Telia Company has completed its divestment in Kaztranscom, the Kazakh fiber network operator, as part of its plan to reverse out of central Asia and focus instead on its operations in the Nordics and the Baltics. Telia has held a minority stake in Kaztranscom through the holding company Rodnik since 2012. (See TeliaSonera to Quit Eurasia, Focus on Europe.)

Eurofiber , which provides Carrier Ethernet connectivity in the Netherlands and Belgium, is to deploy ADVA Optical Networking 's FSP 150 router for its new business services offering. Deployed at the customer premises, the ADVA FSP 150 provides a single platform for MEF-certified Layer 2 and 3 services.

Nottingham and Belfast have been named as the latest UK cities to get the full-fiber treatment from Openreach , the quasi-autonomous network access arm of BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA). Other cities in the UK that have already been reached by Openreach's Fibre First program -- which is scheduled to reach 3 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020 -- include Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. (See Eurobites: Openreach Finally Puts 'Fibre First' and Eurobites: UK Fine-Tunes Its Full-Fiber Future.)

European Union member states are divided over whether the application of a 3% digital tax on the turnover of online giants such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Facebook is a good idea. According to a Reuters report, a "large number" of the 28 EU states oppose the plan, fearing it would attract retaliation from the US, where most of the online heavyweights are based. Members of the US government have already attacked the UK government's Budget proposal to introduce a new 2% digital services tax on the FAANG crowd, with one Republican Representative, Kevin Brady, calling it "troubling."

T-Systems International GmbH , the enterprise arm of Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT), has expanded its public cloud offering with Amazon Web Services Inc. , adding consulting, migration and managed services to the mix.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading