Dutch cable mouthful VodafoneZiggo has chosen Amdocs' NFV offering to help it design and deploy virtual cloud networks for enterprises. Amdocs will introduce a new network and service orchestration and automation layer by delivering its NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) and Generic Virtual Network Function Manager (G-VNFM), which will handle the automation of VodafoneZiggo's service management.

Batelco Bahrain has opted for Ericsson's Expert Analytics software to help it solve customer care issues more efficiently.

Liberty Global is hoping to speed the sale of its UPC Switzerland business to Sunrise by offering to buy up to 500 million Swiss francs ($502.11 million) of newly created Sunrise Communications shares, Reuters reports. Sunrise has faced a number of obstacles to the proposed deal, not least opposition from both activist investor AOC and Sunrise's biggest backer, Freenet. (See Eurobites: Sunrise/Liberty Deal Catches More Flak.)

Norway's Nevion wants the world to know that Virtuoso, its software-defined media node, was used to help with video processing during live coverage of the "my-tank's-bigger-than-yours" celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of creation of the People's Republic of China. Virtuoso's TICO media function enables encoding and decoding of UHD/4K video for transport over 10GE/IP or 3G-SDI links.

In what might be perceived as a grand exercise in wishful thinking as the UK government apparently hurtles towards a messy, un-negotiated exit from European Union at the end of this month, today's Queen's Speech -- in which the monarch outlines the legislative priorities of "her" government over the next session of parliament -- promised that "new legislation will accelerate the delivery of fast, reliable broadband to millions of homes." So that's alright then.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading