The Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA), which looks after the interests of the UK's altnets, has expressed its disgruntlement at the provisional decision by communications regulator Ofcom to not take action against a new wholesale FTTP pricing offer from BT-owned Openreach. In a statement, INCA said it believed that BT's "Project Equinox" is "about reducing costs to encourage ISPs to move customers to BT Openreach's fibre networks," arguing that the impact of the new pricing policy "will actually be a reduction in wholesale competition which will inevitably result in higher prices and lower standards of service in the long run for consumers."

A regular donor to the UK's ruling Conservative Party has been implicated in the Uzbekistan bribery scandal that prompted Swedish operator Telia to make an undignified exit from its Eurasian operations just a few years ago. As the BBC reports, the so-called "Pandora papers" reveal that Mohamed Amersi, a corporate lawyer who has touchingly gifted the Conservatives more than half a million pounds since 2018, worked as a consultant for Telia during the time of the bribery-related shenanigans, in which a $220 million payment ended up in the account of a murky offshore company controlled by Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the then president of Uzbekistan. Amersi denies any wrongdoing. (See TeliaSonera to Quit Eurasia, Focus on Europe and Eurobites: Telia Coughs Up $965M to Exit Uzbek Nightmare.)

Zain Saudi Arabia has chosen cloud-based BSS software from Netcracker to grease the wheels of its digital transformation program. Among other things, Zain hopes that Netcracker's knowhow will pave the way for automated network slicing within its 5G core.

Denmark's TDC has turned to Nokia to allow it to connect more than a million homes and business with PON fiber to "ultra-broadband" services. Starting in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and Alborg, XGS-PON technology is being implemented for selected existing customers as well as new fiber addresses. TDC is moving towards a converged network that will use both GPON and XGS-PON technology for consumers and businesses.

Slovakia's Orange Slovensko has launched a new 4K UHD Android "operator tier" set-top box on the Nangu.TV platform, with a bit of help from Commscope. Content protection is secured via CAS from Viaccess-Orca on multicast distribution and DRM Widevine on all unicast streaming.

Hyperoptic, the UK altnet that has a strong focus on the social housing sector, has won a blanket-wide wayleave agreement from the London borough of Hounslow to supply gigabit-capable broadband services to the borough's social housing residents. As well as connecting 4,300 of Hounslow Council's homes to its full-fiber service, it will also be providing more than 20 complimentary connections to the likes of community centers to ensure local residents have access to a free service.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading