Eurobites: Nokia doubles down in Africa

The UK government is pumping more than £3 million (US$4 million) into a new testing facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire that will explore the potential of 5G and satellite technology working in tandem on a range of applications, many of them relating to the Internet of Things. The facility will be built by IT consultancy CGI and in backed by a European Space Agency contract that involves BT, Avanti Communications and the University of Surrey.

Italy's antitrust authority, AGCM, has fined Apple €10 million ($11.9 million) for what it called "aggressive and misleading" commercial practices in relation to its iPhones. As Reuters reports, the regulator said that Apple advertised several of its iPhones as being water-resistant, without bothering to mention that this was the case only under certain circumstances.

The CEO of Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has resigned after two years in the role, for personal reasons. As Arabian Business reports, Nasser Al Nasser will stay with the company until March 28 while STC begins a search for his successor. STC shares have risen almost 20% during his tenure.

Deutsche Telekom's Data Intelligence Hub analytics offering has been chosen to play a key role in a new common data platform for logistics being developed by the European Union (EU). The platform, part of the EU's FENIX project, is intended to link logistics partners within the EU, connecting supply chains and minimizing bottlenecks.

A source in the French finance ministry says the EU is banking on incoming US President Joe Biden clarifying America's position on the taxation of digital services within two months. As Reuters reports, the world was waiting on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to update e-commerce rules globally but, thanks largely to the unwillingness of Donald Trump to sign up to any sort of digital taxation deal, those talks floundered.

Proximity, a UK data center provider, has expanded its empire with three new edge colocation facilities in, respectively, Liverpool, Chester and Coventry. The new additions bring a further 8 megawatts of load capacity.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading