Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: tech heavyweights invest in Swedish startup; Three UK offers cashback incentive to potential switchers; Russia's Google runs on diesel in Finland.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

May 6, 2022

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Inwit earnings jump 8.7% in Q1

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: tech heavyweights invest in Swedish startup; Three UK offers cashback incentive to potential switchers; Russia's Google runs on diesel.

  • Italian towers company Inwit is seemingly on the up, having seen first-quarter EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) climb by 8.7% year-on-year, to €188.1 million (US$199.1 million), on revenues that rose 8.8%, to €207 million ($219.2 million). During the quarter, Inwit increased the number of hostings on its own sites to 850 units and developed 50 new sites. As of March 31, 2022, the average number of operators per site – its tenancy ratio – rose to 2.05. (See Telecom Italia plans to do the splits.)

    • Stockholm-based Chroma Studios, which is pioneering a new type of audio entertainment for mobile devices that incorporates arty visual effects, has attracted investment from the co-founders of Twitter and Pinterest, Isaac Stone and Evan Sharp respectively. As Bloomberg reports, Chroma has recently raised €5.1 million ($5.4 million) from a number of monied individuals, Stone and Sharp among them. According to Chroma CEO Andreas Pihlstrom, the platform will be "a unique, sound-driven experience" that draws on the creativity of artists.

    • Mobile operator Three UK is hoping to snare potential customers with an offer of £250 ($309) "cashback" if they switch to its network between May 6 and July 7. The incentive applies to both handset-inclusive and SIM-only plans. As with a number of such offers currently doing the rounds, this one is being presented as a helping hand for households at a time when the UK's utility bills are generally going through the roof.

    • German power company ED Netze is rolling out NB-IoT technology from Deutsche Telekom to help it pinpoint problems on its network, reducing the need for inspection trips. The system uses devices from Exelonix at transformer stations, with the data generated being transmitted back to base by Deutsche Telekom's narrowband network.

    • Yandex, sometimes dubbed "Russia's Google," is having a spot of bother at its server farm in Mäntsälä, southern Finland, and has been forced to run it on a diesel generator for almost two weeks. As Finnish website YLE reports, Yandex has been unable to connect the site to Finland's grid because it has been failed to secure a contract with an electricity supplier, after its previous supplier ended a five-year agreement after just a few months.

    • The GSMA has launched a mobile money API compliance verification service, an initiative it hopes will reduce the complexities associated with scaling up API integrations in the rapidly growing mobile money market. Africa is the epicenter of mobile money, and several African companies have already signed up to the service, Sasai Fintech, AfriMoney and Comviva among them.

    • Vodafone's board has appointed Delphine Ernotte Cunci and Simon Segars as non-executive directors. Cunci is a former Orange deputy CEO, while Segars recently stepped down as CEO of UK-based chip designer Arm.

    • Nokia has won 14 design awards for its "sustainable packaging system" that uses organic, biodegradable materials. Six of the gongs were from the Red Dot scheme, the rest from the iF Design awards program.

      — 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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