All Business News

Fixed-line teledensity in Papua New Guinea has seen little change over the past two decades.

Fiji has a relatively sophisticated communications infrastructure with the highest mobile and internet penetration in the Pacific Islands. It is the leading market to watch in terms of both LTE and 5G development in this region.

For many years, GSM was the primary mobile technology for Vanuatu’s 300,000 people. Recent infrastructure projects have improved access technologies, with a transition to 3G and, to a limited degree, to LTE.

Samoa was one of the first Pacific Island countries to establish a regulatory infrastructure and to liberalise its telecom market. In 2006, it became the first in the region to see the market entrance of Digicel, which has since launched services in other Pacific nations.

Morocco has one of the more advanced telecommunications sectors in Africa. It has been supported by the government’s Maroc Digital 2020 strategy (which encourages the development of a digital economy) and the National Broadband Plan (which aims to provide the entire population with fixed or mobile broadband by the end of 2022).

Israel’s developed economy largely revolves around high technology products, primarily used in the medical, biotechnology, agricultural, materials, and military industries. The country also attracts investment in its cyber-security industry, and has established itself as a hub for thousands of start-up companies.

Despite the Ukraine government announcing grand plans in November 2020 to enable the commercial launch of 5G mobile services by the end of 2021 (including a spectrum auction slated for October), there has been remarkably little evidence of any progress being made towards putting those plans into action.

Turkey continues to develop its capabilities within its telecom sector, becoming one of the relatively few countries able to build and develop its own communications satellites. With the successful launch of the Turksat 5A satellite in January 2021, the Turksat 5B is expected to be launched by the end of the year, and will be joined by the Turksat 6A in early 2023.

After many years of delays and legal challenges, Guyana's 2016 Telecommunications Act was brought into force in October 2020 by the newly elected government of the People’s Party Progressive (PPP).

Telecommunication infrastructure in the Solomon Islands requires significant investment due to the geographical make-up of the islands.

French Polynesia has one of the most advanced telecoms infrastructures in the Pacific Islands region. The first submarine cable was deployed in 2010 and additional cables have been connected to the islands in subsequent years, vastly improving French Polynesia’s international connectivity.

In relation to its telecom sector, Nepal has several topographical and economic constraints which have impeded efforts to expand network infrastructure and improve the quality of service for end-users.

Armenia had to battle through 2020 on two fronts: the Covid-19 pandemic that effectively shut down the economy, and a brief but brutal war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Lebanon’s economic crisis has had a dire effect on the country’s telecom services. Although some progress has been made with developing 5G, the poor economic conditions have contributed to an erratic electricity supply and a lack of fuel to maintain generators.

After suffering a sharp retraction in the number of subscriptions and revenue during 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis, Peru’s telecom sector managed to stage a small recovery in the first half of 2021. The extent of the decline, however, will take some time to recover from fully.

Bangladesh’s economic resurgence over the last decade took a battering in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country had been on track to move off the United Nation’s Least Developed Countries list by 2026, however the crisis may have pushed that back a few years.

Iran’s telecom infrastructure has suffered from sanctions in recent years, which prevented the import of equipment and devices and encouraged widespread smuggling, with a consequent loss of tax revenue. To address this, the government introduced a device registration scheme, and bolstered the capacity for domestically manufactured mobile phones.

Yemen continues to provide an exceptionally challenging market for telcos. Civil unrest has caused havoc and devastation across most parts of the country, while the threat of sanctions has also made it a challenging environment in which to operate.

Bahrain continues to develop its telecoms sector in a bid to develop its long-term Economic Vision 2030 strategy. This is a multi-faceted strategy aimed at developing a digital transformation across numerous sectors, including e-government, e-health, e-commerce, and e-banking.

The years of civil war and destruction to infrastructure continue to have a toll on the telecoms sector in Syria. Although over the years the major mobile service providers Syriatel and MTN Syria have endeavoured to restore and rebuild damaged networks, the operating environment has been difficult.

Saudi Arabia’s telecom and ICT sectors continue to benefit from the range of programs aimed at diversifying the economy away from a dependence on oil, and establishing a wider digital transformation over the next decade.

Qatar had developed a mature telecom sector which has been able to absorb the additional data demands made on it during the pandemic. Mobile services based on LTE are universally available, and this has helped the two operators Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone Qatar to migrate to 5G. In combination with a strong fibre rollout, the country is aiming to provide gigabit services nationally.

The UAE has a strong mobile market, dominated by Etisalat and du. Both are majority-owned by the government. In a bid to attract additional foreign investment, it was resolved in early 2021 that the stake held by foreigners in the two companies could be increased.

Jordan’s government has focussed on the use of ICT in a range of sectors, aimed at transforming the relatively small economy through the use of digital services.

Iraq continues to face a number of political and economic challenges, though increasing civil stability has made it easier for mobile and fixed-line operators to rebuild telecom services and infrastructure damaged during the last few years.

The Dominican Republic’s telecom sector continued its solid though unspectacular form throughout 2020 and into 2021, shrugging off the economic turmoil unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic to maintain a decade-long run of low but positive growth across all areas of the market.

Despite the harsh impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s population and economy, Colombia’s telecom sector had a solid year thanks to positive performances in the fixed-line broadband, mobile broadband, and mobile voice and data markets.

The Russian telecom market is the largest in Europe, supported by a population approaching 147 million.

Romania’s telecom market has undergone several significant changes in recent years.

Although Croatia’s telecom market is dominated by the incumbent telco Hrvatski Telekom and the local units of United Group and Telekom Austria, there is effective competition from a number of smaller operators.

The slow process to open up Ethiopia’s telecom market was completed with the licensing of the Safaricom-led Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium.

Montenegro has a small telecom market supported by a population of only 623,000. Fixed broadband services are available via a variety of technology platforms, though fibre is the dominant platform, accounting for almost 40% of connections.

Brazil has one of the largest mobile markets in Latin America due to the sheer size of its population.