BT's digital unit has set up a "GenAI Gateway" platform with AWS to help it use large language models from the likes of Anthropic, Meta and Amazon in a safer and more controlled way. According to BT, ad-hoc use of such models, commonly called LLMs, has its drawbacks in terms of cost control, security and management, sometimes leading to those notorious "hallucinations" to which our GenAI overlords seem quite partial. The GenAI Gateway will also, says BT, give the company protection against "lock-in" on the LLM front. A trial of the platform is already underway with BT affiliate Openreach, summarizing engineering notes on Ethernet and full-fiber jobs; a second use case, supporting contract analysis for BT's business, legal and procurement teams, is also live.

Swisscom's proposed acquisition of Vodafone Italia has been cleared by the European Commission, at least as far as the Foreign Subsidies Regulation goes. Swisscom is confident that the transaction is still on track – it secured financing for the €8 billion (US$8.7 billion) deal in May and has received unconditional approval from both the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Italy (under the so-called Golden Power legislation) and the Swiss competition commission, though its Italian counterpart has yet to reach a decision. Swisscom still expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2025. (See Vodafone agrees to €8B sale of Italian biz to Swisscom.)

Nokia has teamed up with ZCorum, a US-based provider of diagnostics and managed services for broadband providers, to develop a DOCSIS Provisioning Adapter (DPA) application that enables cable operators to provision a PON optical network terminal and subscriber services using their existing DOCSIS provisioning system. The Nokia DPA application is expected to be available for lab trials by the end of 2024 and, if and when it is ready, will be offered to the wider world through the Nokia Altiplano Marketplace.

Zayo's European arm has introduced a new "400G-ready" DWDM fiber route connecting London to Paris. The new link, says Zayo, complements existing Circe South and Channel Tunnel routes between London and Paris, whilst Zeus and Circe North link London to Amsterdam. Zayo Europe now operates five subsea routes between the UK and continental Europe.

Telefónica Tech has joined Cisco's AEGIS (Awareness, Education, Guidance, and Intelligence Sharing) cyber intelligence program, the first Spanish company to do so. The program seeks to promote the exchange of information on cyber threats and vulnerabilities.