Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom unveils 'sustainable' 5G phone; Arcep's new boss; the EU's got its math wrong, says Google.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

October 1, 2021

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Mobile turns 40

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom unveils "sustainable" 5G phone; Arcep's new boss; the EU's got its math wrong, says Google.

  • October 1981 was a month that brought so much good news. International stateswoman Ivanka Trump was born; The Birdie Song was riding high in the pop charts; and British Leyland launched the Triumph Acclaim, possibly the world's most boring car. But, perhaps most significantly for us telecom cats, October 1, 1981 was the day Telia and Ericsson launched Europe's first 1G mobile network, in Hammarby, a suburb of Stockholm. By 1985, the network had grown to 110,000 subscribers in the Nordics, making it the world's largest mobile network. And today, says Telia, its 5G network now covers 5,555,000 people across the Nordic and Baltic countries So, happy 40th birthday, European mobile. It's downhill all the way from here, you know.

    • Deutsche Telekom is trumpeting what it claims is the "first sustainable 5G-enabled smartphone," which it has developed in partnership with Fairphone, an Amsterdam-based social enterprise company. The shell of the Fairphone 4 is made of 100% recycled material and 14 of the materials the phone uses – including gold, aluminum and tin – are classified as "fairly sourced," meaning that the working conditions under which they are mined are closely monitored. It is also modular in design, and therefore easier to fix, should the need arise. Deutsche Telekom is offering the smartphone for €579 (US$671) for the 128GB version in gray.

    • French communications regulator Arcep has appointed Céline Bredèche as its new secretary-general. Bredèche has been the head of Arcep's human resources unit since April 2016 and deputy director-general since October 2019. She succeeds Catherine Gallet-Rybak, who is moving to the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. Figure 1: Corridor of power: Celine Bredeche, Arcep's new secretary-general Corridor of power: Céline Bredèche, Arcep's new secretary-general

    • Case T-604/18 (Google vs European Commission) continues to rumble. In the latest twist, the search giant claims that the calculations on which the Commission in 2018 based its €4.34 billion ($5 billion) antitrust fine were flawed. As Reuters reports (registration required), Google was fined for – as the Commission saw it – using its Android operating system to unfairly entrench its dominance in Internet search. "The problem is not the headline-grabbing fine per se. The problem is how the Commission reached that figure," said Google's lawyer, Genevra Forwood. (See Eurobites: EU Socks Google With $5B Monster-Fine for Android Control-Freakery and Google strikes back over EU's $5B Android fine.)

    • Employees at Swisscom's retail stores should surely be in line for a huge Christmas bonus after they triumphed in something called the Connect Shop Test, which carried out checks at 78 stores in 13 towns and cities across Switzerland. Staff attitudes were deemed to be "outstanding," while the layout and facilities of the stores also got the thumbs-up. Swisscom has around 850 trained staff and 170 apprentices in its 115 stores.

    • Ride-hailing firm Uber has backed its drivers in the Belgian capital, Brussels, in their protest against city rules dating back to 1995 that prohibit drivers from using smartphones in their work, meaning that those who use the Uber app to pick up customers technically risk having their vehicles confiscated. As Reuters reports, hundreds of Uber drivers on Thursday suspended their service in Brussels and instead drove their cars in a cavalcade through the center of the city to the office of the regional premier, who agreed to meet a delegation.

      — 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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