Remember Loon, the ill-fated Google project that sought to bring mobile broadband to the more remote corners of Africa through the use of balloons? Well, now someone else is getting busy with the foot pump. World Mobile is launching low-altitude balloons in Zanzibar, aiming to achieving full consumer and IoT coverage there within 24 months. The remotely controlled aerostat balloons are powered by solar panels, inflated by helium and tethered to the ground. Once airborne, they act as floating cellular basestations transmitting radio signals to groundstations and personal devices. (See Google pops the Loon balloon.)

Belgium's Proximus has confirmed press reports that it is in preliminary talks over a "potential strategic transaction" involving Telesign, its US-based subsidiary that specializes in fraud management and authentication.

Vodafone Portugal is making 5G service available to all its customers with the appropriate handsets at no extra charge for a trial period that ends on January 31, 2022, when they will have the choice to continue with 5G at a cost of an additional €5 (US5.66) a month. Portugal is the sixteenth country in which Vodafone operates to get 5G.

Internet exchange operator DE-CIX is expanding into the Nordics, teaming up with Bulk Data Centers to establish a presence in Oslo, Norway (OS-IX), Kristiansand, Norway (Campus N01), as well as in Esbjerg, Denmark (Campus DK01). DE-CIX will also be opening Internet exchange platforms in Finland in due course.

UK communications regulator Ofcom has fined O2 £150,000 ($200,000) for failing to provide accurate and complete information relating to the watchdog's investigation into whether O2 was overcharging its customers. Earlier this year Ofcom fined O2 £10.5 million ($14 million) for overcharging departing customers; this latest fine appears to be a hangover from that case. Ofcom says this latest fine would have been higher but O2 has accepted liability and was entering into a settlement.

In a press release that may already be woefully out of date by this time next week thanks to the ructions caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the GSMA has been revealing further details of how it plans to safely host Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February. To enter the Fira Barcelona venue, visitors will need to upload documentation certifying their vaccination status, a certificate of recovery, or a negative COVID test through the registration system or to the MWC App. FFP2-grade masks will again be required.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is flexing its muscles, though frankly it runs the risk of having sand kicked in its face. As Reuters reports, the watchdog has told Meta, the owner of Facebook, to sell Giphy, the animated images platform it acquired last year. Not surprisingly, Meta is considering an appeal.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading