Not long ago Ethiopia invited foreign firms to buy stakes in Ethio Telecom to end its monopoly. Now according to The East African, a regional publication, the Ethiopian government has suspended the entry of foreign telecom infrastructure companies into the country.

The Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to shortly approve the applications of a number of operators for 5G trials. However, it is also expected to block the involvement of Chinese kit makers.

The Indian Supreme Court has asked, in a recent hearing, a question that does not appear to have occurred to India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT): how does it plan to recover adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues from telecom companies facing insolvency?

Tajik operator Tcell has activated its first 5G base stations in the city of Dushanbe.

Ukrainian number three Lifecell has confirmed that it will join the 4G infrastructure sharing arrangement signed in July by its larger rivals Kyivstar and Vodafone Ukraine.

Axiata has converted its Nepalese unit Ncell into a public limited company branded as Ncell Axiata Limited.

According to reports in the South African technology press, the long-planned migration of operator Cell C’s network traffic to rival operator MTN is definitely happening – but there may be a few more hurdles yet.

Indian press reports say that prime minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the new submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair, in what appears to have been a virtual ceremony using videoconferencing.

Finally in the news for other reasons than its part in the bid for Oi’s mobile divison is operator Claro Brasil, which has offered more details on its plans to bring the first 5G network to Latin America by using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing.

Israel’s Ministry of Communications (MoC) has stated that the country is in the final stage of its 5G spectrum tender.

Following yesterday’s news that a number of kit vendors may not be taking new orders for 4G equipment from Vodafone Idea due to concerns about recovering payments comes news that Nokia may pull out of its relationship with BSNL.

The Telkom Kenya merger with Airtel Africa is off after lengthy regulatory delays have apparently contributed to both parties abandoning the deal.

MTN Group has confirmed that it will focus its strategy on its core African markets in the medium-term future.

There’s been yet another development in the long-running story of Brazilian telecommunications company Oi’s attempts to ease its debt by selling off some of its assets. There may now be at least three bidders for the company’s fibre unit.

Digicel Tonga has successfully implemented a network-wide upgrade to LTE.

A significant announcement from one of India’s big three operators has seen Bharti Airtel agree a multi-year, strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Motorola Solutions has launched a new two-way radio device specially designed for small and medium businesses in Sub Saharan Africa.

Orange Niger, the second largest mobile operator in Niger, has selected wireless backhaul solutions and services from wireless hauling specialist Ceragon Networks Ltd to modernise its nationwide backbone network to 4G.

The Slovenian telecommunications regulator has listed its requirements for winning bidders in the country’s delayed auction of 5G spectrum.

For some, 5G may seem a technology whose main applications are to high-end technologies and users. It’s timely therefore that Nokia has announced plans to set up a robotics lab at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore for research on socially relevant use cases based on 5G and emerging technologies.

Bharti Airtel has selected Ribbon Communications’ 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

Ukraine’s Ukrtelecom is planning deploy ultrafast broadband reaching 2.6 million people living in rural areas.

Poland’s government is looking to hold its delayed 5G spectrum auctions in early 2021.

Africa Mobile Networks has extended its satellite cellular backhaul contract with Gilat Satellite Networks.

Some of the more unusual recently reported side-effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been delays to the sale of part of Africa’s largest fibre company and extensions of operator licences in the Philippines.

Brazilian business outlet Valor Economico has named Banco BTG Pactual as one of the ten investors that have bid for Oi’s holding in fibre firm InfraCo.

Remote connectivity is a continuing focus in African telecommunications, and a recent announcement from Telecom Namibia underlines the relevance of satellites and VSATs to this drive.

According to the Reuters news service, South African operator Telkom has launched a life insurance business that, it has said, will initially sell funeral insurance.