Slovenia's Iskratel is pitching a new web tool which it says allows operators to customize customer premises equipment (CPE) more easily. Innbox Constructor, the tool in question, provides operators with the ability to "create their own distribution and specific configuration autonomously," says the vendor, allowing them to see the results of the modifications and quickly clone the custom configuration to thousands of CPE devices a day.

Work has begun on the £3 million (US$3.7 million) network upgrade at Sure, a telecom services provider in the Channel Islands, which lie between France and the UK. Existing fiber connectivity between the islands and the rest of the world is being replaced and upgraded, and engineers will commission new networking equipment in London and Paris. Systems integration company Telent and network equipment manufacturer Juniper Networks are Sure's partners in the project, which is expected to be completed in early 2021.

Spain's Telefónica is making the processing power of 107 of its servers across Europe and Latin America available to scientists at the St. Louis School of Medicine of the University of Washington to help in their investigation of various diseases, COVID-19 among them. The "Folding@Home" project brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to perform simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers for research purposes.

Entrepreneurs in Africa and the Middle East may be able to get their hands on "seed funding" to develop their businesses, thanks to a new initiative, the Orange Ventures MEA Seed Challenge. Orange Ventures, the technology investment fund owned by the French telecom giant, plans to invest a total of €500,000 ($560,000) in the MEA startup ecosystem, with up to seven seed-stage startups able to benefit from an investment of between €50,000 ($56,000) and €150,000 ($168,000). Those who think they might be eligible should click here.

Nokia and Vodafone Idea say they have successfully completed the first phase of the world's largest deployment of dynamic spectrum refarming (DSR) in India. According to the Finnish vendor, its DSR technology will enable Vodafone Idea to improve the user experience by making better use of its spectrum assets.

Spain has been defending its plans to introduce a new tax on the revenues generated within the country by tech titans such as Google and Amazon in the face of an investigation by the US into the proposals. As Reuters reports, Spain maintains that its plans do not discriminate against any one particular country, and would be based on objective criteria.

Truespeed, a full fiber infrastructure provider and ISP based in the south-west of England, has appointed Paul Burridge as chief financial officer. Burridge, a chartered accountant, was most recently CFO at MyLife Digital.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading