Research firm advocates digital transformation, FTTP and multi-brand strategies to help combat rising prices.

It hardly ever happens that the industry gets so many of the items on its wishlist granted by the government in one go - but 2021 turned out nice.

New skillsets are increasingly required, but telcos are also adopting new terminology that disguises need for skills such as NFV and SDN.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit largely upheld FCC rules issued last year that open up a large swath of the 6 GHz band to unlicensed users, including Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile said that 13% fewer of the customers on its most expensive Magenta Max 5G data plan are connecting to Wi-Fi. That, the company said, could signal a shift from Wi-Fi to 5G.

It was a year dominated by chip supply woes and the deepening US-China trade war. Also, 5G gained lots of ground but showed few signs of returns.

New report indicates that telcos will be accelerating their use of AI in 2022.

2022 is likely to be about the impact of two major happenings of 2021: telecom reforms and the tariff hike announced by all major telcos.

Pablo Tomasi sees '5G hype' as a useful icebreaker for CSPs to engage more with enterprises on private networks but warns there's still much work needed to gain their trust.

Helium's CEO said the company may well grow into 'the largest cellular network in the US within the next couple of years.' But that doesn't necessarily mean companies like Verizon or T-Mobile should worry.

Led by China, analysts expect global gigabit subscriptions to reach 50 million in 2022, up from 24 million at the end of 2020.

Heavy Reading's operator survey suggests operators need to pursue a cloud native vRAN implementation to fully realize the benefits of open RAN.

Some of the biggest tech companies in the world appear to be preparing to fight each other in the market for augmented and virtual reality headsets. 5G providers likely are likely cheering on the sidelines.

Telefonica is reportedly shifting from Huawei equipment to Ericsson equipment in Spain, another indication that a US-led campaign against the Chinese vendor is bearing fruit.

It's that time of the year when industry experts take a pass at telling the future.

But overall success will 'be a fine balance between box office, subscriber revenue, and piracy,' writes Omdia analyst Charlotte Jones in her new report.

This year's trek down memory lane of the WWW takes us to Apple, Arris, Dell, Facebook and – hold onto your Santa hats! – a brief tour of Places Jeff Used to Work.

Continuing its recent spending spree, Oracle aims to expand its applications portfolio by adding AI-optimized assurance, analytics, and automation solutions from Federos.

Here are five of the most interesting things I found in the NTCA's recent survey and report on broadband availability in rural America.

China Mobile is moving quickly to IPO after approval from the securities regulator, paving the way for one of the telecom industry's biggest-ever floats.

The last few days have seen senior Indian government officials, including the telecom minister, mention 6G on more than one occasion.

Survey of early AR/VR adopters finds many rubbing their virtual hands together in glee at prospect of various digital experiences in shopping malls by 2030.

In developed markets, most devices telcos sell in 2022 will have 5G, giving them an opportunity to sell 5G plans if they add more value.

The $5 billion 'reverse merger' will enable privately owned Triller, a short-video app and content developer, to become a publicly listed company on the Nasdaq as TrillerVerz Corp.

'After careful consideration and discussion, T-Mobile has made the difficult decision to significantly limit our in-person participation at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.'

For the first time ever, the six biggest Internet companies in the world accounted for more traffic in 2021 than all other Internet companies combined, according to Sandvine.

The analyst firm points to trends it says will be 'at the heart of regulatory activity' next year, including spectrum licensing, the digital divide and - yes - 6G.

Jon Pelson's new book, Wireless Wars: China's Dangerous Domination of 5G and How We're Fighting Back, dives into the meteoric rise of Huawei on the global telecommunications stage.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner explains the challenges that streaming TV providers face in keeping subscribers while achieving profitability.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica Tech brings security to CAVs; Ericsson eyeing Russia for basestation manufacturing, claims report; BT's speed guarantee found wanting.

Some media members and vendors worried about the latest COVID-19 variant are canceling plans to attend CES, casting a cloud over the tech industry's largest US trade show.

'Planning and managing backup power resources thus requires case-by-case judgments that are not amenable to prescriptive rules,' Verizon told the FCC in a recent filing.

New top ten list from Parks Associates reveals significant changes as Disney+ moves into the top three of US OTT services, while HBO Max and Paramount+ also climb in the rankings.

AT&T, which has been working to exit the media industry and shed related businesses, didn't disclose the sale price of its programmatic advertising business to Microsoft.

In its latest 'State of Cable' survey of 1,000 readers, CableTV.com found that 70% of them still subscribe to cable or satellite TV and that nearly all of them also subscribe to at least one streaming video service.

ZTE's device business could be the fire that lights up its rebound. The consumer unit grew by 67% in the first half to 12.4 billion yuan (US$1.95 billion).

With early lab trials, a first wave of interoperability testing and collaborations between key suppliers, DOCSIS 4.0 made significant progress in 2021, even as deployments remain well out on the horizon.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Elisa Estonia chooses Nokia for 5G open RAN; Telefonica tries liquid-cooling for its data centers, central offices; Fastweb speeds up with Infinera.

Swedish vendor says takeover will provide engineering talent to support the growth of its enterprise connectivity and security business.

5G is a big lift, especially for developing countries, needing a denser mix of basestations than 4G, multiple spectrum bands and a much higher power load.

It's been a turbulent year for India's third-largest telco, Vodafone Idea, as it fought for survival - but new measures and a tariff hike have helped.

An outage 'affected AT&T's ability to deliver 911 calls to 11 PSAPs in multiple states during this event. As a result of the outage, calls were not transmitted to those affected PSAPs,' the FCC said.

$7.8 million severance package frees up seat on board, paving way for successor appointment.

Deutsche Telekom is said to want to start a sales process in the first quarter of 2022.

NextEra said it uses the 6GHz band for 'plant control communications,' including for its nuclear power plants. That's why it's asking the FCC to immediately halt sales of Wi-Fi devices in the band.

Subs and profits are hard to come by in the unfriendly world of pay-TV, but Frndly TV has been able to get both with a family-focused, skinny bundle that starts at $6.99 per month.

Huawei installed malicious code in Australia's Optus telco network that recorded all communications and transmitted it to China, according to Bloomberg.

Snell covers some of the biggest cybersecurity trends of 2021 and has advice for how organizations can better manage and secure their data.

India's homegrown 5Gi standard is likely to be included in release 17 of the international 3GPP 5G standards.

GSA forecasts that more than 200 5G networks will have been deployed by the end of Q1 2022.

Opensignal finds 5G is nearly 50% faster than Wi-Fi in the island and provides users with the same multiplayer mobile games experience.

After being blacked out temporarily starting late Friday night, ESPN, ABC, FX and other Disney-owned networks were being restored to the YouTube TV service on Sunday afternoon in the wake of a new distribution deal.

The updated SD-WAN standard includes new metrics for application performance within and across multiple service provider networks and supports application-based security outlined in MEF 88.

'Heavy Reading's Multi-Vendor 5G Core Networks: The Case for a Disaggregated Control Plane' white paper examines operator 5G core strategies.

Early, limited tests of Verizon's C-band network in Los Angeles showed speeds up to 1 Gbit/s, but airline officials warn of a 'catastrophic failure' in regulations from 5G technology in the C-band.

Cloud subsidiary Tianyi gains four state-backed investors, boosting capital base and making it the preferred secure cloud partner for military and government.

Reports indicate that Telekom Malaysia and YTL Communications are first to provide 5G access in three cities covered by the SWN.

The Pacific island states are coming into focus as one of the key battle zones in the US-China tech war.

Digital strand of Connecting Europe Facility aims to bridge the gap between private and public funding to boost connectivity in the EU.

Revenues in the cable concentrator market dipped year-over-year in Q3 2021, but accelerated on a sequential basis as operators bulked up on network hardware and deployed capacity-enhancing node splits.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ofcom bans locked handsets; Hyperoptic takes part in smart-home pilot; Telesign goes public.

The chipmaker's share of the market for data center servers has fallen dramatically in the last few years, according to the latest Omdia data.

SRG analysts spent 24 hours in Vegas last week using professional testing equipment from Rohde & Schwarz to test the wireless networks there.

Verizon's mmWave 5G network is either meeting its 'intended purpose' or faces 'low success' in achieving significant profitability, depending on which study you read.

XCOM said its demonstration uses edge computing and Microsoft HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality headsets, thus allowing users to 'move freely, simultaneously and seamlessly' through a digital reality.

Industry groups and policy advocates alike are sharpening their arguments for which technologies should be involved in closing the US digital divide.

The Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem is aiming for two fabs for displays and ten units for components.

Mark Dehus shares highlights from Lumen's Q3 DDoS report, why voice and VoIP services were heavily targeted and his predictions for DDoS trends in Q4.

Amid speculation about its future ownership structure, the Italian phone incumbent has been forced to downgrade its forecasts.

New tech standard will define communications protocols for standalone amplifiers and amps built into nodes for DOCSIS networks, including future DOCSIS 4.0 networks.

A record $42 billion is going to be pumped into the US telecommunications industry, but it will be state regulators who decide exactly which network operators get that money.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica makes board changes; Ofcom's fiber overview; Hottges contract extended at Deutsche Telekom.

'I'm not at the point yet where I would put that in the hands of a third party,' Ray said of T-Mobile's cloud operations, which the operator currently manages internally.

The Wednesday morning AWS service interruption in part of the cloud giant's network is making it tougher to complain about work colleagues and see who's at the door.

Comcast has no plans to implement its usage-based broadband policies in its Northeast markets in 2022 'at this time,' but has made no commitment to keep it that way in 2023 and beyond.

The Japanese firm is determined to serve one fifth of all open RAN business by 2030 and establish itself as a new 5G force.

ITC ruling finds that certain Roku streaming players, TVs, soundbars and remotes infringe on a UEI patent, but Roku claims design changes 'eliminate any infringement.'

Canadian cable op will tap Harmonic's virtual CCAP and DAA gear as part of a plan to support multi-gigabit services, shift to an all-IP services platform, and cut a 'clear path to DOCSIS 4.0.'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia supplies FWA kit to Ooredoo; Telekom Srbija bags EIB loan; world's first ever SMS could be yours...

Relying on yesterday's cost structures, routing silicon, operational paradigms, tools and two decades of accumulated complexity has proven to fall short in meeting insatiable bandwidth requirements consistently and at sustainable power consumption.

The EU's cloud project could still become a world standards setter, but is for now stalled by fights over data sovereignty.

Each vendor, service provider, customer, etc. has their own take on the definition of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which makes it difficult to find a one-stop-shop that provides a full SASE suite, explains Verizon's Vincent Lee.

DOCSIS and advanced HFC technologies will remain key areas for CommScope, but the vendor is set to launch a new XGS-PON platform in the coming months amid a broader, companywide transformation initiative.

Noopur Davis on Comcast's journey into the Secure Development Lifecycle, ensuring security is prioritized at an early stage rather than tacked on at the end.

According to one survey, 13% of parents with a child aged five to eight reported purchasing them a phone. And 3% of parents with a child aged two or younger reported purchasing them a phone.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BSO rolls into Bergamo; BT shacks up with Nozomi; TIM/KKR latest; Deutsche Telekom toots rollout trumpet.

CEO of America Movil-owned operator indicates it will only buy 5G phones from next year on.

The man behind the Altice telecom group has upped his stake in the UK phone incumbent, sparking concern about his future intentions.

YouTube TV will cut its monthly price by $15 if a distribution deal is not reached by December 17, causing Disney networks like ABC, ESPN and FX to go dark.

IP and optical convergence is not just for hyperscalers. Heavy Reading survey data suggests that communications service providers are evaluating this new transport architecture, and many expect to move quickly toward adoption.

Small offshoot of energy giant reckons sales will grow a fifth this year as it piles into the business connectivity sector.

Lockheed said Radisys will supply open RAN software technologies in locations where 'wired interconnections are not possible or are cost prohibitive.'

Cable op will offer Peacock's ad-supported premium tier for no added cost for 12 months to pay-TV subs, and for no added cost for 90 days to broadband subs.

Jai Thattil joins the podcast to discuss Juniper's efforts to develop RIC technology, and why partnerships with Intel and Rakuten are key to Juniper's open RAN vision.

