Technology News 29 May 2025 - 2 June 2025

Iridium, a LEO network, started service in 1998 and operates 66 active cross-linked satellites, delivering near-global coverage, with the Iridium NEXT second-generation network launched in 2019. Globalstar uses 48 satellites (24 second-generation as of 2013), has no inter-satellite links and relies on ground gateways, and Apple’s Emergency SOS on iPhone 14 uses about 85% of Globalstar’s capacity for emergency texts. Inmarsat operates a GEO fleet of about 11 satellites, offers IsatPhone handheld services, the IsatPhone 2 provides ~8 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby, and Inmarsat expanded with I-4/I-6 series after its 2023 acquisition by Viasat. Thuraya

As of December 2023, Bangladesh had about 131 million internet subscriptions: 118.5 million mobile and 12.9 million fixed broadband. By early 2025, an estimated 77–78 million people were online, roughly 44–45% of the population. End of 2023, Grameenphone (GP) had 82.20 million, Robi Axiata 58.67 million, Banglalink 43.48 million, and Teletalk 6.46 million mobile subscriptions, totaling about 190 million. Mid-2023 Bangladesh had about 153,400 km of fiber optic cable (≈80,600 km overhead and 72,800 km underground), with a 2022 plan to add 3,144 km of underground fiber and reach 100 Gbps per upazila by 2024. The SEA-ME-WE submarine cables connect

By mid-2024, about 60% of Bahraini households had fiber-optic internet via the wholesale operator BNET, with roughly 171,000 fiber subscriptions in Q2 2024 and top plans up to 2 Gbps. Batelco, STC Bahrain, and Zain have launched 5G with over 98% population coverage, and the median mobile download speed was about 119 Mbps in early 2024. Fixed-line penetration was around 13–14% in 2023, with about 261,000 fixed phone lines in operation, and the median fixed broadband speed was about 80.8 Mbps in early 2024. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) regulates the market, promotes competition, and oversees the separation of Batelco’s

As of January 2024, 390,800 Bahamians were internet users, representing about 94.4% of the population. Fixed broadband adoption is only about 24% nationwide, with many Bahamians relying on mobile data for online access. The Bahamas spans roughly 700 islands with about 30 inhabited, creating significant challenges for universal fixed-network coverage. Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) offers fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) with speeds up to 1 Gbps, including mid-tier plans around 150–350 Mbps priced from roughly $70–$85 per month. Cable Bahamas (REV) provides fiber/broadband via a hybrid network, with ALIV Fibr delivering fiber speeds up to 1 Gbps in select areas and standalone 100

As of January 2025, Angola has about 17.2 million internet users (44.8% penetration) with roughly 60% of the population still offline. There are three mobile operators—Unitel (launched 2001), Movicel, and Africell (entered in 2022)—with Unitel and Africell accounting for about 65.7% and 27.8% of mobile broadband subscriptions in 2023, and Movicel the remaining ~6–7%. 3G coverage reaches about 90–92% of the population; 4G coverage was around 34% in 2023 with targets of 48% by end-2023 and 85% by 2027, while 5G launched commercially in December 2022 in central Luanda and had ~2% of the population covered by late 2024. The

As of early 2024, Algeria had about 33.5 million internet users, roughly 72.9% of the population. By January 2025, internet penetration rose to about 76.9% of the population. There were over 50 million mobile subscriptions in 2024, often exceeding the population due to multiple SIMs per user. By early 2023 Algeria had 5.12 million fixed internet subscribers, up from 3.5 million in 2020, a 45% increase and making it the second-highest in Africa and third in the Arab world. In 2023 fixed broadband penetration was about 12 subscriptions per 100 people. By April 2025 Algérie Télécom reported over 2 million

83% of the population aged 16–74 uses the internet regularly, and about 96.7% of households have some form of internet access. As of 2023, about 90.4% of Albanian households have fixed broadband access, up from 58% in 2019. In the late 2010s, DSL accounted for around 39% of connections while FTTH/B totaled about 31%, and today fiber is expanding with gigabit plans up to 1 Gbps in urban areas such as those marketed by Vodafone Albania after acquiring Abcom. About 90% of fixed-line subscriptions are in urban zones, with rural share around 10%, and urban fixed broadband penetration was roughly

As of early 2024, Mexico had over 107 million internet users, about 83% of the population. Fixed broadband is increasingly fiber-based, with around 70% of fixed connections using fiber (FTTH) and Telmex migrating about 85% of its broadband customers from DSL to fiber. Red Compartida, launched in 2018 by Altán Redes, reached 95.3% of the population by June 2024, exceeding its 92.2% target. CFE TEIT started in 2022 and had installed 91,000 free Wi‑Fi access points nationwide by early 2024. Mexico’s mobile market reached 125.4 million active mobile lines by early 2024, about 97% of the population. 5G rollout progressed

Fixed fiber dominates Iceland’s broadband, with FTTH at 88.7% of fixed lines and over 93% of homes having gigabit-capable fiber, including at least 1 Gbps nationwide and 10 Gbps in most areas. Iceland is linked internationally by four submarine cables—FARICE-1, DANICE, Greenland Connect, and IRIS (launched in 2023 to Ireland)—totaling 208.8 Tbit/s of capacity, of which about 3 Tbit/s is currently used. Three mobile operators—Síminn, Vodafone Iceland (Sýn), and Nova—provide nationwide 4G/5G, with Nova launching 5G in 2020 and Síminn and Vodafone in 2021. By 2023, 5G signals blanket most towns and transit routes across Iceland, with widespread 4G/5G coverage

As of early 2024, 96.5% of Chilean households have internet access, up from about 70.2% in 2015. Fixed broadband subscriptions reached 4.52 million in 2023, or 22.6 per 100 inhabitants. As of late 2023, nearly 70% of fixed connections are fiber-optic (FTTH/B), with copper DSL largely replaced. 96.8% of urban households and 94.5% of rural households have internet access, narrowing the urban–rural gap to about 2 percentage points. Chile launched 5G in December 2021, and by late 2024 there were over 5.3 million 5G users, with roughly 40% of mobile subscriptions 5G-capable. Starlink commands about 58% of Chile’s satellite internet