While rival operator Vodafone Idea is still having a tough time, Bharti Airtel appears to have had a fairly good week, at least in financial terms, with the confirmation of a spectrum sale to the third major Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that Sanlam and telecoms giant MTN Group are to distribute Sanlam Group insurance and investment products across Africa comes news that microinsurance fintech aYo has partnered with MTN to launch insurance for all Ivorians – and Sanlam will be involved.

The Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) announced its decision on the assignment for use of radio frequency spectrum in 700 MHz, 3600 MHz, and 26 GHz radiofrequency bands, used for 5G mobile communications networks.

Hyperscalers like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft adding bandwidth far faster than regional operators in the Middle East.

African behemoth in telecommunications, MTN, and compatriot financial services giant Sanlam are joining forces to offer insurance products to the telecommunications operator’s hefty subscriber base on the continent, where relatively few have a insurance cover.

Chinese partially state-owned technology company ZTE Corporation said that that it has won the bid for Section 3 (high-end router level 3) and Section 5 (high-end router level 5) with the second-highest scores in China Mobile's centralized procurement of high-end routers for the year 2021-2022.

Telefonica Tech has signed a collaboration agreement with STC’s cybersecurity unit ATCSC to share intelligence and develop responses to cyber threats in their markets.

Two of Azerbaijan’s operators have detailed recent deployment expansions, with both noting that they have installed base transceiver stations (BTS) in a region that experienced military conflict during 2020.

China Tower Corporation, which claims to be the world’s largest telecommunications infrastructure service provider, announced that during H1 2021 its net profit grew 16.1% year-on-year to CNY3.45 billion ($532.6 million) while operating revenue increased 7.2% to CNY42.67 billion.

India's Bharti group-backed OneWeb said that Hanwha, the South Korean technology and manufacturing company is making $300m equity investment in OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications (Satcom) company.

Russian telecommunication holding company ER-Telecom has acquired 100% of the united group of companies Avantel for an undisclosed fee.

The state-owned Chinese telecommunications company China Telecom reported its net profit for the first half of 2020 has hit 13.95 billion yuan ($2.01 billion), increasing 0.3 % from a year earlier.

CAMPOST, the national provider of postal and financial services in Cameroon, and VYZYO, a mobile financial services technology company, have signed a commercial partnership agreement to deploy and operate digital payment and mobile financial services throughout Cameroon.

According to local press reports, state-owned operator Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) has announced a Memorandum of Understanding with AST SpaceMobile.

Telekom Srbija’s Bosnia & Herzegovina unit Mtel Banja Luka has renewed its private cloud upgrade and support agreement with Optiva.

Ukrainian operator Intertelecom has announced the next phase of its gradual shutdown of CDMA-based wireless services.

stc has expanded its strategic partnership with Ericsson for the deployment of 5G Core for New Radio standalone on Ericsson Cloud Native Infrastructure.

United Group has selected Nokia to deliver its cloud-native core network products in Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia.

Global infrastructure operator Telxius said that its new Mistral subsea cable is now ready for service. Running up the western coast of South America, the Mistral cable links Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.

Global Technical Realty (GTR), a provider of build-to-suit data centers backed by global investment firm KKR, has announced a new 10.5MW data center in Petah Tikva, Israel.

Bahrain-based telecommunication company Zain Bahrain has promised continued investment to expand its 4G and 5G network footprint in the country, with a strong focus on the 5G and LTE enhancements to further improve reliability and indoor coverage.

India's Reliance Jio is weighing a bid for Deutsche Telekom AG’s Netherlands subsidiary, according to media reports.

Wind Telecom, a service provider in the Dominican Republic, says it is modernizing its GPON network infrastructure for its FTTH and FTTO services by implementing digital transformation company Alepo’s AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) solution.

The telecoms regulators UCC in Uganda and ARTP in Senegal have introduced quality-measuring apps for various communications networks.

Liberty Latin America (LLA) has extended its reach in the Latin American market with the confirmation of its latest acquisition.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend up to PLN 325 million (approximately $83.2 million) to Polish infrastructural telecommunications group Nexera to help finance the rollout of a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) access network.

In an effort to boost its rural coverage, Vodafone Romania deployed more than 700 LTE base transceiver stations between March 2020 and June 2021.

Venezuelan mobile operator Digitel has signed an agreement with Optiva for a multi-year support renewal and upgrade of its online charging system.

ZTE Corporation together with the Quanzhou Branch of China Telecom has taken the lead in deploying the QCell 5G SuperMIMO solution in Quanzhou, China.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued a letter of intent (LoI) to Bharti group-backed OneWeb for satellite services in India, according to a report from PTI.

China Telecom, one of the country's three major telecom operators that exited the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, is set to raise up to 54.2 billion yuan (US$8.5 billion) as one of the biggest IPOs in China this year after setting its initial public offering price.

Indonesian wireless network provider PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) appointed Thoughtworks to redefine their technology architecture blueprint to support business agility.

The Ethiopian authorities are to allow the new licence offered to a Safaricom-led consortium in May to be upgraded to include mobile financial services.