Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK government plans to carry on (data-)snooping; Telefónica must cough up; operators bend EU's ear.
Google Ventures has launched a European branch in London, backed by an initial investment of $100 million, reports Bloomberg. In the US, Google Ventures has put money into Nest Labs and Uber Technologies, among others. (See Google to Buy Nest for $3.2B.)
The UK government plans to rush through emergency legislation that will allow the police and security services to continue to have access to personal mobile and other data records, reports the BBC. The move is a response to the recent European Court of Justice ruling that an earlier EU directive -- which formed the basis of UK's Data Retention (EC Direction) Act of 2009 -- was no longer valid. Not surprisingly, civil liberties groups are not happy about the news, calling it a "stitch-up" that is being railroaded through on a cross-party basis without proper scrutiny. See this report in The Guardian for more on their gripes.
The €152 million ($206 million) fine slapped on Telefónica SA (NYSE: TEF) by the European Commission for effectively imposing unfair prices on its competitors in the Spanish market has been upheld in the European Court of Justice. See this CoJ press release for the Court's explanation of its decision to completely dismiss Telefonica's appeal against the fine.
Russian operator MegaFon has completed its acquisition of a 50% share in Euroset, Russia's largest mobile phone retailer, for $657.3 million.
Some of Europe's heaviest telecom industry hitters have combined with the GSM Association (GSMA) to present a statement to Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister of Italy and President of the Council of the European Union, requesting, among other things: a "pro-investment regulatory framework"; support for the re-allocation of spectrum; a new interpretation of merger guidelines to support increased consolidation; and a "level playing field of regulation" between the communications industry on the one hand and the "Internet industry" on the other. (See Euro Operators Appeal to EU President.)
A study commissioned by BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) has concluded that the "social value" of being online is worth more than ₤1,000 ($1,710) a year, when factors such as improved employment opportunities and reduced feelings of isolation are taken into consideration. And there's always a chance that one of those badly spelt emails from Nigeria will help boost your bank account, of course.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
Susan Fourtané, User Rank: Light Sabre 7/11/2014 | 1:32:19 AM
Google ventures crosses the pond Having London been declared the technology capital of the world launching a European branch in London sounds like a smart idea.
London's tech sector is going to be boosted further and even more startups are going to set their eyes in the English capital. This will give Google Ventures a variety of European tech companies from which to choose and help grow.
It's a great chance to access new investment, encourage job creation, and economic growth not only in London but in Europe as a whole.
Earlier this month, Santander UK was also reported to set up a $100m venture capital fund that will be based in London as plan of its investment in financial technology start-ups around the globe.
Paul Shaneck, Global Director Network Solutions for Symantec, discusses the evolving virtualized network, explaining how Symantec is leading the security discussion as it relates to SDN and NFV, and helping to ensure the network is protected and compliant.
Intel's Sandra Rivera discusses network transformation and how Intel technologies, programs, and standards body efforts have helped the industry migration to SDN and NFV.
With the ETSI-approved Distributed NFV PoC running in the background, RAD's CEO, Dror Bin, talks about why D-NFV makes compelling sense for service providers, and about the dollars and cents RAD is putting behind D-NFV.
Cyan's Planet Orchestrate allows service providers and their end-customers to activate software-based capabilities such as firewalls and encryption on top of existing Ethernet services in just minutes.
Kontron and ISV partner Vantrix demonstrate high-performance video transcoding and data analytic solutions on same 2U standard platform that is ready for SDN and NFV deployments made by mobile, cable and cloud operators.
At Huawei's Global Analysts Summit in Shenzhen, China, Steven C. Hawley from TV Strategies speaks to us about the evolving role of hybrid video for competitive success.
Justin van der Lande from Analysys Mason shares with us his views on how telecom operators can leverage customer asset monetization with big data. His discusses the current status of big data applications and the challenges and opportunities for telecom operators in the digital economy era.
Mobile and internet are becoming intertwined; IT and CT are integrating; and leading CSPs have begun to transform to information service and entertainment providers. How should the BSS system evolve to enable this transformation? Karl Whitelock, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, shares his views.
Paul Shaneck, Global Director Network Solutions for Symantec, discusses the evolving virtualized network, explaining how Symantec is leading the security discussion as it relates to SDN and NFV, and helping to ensure the network is protected and compliant.
Intel's Sandra Rivera discusses network transformation and how Intel technologies, programs, and standards body efforts have helped the industry migration to SDN and NFV.
With the ETSI-approved Distributed NFV PoC running in the background, RAD's CEO, Dror Bin, talks about why D-NFV makes compelling sense for service providers, and about the dollars and cents RAD is putting behind D-NFV.
Cyan's Planet Orchestrate allows service providers and their end-customers to activate software-based capabilities such as firewalls and encryption on top of existing Ethernet services in just minutes.
Kontron and ISV partner Vantrix demonstrate high-performance video transcoding and data analytic solutions on same 2U standard platform that is ready for SDN and NFV deployments made by mobile, cable and cloud operators.
At Huawei's Global Analysts Summit in Shenzhen, China, Steven C. Hawley from TV Strategies speaks to us about the evolving role of hybrid video for competitive success.
Justin van der Lande from Analysys Mason shares with us his views on how telecom operators can leverage customer asset monetization with big data. His discusses the current status of big data applications and the challenges and opportunities for telecom operators in the digital economy era.
Mobile and internet are becoming intertwined; IT and CT are integrating; and leading CSPs have begun to transform to information service and entertainment providers. How should the BSS system evolve to enable this transformation? Karl Whitelock, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, shares his views.
As new site acquisition becomes more difficult, Orange Tunisia has requested multi-band antenna to support UMTS and LTE innovation. Some things considered include reducing the cost of antenna maintenance and having high reliability antenna and EasyRET solution.
Tony Conlan, Global CTO of RAN, Telefonica, shares his opinion on antennas in LTE network deployment: Tower space is the premier requirement on antennas; reliability is important to reduce OPEX; and EasyRET solution will be helpful for antenna maintenance.
With the development of LTE, tower space and load are limited for new antenna, but users' capacity requirements are growing fast. To provide a better MBB experience, Panya Vechbanyongratana from dtac Thailand shared his experiences and antenna requirements.
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