The Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) has announced the award of radio spectrum frequency blocks to operators Viettel and Claro Dominicana after a recent public tender.

Viettel obtained 240MHz in the 700MHz, 2.3GHz and 3.6GHz bands, while Claro Dominicana acquired 20MHz in the 700MHz band.

The decision was declared as taken unanimously after Indotel’s Board of Directors had seen a report of the process presented by an evaluation committee. It also means that Viettel and Claro Dominicana were the only companies that passed the legal, technical and economic qualification stages.

Viettel obtained the right to use 240MHz in a 20-year concession, distributed in 40MHz in the 700MHz band, 100MHz in the 2.3GHz band and 100MHz in the 3.6GHz band. However, as a new arrival, Viettel, part of a Vietnamese group, must establish a company in the Dominican Republic. The new company will hold the license for the use of the 240MHz assigned.

Claro Dominicana meanwhile acquired 20MHz in the 700MHz band, for the remaining period of its current concession, equivalent to 15 years.

Indotel also offered 30MHz in the AWS band (1700/2100MHz), but received no bids, so those blocks were declared unclaimed.

The general tender specifications apparently include a provision that up to 30% of the payments may be made through the execution of Indotel development projects.

The tender, launched in February 2026, seeks to expand spectrum availability, encourage investment and strengthen the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.

At the moment the main mobile network operators in the Dominican Republic are Claro Dominicana, Altice, and Viva, though Claro has not only the largest market share but also the most extensive nationwide coverage.

This Industry Spotlight was authored by Chris Osian, Product Manager at Starline, a brand of Legrand

For decades, data center power planning followed a fairly straightforward rule: be precise. Engineers sized infrastructure around predictable growth models and worked hard to avoid paying for capacity that might never be used. Every dollar mattered, and excess capacity was often viewed as waste. Now, AI has changed that equation completely. … [visit site to read more]

Three from overseas and one from the US: … [visit site to read more]

Research group Omdia says the Africa smartphone market is expected to decline 26% in 2026 following its first contraction in three years, blaming rising device prices for a fall in shipments of about 7%.

The company’s research highlights the sub-US$100 segment, which has long served as the entry point to digital connectivity for Africa’s emerging middle class. Shipments in the segment fell 34% year on year, representing a decline of nearly three million units, as rising memory costs and the AI-driven shifting supply chain placed further pressure on entry-level smartphone availability and pricing. Essentially, it seems vendors can no longer profitably manufacture US$75 smartphones, and consumers must pay more.

Manish Pravinkumar, Principal Analyst at Omdia, puts it starkly, saying: “Average selling prices increased by US$41 year on year to US$202, reversing the aggressive price reduction seen in 2Q25.”

Of the big markets, Nigeria declined 11%, Egypt contracted 26%  and Kenya fell 15%. This isn’t continent-wide however. South Africa grew 17% year on year, supported by stronger consumer purchasing power and the market’s continued transition to 5G devices.

Of the main device-making players, market leader Transsion (whose brands include TECNO, Infinix, and iTel) saw shipments fall 14% proably due to its strong presence in the sub-US$100 segment. Samsung performed strongly amid the  shift towards higher price bands, growing shipments 15%, supported by strategic inventory management that allowed it to maintain multi-month stock buffers for key volume.

Honor continued its growth trajectory for a second consecutive quarter, supported by its focus on the more resilient $300-plus mid-to-high-end segment and a focus on markets such as South Africa, which accounts for roughly 60% of its regional volumes.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi (down 30%) and Oppo (down 25%) recorded shipment declines as both vendors prioritised profitability and took what Omdia describes as a more disciplined approach to the highly price-sensitive entry-level segment amid rising component costs. 

So what happens now?  Pravinkumar says: “Device financing will become an increasingly important part of vendors’ affordability strategies, particularly as higher device prices make upfront costs harder for consumers to absorb. » He adds: « As cost and currency pressures persist, the next phase of competition will depend on how effectively vendors can balance affordability, volume and profitability.”

Africa’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) space has evolved significantly in the nearly two decades since Virgin Mobile was licensed as the continent’s first MVNO in 2006. Since then, two major factors have increasingly started driving this evolution: mobile financial services and service innovation underpinned by technology.

In the last year alone, certain developments in this space have added further variety to the landscape in the form of new types of MVNOs that do not possess the typical attributes usually associated with traditional MVNOS. Depending on the success of these new models, we may begin to see renewed changes to the MVNO ecosystem in Africa.