Although the airline industry continues to fret over the possibility that 5G will interfere with aircraft radio altimeters, one analyst firm believes the situation isn't much of a concern.

Tied to WOW's broadband-first strategy, company will deploy new FTTP networks to at least 200,000 homes passed - and perhaps up to 400,000 - in 'non-adjacent,' low-competition markets over the next five years.

AT&T showed interest in using the new 5G NR-U standard operating in the unlicensed 6GHz band in a new testing request filed with the FCC.

The Vodafone business will lease space on towers to a company that competes directly against Vodafone Germany - go figure.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swiss government ups the broadband ante; South Africa invites spectrum bids; Proximus gets into cyber-insurance.

Gen. Robert Spalding in 2018 penned documents that raised the prospect of a national 5G network. Now he's the CEO of a company selling cell towers designed to withstand a high-altitude nuclear event.

Touting a wide range of broadband products delivering up to 1-Gig, along with phone, mobile and TV add-ons, Liberty Networks Germany is initially targeting more than 7,000 homes and businesses in Brandenburg.

'I have all the tools now,' says Manon Brouillette, the new head of Verizon's consumer group. However, she intends to amplify the strategy in place at Verizon rather than come in with wholesale changes.

Ed Fox explains how MetTel's own approach to SASE has evolved and which components are key to any SASE service, such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). In addition, Fox shares how the service provider is working with customers making the shift from copper wire networks to fiber, cellular and VOIP networks.

Top executives from AT&T and Verizon discussed the new private 5G offering from Amazon Web Services and how it might affect their own efforts in the space.

This week: Gary Bolton, president of the Fiber Broadband Association, returns to the podcast to discuss how the fiber industry's advocacy efforts are changing as the US implements its $65 billion broadband bill. We also discuss FBA's forthcoming fiber optic technician training program.

The Australian operator is diversifying beyond telecom into the hotly contested energy market.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 1&1 signs deal with Vantage Towers; Vodafone aims for greater diversity; Zen Internet wins green gong.

In this fourth and last segment of the sponsored series, we look at a few more key results from a new Heavy Reading study about the cable industry's edge computing strategy and goals.

CEO Gary Smith has come bearing some nice stocking fillers for shareholders and the outlook for next year is rosy.

Aryaka CMO Shashi Kiran says one reason the company has updated its SASE and SD-WAN service is to achieve an 'overarching goal of simplicity' and provide more choices for enterprises trying to balance their networking and security needs for a more distributed workforce.

YouTube TV becomes the latest OTT-TV service to launch an app on Comcast's streaming product for broadband-only customers as well as its new line of nationally available smart TVs.

Commercial customers are in a 'renew phase' as they move workloads into the cloud, shift to SD-WAN and continue to embrace remote access products and technologies, says Spectrum Enterprise's Bob Schroeder.

Overall revenue and customer growth slowed during the pandemic and as US cable has nabbed larger pieces of the businesses services market, but there are signs of a rebound, forecasts show.

Verizon says it has exceeded its year-end target of deploying 14,000 new mmWave cell sites, and has conducted field tests of C-band spectrum that delivered speeds in the range of 1.5 Gbit/s to 3 Gbit/s.

Security Navigator picks up some worrying trends, with a 13% increase in cyberattacks overall.

The Australian sale comes shortly after Singapore and Hong Kong auctioned spectrum for the new-generation mobile technology.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: FiberCop signs up another provider in Italy; TIP gets behind open RAN in the UK; how to find your stolen Volvo.

Company has exceeded a goal of singing up 500,000 fixed wireless access subscribers and remains focused on expanding that total to 7 million to 8 million in the coming years, CEO Mike Sievert says.

Involvement in the group behind open RAN specifications comes after Germany raised security concerns about the new technology.

The UK incumbent's chief architect derides recent public cloud deals after the latest preview of the Internet apocalypse.

During the podcast, Turner discusses how CPM addresses issues such as permission sprawl and orphan accounts, and how organizations can take a more proactive approach to managed cloud access permissions.

With the recent launch of a new, more scalable billing system for mobile, 'We're ready to go faster,' says Charter Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge.

New multiyear deal will keep YouTube and YouTube TV on the popular streaming platform.

