Sri Lanka’s fixed-line telephony market was one of the very few in the world to experience a significant upsurge in subscriptions in 2020. While the country suffers from a relatively poor fixed-line infrastructure and a correspondingly strong mobile sector, demand for traditional phone services increased 14% in 2020.

Tanzania’s telecom sector enjoys effective competition, particularly in the mobile segment. There remains considerable movement within it, with Smart having stopped services in late 2019 and Tigo Tanzania having completed its merger with Zantel. Tigo Tanzania in April 2021 was sold by its parent company MIC as it sought to focus on its operations in Latin America.

World Mobile, the first mobile network built on blockchain and run by the people, partners with Altaeros, developers of the world’s first autonomous aerostats, to connect the unconnected.

China is planning to establish large clusters of data centers outside the main population centers, to provide digital infrastructure without overloading power grids.

The shareholders of PT Indosat Tbk (Indosat Ooredoo) have approved the Indonesian operator's merger with rival Tri, which is also known as Hutchison 3 Indonesia.

Following elections held in August 2021, Zambia's new government immediately established a Ministry of Technology and Science to promote the use of ICT in developing economic growth and social inclusion. This focus on ICT, and on telecoms in particular, has been central to government strategies for some years.

Until late 2020, Lesotho’s telecom regulator maintained a market duopoly between the privatised national operator, Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL), which is focussed on fixed-line services, and Vodacom Lesotho, which dominates the mobile sector.

Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel and IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have joined hands to build a 5G-based remote working technology using robotics. Both the companies are currently running the trials in Airtel's 5G lab at Manesar, in the state of Haryana.

CMLink, China Mobile's subsidiary in Canada, will cease operation in Canada due to fears expressed by the federal government.

Chinese technology firm Xiaomi has unveiled its new flagship Xiaomi 12 smartphone in China.

Angola’s telecom sector in recent years has benefited from political stability, which has encouraged foreign investment in the sector. The government and regulator have also set in train mechanisms to open up the telecom sector to new competitors, with Africell having secured a universal licence and in so doing becoming the country’s fourth MNO.

Ghana’s telecom market has undergone several changes in recent years, following the privatisation of the incumbent telco Ghana Telecom and its rebranding as Vodafone Ghana. Two of the key players merged to form AirtelTigo in 2017, though in mid-2020 the parent companies of the operator decided to exit the market. The sale and transfer of AirtelTigo to the state was completed in November 2021.

Indian telecom equipment manufacturer HFCL (formerly Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited) has been recognised as the ‘Trusted Source’ by the National Security Council Secretariat (Trusted Telecom Cell), a part of the National Security Council, who advises the Prime Minister’s Office on matters of national security and strategic interest.

Russia's active mobile subscriber base totaled 259 million this year (2021), up by 3.3% from the year before but slightly off from the 260 million recorded at the end of 2019, said a study.

Veon Group has announced that its Russian operator Beeline is set to partner with Yandex.Plus for the launch of their first joint tariff plan.

Eritrea’s telecom sector operates under a state-owned monopoly for fixed and mobile services. Partly as a result of such restrictions on competition, the country has the least developed telecommunications market in Africa.

The slow process to open up Ethiopia’s telecom market was completed with the licensing of the Safaricom-led Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium. The country had been one of the last in Africa to allow its national telco a monopoly on all telecom services including fixed, mobile, internet and data communications.

The combined telecommunications industrial revenue in China rose 8.1 percent year on year to over 1.35 trillion yuan (about 212 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-November period, registering robust growth.

India's first 5G technology trials for rural broadband began at Ajol village in the state of Gujarat with a base transceiver station (BTS) installed 17km away at Unava town in the Gandhinagar district.

China Telecom’s US unit China Telecom Americas (CTA)announced that it plans to continue providing some services in the US in 2022 after a regulator revoked its authorisation to operate telecommunications in the country, citing espionage concerns.

During the last few years Libya has struggled to rebuild its economy and infrastructure following disruption caused by the civil war and the subsequent political unrest. Much of the telecom infrastructure was destroyed or stolen following the 2011 disturbances, including about a quarter of the country’s mobile tower sites.

For many years Oman’s mobile market was a duopoly between the incumbent telco Omantel and its challenger Ooredoo Oman. In February 2021, Vodafone Group and Oman Future Telecommunications consortium secured a license to operate the Sultanate’s third network, with services being under the Vodafone Oman brand. The new operator has been able to extend its reach based on a tower leasing arrangement signed in 2020 with Oman Tower Company.

Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications company Zain Kuwait said its 5G traffic accounts for more than 40 percent of its total wireless traffic.

ZTE Corporation announced that it has received two No. 1 rankings in research firm Dell’Oro Group’s recently released Broadband Access & Home Networking Quarterly Report 3Q21.

Eros Now, an over-the-top (OTT) South Asian entertainment platform owned by Eros STX Global Corporation, has announced a partnership with Global Networks Infocomm (GNIPL) for expanding its reach in India.

Fixed-line teledensity in Papua New Guinea has seen little change over the past two decades.

Fiji has a relatively sophisticated communications infrastructure with the highest mobile and internet penetration in the Pacific Islands. It is the leading market to watch in terms of both LTE and 5G development in this region.

For many years, GSM was the primary mobile technology for Vanuatu’s 300,000 people. Recent infrastructure projects have improved access technologies, with a transition to 3G and, to a limited degree, to LTE.

Samoa was one of the first Pacific Island countries to establish a regulatory infrastructure and to liberalise its telecom market. In 2006, it became the first in the region to see the market entrance of Digicel, which has since launched services in other Pacific nations.

Bharat FIH, formerly Rising Stars Mobile India, a subsidiary of FIH Mobiles, a Foxconn Technology Group Company, has filed for an initial public offering of up to INR 50.04 billion ($662.97 million).

ZTE Corporation together with the Sichuan Branch of China Mobile and Dahantricom Corporation has officially rolled out “Panda’s Coming”, the 5G Messaging application.

Russian integrated provider of digital services and solutions Rostelecom has acquired 100% of the share capital of TVE-Telecom for RUB 1.7 billion (GBP 17 million).

China's internet regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), has temporarily suspended a partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, for six months.

Qatari multinational telecommunications company Ooredoo Group has selected US-based cybersecurity company Fortinet to improve its Enterprise EDGE portfolio based on the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN.