Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Etisalat appoints new group CEO; Orange puts Brahmaputra to the test; OTT trends in France and the UK.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

March 29, 2016

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Etisalat Tests Microwave Backhaul in Egypt

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Etisalat appoints new group CEO; Orange puts Brahmaputra to the test; OTT trends in France and the UK.

  • Etisalat Misr and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. are claiming a microwave backhaul breakthrough with the deployment of the vendor's Super Dual Band take on the technology in the Alexandria region of Egypt. In what the pair say is the world's "first live traffic application" of the technology, throughput of 6.19 Gbit/s was achieved over a 3.37km link.

    • Separately, Gulf News reports that Etisalat has a new group CEO in the shape of Saleh Adbullah Al Abdouli. He replaces acting CEO Hatem Dowidar, who took the helm after Ahmad Julfar resigned from the post earlier this month for personal reasons. (See Etisalat CEO Quits.)

    • Orange (NYSE: FTE) is using its two Open Platform for NFV Project Inc. (OPNFV) testing platforms in France to put the latest OPNFV release, Brahmaputra, through its paces. Brahmaputra is the OPNFV's second software release and offers, among other features, the ability to configure Layer 3 virtual private networks, support for IPv6 and initial service function chaining using OpenDaylight's Beryllium SDN controller. (See OPNFV Promises More Powerful Platform.)

    • Telecom Italia (TIM) has turned to carrier aggregation to offer enhanced 4G service in Verona. The operator's 4G Plus service combines the 800, 1800 and 2600MHz bands to enable maximum downlink speeds of 300 Mbit/s, using Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) network software and kit. The service is currently only available with the Samsung S6 Edge+ smartphone.

    • New research from Parks Associates has found that 55% of UK broadband households and 51% of their French equivalents watch TV and movies via an over-the-top (OTT) connection. However, the number of paid OTT subscriptions in the UK and France still lags behind the US figure, with 30% of broadband households in the UK and 17% in France subscribing to OTT video, compared with 64% in the US.

      — 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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