The arrival of Bifrost – a new submarine telecommunications system that will connect Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam and the west coast of North America – is getting closer thanks to a new joint build agreement.

Gilat Satellite Networks announced its contract with Telefonica Global Solutions (TGS), a facilitator in global connections, to equip the strategic teleport in Arica, Chile.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced plans to make the mid-band spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band (3550-3700 MHz) available for 5G and other advanced wireless services to an array of operators.

Telecom Egypt has selected Juniper Networks to upgrade and deploy a network capacity expansion across its national infrastructure, serving a customer base of 9.8m for fixed-line services, 6.9m for broadband, and 7.3m for mobile.

Telco-cloud systems integrator and OSS/BSS software provider Odine Solutions announced Telin, a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia, deployed Odine's Wholesale Voice Management platform, to enable dynamic management and real-time visibility to manage the rapidly changing demands of the voice industry.

TecBan, which specialises in managing auto-service banking networks, operator Claro and vendor Ericsson have announced the arrival of the first ATM using 5G technology in Latin America.

Movistar Chile’s commercial 5G network is to launch with the help of Nokia technology, according to a recent announcement from the multinational telecommunications, information technology and consumer electronics company.

Solar power is supporting the activities of a number of Orange subsidiaries in Africa and a Huawei data centre in Jordan.

Yet another passive infrastructure sale has been announced – this time in Oman.

America Movil has been ordered to pay $2.2 million to cover the legal costs of its case against the state of Colombia, in which the operator accused the government of illegally expropriating its local subsidiary Comcel.

Due to the second Kovid-19 wave and associated state-wide lockdown, India could see a significant 15-20 percent drop in smartphone shipments in the April-June period (Q2) 2021.

Brazilian telecommunications company Algar Telecom announced an agreement to purchase the compatriot telecommunications provider Vogel Telecom for up to BRL 600 million (USD114.5 million).

Telkomsel, a unit of Indonesia’s state-owned and largest telecom operator Telkom, has invested an additional US $300 million in ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek, just months after the network provider wrote a $150 million check to the Southeast Asian firm.

The Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) president, Thomas Crostney, has initiated proceedings against TeleGo telephone company, saying the company misled customers and presented itself as their current operator.

The increased adoption of cloud services and Microsoft’s ecosystem is expected to create more than 15,800 jobs across the sultanate of Oman by 2024, says new research by market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

India-headquartered networking product company Tejas Networks has announced that TelOne, one of Zimbabwe’s major operators, has deployed the Tejas 100G/100G+ coherent dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) solution.

Could we be getting closer to full-scale 4G rollout in Afghanistan? Apparently, additional spectrum has become available in the country in the 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands for 4G services – and will be auctioned soon.

Eutelsat Communications is expanding its use of the Express Wi-Fi platform in partnership with Facebook to provide broadband services via satellite across several regions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U), might be abolished or merged with the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), in a move to merge government agencies and authorities whose roles seem to be duplicated.

Philippines' Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) plans to invest in building a common tower infrastructure to fast-track the rollout of internet services and to expand mobile services to underserved areas of the country.

Kuwait telecommunications company STC Kuwait has announced the commercial launch of its 5G Stand Alone (5G SA) services.

BT Group’s Egyptian unit has been granted a licence to provide connectivity services and information transfer to institutions and companies through its international networks.

Helios Towers, which last year acquired the passive infrastructure assets of Senegal’s number two mobile player Free Senegal for $188.2 million, has announced a major investment in the country.

Polish mobile operator P4, trading under the Play brand, will be conducting 4G and 5G trials in Warsaw with Samsung.

UPC Broadband Slovakia has expanded the coverage of its gigabit broadband service to a further ten Slovak towns and villages.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 10.8% in the year to USD 464 billion in 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, according to the Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF) from International Data Corporation (IDC).

African multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Group said that its Nigerian unit MTN Nigeria (MTNN) Communications has completed the issuance of an N110 billion (USD 263 million) fixed-rate bond due in 2028 under an N200 billion bond programme.

Telecoms services are being affected – directly or indirectly – by authorities in Ghana and Uganda looking for ways to raise revenue.

Nigerian regulator the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and satcoms provider Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the use of C-band spectrum to boost 5G services in Nigeria.

Fugro, a geodata specialist, says it has completed the first phase of its marine site characterisation project for Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to support the trans-Pacific Bifrost Cable System.

Benin has begun tendering for a new mobile network operator, with foreign firms invited to participate on the grounds that they already operate a telecoms network.

Colombian operator WOM has implemented Whale Cloud’s full-stack BSS suite to speed up its digital transformation and improve customer experience.