In the beginning

The concept of MVNOs dates back to the mid-1990s both as a way of addressing spectrum scarcity and as part of the telecommunications liberalisation process. MVNOs were seen as a way to increase competition, disrupt pricing, attract investment, allow for service innovation, address market niches and give consumers more choice.

In light of this, governments began determining the type of regulatory environment  needed for MVNOs to enter the market, including mandatory wholesale access, infrastructure sharing, mobile number portability, and interconnection rules. In addition to an enabling regulatory environment, MVNO licences relied on the presence of at least one operational mobile network operator that had invested adequately in infrastructure and could host an MVNO.  

On the investor side, MVNO licences were mainly positioned to non-telco players who possessed certain attributes such as:

• A considerable customer base on whom these players possessed information and to whom they could position mobile services alongside other offerings. In many cases the existing customers represented a market segment from which a niche could be carved;
• An existing and extensive branch network through which they could sell and support mobile services;
• A strong brand whose equity and trust they could extend to their mobile services to reduce the load of selling to and on boarding new customers.

Naturally, the banking and retail sectors immediately stood out. In the early days, voice and data services were expected to augment existing revenue streams of such players, so price competition for these services was an area of focus. Nowadays, revenue from voice and data is a secondary consideration after mobile financial services.

Market developments and impact

Over the past two decades, numerous MVNOs have been licensed but very few of them have become operational.  As of mid-2026, there are just over 50 operational MVNOs across the continent, with the majority in South Africa. Some MVNOs were licensed and launched but failed to thrive due to issues such as strong competition, weak enforcement of fair wholesale pricing, and infrastructure sharing.

For voice and data services, it is unclear whether MVNOs have met ambitions such as increasing subscriptions, disrupting pricing, fostering competition and allowing for consumer choice. However, for mobile-based financial services (including payments, lending and banking), innovation and addressing niche markets, they continue to make a significant impact.

Emerging Archetypes

In the past year, developments in this space are signalling the addition of a new dimension to the MVNO space in Africa.

Some of the latest MVNOs to be licensed do not meet some of the traditional requirements (i.e. an existing customer base branch network and a strong brand), but instead meet some of the regulatory and market development objectives (e.g. fostering competition, service innovation, increasing penetration). They also require similar market conditions such as an enabling regulatory environment and a host mobile network operator.

Thus, in addition to the originally envisaged banking and retail MVNOs, three new models are emerging from beyond the original mould, although they are unproven.

These include:

1 – Technology focused : Vitel Wireless was among the 46 recently licensed MVNOs in Nigeria. It launched operations in late 2025 and now stands as an outlier across the continent as a new brand in the market without any existing customers or a branch network.

Its ambition is underpinned by its goal of distinguishing itself through collaboration with different ecosystem players as well as diversifying offerings to include areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT),where it can supply its SIM cards to enterprises for tracking goods and products. 

It will be interesting to see how Vitel navigates the stormy quality of service seas, as it will invariably inherit the same electricity supply and power backup issues faced any host networks – an issue singled out by market players as the main cause of poor quality of service.

Depending on how well wholesale access and pricing regulations are enforced in Nigeria, this model may herald a new type of MVNO that is viable in markets that share one of Nigeria’s key characteristics: a high population. 

Countries like Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which have relatively low penetration rates and potential host operators, may be viable for similar MVNO models as long as there is an enabling regulatory environment.

Technology companies across Africa will be watching Vitel closely and may seek to make inroads in other markets with this model.

2 – MVNO extension – Dolphin Telecoms recently launched in South Africa on the back of its existing MVNO operations in Zimbabwe. The operator, which is hosted by Cell C, targets the diaspora, offering a range of mobile-based financial services. It has long-term plans to build a digital payment ecosystem across different countries in the region.

Investors and existing players in countries that host huge diaspora populations or displaced persons, like those around the horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, may be viable markets for this type of model as long as local regulations allow for the entry of MVNOs.

Existing MVNOs like Kenya’s Equitel (owned by Equity Bank) may also want to consider replicating their existing successful model to markets where they already have banking licences such as the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan – again, if local regulations allow for MVNO operations.

3 – “Rescue” Model – Sierra Leone’s highly indebted, state-owned mobile operator, Sierratel, was recently relaunched as an MVNO hosted by the market leader, Africell. Sierratel is expected to regain its footing in the market to compete against its host as well as Orange and QCell.  It plans to target the underserved segments of the market along with government and public sector education institutions.

It should be noted that Sierra Leone does not have any tower leasing companies, though infrastructure sharing already takes places among existing operators. As such, this kind of transition may only be applicable to similar markets.

Beleaguered mobile arms of state-owned operators in countries like Kenya and Uganda, would have been ideal candidates for transitioning into MVNOs using this model to help unburden them of capex.  However, unlike Sierra Leone, both these markets already have established tower leasing companies as a recourse to owning and operating towers.

Furthermore, this model is not yet proven; taking this direction may be putting a struggling entity under palliative care that prolongs its demise rather than preventing it.

Overall, across these emerging models, a strong play in mobile money offerings is among the key differentiators to help new MVNOs carve a niche in existing markets, especially for those with cross-border elements (such as diaspora remittances) or where existing mobile money markets could stand some disruption or innovation (e.g. integration with banks and international payment providers, Islamic banking compliance, new micro lending offerings,  insurance services etc.). 

For both new and existing MVNO models, effective and fair market regulation remains a key enabler that allows a healthy MVNO market to thrive.

Two from the UK and one from Japan: … [visit site to read more]

One bit of M&A news, one edge data center deal, some campus networking, and a little FTTx: … [visit site to read more]

A major deal has been announced that could change the Polish telecom landscape. Deutsche Telekom has agreed to acquire 100% of Fiberhost, a Polish open-access fixed network operator, together with Inea, a retail broadband and TV provider.

Deutsche Telekom will buy the companies  for an enterprise valuation of about EUR1 billion (US$1.16 billion) from current shareholder Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 5, a fund managed by Macquarie Asset Management, and minority shareholders.

DT says the acquisition will accelerate T-Mobile Polska’s growth by adding Inea’s over 300,000 customers and Fiberhost’s fibre network passing over 1.4 million homes.

The transaction is also a new stage in T-Mobile Poland’s transformation from a mobile-only operator into a fully convergent telecommunication provider. Since signing its first wholesale access agreement in 2018, T-Mobile has expanded its fixed coverage through wholesale partners and built a nationwide convergent offer. 

Together, the businesses say they will be better positioned to compete more effectively with operators that already own substantial fixed infrastructure. The acquisition also strengthens T-Mobile Poland’s role as an investor in critical infrastructure supporting Poland’s digitalisation.

T-Mobile Poland CEO Andreas Maierhofer explains: “Our award-winning mobile network, nationwide backbone, data centres and fibre infrastructure will now be complemented by our own fibre-to-the-home network reaching 1.4 million households. Owning an FTTH network will allow us to further develop our already successful portfolio of convergent products.”

Fiberhost will continue to offer transparent and non-discriminatory access to its state-of-the-art fibre infrastructure to all existing and potential internet service providers in Poland.

Closing of the transaction is conditional upon customary Polish competition approvals.

There have been more headlines about the effect of data centres on water worries, this time in Poland, where a data centre announced for a suburb of the capital Warsaw has been met with protests from residents.

Developed by Sien Real, a joint venture of Polish construction firm Budimex and the Spanish infrastructure operator Ferrovial, the facility will house four buildings on a 45,305 square metre plot. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.

As industry website Data Centre Dynamics notes, there is as yet no information about the site’s compute capacity. However, local press has been total that the site’s water usage is expected to be equivalent to that of a housing estate of up to 3,000 people.

Budimex insists it is paying particular attention to minimizing the facility’s impact on local residents by ensuring it uses features that mitigate water consumption, noise, and dust emissions and deploys cooling and emergency power systems that meet the highest standards for modern data centres.

As well as local supplies, a 1,102.33 cubic metre retention reservoir is to be built to store excess rainwater and meltwater. Its contents will be discharged into the local sewer system or used to water the site’s landscaped areas.

Despite these assurances, some residents fear that the project will exacerbate water shortages in the nearby commuter town of Józefosław. Earlier this year the water pressure in the town dropped to low levels every evening. Residents demanded a review of network capacity in light of new housing estates being developed in the area.

Warsaw is Poland’s largest data centre market, with 45 facilities listed in and around the city and more on the way.

Water and power are major concerns for many residents of areas near proposed data centres – and not just in Poland. India, South Africa, Israel and Malaysia are among the many regions where the ongoing rush to plan and construct new facilities is now being examined more closely by both regulators and the public.

Today we sit down with Dan Rice, Accenture’s Communications & Media Industry Lead for the USA, to look at trends in AI and communications infrastructure.  We last spoke with Dan about a year and a half ago, which is about a generation in the AI infrastructure world. Lots has happened since then in this industry, let alone the rest of the world.  How are things shaping up? … [visit site to read more]