The UK government has hatched a plan to, in its words, "make Britain a global leader in innovation-focused digital regulation." As one would expect from a government policy paper, the verbiage is largely impenetrable, but it seems to boil down to reducing "red tape" on businesses – always a popular rallying cry with the UK's Conservative government. Here's a sample: "The vision is to drive prosperity through pro-innovation regulation of digital technologies while minimising serious harms to the country's economy, security and society." Interested parties have until September 28 to respond to the proposals.

Sky, the UK-based purveyor of pay-TV and more, is offering a "speed guarantee" on its latest 500Mbit/s broadband product: If a customer's download speed falls below 400 Mbit/s he or she can claim a month's subscription back. Sky Broadband Ultrafast Plus is available for £45 (US$62) per month on an 18-month contract. But shouldn't the refund be automatic, rather than the customer having to go to the trouble of claiming it? Just a thought.

Deutsche Telekom and device rental firm Everphone have teamed up to "digitize" the workforce of German chemicals firm Henkel. Thanks to the project, nearly 6,000 deskless Henkel employees covered by collective labor agreements have taken possession of new iPads, all equipped with an eSIM from Deutsche Telekom, to help them work in a more collaborative way. The idea is that they use the tablets to resolve personnel matters, manage payroll and partake of additional training. They can even take the tablets on vacation with them, though that does sound a bit of a downer.

Back at Deutsche Telekom HQ, changes are afoot in the compliance department. Dr. Marie von der Groeben has been appointed the operator's chief compliance officer, replacing Manuela Mackert, who is leaving the company after 25 years to "pursue new professional challenges."

Harrogate, one of the poshest towns in the UK county of Yorkshire, is the latest location to be connected to TalkTalk's fiber offering, which runs on a combination of the Openreach and CityFibre networks. Denizens of the former spa town signing up to TalkTalk's Fibre 500 package will be able to enjoy average top download speeds of 506 Mbit/s.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading