Eurobites: Nokia, Safaricom trial FWA 5G slicing

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Zayo launches new routes; Pegasus spyware boss steps down; Africa Data Centres expands.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

August 22, 2022

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Nokia, Safaricom trial FWA 5G slicing

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Zayo launches new routes; Pegasus spyware boss steps down; Africa Data Centres expands.

  • Nokia and Safaricom have completed what they claim is Africa's first fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G slicing trial on a live 4G and 5G commercial network across RAN, transport and core. The multivendor pilot took place in Kenya's Western Region, with Nokia providing its AirScale 4G/5G basestations, its NetAct network management offering and its FastMile 4G/5G CPE software. The trial was focused primarily on supplying new types of enterprise network services, including "fast lane" Internet access and application slicing. Figure 1: (Source: Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash) (Source: Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash)

    • Zayo has launched new low-latency routes in Europe, connecting the financial exchanges of the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt FR2 and the Swiss Exchange SIX in Zurich ZH4, as well as from the Euronext located in Bergamo IT3 to the Swiss Exchange in Zurich. The new routes, says Zayo, will play a significant role in facilitating high-frequency trading for Zayo's financial services customers following the recent relocation of Euronext's data center from London to Bergamo.

    • The CEO of controversial Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, Shalev Hulio, is stepping down with immediate effect, Reuters reports. Chief Operating Officer Yaron Shohat will take the reins and oversee a company reorganization before a permanent successor is appointed. It is expected that around 100 employees will be made redundant as part of the company restructuring. NSO Group is the company behind Pegasus, which wormed its way onto the phones of activists, journalists, politicians and business figures worldwide. (See Eurobites: Macron changes phone in bid to thwart Pegasus.)

    • Africa Data Centres has drawn down the first tranche of $83 million out of the $300 million investment by the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which was approved in 2021. The investment is funding the building of data centers in ten of Africa's largest economic capitals, including Abidjan, Accra, Lagos, Cairo, and Casablanca.

    • Virgin Media O2 is expanding the range of apprenticeships – where trainees get paid as they learn – it offers as the UK's cost-of-living crisis makes the prospect of three or four unpaid years at university seem less inviting. The operator has introduced five new schemes covering digital marketing, cybersecurity, quantity surveying, network cabling and DevOps. All roles are offered on a permanent contract with a starting salary of at least £19,000.

    • UK altnet CityFibre has had a bit of a rebrand, including new graphics that, it says here, "explore viewpoints through the fibre cables that make everything possible, and our new palette of bright, high impact colours are a stark contrast to traditional corporate identities." Not only that, the sans serif font "carries a somewhat provocative tone … it was inspired by placards you might see at a rally or protest." Deep, man, deep. Figure 2:  (Source: CityFibre)
      (Source: CityFibre)

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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