It would seem that we can continue the graph for Neptune's Law for the moment, and that will give our engineers of the present and future time to create the next generation of submarine cable innovation.

Social media giant taps know-how and IP of self-styled Slack rival. Developing Twitter DM operations looks on the cards.

OpenVault says deal adds scale to its data collection capabilities for cable, fiber and wireless networks, and puts the company in position to offer capacity-enhancing services to MSOs that have deployed DOCSIS 3.1.

Here's my glance back at Light Reading's longest running event – now called the Cable Next-Gen Business Services Digital Symposium – which turns 15 as it gets underway on Thursday, December 9.

Boris Johnson's interventionist government backs away from issuing open RAN mandates after realizing the technology is far from ready.

Speaking virtually at the UBS Global TMT Virtual Conference on Tuesday, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said the large MSO's revamped growth strategy should start paying dividends sometime in the new year.

The Italian incumbent announces a raft of executive changes ahead of some crucial decisions about its future.

Believe it or not, the legacy satellite sector doesn't think it's roadkill - orbitkill? - in the brave new world of Musk and Bezos.

>Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica's smart bins; Ericsson draws on Viavi's geolocation smarts; Orange wants to plant trees.

State-owned BNSL likely to finally roll out pan-India 4G services by September 2022, targeting revenue of INR9 billion (U$119.5 million).

Rosenworcel's official designation as chair (a position she's held in an acting capacity) makes her the first woman to helm the federal agency.

CEO Kaan Terziolu explains how the emerging-markets player will achieve its bullish financial targets.

Citing API and console issues in its US-EAST-1 Region, AWS says it's identified a root cause and, at last check, was 'starting to see some signs of recovery.'

German startup taps equity and debt markets in Series-C funding round. Deutsche Telekom plows more money in.

At this event, attendees will hear from cable experts about how cablecos can bounce back from the economic earthquake caused by COVID-19, how to handle co-opetition with cloud providers, and which platforms and technologies cable companies are banking on in the mobile services space.

If the company's technology lives up to its promise in a commercial setting, Cohere will be hard to resist or ignore.

Cable operator is also conducting CBRS trials in Philadelphia, but still is in no rush to deploy that spectrum commercially.

Listing could value the self-driving car division at $50 billion, say analysts, providing Intel welcome extra funds to build new fabs.

After getting $1.1 billion in royalty fines from Apple and Broadcom, Caltech is now suing Samsung, with Microsoft, Dell, and HP in its crosshairs, too.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TIM appoints advisors to consider KKR bid; Telefonica joins WBA; Nokia and CityFibre make a holographic call.

China Unicom has unveiled its plans for 2022, which involve selling 150 million devices and pursuing a new strategy that focuses on the digital economy.

The letter, signed by more than 30 Democratic members of Congress, raises concerns that the proposed transaction poses an anticompetitive threat to the media industry.

Hans Vestberg anticipates only 'very small and minor tweaks' to come following an FAA review of potential interference issues posed by new C-band network deployments.

Amid its ambitious fiber network upgrade, Frontier is offering a $10 discount on YouTube TV to customers on speed tiers delivering 25 Mbit/s or more.

The iPhone maker has apparently started legal proceedings in relation to alternative payment options on its app store platform.

During 2020, the nation's big wireless network operators collectively recorded almost 5 million new wireless customers. During 2021, that could rise to 10 million. But what happens when growth slows?

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MTN introduces vaccine mandate; Vivendi/TIM latest; Open Fiber's management reshuffle.

Sites Digest and Device Digest identify a baseline of network behavior and pinpoint any anomalous activity, says Windstream Enterprise's Mike Frane.

Lumen's uCPE focuses on improving and consolidating the delivery of IT applications and WAN management.

With $9 million in seed funding in hand, Adam Fish's startup uses peer-to-peer and advanced, distributed database systems to connect and sync mobile and IoT devices with limited or no Internet connectivity.

BT officials said the company is testing RAN intelligent controller (Non-RT-RIC) functions including SON (self-organizing network) technology, energy savings, interference mitigation and massive MIMO.

T-Mobile execs talked up the carrier's midband 5G network but offered some trash talk on the millimeter wave version of 5G that other executives touted at Qualcomm's summit this week.

