This year, the technology war intensified, the industry was immersed in the love of tower sales, and 5G continued to wait.

In 2022 , the growing U.S. blockade of Chinese high-tech and military technology dominates the Asian telecommunications and technology industries.

The United States has expanded export controls, denying the sale of nearly all advanced semiconductor technology to China. It is reportedly working with Japan and the Netherlands on a global ban.

The Biden administration has also effectively banned the sale of Huawei products of any kind in the United States.

The new rules will have little impact on Huawei’s business. The vendor showed signs of halting revenue declines and reported higher third-quarter margins, largely due to growth in the cloud and its core carrier equipment business.

Asian operators continue to sell their tower assets. The two major operators in the Philippines, New Zealand’s three telcos and Telkomsel have all sold assets to towercos this year , following the big deal in Australia in 2021 .

Carriers showcased massive 5G subscriber numbers, but little impact on profits.

Most operators reported flat or limited 5G gains, with South Korean operators seeing a decline in ARPU. South Korean regulators have directed two operators to return 5G mmWave spectrum after failing to meet rollout promises.

5G will be especially tough for newcomers. Rakuten Mobile posted a loss of $864 million on sales of $639 million in the third quarter as the company engages in a bitter price war with incumbents. But the company said it had staunched the bleeding and forecast profitability in 2026.

New Philippine entrant Dito Telecom is also struggling to gain traction. The company reportedly has 14 million users but is still deep in the red due to foreign exchange losses.

China’s newest operator, China Broadnet , made its official debut in June. The small telco, which is backed by cable operators and counts Alibaba and State Grid as minority shareholders, is having little impact as it gradually rolls out across the country.

China’s three major telecom operators have turned their attention to supporting national digital projects, such as an east-west plan to build data centers in low-cost regions in western China. They also reaped the rewards of digital transformation and the cloud boom , with all three companies reporting 100% growth in cloud revenue .

PLDT is one of the telecommunications companies in the Philippines embroiled in a scandal involving illegal capital spending of more than $866 million. The company said it found no signs of fraud, but has fired some senior executives and hired someone with experience to oversee its finances.

Tonga was offline for a month after an underwater volcano erupted, displacing nearly 10 cubic kilometers of material and cutting the Pacific island nation’s only international cable.

KDDI suffered a massive network outage that disrupted 31 million services for three days and cost the company $40 million. It announced plans to bring forward $339 million in network spending. The failure hit banks and connected car services, and the industry then moved to introduce inter-carrier roaming.

Optus parent Singtel has set aside $101 million to fund possible lawsuits or damages over the theft of customer data that exposed the personal information of nearly 10 million customers.

sells Bharti The 3.3 percent stake in Airtel raised $1.6 billion, saying the funds would be used for 5G and new investments. Its Indonesian subsidiary Telkomsel combined its fixed and mobile businesses.

Telstra has said it will appeal the regulator’s decision to block its rural network sharing partnership with TPG Telecom. The ACC said the deal would reduce competition and raise prices.

Australia’s new government has sent NBN Co back to the drawing board for a new long-term framework for wholesale access.

Malaysia’s long-running 5G network saga has been further delayed. Just as the project appeared to be moving forward with the support of the majority of operators, new prime minister Anwar Ibrahim called for a review of the licensing and tendering process for the network.

SK Telecom is turning to artificial intelligence, announcing that revenue from AI-based services will drive a three-fold increase in market capitalization over the next four years. SKT’s metaverse platform ifland is live in 49 countries, with e&, NTT DoCoMo and Singtel as its initial telecom partners.

NTT Docomo is betting big on emerging technologies. It launched a new $400 million company, Qonoq , to lead its metaverse and XR businesses, and expects to invest around $4 billion in a new Web 3 partnership with Accenture over the next few years.

New Zealand aims to achieve 100 per cent fiber usage by 2032, up from 87 per cent currently.

ITU has chosen insider Doreen Bogdan -Martin as secretary-general, the first female leader in the organization’s 157-year history. Telstra has chosen chief financial officer Vicki Brady to replace Andy Penn as chief executive.