Indian mobile payments firm Paytm may launch chat services in an effort to shore up its position against WhatsApp and Hike – both of which are looking into offering mobile payments.

Chinese device manufacturers expanded their share of the global smartphone market to 48% in Q2, according to Counterpoint Research.

Wari Group is threatening Millicom with a legal challenge after the Tigo parent company reneged on their agreement for Wari to acquire Tigo Senegal.

India’s state-owned operator BSNL is expecting its request for 4G-ready 700MHz spectrum to be granted imminently, according to its chairman Anupam Shrivastava.

China’s crackdown on VPNs has prompted Apple to withdraw “some” VPN applications from the Chinese App Store.

India’s Snapdeal has abandoned merger negotiations with larger e-commerce rival Flipkart, resolving to remain independent and bringing months of talks to an end.

Millicom has scrapped its agreement to sell its Tigo Senegal unit to Wari Group after finding a different buyer for the operations.

iSAT Africa is providing a key East African customer fully managed satellite telecommunications services including satellite backup of its fibre network via a new agreement with Thaicom.

Customers of Indian newcomer Reliance Jio are experiencing slower connections due to the 4G operator’s network being “overloaded”, according to wireless mapping firm OpenSignal.

Zong 4G has collaborated with LePhone to launch affordable 4G handsets in Pakistan.

Indian online retailer Snapdeal has reportedly given the green light to a buyout bid of as much as $950 million by larger competitor Flipkart.

Visa CEO Alfred Kelly has affirmed the company’s goal to claim a “fair share” of India’s incipient cashless payment market by offering low cost, low hassle solutions to merchants.

Telebras has awarded Gilat Satellite Networks an $11.4M contract to provide a satellite-based broadband network to the Brazilian Geostationary Satellite of Defense and Strategic Communications, SGDC.

The government of Colombia has ordered the operators Claro and Movistar to pay a total of COP4.8 trillion ($1.6 billion) after they were found to have violated network licensing agreements by an arbitration tribunal.

Managed municipal services provider Viginet-IP S.A. has selected solutions from 5G specialist Mimosa Networks for its new network in Argentina.

OPT and Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) - part of Nokia - have signed a turn-key agreement for the deployment of the NATITUA cable system, which will further enhance the connectivity in French Polynesia.

Virgin Mobile and Vodacom are among the firms that have expressed an interest in acquiring 9mobile.

Cable & Wireless Seychelles has tapped Syniverse to improve roaming experiences for inbound and outbound roaming customers.

Indonesia has blocked access to the encrypted messaging service Telegram over claims that users were spreading “radical and terrorist propaganda”.

Caribbean service provider Logic has selected solutions from Calix to enhance existing GigaCentre deployments and improve its subscriber experience in the Cayman Islands.

Belizean operator Smart has implemented FTS’ real-time billing and charging solution to support its expansion into 4G/LTE.

According to latest research conducted by Dataxis, fixed broadband connections for Latin America in the first quarter of 2017 reached 68.11 million.