Pakistan’s telecoms sector has undergone a sharp downturn over the past year, with revenue from mobile falling by 1.8% and a dramatic drop in direct foreign investment.

MTN Nigeria has been hit with a massive NGN 1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) fine by the country’s telecoms regulator the NCC after it failed to register personal details for 5.1 million subscribers.

Bangladeshi service provider Bangla Trac has selected Cataleya to streamline traffic management and improve quality of service (QoS).

A new partnership between Ericsson and Sri Lankan connectivity provider Dialog Axiata will make Managed Enterprise Cloud services available in the island nation.

Private equity firm LetterOne has confirmed a deal with Brazilian mobile operator Oi in an alliance that the partners claim “enables the consolidation of the sector”.

Ericsson has strengthened its partnership with Indonesian operator Indosat with a new agreement to deploy 4G/LTE network in Greater Jakarta.

Mirantis has formed a joint venture with Chinese public cloud provider UCloud to accelerate adoption of OpenStack in China.

India’s number four Reliance Communications (RCom) is reportedly discussing a merger with two of the smaller operators, Aircel and Sistema (SSTL).

Money transfer service provider MoneyGram has launched a new service in partnership with Zimbabwean market leader Econet Wireless.

Alcatel-Lucent and Indian cable operator DEN Networks are launching ultra-broadband Internet connectivity using GPON fixed access, IP routing and aggregation technologies. 

Following regulatory approval, Millicom has completed the acquisition of an 85% stake in Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel).

Ooredoo Maldives and Facebook have partnered to connect more people  to the internet with the launch of Free Basics in the Maldives.

MTS is now offering mobile services in Ukraine under the Vodafone brand.

American Tower Corporation is acquiring a 51% controlling interest in Viom Networks.

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is deploying a next-generation network (NGN) based on Ciena’s converged packet-optical platforms.

Millicom subsidiary Tigo Rwanda is launching 4G internet services accessible on all enabled smartphones.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have long focused on protecting their Person-to-Person (P2P) communications revenue against the rising popularity of OTT messaging, either through partnership opportunities or developing their own competitive services.

Ooredoo and Brightstar Corp are partnering to bring end-to-end supply chain management across the operator’s footprint.

Russian operator MTS has partnered with Vodafone to deploy 3G and begin offering new services in Ukraine.

Argentina’s telecoms regulator AFTIC has prevented Telecom Italia from selling its majority stake in Telecom Argentina to an investment company.

Ericsson has concluded a preliminary share purchase agreement for the acquisition of Ericpol's operations in Poland and Ukraine.

Poland’s 4G auctions have finally closed after raising PLN9.23 billion ($2.5 billion) in bids.

The operator has commissioned net mobile AG (net-m) to provide subscribers with the means to pay for apps and other digital goods quickly and securely via their mobile phone bill.

Grameenphone has been publicly slammed by Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam over its network quality.

Ericsson has signed its first Managed Rural Coverage deal with MTN, bringing mobile coverage as a service to parts of central and northern Benin where there was none previously.

ZTE Corporation has signed a new 100G optical transportation network (OTN) contract with Reliance Communications in India.

Intracom Telecom has signed an agreement with Slovanet, a leading fixed line operator in Slovakia, to supply its latest Point-to-Multipoint wireless system.