Tele2 has launched LTE-M in its Swedish network to boost its capabilities in the Internet of Things (IoT) market. LTE-M is a cellular LPWA (low-power, wide-area) technology specifically designed for massive IoT applications. It also supports existing IoT use cases previously based on 2G or 3G. Tele2 plans to roll out LTE-M in other parts of Europe and the US in due course.

BT is offering what it describes as a "new generation of software-defined network services" for multinational companies, the first of which is a managed service based on VMware's SD-WAN technology. Traditional wide-area networking requires dedicated, proprietary vendor hardware to be installed at each customer site, whereas the SD-WAN concept is based on generic – or "white box" – hardware capable of supporting a range of software-based networking offerings from different vendors.

Sky, the UK-based purveyor of pay-TV and more, has chosen Amdocs' cloud-native, microservices-based technology to provide it with real-time converged charging and monetization capabilities for its mobile network services.

Ireland-based Vilicom, a mobile communications system integrator, is teaming up with BT Labs and Bristol and Loughborough Universities to carry out research into 5G and artificial intelligence (AI). Data scientists from the company will work on creating data structures, the development of AI algorithms and other brain-hurting stuff intended to support decision-making in planning network expansion. The research and development initiative will be led by Innovate UK, which has awarded a grant to the project.

US tech giants are feeling the EU heat this week. Yesterday (Wednesday) the EU concluded that Amazon does use the data it collects from independent companies which sell their wares on its platform to compete against those very firms. Today it's the turn of Google: Reuters reports that a band of 165 companies and industry bodies have written to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, calling on EU antitrust enforcers to take a tougher line against the search giant, which, they allege, is still giving itself preferential treatment in its search results, at their expense.

UK broadband provider TalkTalk has recorded its highest ever peak in network traffic this week: On Tuesday night, a combination of coronavirus lockdown and the release of various gaming patches and updates resulted in a traffic spike of 6.85 Tbit/s, the equivalent, says TalkTalk, of delivering 571 hours of HD video per second.

Orange Bank is drawing on its parent company's technology chops to further digitize the banking experience for its customers, introducing bank cards that can be better controlled via Orange Bank's app (changing PIN codes and so) and "Premium Packs" that allow parents to set up pocket-money accounts for their children who, on average, are now armed with smartphones from the age of ten.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading