Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: GDPR fines ahoy; Dasan Zhone acquires Germany's Keymile; Orange Bank gets new CEO; Vodafone ad banned.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

October 10, 2018

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Nokia Goes Network Slicing

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: GDPR fines ahoy; Dasan Zhone acquires Germany's Keymile; Orange Bank gets new CEO; Vodafone ad banned.

  • Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has taken the wraps off what it claims is the "industry's only open and programmable access network slicing solution." Nokia Fixed Access Network Slicing, says the vendor, partitions the fixed access network into autonomous slices, using virtualization to allow operators to create a "virtually unlimited" number of network slices. The new offering is based on Nokia's cloud-native software platform, Altiplano, in combination with open standards.

    • Separately, Nokia has launched Multivendor ONU Connect, a virtualized offering that enables operators to connect any optical network unit (ONU) to a Nokia optical line terminal (OLT).

    • The first batch of fines issued to companies for what regulators judge are contraventions of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could be seen before the end of the year, Reuters reports. European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli said that regulators in EU member states have been "deluged" with complaints about perceived violations of the GDPR, which is intended to give EU citizens more control over their personal data. (See Top 4 GDPR Misconceptions, Where Is My Data & Why Should I Care? and Eurobites: EU Approves Rejigged Data Rules.)

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    • Network infrastructure vendor DASAN Zhone Solutions Inc. is to acquire Germany's Keymile AG for an undisclosed sum from private equity owners Riverside and Halder. The deal brings Dasan Zhone around 180 extra staff , R&D facilities and a customer base in Europe. For more details, see this story on our sister site, Broadband World News.

    • Orange Bank is changing its CEO, appointing Paul de Leusse to succeed André Coisne, who will continue to work with Orange Bank as an adviser on special projects. The bank service opened for business in November 2017, after a four-month delay caused by disappointing initial trial results. (See Hold-Up at Orange Bank: Launch Hits Buffers and Orange Claims Customer Interest in Bank Move.)

    • Google has, as expected, decided to challenge the €4.34 billion (US$5 billion) fine it suffered at the hands of the EU antitrust regulators earlier this year for allegedly using its Android operating system to unfairly freeze out its rivals. As Reuters reports, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has filed its appeal at the General Court of the EU. (See Eurobites: EU Socks Google With $5B Monster-Fine for Android Control-Freakery, Google Q2 Booms as EU Fine Worries Loom and Trump Trashes EU's $5B Google Fine.)

    • Vodafone UK has been ordered to pull one of its TV ads after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled it was misleading. The ad, featuring The Office and Lord of the Rings star Martin Freeman, was intended to draw attention to its 30-day service guarantee, which allows customers to leave their contract without penalty within the first 30 days of the contract, but the ASA decided that the ad wasn't clear enough and gave the impression that customers would be able to painlessly leave Vodafone at any time during their contract.

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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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