UPDATE: Claro Brasil has joined Vivo and TIM Brasil in abandoning its sale of surplus assets acquired through the three-way acquisition of Oi Movel.

Brazilian ISP Brisanet said it is still on course to launch commercial 4G/5G services in the second quarter of this year.

ARSAT, the national Argentinian telecommunications company, recently awarded Communications & Power Industries (CPI) an approximately US$20 million three-year contract to provide large, Ka-band telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) and gateway systems to support the ARSAT-SG1 satellite.

Claro Argentina has signed a collaboration deal with Empatel, an Argentinean service provider based in the remote La Pampa province.

Several of Digicel Group’s major creditors have reportedly expressed reservations over Chairman Denis O’Brien’s proposed agreement for restructuring the group’s debt.

The Panamanian National Public Services Authority (Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Publicos, ASEP) revealed it received a bid for the telecoms licence vacated by Digicel Panama.

Argentina-based connectivity provider Servicio Satelital has partnered with neXat to provide its customers with advanced, satellite specific OSS/BBS tools via neXat’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution.

The Bolivian president has announced a US$20 million investment to build a new data centre in the city of El Alto, the country’s second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province in the west of the country close to the Peruvian and Chilean borders.

Satellite technology company Hughes Network Systems has announced that Mexican telecommunications and entertainment company Stargroup has selected the Hughes JUPITER System and managed satellite broadband to extend LTE service to customers in rural communities.

Jamaica’s newest player Rock Mobile is reportedly on track to complete deployment of its 700MHz network by the end of this month.

Vivo, the Brazilian branch of service provider Telefónica, is migrating essential data and processes from its data centre in Campinas, São Paulo, to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) in order to reduce IT costs and accelerate new service offerings.

There seems to be reasonably positive news for Digicel, an operator present in about 25 markets across the Caribbean and Central America, but less positive news for its founder and Chairman Denis O’Brien, as creditors move to seize control of the business in return for its writing off $1.8 billion of its borrowings.

CFE-TEIT, the communications subsidiary of Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, and global communications company Viasat have signed an agreement to provide high-quality satellite connectivity to 850 underserved communities across Mexico.

V.tal, an end-to-end digital infrastructure solutions company and owner of the largest neutral fibre optic network in Brazil, and leading technology company Cisco are working together to increase the capacity of V.tal’s multi-tenant fibre-optic neutral network in Brazil.

The Costa Rican telecom regulator Sutel has recommended that the country’s science, technology and telecommunications ministry MICITT should start the tender to award spectrum for 5G networks. This follows a feasibility study and a public consultation.

Hispasat, a satellite operator and division of utility company Redeia, is presenting what it calls ‘one of the great innovations of MWC 2023’ at this year’s show: satellite connectivity at 100Mbs.

Denis O’Brien, founder and Chairman of Digicel, an operator present in about 25 markets across the Caribbean and Central America, is reportedly asking for extra time for the company to make debt repayments.

Brazilian regulator Anatel enabled broadband providers to tap into the 6GHz spectrum band unlicensed for the next decade via higher-powered devices, a move that will enhance WiFi broadband coverage, and deliver US$163.5 billion to the Brazilian economy, according to industry bodies Abrint and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA).

Last week’s decision by Mexico’s regulator – the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) – to open only the lower portion of the 6GHz band for license-exempt applications such as Wi-Fi has been met with some disappointment – notably from the collaboration forum known as the Wi-Fi Alliance. But is this really bad news?

ZTT International Submarine Cable & System has been hired as the cable supplier for three stretches of the Brazilian government-sponsored Amazon river fibre project Norte Conectado.

Xavier Niel, the billionaire owner of French telecoms group Illiad has increased his stake in Millicom to 19.6% through his investment company Atlas Investissement.

Brazil’s CADE (Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica / Administrative Council for Economic Defence) has cleared an amendment to the network sharing arrangement between Vivo and TIM Brasil.

ARSAT, Argentina’s national telecommunications company, has awarded MDA, a provider of technology and services to the global space industry, a contract to design, build and supply all of the Ka-band multibeam antennas for Argentina’s ARSAT-SG1 satellite.

Millicom reported a “strong” 2022 in its latest Q4 financial report despite macroeconomic challenges and stated market share growth in mobile and fixed lines in the majority of its units.

In recent days AST SpaceMobile, which describes itself as the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones, has announced collaborations with operators in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

America Movil infrastructure company Sitios Latinoamerica concluded a deal to buy 1,388 towers from Claro in the Dominican Republic, boosting its presence in Latin America.

Hard on the heels of last week’s request by Brazilian service provider Oi for debt-related ‘urgent precautionary relief’ from the 7th Corporate Court of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro, regulator Anatel has set up a working group to monitor the Oi Group.

Oi, described as the largest landline telephone operator in Brazil, has reportedly filed its second request for judicial recovery with the aim of protecting cash resources and avoiding bankruptcy.

The CEO of Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTTP) has announced a major investment in fibre rollout across the island country.

The long-awaited end of charges for roaming between Brazil and Chile is not happening after all – or at least not yet.

The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has embarked on a national fibre ring project that will connect to the Arcos-1 system.

Argentina’s telecoms regulator will roll out a new rule demanding operators register customer biometrics when switching to new SIM cards, a move to boost security for subscribers and curb SIM hijacking.