Unlike some neighbouring Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan has developed an open telecom sector that has encouraged foreign and domestic investors.

Telecom services in Lesotho are managed by a privatised national operator, Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL). The mobile sector is a duopoly between South Africa-based Vodacom and ETL, though competition is insufficient to promote effective price reductions for consumers.

Thai operator dtac is partnering with Nokia for a three-year 5G RAN deal covering the north and northeastern regions of Thailand.

Serbia delayed its 5G auction again for the end of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic scuppering investment plans of operators, reported Serbian news agency Tanjug.

Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) announced electromagnetic waves emitted from radio broadcasting and telecom antennas in the city of Cusco, are below the legal international limit.

Hungarian operator DIGI Hungary was confirmed to not be participating in the country’s upcoming spectrum auction, with its three main rivals Magyar Telekom, Telenor, and Vodafone Hungary registering.

The flurry of news from Nigeria in the wake of government threats to block SIMs not integrated with National Identification Numbers (NIN) continues. Now, it seems the deadline has been extended.

Google has invested in two Indian start-ups that focus on supplying personalized news and entertainment to smartphones.

Digi Communications announced it entered a senior facility agreement gaining two loans totaling €150 million from a syndicate of large banks, as the company stated intentions to refinance a previous loan and push investments.

MTN deployed 4.5G in the city of Abidjan to meet rising connectivity demand in the economic capital, while Orange Cameroon increased the speed and capacity of its LTE-A network.

Measures to ease access to mobile money in Kenya are about to come to an end, but they appear to have been a success.

Last week saw the opening of the Chile Cloud Region, computer technology corporation Oracle’s 29th cloud region worldwide. Latin American customers and partners will now have regional access to many of Oracle’s cloud services.

The long-running investment saga involving telecoms giant Vodafone, its Egyptian operation and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) seems to have ended with no deal.

Ooredoo has launched commercial 5G services in the Maldives, with the initial rollout covering a large percentage of the capital city of Malé, including key business hubs, hospitals and public spaces.

Ukrainian operator Kyivstar has announced plans to launch voice over LTE (VoLTE) on its network by 2021.

CETIN, which owns and operates the largest electronic communications network in the Czech Republic, covering 99.6 percent of the population, has entered into a co-investment agreement with T-Mobile on the deployment of an FTTH network.

The US government warned Pacific island nations that discounted subsea cables from Chinese companies pose a security threat, as an international project is underway in the region.

A year on from its acquisition of Orange Niger, Zamani Com has now rebranded the unit to Zamani Telecom.

Operator Airtel Uganda has finally secured an operating licence to replace the one that ran out a few years ago.

NEC Corporation India announced the completion of its flagship optical submarine cable system between Chennai and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands) for state-owned Indian operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Russian operator Rostelecom continued its acquisition strategy with the purchase of Sozvezdiye N for RUB 1.77 billion ($24 million), a move it stated to bolster its broadband and broadcast offerings position in key locations.

TIM Brasil revealed it acquired the lion’s share of rival Oi’s assets after it, Telefonica Brasil (Vivo) and Claro Brasil joined forces to acquire the troubled operator’s assets for BRL16.5 billion ($3.2 billion).