The latest part of the long-running spectrum auction saga in South Africa is due to take place during the week of 11-14 April when regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and operator Telkom will meet in court.

Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers has laid out its strategy for implementing 5G, which could see the technology become commercial available within 2022.

Indian state-run provider BSNL looks set to begin offering commercial 4G this year following years of delays.

Kazakhstan is finalising new draft legislation covering spectrum licences ahead of a competitive tender later this year.

With its economy so heavily dependent on tourism, the Maldives has suffered heavy economic as well as health casualties during the pandemic. The country had a relatively short period of lockdown and was willing to welcome visitors back as early as July 2020.

Kazakhstan has one of the most developed telecommunications sectors in the Central Asian region. This is especially true of the mobile segment, where widespread network coverage has enabled very high penetration rates – reaching 180% as far back as 2012.

The nation of Tajikistan has had to struggle through a further two years of economic hardship following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has included receiving millions of dollars in foreign aid and loans just to maintain liquidity in a country that is already one of the most impoverished in the region.

Pakistan continues to lag most other Asian countries in terms of the maturity of its telecom sector. This is partly due to the poor state of its fixed-line network following years of under-investment and neglect by the state-owned incumbent telco Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTC), with teledensity now down to almost 1%.

Nepali operator Smart Telecom has missed the mid-January deadline for paying its outstanding dues of NPR5.5 billion (US$45.8 million), leaving the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) with little choice but to revoke its licence.

Pakistan’s state-backed operators are collaborating to develop telecommunications services in the country’s Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) regions.

India’s three largest mobile operators have called on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to slash the reserve price of 3.5GHz spectrum in its upcoming auctions.

Vodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar has stated that the operator’s current management will retain full control of the business despite yesterday’s announcement of the Indian government taking a majority holding in the operator.

Transformation solutions provider Nexign has successfully replaced the BSS system for Uzbekistani mobile operator Ucell.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered another investigation into Google following complaints that the firm had violated antitrust laws.

Bharti Airtel has decided not to restructure its business after determining that its current structure is “optimal for leveraging” reforms announced by India’s government in September 2021.

Sri Lanka’s fixed-line telephony market was one of the very few in the world to experience a significant upsurge in subscriptions in 2020. While the country suffers from a relatively poor fixed-line infrastructure and a correspondingly strong mobile sector, demand for traditional phone services increased 14% in 2020.

Afghanistan’s government – which has been controlled by the Taliban since August - has revealed plans for an extensive restructure of state bodies relating to telecommunications.

WhatsApp shared the results of its pilot digital payments programme across 500 villages in the Indian states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Pakistani satellite communications systems integrator Supernet has signed an agreement with SatADSL allowing it to use the latter’s neXat platform.

Telenor Pakistan has signed the GSM licence renewal template created by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) “under protest and without prejudice” to maintain continuity of its services.

Nepal’s Vianet Communications is expanding its high speed fibre network in the west of the country with China Telecom subsidiary CCS (China Communication Service).

Tajikistan’s Babilon-Mobile, which operates as Babilon-M, has selected Baicells as its provider for hundreds of new 4G and 5G base stations to be deployed imminently.

Bangladeshi operator Robi Axiata is joining Fortumo’s payments platform.

Airtel Lanka is set to extend its 4G services throughout Sri Lanka via a new network expansion initiative.

Nepal’s National Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has nullified the Basic Telecommunications Services licence of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) due to outstanding regulatory fees.

Nepal’s National Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has at long last cleared state-owned operator Nepal Telecom to trial 5G services in the market.

Residents of two remote Kazakhstan villages can now benefit from unprecedented Internet speeds via satellite-enabled Wi-Fi, through a network set up for 30 days by connectivity solutions provider SES.

Nepal’s leading broadband provider WorldLink Communications is using Nokia solutions to offer a seamless home Wi-Fi experience for its customers.

FSS (Financial Software and Systems) is collaborating with Bangladesh’s BRAC Bank to facilitate digital commerce in the market.