Eurobites: Nokia and Oppo make patents peace

After years of legal wrangling, Nokia has signed a multi-year 5G patent cross-licensing agreement with Chinese phone maker Oppo. Under the terms of the agreement, Oppo will from now on make royalty payments to Nokia, as well as "catch-up payments" to cover the periods of non-payment. According to Bloomberg (paywall applies), the new deal will allow Oppo to again sell devices in key European markets such as Germany. Nokia first filed a lawsuit against Oppo in 2021 after the two companies had been unable to agree on 5G patent licensing terms. The companies have since sued and counter-sued in multiple jurisdictions.

French workers are unhappy with mobile signal coverage inside their offices, according to a study carried out by OpinionWay for French digital and audio-visual infrastructure operator TDF. Over 75% of surveyed employees say the availability of 4G and 5G can affect their productivity or sense of wellbeing, with 55% saying they find coverage insufficient. Rather conveniently, TDF says it can help their employers as it offers distributed antenna systems for indoor coverage.

Lufthansa Group has chosen Viasat and Deutsche Telekom to equip more than 150 of its aircraft with the EAN (European Aviation Network) broadband system. The EAN system uses small and lightweight antennas with low air resistance for reception, which significantly reduces additional kerosene consumption and CO2 emissions. This was a decisive factor in Lufthansa's choice of EAN antennas for its A320 and A220 fleets, says Deutsche Telekom.

A1 Austria is expanding its partnership with endpoint security specialist SentinelOne to target businesses in North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia wanting more protection from the rising tide of cyberattacks. More than 11,000 organizations currently rely on SentinelOne software to ward off such attacks.

Portus Data Centers has announced plans to expand its IPHH Internet Port Hamburg data center business, which was acquired by Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 3 SCSp (AEIF3) on behalf of Portus late last year. With two existing facilities in the east of Hamburg currently offering 2.4MW of sellable IT power capacity, Portus now plans to construct a new data center of approximately 14MW. It will be built in phases, the first of which is planned for completion in late Q4/2025.

Openreach, the semi-autonomous network access arm of UK incumbent operator BT, says its fiber network in Yorkshire's East Riding region now covers 50,000 premises. The company has to date spent around £15 million (US$19 million) on the rollout.

Additional reporting by Tereza Krásová