC Software Edition to expand and secure their extensive Voice over IP network.

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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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).

According to a number of news outlets, operator Liberty Latin America is considering an acquisition of Telefonica’s businesses in Colombia and Ecuador.

Brazil’s embattled operator Oi has sold its mobile assets to the sole party that bid on them – a consortium of rival operators Claro Brasil, Telefonica Brasil (Vivo) and TIM Brasil.

Colombian operator WOM is deploying 125 cellular backhaul sites in partnership with Axess Networks as it seeks to connect rural areas as part of its nationwide build-out.

Nokia conducted 5G standalone tests in the 3.5GHz band in collaboration with Colombian operator Tigo in the city of Medellin, as the companies prepare for the country’s commercial launch of 5G.

Peru’s MTC (Ministry of Transport and Communications) has issued draft proposals for active infrastructure sharing.

Trade association the GSMA tipped the Latin American telecoms market to reach 15 million 5G connections by 2022, as the continent recently saw network launches in Brazil and Uruguay and spectrum auctions lined up next year.

Argentina’s Metrotel is deploying Nokia’s Altiplano cloud platform for fibre access throughout its network.

The Brazilian Attorney General Office ruled to strike-off half of operator Oi’s fines totalling BRL14.3 billion ($2.7 billion) owed to watchdog Anatel, a major boost for the debt-ridden operator.

America Movil’s Colombian unit Claro launched a 5G network trial in an exclusive collaboration with Nokia, which is apparently the largest 5G pilot to take place in the country, to test the network standard in sectors such as health, smart cities and education.

Five firms have lodged bids through Chile’s Department of Telecommunications (Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones, Subtel) for the country’s upcoming public tender of 5G spectrum.

The Dominican Republican government cancelled an agreement with Huawei which would have seen the company’s technology used in areas such as telecommunications, airports and ports in the country.

Suriname’s Telesur is offering high-volume mobile data bundles for users on both its 4G and 5G networks.

Chile’s Grupo Gtd is using Netcracker solutions to digitise its customer experience and automate order and fulfillment processes.

A US telecoms infrastructure company offered to deploy 5G networks in Jamaica for free, in exchange for gradual eventual revenues over time garnered in the country.

AT&T Mexico has returned a portion of its 800MHz spectrum to the country’s regulator in a bid to reduce its costs.

Infinera, Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Telefónica Peru are collaborating to commercially deploy a TIP-developed Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway (DCSG) solution using Infinera’s DRX-30 hardware and Converged Network Operating System (CNOS).

Infinera and Seaborn Networks have launched new submarine network services on Seaborn’s AMX-1 submarine network segment connecting the U.S. and Brazil.

Brazil’s Vivo has selected Ribbon’s Session Border Controller to offer enhanced VoIP access and peering services.

Nextel Brazil has been rebranded as Claro-nxt after being acquired by America Movil in December last year.

Digicel revealed it was awarded 10MHz of 700Mhz frequency requested from the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), a move to enable its recently launched 4G service.