Fresh from its commercial launch in Angola’s capital of Luanda, Africell has revealed the next locations for its phased network rollout of 4G services.

Globe Telecom has announced a massive 208% surge in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions to 1.4 million during 2021, attributing the sharp uptake to a shift in consumer behaviour during the pandemic.

India’s telecommunications sector has struggled for growth over the last five years. The sector’s lacklustre performance has been in spite of concerted efforts by the government to bolster the underlying infrastructure in a bid to achieve universal coverage.

As part of a diverse range of initiatives designed to move the country from developing to developed status by 2025, Malaysia has enabled and encouraged open competition in its telecommunications market.

India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) for the “5G Vertical Engagement and Partnership Programme (VEPP)”.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released recommendations on the 'Auction of spectrum in frequency bands identified for IMT/5G'. It recommended a significant cut in the reserve price for the 5G spectrum.

To strengthen digital services to corporate circles, Indonesian telecom major PT XL Axiata Tbk has acquired a 51% stake in local service provider PT Hipernet Indodata (Hypernet), which is a provider of managed services for telecommunications and information technology.

Some of Europe’s largest operators have signed an agreement to reduce wholesale roaming charges to Ukrainian operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell, to help those fleeing the war stay connected to friends and families.

Mauritania’s small population and low economic output has limited the country’s ability to develop sustained growth in the telecom sector.

In recent years the government of Ivory Coast has helped develop a competitive telecom sector focussed on the provision of converged services, thus allowing operators to offer fixed-line and mobile services under a universal services licence regime.

Axian Telecom has highlighted four key priorities in a five-year plan to accelerate growth for its newly acquired unit in Tanzania from Millicom, which it pledges will be backed by significant investment into infrastructure.

Nepal’s regulator has warned the country’s internet service providers to end the “unnecessary” price war in the for high speed fixed broadband services.

It looks like one of the potential hurdles to the planned licensing of high-demand spectrum in South Africa may have been overcome after the country’s number three operator Telkom ended its legal battle with regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

Among African countries, Burundi provides an attractive telecom market given its high population density and existing low penetration rates for all services.

Thailand's telecoms regulator threw out internal opposition against its right to approve the merger between True Corp and Dtac.

Rwanda was slow to liberalise the mobile sector, allowing MTN a monopoly until 2006 when the fixed-line incumbent, Rwandatel (since acquired by Liquid Intelligence Technologies) became the second mobile operator.

With few resources, Malawi is one of the world’s least developed countries. There has been little investment in fixed-line telecom infrastructure, and as a result, the country’s two mobile networks Airtel Malawi and TMN provide the vast majority of connections for voice and data services.

Tanzania’s telecom sector enjoys effective competition, particularly in the mobile segment. There remains considerable movement within the market, with Smart having stopped services in late 2019 and Tigo Tanzania having completed its merger with Zantel. Tigo Tanzania in April 2021 was sold by its parent company MIC as it sought to focus on its operations in Latin America.

Eswatini (or eSwatini) was one of the last countries in the world to open up its telecom market to competition. 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.

The telecom sector in Mauritius has long been supported by the varied needs of tourists. This has stimulated the mobile market, leading to a particularly high penetration rate.

Philippines telecommunications major PLDT has deployed Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) on its commercial network, a technology that enhances network efficiency to deliver 5G, home broadband, and enterprise services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has scrapped rates for unstructured supplementary service data (USSD)-based mobile banking and payment services in order to promote the digital economy in the country.

South African multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Group has joined forces with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Meta, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), and Child Helpline International to launch the Help Children be Children campaign.

Now Telecom had its regulatory restraints lifted and is now able to sell mobile broadband services in the Philippines.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published its annual report. It contains a number of complaints about slow decision-making on the part of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

Not too surprisingly perhaps, the Nigerian federal government’s call to operators to bar outgoing calls by subscribers that have yet to link their SIMs with their National Identity Numbers (NIN) has reportedly led to huge crowds at enrolment centres.

Vodafone has reportedly entered a joint venture with Papua New Guinea operator Digitec and will begin rolling out services under the red banner later this month (April).

Telecel Group is acquiring 100% of shares in Mauritanian operator Mattel (Mauritano-Tunisienne des Télécommunications) from BSA Telecommunication and Tunisie Telecom (TT), BSA telecommunication and COMATEL.

Africell has launched commercial mobile services in Angola after months of delays, with ambitions to shake up the telecoms sector with more significant investments.