In its latest thinly disguised plug for what it says will be the game-changing benefits of its proposed merger with Three, UK operator Vodafone claims a proper, nationwide rollout of 5G standalone (5G SA) will transform UK rail and road travel, collectively saving regular road users £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) a year on fuel and boosting productivity through remote working on trains by £1 billion ($1.3 billion) a year. The modelling, carried out on Vodafone's behalf by WPI Strategy, also shows, says the operator, that on-tap 5G SA will save UK train users 26 million hours a year by reducing delays. And, according to Vodafone, this 5G SA nirvana is unlikely to arrive if its merger deal is blocked. But will all this be enough to convince the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, which earlier this month raised serious objections to the proposed deal and cast doubt on the promises of future investment made by Vodafone and Three? Or will the deal be shunted into the sidings of history?

BT is making changes to its management team, with Harmeen Mehta, the current chief digital and innovation officer, leaving the company and Howard Watson taking over as the head of the Digital unit on an interim basis. Tom Meakin, who joined BT in April as interim chief strategy and change officer, will be appointed to the role permanently from November 1.

Safaricom has secured a sustainability-linked loan worth 15 billion Kenyan shillings ($116 million), which will be used to advance the operator's Environmental, Social and Governance agenda (ESG) agenda by, for example, reducing its carbon footprint and upping its game on gender diversity.

Virgin Media O2 CEO Lutz Schüler is taking a short break after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is undergoing surgery in the coming days but thankfully the cancer has been caught early. Patricia Cobian, Virgin Media O2's CFO, will act as CEO in addition to her current role over the next four to eight weeks. Light Reading wishes Lutz a speedy recovery.

CISPE, the cloud industry lobby group, has pounced on a new research paper from consulting firm Analysys Mason that questions the direction the EU seems to be taking on cloud services regulation – namely the apparent desire to align it with current telecom regulation. According to CISPE, the research paper lends weight to its argument that the European Commission's "insistence on dragging cloud providers into the telecoms regulatory framework risks undermining the benefits of cloud computing, thereby jeopardising cloud-dependent growth, productivity and innovation including in areas such as artificial intelligence."

Telecom Italia (TIM) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Apindustria Servizi, the training body for CONFAPI, Italy's confederation of small and midsized businesses, to support digital innovation in the Veneto production sector.