The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a new partnership called the ‘m-Health’ Initiative to use mobile technology, in particular text messaging and apps, to help combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases...

India’s market leader Bharti Airtel saw its subscriber numbers fall by 1 million in September, following an initiative by Indian operators to provide more accurate figures by disconnecting inactive subscribers...

Latin American telecom giant America Movil has reneged on a deal to acquire the entire El Salvador operation of Digicel...

Telenor will continue to have a presence in the Indian market via a newly created subsidiary which will take over the operations of Uninor, the Indian joint venture between the Norwegian firm and Unitech...

Two major Brazilian operators have selected the vendors that will provide equipment for their LTE networks...

No new entrants from abroad will participate in Thailand’s long-delayed 3G auctions, with the bidding to be dominated by the country’s top three domestic operators in a process which begins next week...

In an industry that’s always looking forward to the newest developments, saying that a technology is ‘mature’ could be considered a slight. However, far from being outdated, some technologies simply need a bit of time to grow before they can flourish, and the prevalence of carrier Ethernet services shows that this technology has well and truly arrived. With an established set of standards and a raft of benefits to operators, Ethernet services are an increasingly attractive prospect for players in emerging markets...

South Africa’s first commercial 4G LTE services are now live...

Indian operators will face a choice over any spectrum they hold that exceeds their allowance: pay a one-off charge, or relinquish it...

Yemen is very much the poorest country in the Middle East with approximately 39% of the population living below the poverty line...

Uganda was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to gain full internet connectivity...

Coming into 2012 major changes were on the horizon for Myanmar’s telecom sector, with the government planning to liberalise the market to some extent...

A new fibre optic backbone network will aid Ghana’s Ministry of Communications administrating rural regions of the country...

Argentinean mobile users are now able to have an additional telephone line on their mobile phone without the need to purchase another SIM card, following the deployment of a new service known as “Mi Número Extra”...

Businesses looking for a secure virtual environment will only consider the private cloud in the near future, says research firm IDC. According to the researcher, the private cloud is the closest to a virtualised infrastructure which offers better controls...

In an ambitious move, a major Brazilian operator is aiming to provide LTE coverage to seven cities by April 2013...

The changing landscape of the Malaysian telecom market has over time witnessed the restructuring of all the main players...

South Africa’s First National Bank is planning to introduce a mobile payment device that will complement its merchant services...

A number of operators in the Middle East may form a consortium to combat potential revenue losses caused by an influx of over-the-top (OTT) players...

Two new devices have been added to Nokia’s Asha Touch range, a collection of relatively low-cost, mid-tier devices which are largely focussed on emerging markets...

One of Nigeria’s leading IT support firms is now offering SMEs and start-up businesses a suite of cloud communications services...

Coming into 2012, Azerbaijan’s mobile subscriber base had passed the 10 million milestone...

Romania’s first 100G channels are now live, with the country’s leading cable operator providing services over its existing network...

With the mobile market in Pakistan experiencing a period of healthy and sustained development on one hand, and the fixed-line market languishing badly on the other, the operators in the respective market segments are unsurprisingly experiencing contrasting fortunes...

On Friday, the 21st of September, COFETEL, Mexico’s telecoms regulator, confirmed that Mexico has adopted the APT band plan for 700MHz digital dividend spectrum. In the arcane world of spectrum management this is a very exciting step...

Indonesia’s spectrum auctions have been hit by a fourth delay, despite the original intention for them to be held in June 2012...

Like its inhabitants, Syria’s telecom sector has been caught up in the ongoing civil war...

Mexico’s regulator Cofetel has approved proposals to use the 700MHz band for mobile. Industry observers have expressed hope that other Latin American operators could be spurred to do the same in the wake of the development...

Increasing broadband and smartphone penetration, in particular as a result of the launch of 4G networks, is affecting data growth across the BRIC markets. With a focus on India and Russia, DT looks at the impact this is having and the trends that are expected to emerge in this arena over the next few years...

Two major Russian operators are considering forming a joint venture out of their respective tower businesses...

A new agreement will bring voice, Internet, TV and video communication services to customers in Somaliland, a self-declared sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia...

Content delivery in remote regions of Africa will be facilitated by a new agreement...

Between December 2010 and 2011, Jordan’s mobile penetration rate rose from 112.6% to 118.2%, reaching 7.482m mobile subscribers...

Russia’s largest operator has launched ultra-fast 4G mobile broadband services offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps in most of Moscow and 40 population centres in Moscow regions...