Armenia is set for nationwide gigabit broadband over passive optical network (PON) following a new agreement between Telecom Armenia and Nokia.

Indian mobile provider Vodafone Idea (Vi) posted a loss of INR 6,985.1 crore (USD939.5 million) for the three months to end-March 2021 and raised concerns over its ability to service debt and pay adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and spectrum dues.

DITO Telecommunity, the Philippines' third player, has expanded its coverage in 17 more areas and is now available in a total of 140 cities nationwide.

TIM Brasil activated 5G DSS networks in three cities of the Northeast, namely Fortaleza (Ceara), Recife (Pernambuco), and Salvador (Bahia).

A bit of highly futuristic thinking was on display at the Mobile World Congress, where UAE-headquartered operator Etisalat told visitors about its ambitious 6G plans.

Israel’s Communications Ministry plans to shutter the country’s 2G and 3G networks by the end of 2025 as 5G becomes increasingly prevalent in the market.

Russia’s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS) has acquired compatriot service provider Multiregional TransitTelecom (MTT) for RUB 5.0 billion (US$69 million) on an enterprise value basis.

The now-live Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable is interconnecting at three of Teraco’s data centres across South Africa, expanding access to broadband connectivity and digital services in Africa.

In 2024, Orange Polska plans to have 8 million households within the reach of the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) - said the president of Orange, Julien Ducarroz, during the presentation of the new Group strategy for 2021-2024.

Angola Telecom (AT), a telecommunications and Internet service provider of Angola, will again become a shareholder of the compatriot mobile phone company Movicel after leaving the company at the end of 2019, due to the huge debt that the company has with the national telecom operator.

Pakistan’s state provider PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited) has contracted Huawei to upgrade its IP Edge and Optical Transport Network (OTN) infrastructure.

Pan-African fintech firm Carbon has entered a strategic five-year partnership with Visa to provide its customers with digital and physical Visa payment cards.

Brazil’s much-delayed 5G spectrum auction has been moved a few times. Recent adjustments involved an auction late last year, after which June and July this year were among dates mooted. Now the dates have changed again.

Jio Platforms Limited, a product company focusing on innovation in the areas of 4G and 5G networks as well as cloud and edge solutions, and part of Indian giant Reliance Industries, has been busy building partnerships in the 5G space.

Announced last May, the purchase of Vogel Telecom by compatriot telecommunications provider Algar Telecom received an unrestricted approval report by Brazilian regulator Cade's General Superintendence (SG).

Bharti Global, the overseas arm of Bharti Enterprises, will invest an additional INR 3,714 crore($500 million) in OneWeb, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications company.

Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest communications solutions provider, has implemented Ciena's photonic infrastructure to add capacity by up to three times to its optic fiber network in cities to deliver an enhanced 5G experience.

Government efforts to use the success of popular communications services as a source of new tax income have continued. The latest example is a reported 10 percent tax on the earnings of mobile money agents in Ghana.

A new investment in an African tower specialist could boost tower building in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire – and possibly further afield.

Malawi has launched the second phase of the national fibre backbone project that began more than four years ago.

Pakistan has changed its social media rules and, once again, ISPs and other social media-linked groups, both inside and outside the country, are unhappy with the results.

Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has issued a QAR3.5 million (USD950,000) fine to Ooredoo Qatar for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.

Tecnotree has landed a digital transformation contract with MTN Group covering several African markets.

The Indian Government announced that it had allocated an additional INR 19.041-crore (US$2.6 billion) in order to divert efforts towards the expansion as well as up-gradation of BharatNet, which is a nationwide initiative aimed at connecting over 600,000 villages with the optic fibre-based network so as to ensure the delivery of Internet services.

Al Yah Satellite Communications (AlYahsat), a satellite communications company in Abu Dhabi, has set an indicative price range for its initial public offering which shows it could raise up to 2.976 billion dirhams ($810 million) in the IPO.

Omani Space Communication Technologies (SCT) has launched a tender for the design, manufacture, and launch of its first satellite called "Omansat-1". 

Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), and Google Cloud announced yesterday bolstering their strategic partnership to include establishing a new Center of Excellence training facility and new Google office in the State of Qatar.

The decision by the government of Pakistan to introduce tax on mobile phone calls has occasioned quite a lot of coverage – and comment – from local media.