Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 toots 5G trumpet; BNP Paribas goes with Orange for SD-WAN; small cells help big ships.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

January 14, 2021

3 Min Read
Eurobites: EE spreads the 5G love, wins at gaming

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 toots 5G trumpet; BNP Paribas goes with Orange for SD-WAN; small cells help big ships.

  • EE, the UK mobile operator owned by BT, is today switching on 5G in another 13 towns across the country. In a two-pronged announcement, EE is at the same time trumpeting the fact that it has been named as the UK's best network for gaming by RootMetrics, thanks to its fastest aggregate median download speed, lowest packet loss and barely-there "jitter." As luck would have it, one of EE's new 5G towns is Leamington Spa, home, apparently, to the Silicon Spa "gaming cluster."

    • Meanwhile, EE rival O2 is letting it be known that its 5G network now reaches more than 150 towns and cities, with Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Doncaster and Southampton among the recently added locations. The focus now, says the operator, is on "densification," claiming that it plans to invest "more than ever before" on its network.

    • BNP Paribas has chosen Orange Business Services to set up an SD-WAN for its more than 1,800 bank branches across France. The deployment, says Orange, will allow BNP Paribas to take advantage of a secure, hybrid multicloud network. For example, network administrators will be able to monitor infrastructure performance and address network congestion issues through software tweaks.

    • For what it boldly claims is "the world's fastest and biggest 5G FWA [fixed wireless access]," Telenor Norway has turned to Zyxel Communications' NR 7101 outdoor router. Telenor plans to make 5G available nationwide in Norway by 2024.

    • The Small Cell Forum has released the first in a series of reports that will it hopes will accelerate the delivery of robust cellular connectivity for seaports, with the focus on 5G private networks. The document sets out a framework of connectivity requirements from 12 European ports, including the potential challenges to digital transformation.

    • The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) has filed a legal complaint to the country's consumer protection authority over what it claims is Amazon's deliberate unhelpfulness when it comes to cancelling the Amazon Prime service. As the BBC reports, the NCC found that the subscription cancellation process involved plowing their way through six web pages, all of which attempted to dissuade the user from cutting the cord.

    • Those who stick with Amazon Prime could enjoy top-flight soccer from Italy's Serie A league in the near future, according to a Bloomberg report (paywall applies). The league is looking for $4.2 billion for the TV rights to the next three seasons and, if it does enter the bidding fray, Amazon will be up against Sky, according to Bloomberg's sources. Amazon has been steadily expanding its European soccer coverage, enjoying the exclusive rights to a number of games in England's Premier League this season.

    • London still rules the roost when it comes to European tech investment, says new research from Dealroom.co and London & Partners. As Reuters reports, startups based in the city attracted $10.5 billion worth of funding in 2020, which equates to more than a quarter of all such investment in Europe.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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