Eurobites: Orange and Huawei reach 157 Tbit/s in France

Back at HQ, Orange is losing its deputy chief executive and head of finance, Ramon Fernandez. As Reuters reports, he's off to join container-ships company CMA CGM as finance director. A successor will be named soon, says the operator.

The Ukrainian government is to receive more than 10,000 more Starlink satellite-broadband antennas after reaching a deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Bloomberg reports (paywall applies). The devices have been used extensively by the Ukrainian military but are also sought after by civilians in areas that have little mobile coverage or terrestrial broadband access. (See Eurobites: Cost of Starlink devices rockets in Ukraine and Starlink a mixed blessing for Ukraine.)

Telecom Italia (TIM) has hitched its wagon to Google's distributed cloud virtual software to test new edge-oriented "smart mobility" (self-driving cars and so on) applications over 5G in the Bologna and Modena region of Italy. It's part of a wider smart city program that the operator is creating with a unit called TIM Urban Genius, described as a virtual "control room."

UK mobile operators EE, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone have signed up to a 5G small cells pilot in London's financial district being led by Freshwave. EE's service is already live on Freshwave's neutral host network (a network-sharing infrastructure arrangement facilitated by a third party). According to Freshwave, it's the first outdoor 4G and 5G small cell network in the UK capable of hosting all four UK mobile network operators from day one.

Picocom, based in Bristol, UK, has teamed up with Taiwan's Accton Technology to develop small cell products targeting the 5G open RAN market. Picocom is providing the silicon and associated software; Accton is building the radio units.

Arcep, the French communications regulator, is extending the window for trials of new 5G applications in the 3.8-4GHz band until December 31, 2023. The regulator has already awarded 25 trial licenses since the trial platform was first made available in March 2022.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading