Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM) says it will be the first Swiss provider to set up a dedicated network for the Internet of Things, and that the initial phase will be ready by the end of 2016. Its low-power network will be based on the open LoRaWAN industry standard. Swisscom claims that more than 100 companies, public authorities and universities have shown an interest in the pilot project, which was launched in spring 2015.

Sweden's Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) is claiming a first with the launch of a multivendor NFV offering on NTT DoCoMo Inc. (NYSE: DCM)'s commercial network based on the vendor's own NFV platform. Running on an open architecture, the platform is made up of the OpenStack-based Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment as the virtualization platform and the NFV orchestrator, Ericsson Cloud Manager.

Drones, which some tip to play a key role in the future of connectivity, among other things (such as spying on your neighbors), are taking off in Finland. And landing again. As YLE reports, commercial drones and their applications are set to become the next big export for many Finnish companies, with firms such as the Pohjonen Group and Arbonaut offering systems for everything from monitoring car parks to forest management. Helpfully, considering we're talking about Finland, some of the drones can operate in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit). (See DroneComm 2015: Pics Above the Clouds and Drones a Growing Threat to Network Security.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading