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Ukraine’s developing telecom market has attracted international investors in recent years. One of the major players, Russia’s MTS, in mid-2020 sold its interest in Vodafone Ukraine to Azerbaijani investors.

Argentina has an advanced telecom infrastructure though considerable investment is still required to update services in rural areas. To meet pent up demand for telecom services the government has embarked on a large-scale National Broadband Plan.

The Russian telecom market is the largest in Europe, supported by a population of about 144 million. The market is dominated by the western regions where the main cities and economic centres are concentrated.

While Peru has been proactive against the pandemic, the economic cost has been high.

Guinea’s telecommunications sector was given a tremendous boost following the market entry of MTN Group and Orange Group. Subsequently, the number of mobile subscribers grew strongly while revenue also increased steadily.

Although Afghanistan continues to be confronted by numerous challenges, largely due to the material effects of many years of war and civil strife, there have been successes in the country’s efforts to rebuild infrastructure and create a functional telecom sector.

Cameroon was for many years one of the few countries in Africa with only two competing mobile operators. After some delays, Viettel Cameroon launched a third network and has since grown its subscriber base rapidly.

Telecom services in Madagascar have benefited from intensifying competition between the main operators, including Orange Madagascar, Airtel and the incumbent telco Telma.

Jordan is host to a growing number of ICT companies and has emerged as a technology start-up hub for the Middle East. This has been made possible due to a focus on ICT education and a regulatory environment supportive of ICT investment.

The only English-speaking nation in South America, Guyana has a small population which traditionally had one of the lowest GDP rates in the region. Although GDP growth had been steady in recent years, the sale of oil from offshore reserves which started in February 2020 promises to completely transform the economy.

Effective regulatory reform has made Botswana’s telecom market one of the most liberalised in the region. There is a service-neutral licensing regime adapted to the convergence of technologies and services, and several operators now compete in all telecom sectors.

During the last few years Libya has struggled to rebuild its economy and infrastructure following disruption caused by the civil war and the subsequent political unrest. Much of the telecom infrastructure was destroyed or stolen following the 2011 disturbances, including about a quarter of the country’s mobile tower sites.

Belarus’s government and telecom regulator are concluding three major programs aimed at developing the telecom sector and digital economy.

Ethiopia was one of the last countries in Africa to allow its national telco a monopoly on all telecom services including fixed, mobile, internet and data communications.

North Korea possesses an underdeveloped yet growing market. The sector has been supported by some foreign investment, including the Egyptian telecoms investment company Orascom Telecom Holdings.

Slow growth in telecom services in Turkmenistan, a predominantly rural country and former Soviet republic, can be attributed to a large extent to the slow development of the private sector and state control over most economic activities.

The anticipated launch of a third mobile network operator in the Sultanate of Oman will increase competition in the mobile sector. The current operators Omantel and Ooredoo have a similar and sizeable market share.

Malawi remains one of the world’s least developed countries, with few resources to build efficient fixed-line telecom infrastructure. As a result, the country’s two mobile networks provide the vast majority of connections for voice and data services.

Romania’s telecoms market continues to evolve under the dynamics of competition and technological change. Alternative operators have launched competing services in the fixed-line voice market, with the provision of bundled services being a key driver.

Eswatini (or eSwatini) was one of the last countries in the world to abolish an almost complete monopoly in all sectors of its telecom market. Until 2011 the state-owned Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications also acted as the industry regulator and had a stake in the country’s sole mobile network, in an uneasy partnership with MTN Eswatini.

Indonesia’s large population and complex geography pose a number of challenges for governments to develop economic growth. These challenges are mirrored in the telecom sector, which is well served by mobile infrastructure, but which has inadequate fixed-line capacity in many areas.

The Dominican Republic’s fixed-line teledensity is well below the Latin American average, a legacy of under-investment in network infrastructure over the years.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The telecommunications sector in Bahrain is robust and progressive and it contributes about 4% a year to the Kingdom’s GDP. Bahrain is striving to drive further growth in the telecoms sector in 2020 by ensuring it is competitive and adaptable to market dynamics. It has the added pressure of coping with the impact from the global Covid-19 outbreak and ensuring provision of adequate Internet services and applications to home-based citizens.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) was under a 30-year dictatorship between 1967 and 1997. Since then the country has continued to suffer from regional wars among rival groups, resulting in considerable social upheaval.

The telecommunications sector remains one of the fastest growing areas of the Georgian economy, accounting for between 5% and 7% of GDP. There is still room for further growth, with penetration rates in the mobile and broadband segments relatively low by the standards of European benchmark countries.

Côte d’Ivoire has two competing fixed network operators though the sector is dominated by Orange Group’s local unit, Orange CI. The company is also the dominant player in the mobile market, followed by MTN and then Moov.