Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK explores satellite/5G combo; Apple fined by Italian regulator over iPhone claims; Saudi Telecom's CEO to step down.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

November 30, 2020

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Nokia doubles down in Africa

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK explores satellite/5G combo; Apple fined by Italian regulator over iPhone claims; Saudi Telecom's CEO to step down.

  • Nokia has landed a couple of three-year network upgrade deals in Africa, one for Togocom in Togo, West Africa, and one for Airtel Kenya, in Nairobi, on the other side of the continent. Both contracts will see Nokia wheel out gear from its AirScale range to enhance existing 2G, 3G and 4G networks, and prepare the ground for 5G. In the Togocom deal, a 5G network has already been launched, in the capital, Lomé. Both projects will see the deployment of Nokia's NetAct network management system as part of the package.

    • The UK government is pumping more than £3 million (US$4 million) into a new testing facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire that will explore the potential of 5G and satellite technology working in tandem on a range of applications, many of them relating to the Internet of Things. The facility will be built by IT consultancy CGI and in backed by a European Space Agency contract that involves BT, Avanti Communications and the University of Surrey.

    • Italy's antitrust authority, AGCM, has fined Apple €10 million ($11.9 million) for what it called "aggressive and misleading" commercial practices in relation to its iPhones. As Reuters reports, the regulator said that Apple advertised several of its iPhones as being water-resistant, without bothering to mention that this was the case only under certain circumstances.

    • The CEO of Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has resigned after two years in the role, for personal reasons. As Arabian Business reports, Nasser Al Nasser will stay with the company until March 28 while STC begins a search for his successor. STC shares have risen almost 20% during his tenure.

    • Deutsche Telekom's Data Intelligence Hub analytics offering has been chosen to play a key role in a new common data platform for logistics being developed by the European Union (EU). The platform, part of the EU's FENIX project, is intended to link logistics partners within the EU, connecting supply chains and minimizing bottlenecks.

    • A source in the French finance ministry says the EU is banking on incoming US President Joe Biden clarifying America's position on the taxation of digital services within two months. As Reuters reports, the world was waiting on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to update e-commerce rules globally but, thanks largely to the unwillingness of Donald Trump to sign up to any sort of digital taxation deal, those talks floundered.

    • Proximity, a UK data center provider, has expanded its empire with three new edge colocation facilities in, respectively, Liverpool, Chester and Coventry. The new additions bring a further 8 megawatts of load capacity.

      — 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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