The French government is hoping to help get the country's economy back on track by pledging nearly €20 billion (US$27 billion) in public and private funding for the rollout of fiber-based "super-fast" broadband over the next ten years, reports Reuters. The plan is to get half of the country -- including many rural regions -- covered by the rollout by 2017.
Telefónica and NEC are to collaborate on software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) developments, with an initial focus on how to virtualize IP edge network elements. The two companies have already examined the potential for a virtual mobile network Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and will about that next-generation network development at Mobile World Congress. Telefónica is one of the group of Tier 1 operator members making up the NFV Industry Specifications Group that recently held its first meeting. (See Carriers Peer Into Virtual World and
NEC, Telefónica Team on SDN.)
Vodafone is one of a number of operators trialing Siklu Communications Ltd.'s Etherhaul-600T small-cell backhaul offering in an unnamed U.K. city. The units are installed on lampposts and it is reported that they are "performing reliably even as the streetlight poles twist and sway in the wind." Yikes -- just how windy has it been in this unnamed city? (See
Vodafone Tests Siklu Small-Cell Backhaul and Qualcomm Invests in Small-Cell Backhaul Startup.)
In what sounds like a possible let-off for the likes of Google, European lawmakers have voted against the introduction of mandatory fines of as much as 2 percent of global turnover for breaches of consumer data privacy regulations, reports Reuters. It will now be left to member states to set their own level of fines.
German mobile challenger E-Plus Service GmbH & Co. KG is to source network gear from ZTE Corp. for the initial phase of it commercial deployment of LTE, a not wholly unexpected development considering the Chinese vendor was helping E-Plus conduct LTE field trials. (See E-Plus to Deploy LTE With ZTE.)
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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