Bharti Airtel is planning a massive expansion in its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband service offering, according to a number of Indian press reports.

Nokia and Bulgarian operator Vivacom penned a deal to upgrade the latter’s fibre broadband network and connect customers to new heights of high-speed gigabit broadband services, while also laying the foundations for a commercial 5G launch.

The telecom sector in Laos still has numerous issues to address. For a number of years, the rate of regulatory reform has been well behind wider industry development. However, Laos has started to make significant progress in strengthening its telecom infrastructure. As a result, it has attracted greater foreign investment into the sector.

MTN Group and Telecom Infra Project (TIP) have joined forces to support the evolution of MTN’s communication transport infrastructure, which, says MTN, will become a platform for future revenue growth and profitability.

Liberia’s regulator LTA (Liberia Telecommunications Authority) has slammed the “illegal and arbitrary increases” which operators Lonestar Cell-MTN and Orange Liberia have made to their voice and data tariffs.

WorldLink Communications Ltd, the largest internet service provider in Nepal, has announced a partnership with Facebook, or more accurately, Facebook Connectivity,  an umbrella platform for Facebook’s global internet connectivity initiatives, to deliver fast, affordable and reliable Wi-Fi in Nepal.

The Dominican Republic’s president Luis Abinader has called for the country’s regulator to begin tendering for 5G spectrum.

Mexico’s Movistar has reportedly pushed back its deadline for switching off its 2G network.

It’s no surprise that more 5G pilots are under way – most recently in Brazil and Slovakia. However, these two pilots do raise a few questions about what this means for the participants and for spectrum availability.

India and Japan have agreed to cooperate in a number of telecommunications and IT-related areas after a recent ministerial meeting.

In a bid to encourage domestic smartphone manufacturing, India’s government has granted incentives worth INR450 billion ($6.12 billion) to 16 local and overseas firms.

NTT has completed an end-to-end network consolidation project for Indonesian operator PT Smartfren Telecom.

Jordan’s Ahli Bank has implemented Temenos’ cloud-native Infinity solution to help it develop and deploy digital and mobile banking experiences.

Airtel Africa is to expand its strategic partnership with Ericsson to enable 4G coverage in Kenya using Ericsson’s radio access network (RAN) and packet core products for 4G.

Arcep – l'Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques, des postes et de la distribution de la presse, aka the French telecoms regulator – has launched a public consultation linked to a number of French overseas territories.

Slovenia’s telecoms regulator AKOS has slammed the government’s sudden decision to fold the organisation into a larger watchdog.

Six Malaysian operators have been issued fines collectively totalling MYR700,000 ($168,500) for neglecting to authenticate new prepaid subscribers during 2019.

After more than a decade of civil war which destroyed much of its infrastructure, Liberia became a prime example of an almost entirely wireless telecommunications market.

The telecom market in Bhutan is dominated by the mobile sector, which accounts for the vast majority of voice and data connections. This is partly the result of poor fixed-line infrastructure, and topographic issues which has rendered it easier to deliver services based on mobile infrastructure.

Tunisia has one of the most sophisticated telecom infrastructures in North Africa. Penetration rates for mobile and internet services are among the highest in the region.

Sudan makes up the northern part of a country which in 2011 was separated to form the new state of South Sudan. Three quarters of the former population live in the north, where mobile market penetration is far higher.

Namibia was slow to introduce competition in the mobile market, with a second operator not licensed until 2006.

Recent announcements from Oman and Nigeria underline the continuing growth of data centres across multiple regions outside their traditional homes in the US and Europe.

Telekom Slovenije  has begun rolling out 5G technology for mobile phone users, Slovenia's biggest telecom operator said earlier this week.

Further proof of the relevance of the Internet of Things (IoT) to sustainability in the developing world comes with the announcement that Telenor Connexion is to partner with Ericsson on a water project in East Africa.

Viettel Business Solutions will provide NOW Corp with ICT products and services in the Philippines as the latter’s mobile subsidiary NOW Telecom looks to establish itself as the market’s fourth major operator.

Montenegro’s regulator EKIP (Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services) is planning to auction 5G-capable spectrum in Q4 2021.

Following a public tender, Mauritania’s Autorité de Régulation (ARE) has finally found bidders for the country’s three available provisional 4G licences.