Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU looks into Teams complaint; more connectivity equals fewer trucks; Finland wants to watch Finnish telly.
Telefónica deployed its 5G on the 3.5GHz and 26GHz frequencies to power TV coverage of the Acciona Open golf tournament in Spain over the weekend in what the operator claims is a European first. One element of the coverage saw connected drones positioned at various holes, which transmitted their video signal via 5G, providing novel camera angles for viewers. Telefónica's infrastructure also relayed the video signals from the broadcast cameras through the mobile network with 5G encoders. Ericsson supplied its baseband offerings and 5G TDD active antennas to the project. As for the actual golf, Danny Cabrera Bello triumphed, defeating fellow Spaniard Adri Arnaus in a playoff for the top spot.
European Commission antitrust gurus have launched an investigation into whether Microsoft's bundling of videoconferencing app Teams into its Office software panoply gives it an unfair advantage over its rivals. As Reuters reports, the probe has been prompted by a complaint from Slack, the US-based workplace collaboration software company, which bleated that Microsoft made it difficult to uninstall Teams and that its much larger rival was unwilling to provide technical details that would enable competing products to happily coexist. Microsoft introduced Teams in 2017.
Better connectivity in the UK could help reduce the carbon dioxide (and equivalent emissions) spewed out by the country's transport sector by 27.8 megatonnes – the equivalent of taking 750,000 trucks off Britain's roads. That's the verdict of a new report commissioned by Huawei and put together by industry analyst firm Assembly. The report envisages a future full of connected and automated vehicles which adapt to traffic light systems, decide which route to take and avoid congestion. Mind you, truck emissions are the least of the UK's transport worries right now…
Finland wants to see more Finnish content, and it is planning to compel streaming platforms such as Netflix to produce more shows in its frankly bonkers language under the terms of an EU directive that came into force this year. As YLE reports, the Audiovisual and Media Services directive would allow Finland to mandate an investment of between €6-20 million (US$7-23 million) each year on Finnish productions or contributions to a national fund dedicated to them.
MLL Telecom, which provides secure managed network services to the UK public sector, has landed a ten-year deal with South East Grid, a consortium of public sector organizations in south-east England. MLL will work on the project with its fiber infrastructure partners, CityFibre and Openreach.
BT is hoping to replenish the pipeline of technology talent with the opening of its new DigiTech Centre at its Adastral Park complex in Martlesham, Suffolk. The £9.6 million ($13 million) research and engineering facility is a joint project between BT and the University of Suffolk which will provide training for those looking to pursue a career in information and communications technology.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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