Switzerland's Salt is claiming to have the fastest fixed-line Internet connection in the world, at least according to tests carried out by Ookla in the second half of 2020. Salt offers customers a 10Gbit/s FTTH connection – which it says is nearly twice as fast as its nearest domestic rival – for 39.95 Swiss francs (US$45) per month.

T-Systems, the IT services arm of Deutsche Telekom, has launched its Cloud Migration Framework, a three-step program that seeks to ease the pain of enterprises attempting to migrate systems to the cloud. T-Systems works with major cloud platform providers such as Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud.

MTN has teamed up with Mastercard to launch a smartphone-based payments offering that will allow MTN customers to make secure online payments to global e-commerce sites regardless of whether they have a bank account. The offering, an extension of MTN's existing mobile-money platform, will be available to customers across 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Greece's Intracom Telecom has appointed Kartlos Edilashvili as its new CEO, replacing Mohamed Ahmed, who has stepped down for personal reasons. Edilashvili has been at Intracom since 2013, and before that served in various diplomatic positions for the Republic of Georgia.

1&1 Drillisch and Telefónica Deutschland are extending their existing roaming arrangement, converting their current MVNO contract in a National Roaming Agreement for an initial period of five years.

BT has fibered up more than 100 of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination centers, and aims to connect up hundreds more over the coming weeks. Reliable, speedy connections allow clinicians to easily access and update patients' vaccination and medical records via secure mobile devices. The UK's COVID-19 vaccination program has already jabbed 15 million arms.

Lycamobile, the UK-based MVNO specializing in cut-price international calling, has appointed four new country managers, namely Brendan Feeney (for Australia), Mikis de Bonneval (France), Mikhail Alilekov (Russia) and Mihai Nica (Romania).

Telenor may be based in Norway, but its commercial tentacles stretch into Myanmar, the country currently going through ructions brought on by a recent military coup, and the operator isn't happy about the country's proposed Cyber Security Bill. In a statement, Telenor bravely sets forth its objections, noting that the proposed bill falls short on human rights by failing to put in place a proper Lawful Intercept framework.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading