Operators

Telecoms giant Vodafone and leading Serbian operator Telekom Srbija have announced a new partnership agreement. It will cover Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bharti Airtel has confirmed in a Bombay Stock Exchange filing that it has transferred 100% of shares in mobile operator AirtelTigo to the government of Ghana.

UPC Poland (UPC Polska), the largest cable television operator and a leading provider of triple-play services in Poland, has introduced 5G services to its subscribers in Poland.

The market dominance issue rumbles on, with stories from Kenya and Ghana underlining how much of a problem it is becoming for a number of African operators.

Kcell, a cellular communication operator in Kazakhstan and part of Kazakhtelecom, has announced that it plans to cooperate with Ericsson in the field of development of 5G-ready networks.

Green Gibraltar, a new player in the Guyanese mobile market, claims to have received regulatory clearance to offer 5G mobile services.

The net profit of the Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange, increased by 9% during the third quarter of 2021 to 15.7 million dinars ($ 41.6 million), compared to 14.4 million dinars (38. 2 million dollars) in the corresponding period of 2020.

Azerbaijan’s largest mobile network operator (MNO) by subscriptions, Azercell Telekom has announced its LTE network now covers 85.65% of the population and 74.30% of territory following additional site deployments and upgrades in the first nine months of the year.

Globe Telecom, the provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines, said it recently expanded its fifth-generation (5G) network coverage in new areas. It has completed site upgrades of its 3G legacy network to 4G LTE in key cities in Visayas and Mindanao while also expanding 5G coverage in these areas.

The government of Djibouti is talking up the “sustained” network deployments by national carrier Djibouti Telecom as it prepares to sell a 40% stake in the incumbent operator.

The telecommunications provider in Indonesia PT Indosat Tbk, doing business as Indosat Ooredoo, said that its revenue increased by 12% year-on-year to IDR 23 trillion in the nine months ended 30 September 2021.

Russia’s MegaFon is spinning off its tower infrastructure into a new independent joint venture with the domestic tower firm Vertical.

Indian telecommunications company Reliance Jio has paid INR 10,792 crore (GBP 1.04 billion) to the Department of Telecomm­un­ications (DoT) for 269.2 MHz of the spectrum it acquired in 2016.

Digicel Haiti has confirmed that 15% of its cell sites are currently unable to function due to ongoing fuel shortages and other issues around security.

Hungary’s 4iG has signed a final agreement with PPF Telecom Group to acquire 100% of Telenor Montenegro.

Qatari multinational telecommunications company Ooredoo Group QPSC reported QR22.1bn (GBP4.4bn) revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of 3% compared to the same period last year.

Philippine mobile services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and Korea's largest telecommunications company KT Corp. are joining forces to explore and develop consumer 5G use cases for Filipinos.

Indonesia-based mobile telecommunications services operator XL Axiata has revealed that under its ongoing 4G LTE network rollout programme it has now switched on its signal in most of the sub-districts in West Kalimantan province.

Croatian telecommunications company Hrvatski Telekom (HT) has become the first operator in Croatia to trial the capabilities of the 5G+ network, achieving speeds of up to 4 Gbps and network response times of 10ms.

India's debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) announced a partnership with private LTE and fifth-generation solutions platform provider Athonet to test 5G-based solutions to build Industry 4.0 for enterprise use cases.

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, announced the formation of the Asia Pacific (APAC) 5G Industry Community.

Mexican telecommunications company America Movil announced that it was "ready" to launch a 5G market in Mexico.

Polish cellular telecommunications provider Play Communications SA (known as Play or P4) has signed a new agreement with Ericsson to expand its RAN (Radio Access Network).

Zain, the digital service provider in Kuwait, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its global partner Huawei to advance its 5G infrastructure for achieving the best user experience and enhancing the network’s quality.

Angolan mobile phone company Unitel has so far invested 25 million U.S. dollars in technology innovation and digital upgrades to prepare for the launch of the 5G service in the country.

Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Digital Development has stated that Nur Telecom, which operates as O!, has opted not to acquire a 2300MHz TDD spectrum licence that it won at auction last month.

Argentina’s Grupo Datco, the owner of fibre-optic infrastructure firm Silica Networks, has announced plans to begin testing 5G and fibre-based fixed wireless access (FWA) technology.

Serbian state-owned telecommunications operator Telekom Srbija has taken over all cable providers in Serb enclaves in Kosovo-Metohija, the chief executive officer of Telekom, Vladimir Lucic, announced.

Malaysia’s Axiata Group and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group are reportedly in discussions over a possible merger of their units in Indonesia.

Russian telecommunications services provider MCN Telecom has started providing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in three new regions in the cities of Kursk, Ulyanovsk, and in Ulan-Ude in the Republic of Buryatia.

Telenor subsidiary Grameenphone has selected NEC to supply equipment for the modernisation of its network in Bangladesh.

Indonesian mobile operator Indosat Ooredoo plans to expand its 4G LTE coverage to a further 645 remote villages across the archipelago by next year.