Philippines operator Smart Communications has announced plans to upgrade 40 per cent of its sites to 5G by the end of 2021.

A couple more examples of the growing importance of cashless, mobile phone-based payments in Africa have emerged in recent days – this time in South Africa and Uganda.

The PNG Sustainable Development Program (SDP) is working with Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific), Emstret Holdings and Tag Energy to install and operate 30 solar-powered satellite dishes.

Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator outlined $123 million was needed to deliver on its plan to bring connectivity to all districts of the country.

Malaysia has developed one of the more advanced telecom networks in Asia, with a focus on deploying new technologies. There is considerable fibre infrastructure in place, while the network operators have made considerable progress in 5G, using a number of vendors.

Thailand’s telecom sector has seen a continuing shift from fixed-line services to the mobile segment. The decline in fixed-line penetration seen in recent years is expected to continue as subscribers migrate to mobile networks for voice and data services.

Peru’s MTC (Ministry of Transport and Communications) has issued draft proposals for active infrastructure sharing.

The fixed line market in the Philippines remains underdeveloped with low penetration in both the fixed broadband and fixed-line markets. This is partly attributed to under-investment in fixed infrastructure, the dominance of the mobile segment and the rapid development of mobile broadband.

Ascenty, a leading name in the Latin American data centre market, has announced that a second unit is now in operation on the company’s mega-campus in Vinhedo, a Brazilian city in the state of Sao Paulo.

Trade association the GSMA tipped the Latin American telecoms market to reach 15 million 5G connections by 2022, as the continent recently saw network launches in Brazil and Uruguay and spectrum auctions lined up next year.

There won’t be a fourth operator in Ethiopia – at least not yet. The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) has decided that it will not let a fourth operator enter the telecommunications sector for at least 10 years.

Burkina Faso’s regulator ARCEP (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts) has opened a public consultation over issuing spectrum for fixed internet offerings.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published a draft of rules designed to limit mobile app developers from collecting user data, an attempt to regulate the growing technology sector.

Argentina’s Metrotel is deploying Nokia’s Altiplano cloud platform for fibre access throughout its network.

Alibaba financial arm Ant Group denied it was preparing to offload shares in India-based digital payments company Paytm, due to tensions between China and India bringing more restrictive market conditions.

Mali has endured a number of challenges contributing to the poor state of its telecom infrastructure. The country’s topography includes large tracks of sparsely populated desert, with many settlements being hard to reach and so rendering it difficult and expensive to service with effective fixed or mobile networks.

Saudi operator STC hailed successful trials, in collaboration with Ericsson and MediaTek, to demonstrate the first global 5G carrier aggregation using low and mid-band spectrum, a move illustrating its 5G network development.

Now Telecom chose Nokia as its equipment supplier to deploy standalone 5G network, as the Philippines operator progresses plans to launch nationwide fixed wireless access and mobile services.

In an unusual use of LTE, but one that may become more common as industries adopt 4G and 5G for private networking, Nokia has announced plans to digitize crane monitoring systems in Indonesia.

As expected, Viettel has now become the first 5G carrier in Vietnam, after the launch of a 5G commercial trial following a period of technical tests.

Ukraine’s Kyivstar has extended its 900MHz 4G LTE services to all 25 regions in the country four months after launching the offering.

Telefonica’s Brazilian unit Vivo strengthened its B2B transformation program with the inclusion of e-commerce support, choosing Netcracker solutions to facilitate this move.

The Ghanaian National Communications Authority (NCA) extended the licensing of additional temporary spectrum to MTN and Vodafone, as the regulator predicts a surge in mobile traffic.

Saudi operator announced group chief executive officer Nasser Al Nasser resigned from his role and will depart the company on 28 March 2021, due to personal circumstances.

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s deal between Airtel Kenya and Nokia comes news that the partnership between Airtel Africa and CSG, a provider of revenue management and digital monetization, payments and customer engagement solutions, has been extended.

Lithuania’s antitrust regulator has granted conditional clearance to mobile provider Bite’s proposed acquisition of the state-owned business MEZON.

Zimbabwe is to allocate a significant sum of money to infrastructure improvement in the ICT sector over the coming year.

Rwanda’s steadily developing telecom market has attracted the attention of a range of organisations which have chosen the country as a test bed for internet connectivity projects. Most recently these have included the ITU and UNICEF, which are involved in a global scheme to provide internet services to schools.

Leading operator Telefonica Movistar Argentina has deployed a complete traffic management solution from telecommunications software company Enea to help it handle the high consumption of data being experienced in Argentina due, in part, to the ongoing pandemic.

Backhaul specialist Ceragon Networks Ltd has won a major contract related to communications support for Cameroon’s rail system.