The government of India has launched the Trusted Telecom Portal six months after the Union Cabinet approved the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector.

Omantel has successfully tested the 5G High Band at its headquarters in Madinat al Irfan under the supervision of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the Sultanate of Oman.

More 5G rollout news – this time from Slovenia, where operator Telemach has announced that it is rolling out a 5G network after gaining the necessary frequencies to offer wireless broadband through a national auction that took place in April this year.

Reliance Jio, the front-runner among the big three operators in India, can now claim another leading position: the use in a 5G field trial network of its own indigenously developed 5G equipment and technology in Mumbai.

Atos, which describes itself as a global leader in digital transformation, is to build a new data centre in Kenya.

Bahrain’s National Broadband Network BNET has selected Mobileum’s Active Intelligence Platform for risk management.

Veon’s Georgian mobile operator Beeline has chosen Nokia’s cloud-native software to modernise its core network throughout Georgia and to strengthen customer services, network performance and security as it extends its 4G network with 5G-ready equipment.

Bharti Airtel has turned on its 5G trial network in Gurgaon’s Cyber Hub in the Millennium city, reports local media outlets.

Philippines’ third major player in the telecommunications industry DITO Telecommunity Corporation is approaching the one-millionth subscriber mark a few months after its official launch in March.

The Iranian government has adopted major legislation to enable the government to take back control of physical hardware and transmission equipment used for the delivery of fixed data services.

Altel Communications has been awarded a new allocation of 2x5MHz, totaling 10MHz of the 900MHz band for five years, reported Malaysian newspaper The Star quoting ministerial orders/direction (MO).

Argentina is in the subsea cable news again. Late last week wholesale telecom service provider GlobeNet’s new subsea cable system Malbec, which connects Argentina and Brazil, was launched.

The process that will lead to the sale of just under half of Ethiopia’s state-owned operator Ethio Telecom is apparently under way.

As part of what is described as an ambitious plan to strengthen Ghana as a maritime forerunner in West Africa, the Ghana Maritime Authority and Danish commercial satellite operator Sternula have announced a new partnership involving e-navigation connectivity.

Ooredoo Oman has launched super-fast, reliable 4G and 5G fixed wireless (FWA) access throughout the country, powered by Nokia.

Romanian cloud service provider ClusterPower will build the largest data centre in Romania and one of the largest in Europe in the southern part of Craiova.

Kenya’s leading telecommunication company Safaricom has been officially awarded a licence to become the first foreign entity to provide such services in Ethiopia.

The mobile operator Tele2, together with Nokia, launched a 5G test zone in the Kazan Metro, which thus became the first fifth-generation network in the Russian metro.

Estonia’s competitive telecom market continues to progress with a range of regulatory measures which have enabled alternative operators to chip away at the fixed-line market share of the incumbent telco Telia Estonia. Fixed-line infrastructure upgrades have been focussed on fibre, and the legacy DSL network has gradually been replaced.

Colombia’s WOM announced that it has connected its 700MHz 4G network to 525 previously unserved rural areas.

IoT specialist Kerlink has partnered with wireless, real-time water-management systems provider WEGoT to expand and accelerate adoption of WEGoT’s solutions to help address serious water shortages in India.

Nepalese service provider Subisu has selected Nokia to modernise its 1500-kilometer backbone network stretching across East and West Nepal.

The Polish competition authority has cleared the acquisition by Cellnex Telecom, an operator of wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures, of Polkomtel Infrastruktura.

Poland’s liberalised telecom market has seen considerable development in the broadband and mobile sectors. The incumbent telco, Orange Poland, dominates the broadband market and has invested in fibre infrastructure to support the growing adoption of bundled services among customers.

America Movil's Claro Uruguay unit began technical tests in 5G in the 28 GHz band in the country after receiving authorization from the Communication Services Regulatory Unit (URSEC).

PCCW Global's Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable and PCCW Global have announced that they will deploy Infinera ICE6 optical engine equipment on the Mediterranean segment of the PEACE submarine cable system.

Claro Argentina, a part of the América Móvil group, has partnered with DOCOMO Digital, the integrator of digital app stores, to facilitate the purchase of applications and content with direct carrier billing (DCB), within the Samsung Galaxy Store, using Claro's pre-paid or post-paid accounts.

A 5G will be pilot launched in Kyrgyzstan by the end of 2021, according to Talant Kalykov, director of the State Communications Agency.

Google has announced plans to build Firmina, an open subsea cable that will run from the East Coast of the United States to Las Toninas, Argentina, with additional landings in Praia Grande, Brazil and Punta del Este, Uruguay.

It looks like Hype –the in-browser chat service for Opera Mini users – is not just hype after all. This week has seen the launch of the service by global internet brand Opera in South Africa, Zambia and Ghana.

The demand for data-based services in the Pacific region is growing, aligning with similar trends around the world. In particular, the demand for mobile broadband is increasing due to mobile services being the primary and most wide-spread source for internet access across the region.