Energy distributor Enedis has plugged into Orange Business Services to help make its electricity network "smarter." The changing nature of energy production, says OBS, means that the better use of digital technologies is essential to managing the increasing complexity of the distribution network. OBS will connect hundreds of thousands of "communicating objects" spread across the distribution network in France, along with over 3,000 industrial sites.

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) have teamed up with carmaker BMW to issue a joint statement that seeks to persuade the European Commission to show some love for the C-V2X (cellular vehicle-to-everything) 5G standard for connected cars. As Reuters reports, the threesome is concerned that the Commission has to date shown a preference for ITS-G5, a WiFi-based technology favored by some rival firms, including Volkswagen and Renault.

In similar territory, Dutch incumbent KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN) has begun connected-car testing at its 5G Field Lab in Helmond, the Netherlands. In a trial that drew on Ericsson's multi-access edge computing (MEC) technology, a car with taped-up windows (yoiks!) was driven around a private circuit, the car fitted with a number of cameras and driven by a driver who was equipped only with virtual reality glasses, on which he saw the camera images of the real world beyond the windshield.

The GSM Association (GSMA) has welcomed the German government's decision to release the entire 3.4GHz to 3.8GHz spectrum band (C-Band) for 5G, but expressed concern about some of the conditions attached to the spectrum release. The trade group describes the proposed coverage obligations for the 3.6GHz band as appearing to "disregard the laws of physics," among other gripes.

Russian operator MegaFon has appointed Gevork Vermishyan as its new CEO for a three-year term, replacing Sergey Soldatenkov, who announced in October that he was stepping down.

Speculation is mounting that Germany could consider a ban on the use of Chinese technology in the country's 5G network rollouts. See this from our sister site, Telecoms.com: Germany reportedly mulls Chinese kit vendor ban for 5G.

Sales at Bouygues Telecom were up 6.5% year-on-year to €3.93 billion (US$4.44 billion) in the first nine months of 2018, while earnings (before interest, tax and amortization) rose 15% to €931 million ($1.05 billion). The operator added 1.4 million mobile customers during the period, 475,000 of whom signed up in the third quarter.

Wireless infrastructure specialist Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) is claiming a world record for in-tunnel connectivity speed on its Follo Line project in Norway, which it has completed in partnership with Telia , Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN) and Bane NOR. A download speed of 560 Mbit/s was achieved during the test, which took place inside a 20km abandoned road tunnel, using RFS's Radiaflex cables connected to a radio transmitter with 4G 4x4 MIMO capability.

The annual AfricaCom event in Cape Town is drawing to a close following the unveiling of this year's AfricaCom Awards winners, further video interviews and coverage of significant developments, including the launch of a cloud computing service by Huawei in South Africa.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading