A task force appointed by India’s finance ministry has underlined what the country’s operators have already stated: that the 5G spectrum price suggested by India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is too high.

While it registered strong revenue growth in Q1 2020, one-off severance costs resulted in Indosat Ooredoo recording an overall loss.

There’s been continuing good news for Indian operator Reliance Jio as profit soars, a deal with Facebook boosts its position in the market and it announces plans to enter the video conferencing app business.

Work on the Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) cable is under way. Huawei Marine Networks (HMN), a provider of a submarine-network solutions this week announced the start of work on the SHARE cable, which will extend from West Africa far into the Atlantic Ocean.

Chilean operator group Entel has earmarked an investment fund of US$371 million for 2020.

There’s been a mixed reception to the latest news involving Vodafone Idea and the country’s Supreme Court after the troubled Indian operator sought – and won – a refund from the Indian Tax Department. 

Another tie-up between a mobile operator – in this case Safaricom – and a major digital payments company may not be much of a surprise, but it certainly confirms a growing interest from major names across the cashless payment sector in Africa’s mobile money market.

The World Bank has approved $273 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing for four West African nations.

America Movil registered a loss of MXN29.4 billion ($1.2 billion) in the first quarter after the Mexican peso fell 25% against the US dollar.

It's take two for Poland’s 5G spectrum auction, which is now due to relaunch, although there are no firm dates for the rescheduled process yet.

Quetzal-1 – Guatemala’s first satellite – has been deployed. The Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) saw their satellite deployed by JAXA from the International Space Station (ISS) this week.

Morocco's mobile market is one of the more mature in the region, with a penetration rate of about 125%, reports Research & Markets.

OPT New Caledonia (OPT-NC), the main provider of telecommunications in the French overseas territory located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, has selected Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to construct and install the Gondwana-2 subsea cable linking New Caledonia to Fiji.

Entertainment and video streaming apps are enjoying something of a boost in the Middle East at the moment, not least thanks to a new offering from Etisalat Misr and a surge in usage of Zoom in the UAE.

Kazakhstan has one of the most advanced telecoms sectors in Central Asia, reports Research & Markets.

Thai communications service provider True Corporation has announced that it has selected Ericsson as a 5G radio access network (RAN) vendor as part of its national 5G network.

A new deal between two major names in IT and satellite communications promises to bring a data-and-innovation-led approach to African agricultural development.

Digital Colony Management, the digital infrastructure investment platform of Colony Capital, Inc has announced the establishment of Scala Data Centres, a hyperscale data centre platform headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The apparently obscure topic of spectrum usage charges (SUC) related to shared spectrum has been in the news in India of late. In fact operators may be taking a very strong interest in Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) plans to consult on the topic.

Vodafone Idea is expanding Open RAN based deployments in India with Mavenir.

Sri Lanka has seen a very strong increase in mobile broadband penetration over the past six years, driven by rising usage of online video and the price drop of LTE-enabled smartphones.

Facebook is expanding its Coronavirus Information Centre to 24 more countries in Africa in a bid to deliver news from trusted health authorities.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest integrated telecommunications company, has selected wireless hauling specialist Ceragon to help it enable additional 4G network expansion.

After news stories in mid-February indicated that preparations for 5G spectrum auctions and eventual rollout could begin in Iran before the end of March, there have been reports in local news media of spectrum issues.

Liquid Telecom has partnered with the government of Zimbabwe to deliver a national toll-free ‘2023’ helpline and call centre to support citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The telecommunications sector in Bahrain is robust and progressive and it contributes about 4% a year to the Kingdom's GDP, reports Research & Markets.

Following our recent listing of countries delaying spectrum auctions during the coronavirus, news has reached us of an actual rollout going ahead in Colombia, despite the pandemic.