Brewery group Asahi Europe has chosen Deutsche Telekom for a global SD-WAN service that will apparently replace older MPLS services it had been using for corporate communications. The deal covers about 200 sites and will cover the provision of managed and security services. Deutsche Telekom was already an infrastructure partner for Asahi, having offered managed services to the company since 2014. Its latest contract extends the partnership between the firms for another five years.

BT has been carrying out trials of a technology called Quantum Key Distribution at its research facility in Ipswich. The trials are based on products developed by Lumenisity, a Southampton University spin-off, and could feasibly improve network security and boost bandwidth for more advanced communications. The system uses hollow core fiber cable that replaces the solid glass used in most optical networks with air. The effect, says BT, is less interference and improved performance.

South Africa's MTN has turned to Nokia for some new "cloud-native" products it says will support the subsequent introduction of 5G services. The cloud infrastructure and IMS tools should initially help MTN to provide voice services over broadband, WiFi and 4G networks, but they would ultimately allow voice to run on 5G as well. The deal represents new business and a market share gain for Nokia, claimed the Finnish vendor in its statement.

— Iain Morris, International Editor, Light Reading