Eurobites: EE trials 5G small cells

EE, the mobile arm of UK incumbent operator BT, has deployed its first 5G small cells as part of a trial in the London borough of Croydon. Seven such cells, which take advantage of existing street furniture like old phone kiosks and lampposts, are being used and are carrying more than 3 terabytes of traffic each day, says BT. Up until this trial, EE has been concentrating on using 4G small cells to boost coverage, peppering a range of towns and cities with them in the last year, including vacation hotspots such as Torbay. (See EE ramps up 4G small cell rollout to over 600 sites.)

In related news, the CEO of Openreach, BT's semi-autonomous network access arm, has been following up yesterday's UK government announcement on Project Gigabit to renew the familiar call for changes to the planning laws to make it easier and quicker to roll out networks. In a blog, Clive Selley claimed that some 990,000 tenants are missing out on Openreach's full fiber network because of what he calls planning "red tape," adding that the introduction of "flexible permitting" – which allows builders to upgrade multiple streets at once – would be a "simple fix" to bureaucratic network hold-ups. (See Eurobites: Openreach lobbies Labour Party on wayleaves – report.)

Sunrise, the Swiss operator that is part of the Liberty Global empire, is conducting a management reshuffle, with Thorsten Haeser – a one-time Telefónica executive – being appointed chief business officer, succeeding Robert Redeleanu, who has decided to take on another senior role with the Liberty Global group. In February of this year Liberty Global announced plans to spin off 100% of Sunrise in the second half of 2024 as part of a broader strategy revamp.

DRC's first live, open-access carrier-neutral Tier III data center has gone live in Kinshasa. The 2MW-capable facility is a joint venture between Open Access Data Centres (OADC) and Texaf, the latter a company which until now has been mainly focused on real estate and quarrying.

Young people getting their kicks by climbing telecom masts are becoming a problem for Finnish operators, according to a YLE report. Authorities cite the long-term risk of radiation exposure as well as the more immediate danger of falling off mid-climb. The national police board inspector, Pekka Heikkinen, said that though the practice had not reached epidemic proportions there had been enough cases to raise concern.