Eurobites: Ooredoo banks on Google's API platform for 'digital transformation'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 Germany boosts mobile coverage at lofty HQ; 6G doesn't exist, says UK ad regulator; Google helps train Nigerians in digital skills.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

August 16, 2023

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Ooredoo banks on Google's API platform for 'digital transformation'
(Source: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy Stock Photo)

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 Germany boosts mobile coverage at lofty HQ; 6G doesn't exist, says UK ad regulator; Google helps train Nigerians in digital skills.

Middle Eastern operator Ooredoo is placing its faith in Google Cloud's API management platform, Apigee, to help it launch a range of as yet undiscovered, cloud-based digital services with, as Ooredoo's promotional puff puts it, "like-minded entities." The operator hopes that the project – which will be implemented in part by Indian giant Tech Mahindra – will accelerate its "digital transformation journey" across its six operating units.

  • O2 Telefónica Germany has boosted mobile coverage at its Munich headquarters with a digital C-RAN antenna system from CommScope. The Hochhaus Uptown München, known as the O2 Tower, has been equipped with CommScope's ERA in-building wireless offering, bringing improved 4G and 5G coverage to all visitors and employees lurking anywhere on the building's 38 floors. Additionally, on selected floors, O2 Telefónica will use the technology to enable its customers to try out private networks. As part of the deployment CommScope installed 5G new radio 4x4 MIMO native active access points – the first installation of its kind in the region, according to CommScope.

  • A UK Internet service provider has run into trouble with the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for suggesting that 6G is a thing. 6G Internet, a fixed wireless broadband specialist based in the north of England, published a promotional leaflet and ran an ad on its website that an unnamed complainant said "misleadingly implied that a sixth-generation mobile network existed and was able to be used by consumers," in the words of the ASA's statement. In its defense, 6G Internet said 6G was "currently in development, and they understood there was no timescale for when the technology would become available or what the capabilities of the technology would be," and suggested that the number 6 alluded to the Wi-Fi 6 router they supplied rather than a sixth mobile generation. The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form, adding sternly: "We told 6G Internet Ltd not to imply a sixth-generation mobile network existed and was able to be used by consumers."

  • Google is to help train 20,000 young Nigerians in digital skills, Reuters reports. The program will be funded by a grant from Google's philanthropic arm in partnership with Data Science Nigeria.

  • Boston IT Solutions South Africa has hooked up with Liquid C2 to deploy Azure Stack infrastructure across Africa. The first of the data centers will be opened in Zambia, enabling businesses there to access cloud offerings that meet local regulatory requirements and run latency-sensitive business applications.

    — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

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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