Brazil has one of the largest mobile markets in Latin America due to the sheer size of its population. Healthy competition in the mobile market has helped reduce the price of mobile services in Brazil in recent years and mobile service providers have had much success in converting their customers from prepaid to contract plans.

Uruguay has an advanced telecom market, with excellent infrastructure and one of the highest broadband penetration rates in Latin America. Fixed-line teledensity is also particularly high for the region, while mobile penetration is the second highest after Panama.

Digicel has confirmed that limited international calling capabilities have been restored in Tonga, and that it is working on improving capacity.

Nicaragua is the largest and least densely populated country in Central America. The country’s steady GDP growth since 2010 belies the low economic base, given that it has the lowest GDP per capita in the region, with some 60% of the population living below the poverty line.

Guatemala’s telecom infrastructure has suffered from years of underinvestment from state and provincial governments.

The fixed broadband market is one of the few parts of Costa Rica’s telecom sector to experience solid growth in recent years, both in size and revenue.

One of the smaller countries in Central America, Belize in many respects has closer affinities with English speaking countries of the Caribbean than with its immediate neighbours.

Indian telecommunications company Tata Communications (previously known as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) posted a 27.8% rise in consolidated net profit at INR 3.95 billion (GBP 40 million) for the third quarter ended December 2021.

Amdocs announced it has been selected by Vodafone Turkey to transform and automate the operator's testing activity.

Already the biggest mobile connectivity player in the Indonesian market, Telkomsel has announced an ambitious plan to restructure and, it seems, enhance its various offerings.

Kazakhstan has one of the most developed telecommunications sectors in the Central Asian region. This is especially true of the mobile segment, where widespread network coverage has enabled very high penetration rates – reaching 180% as far back as 2012.

The nation of Tajikistan has had to struggle through a further two years of economic hardship following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has included receiving millions of dollars in foreign aid and loans just to maintain liquidity in a country that is already one of the most impoverished in the region.

Pakistan continues to lag most other Asian countries in terms of the maturity of its telecom sector. This is partly due to the poor state of its fixed-line network following years of under-investment and neglect by the state-owned incumbent telco Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTC), with teledensity now down to almost 1%.

Kuwait’s telecom infrastructure is well developed, with a focus on mobile infrastructure and services. The telecoms sector is important to the country’s economy, and this will become more pronounced in coming years as the economy is purposefully transitioned away from a dependence on oil and gas to one which is increasingly knowledge-based and focussed on ICT and related services.

India's telecommunications subscriber base grew marginally to 1.19 billion by the end of November 2021, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Brazilian telecommunications company TIM Brasil announced the performance of the first tests with 5G VoNR (Voice over New Radio) technology in Latin America, said a report in Teletime.

South African giant Vodacom Group’s bid for a controlling stake in Vodafone Egypt is set to proceed after the operator received shareholder backing.

Liberia’s state-owned mobile provider has received a rebrand as it prepares to launch its new GSM network.

After a fairly lengthy process that seemed to have culminated in a successful sale, Brazilian operator Oi may not be able to sell off its mobile assets after all.

Slovenia’s government is mulling a potential sale of all or part of its holding in Telekom Slovenije.

Kenya’s telecom market continues to undergo considerable changes in the wake of increased competition, improved international connectivity, and rapid developments in the mobile market.

Somalia’s economic difficulties in recent years have made it difficult for telcos and the government to sustain investment in infrastructure. The government has also had to contend with militant groups which continue on occasion to force the closure of internet services in many areas of the country.

South Africa’s telecom sector boasts one of the most advanced infrastructures on the continent. There has been considerable investment from Telkom, Liquid Intelligence Technologies, Broadband InfraCo, and municipal providers as well as from mobile network operators all aimed at improving network capabilities.

Benin’s telecom market continues to be restricted by the poor condition of the country’s fixed-line infrastructure. This has in turn hampered the development of fixed-line voice and internet services, and as a result there is negligible revenue derived from these sectors.

Burkina Faso’s telecom sector in recent years has made some gains in providing the necessary infrastructure and bandwidth to support telecom services.

Algeria has a steadily developing telecom infrastructure with growth encouraged by sympathetic regulatory measures and by government policies aimed at delivering serviceable internet connections across the country.

India's Department of Telecom (DoT) amended telecom licences to enable service providers to roll out machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in the country.

Indonesian mobile telecommunications services operator XL Axiata claims to have made significant changes in the 4G network by using technology from Cisco Ultra Traffic Optimization (CUTO).

Vi (Vodafone Idea) has expanded its Wi-Fi calling facility in the Indian state of Haryana. With this, the Wi-Fi calling service by the telecom company has been expanded to a total of twelve circles in India.

Telenor’s planned sale of its 51 percent stake in Myanmar's Wave Money, a digital payment service provider, for $53 million to a subsidiary of Yoma Strategic, mentioned in these pages in early January, is finally going through.

Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT) has signed a new 20-year concession to continue delivering telecommunications services in Cape Verde.

Nepali operator Smart Telecom has missed the mid-January deadline for paying its outstanding dues of NPR5.5 billion (US$45.8 million), leaving the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) with little choice but to revoke its licence.