BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) also said it would spend £17.6 million ($22.5 million) on the rollout of superfast broadband networks in remote communities in the UK county of Cornwall. Under a controversial government-backed program, the operator plans to extend fiber-to-the-premises networks to about 7,000 premises by the end of 2019. The European Regional Development Fund is to cough up £8.5 million ($10.9 million) of the proposed funding, with the UK government contributing £3 million ($3.8 million) and local authorities providing £1 million ($1.3 million). BT will stump up the remaining £5.1 million ($6.5 million). Critics have complained that BT is receiving public-sector funds to grow its network footprint and become even more powerful. This latest project represents a "third phase" of the so-called Superfast Cornwall initiative, which has already seen £136.9 million ($175.3 million) spent on extending broadband networks to more than 240,000 premises. BT claims Superfast Cornwall has given a £275 million ($352 million) boost to the Cornish economy, creating 3,120 jobs and "safeguarding" another 3,430.

Finland's Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is coordinating a new 5G research project, dubbed 5G MoNArch (5G Mobile Network Architecture), that will look at the use of "network slicing" to support services in vertical markets including the automotive, healthcare and media sectors. With network slicing, operators could take advantage of virtualization technologies to provide very different types of 5G network service over the same physical infrastructure. The project, set to run for two years with a budget of €7.7 million ($9.1 million), will form a part of the bigger 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership, which itself belongs to the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Program.

Swedish cable company com hem AB is to start offering smart home services to its customers through a tie-up with local software player TMPL. Com Hem says it will use TMPL's platform to provide a range of digital services, such as energy monitoring, to residential properties. A service launch has been scheduled for autumn this year and will build on trials that were carried out in 2016.

— Iain Morris, , News Editor, Light Reading