AWS's entry into 5G through its Dish partnership could be the shot in the arm enterprise 5G needs.

China Telecom loses its court bid for a stay of execution for its US business, while Didi Global delists from the NYSE just six months after its IPO.

The Wireless Broadband Alliance hooked up with CableLabs and Intel to field-test low-power indoor Wi-Fi 6E. They found that the technology hit speeds of 1.7 Gbit/s down and 1.2 Gbit/s up in 'locations close to the access point.'

Apart from spectrum pricing, the paper seeks comment on other areas, including valuation methodologies, service rollout obligations and payment terms.

A Trump in need of cash is hoping fans will invest in his new media venture, fueled by revenge against what he sees as liberal Big Tech.

The silicon specialist is counting on a bigger share of business with Nokia and predicting a surge in 5G sales.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia plans new R&D campus in Oulu; Virgin Media suffers ten-hour TV outage; ETNO dissatisfied with progress on cyber directive.

The US Federal Trade Commission is worried Nvidia's proposed $40 billion purchase of Arm would stifle competition in the chipset space.

eSIM will support new features 'like being able to switch plans instantly, getting live-at-arrival connectivity when traveling abroad, or intelligently shifting between networks,' according to the company.

Fresh funding will help fuel development of an open approach for a distributed access architecture that appears to draw some parallels to the technology connection forged between Comcast and Harmonic.

Noting the unsuitability of x86 processors, the China-backed chips developer launches its small cells product.

Comcast is expanding its presence in the state as it inks deals to acquire two municipal service providers: BELD Broadband and Russell Municipal Cable TV.

Unnamed sources send ripples through Apple's supply chain on claims that demand for iPhone 13 models has slowed.

Heavy Reading survey data suggests that the newest generation of 800G coherent optics will gain broad adoption over the next five years across the metro, long-haul and subsea network segments.

SLC-Cgil union says strike at TIM 'could be called within 10 days.'

With few legislative days left on the calendar, the US Senate Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for President Biden's nominees for NTIA head, Alan Davidson, and FCC Commissioner, Gigi Sohn.

ADRF has been selling wireless equipment for indoor networks for 20 years. The company's longtime COO sees opportunities and challenges in topics ranging from private wireless to open RAN.

A Qualcomm looking to grow past its dwindling relationship with Apple aims at high-end Android customers with its photo punch in its new chip.

Japan's biggest operator says its 10,000 5G basestations use open RAN specifications and is targeting 20,000 by March.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia supplies 400GE kit to Italy's TOP-IX; TIM connects cars in Turin; T-Systems validates vaccination certificates.

Join Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief at Light Reading, and Ana Redondo, Network Strategy Lead at 5GOIL founding member at Amdocs, to hear how 5GOIL is addressing real-world challenges with technology solutions.

Developed with Bang & Olufsen, Verizon's duo of premium soundbars weave in the company's Stream TV app. The baseline version goes for $399.99, and a nine-speaker 'Pro' edition fetches almost $1,000.

It's clear that bandwidth demand will continue to increase exponentially. Optical transport capacity must scale to meet this demand, while at the same time the cost-per- bit must decrease, and optical transport equipment must become more space- and power-efficient.

An FCC plan to allow private companies to operate Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) systems in the 6GHz band has drawn interest from a wide array of players.

A head scientist at the world's biggest operator says open RAN is 'not a matter of if, but when.'

Some 53 million sports- and news-viewing TV households are seen as the 'bedrock floor' of US pay-TV. That still leaves about 30 million pay-TV homes at risk for further erosion, according to a new study.

Four tips for overcoming involuntary churn and improving customer lifetime value.

Japan's NEC said it's on the cusp of launching 'gradual deep learning-based object detection technology' to aid real-time video analytics.

'In some cases, we use fixed wireless technology to deliver broadband to a small portion of our customer base in rural communities,' the company acknowledged in response to questions.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: World Mobile does a Loon; Proximus in talks over Telesign; Vodafone Portugal fires up 5G.

UGT union said a new voluntary redundancy plan could end up affecting 1,950 people.

UK business broadband provider aims to up the number to 700 next year.