Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: using church spires for mobile antennas in the UK; how du will book your vacation for you; Belgian watchdog bites back at Facebook; for DT, the only way is ethics.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

February 19, 2018

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Nokia & Tele2 Combine for IoT

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: using church spires for mobile antennas in the UK; how du will book your vacation for you; Belgian watchdog bites back at Facebook; for DT, the only way is ethics.

  • Tele2 AB (Nasdaq: TLTO) has signed a five-year agreement with Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) that will allow the Nordic operator to use Nokia's global IoT network, called WING, to provide IoT services to its enterprise customers. Nokia describes WING, which it introduced in October, as a "one-stop-shop" IoT managed service, which provides connectivity management and analytics among other elements. (See Nokia WINGs It With Global IoT Move.)

    • The Lord will provide… mobile coverage? That's the hope of the UK government, which has struck a deal with the Church of England with a view to making more use of church towers and spires for antenna placement to achieve better rural mobile and broadband coverage in rural areas not blessed with decent connectivity, the BBC reports. But as Commscope SVP Phil Sorsky comments, this is not a wholly (or indeed holy) new idea, as there are already antennas installed both inside and outside church buildings. He states: "If we are to provide appropriate 5G coverage in the future, it is imperative that we leverage high points such as church spires, since the network densification required for 5G can only be achieved if we ensure agreement with those parties that already have such fixtures in situ, by virtue of their history." Amen to that, say UK operators, no doubt. Figure 1: The famous crooked spire of Chesterfield Parish Church: ripe for an antenna? The famous crooked spire of Chesterfield Parish Church: ripe for an antenna?

    • Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. (du) has launched what it calls a "concierge" service for its high-spending postpaid customers, which offers those customers help with onerous tasks such as booking airline tickets and vacation planning. Access to the various services will be provided through a phone call or via WhatsApp.

    • Belgium's privacy watchdog has struck back at Facebook , overturning an earlier ruling in the country's courts and ordering the social network giant to stop tracking people who do not actually use Facebook. As the BBC reports, the watchdog said that Facebook had broken the country's privacy laws by placing its "cookies" on third-party websites, and that the company must destroy all data obtained via these cookies. Facebook is to appeal against the ruling.

    • Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is one of the most ethical companies in the world -- according to the Ethisphere Institute, that is. The Institute, based in Arizona, describes itself as the "global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success." According to Manuela Macket, Deutsche Telekom's chief compliance officer, the operator has "intensively dealt with value-based behavior" over the past few years. No, we're not sure what that means either, but hey, a gong is a gong.

    • There are, of course, other accolades. Orange (NYSE: FTE) is boasting that it has been awarded a certificate for being a "Top Employer Global 2018" and that it is the "only telecoms operator among the 13 top global employers." This 'prize' apparently "confirms the employees' high level of commitment to the company, which is expressed through the employee barometer: 89% of employees say they are proud to work at Orange and 83% recommend Orange as a good place to work." If that is the case then the company can commend itself on something of a turnaround, as employee satisfaction was not always something associated with the French operator.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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