UK companies could face £1.6 billion (US$2.1 billion) in new legal fees if Brexit negotiators fail to agree to a deal on data-sharing standards, according to a report from the New Economics Foundation and UCL European Institute. As the Telegraph reports, the study's authors say that the UK's exit from the existing EU data protection regime means that it needs to nail down a "data adequacy agreement," which would allow data to continue to pass between the UK and the 27 remaining countries of the EU. The two sides of the negotiations were hoping to reach a deal this week, but the already tight timeline is looking even tighter as the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, was forced to self-isolate following a member of his team being struck down by the coronavirus.

Nokia has landed a juicy IoT deal with China Mobile, under the terms of which the operator's subsidiary, CMIoT, will be underpinned by Nokia's Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) managed service. WING's network nodes, deployed around the world, will be integrated with CMIoT's OneLink IoT SIM Card Connection and Management Platform to provide connectivity management for CMIoT's international business customers.

Vodafone has committed to reducing its total global carbon emissions to net zero by 2040, shaving 10 years off its original deadline. It has also confirmed that its 2030 carbon reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which knows about these things.

Not that it will keep Sundar Pichai awake at night, but Reuters reports that the UK's Competition & Markets Authority has threatened to launch a "formal investigation" into Google after receiving a complaint about the search giant in relation to digital advertising.

As its 2025 switch-off of PSTN services draws ever closer, BT has signed a five-year all-IP migration deal with IDNet, a UK-based provider of leased lines and more. IDNet will transfer 4,000 lines to to BT Wholesale's Hosted Communications service.

Zen, one of the UK's most successful independent ISPs, is to run its consumer broadband services over CityFibre's fiber networks, initially in Newcastle upon Tyne and Worthing, with more locations to follow in 2021.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading