Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ireland's Openet scores in the Philippines; say hello to Hoopo; Deutsche Telekom puts the joy into parking.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

January 30, 2018

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Telefónica Seeks 'Agility' Through Corporate Restructuring

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ireland's Openet scores in the Philippines; say hello to Hoopo; Deutsche Telekom puts the joy into parking.

  • Telefónica is proposing a "generational change" in its organizational structure which it hopes will simplify the company and make it more "agile." Among the changes being put before the board this week are the unification of the previously separate departments of General Counsel and Public Affairs & Regulation, with Pablo de Carvajal heading up the combined entity. Domestically, it is proposed that Emilio Gayo will replace Luis Miguel Gilpérez as executive chairman of Telefónica España, while María Jesús Almazor, up until now director of the operator's Southern Spain region, will occupy the new role of chief operating officer. For further proposed changes in Telefónica's Central and South American operations, see this news release.

    • Openet Telecom Ltd. , the Ireland-based supplier of "customer experience" software, has been chosen by Globe Telecom Inc. of the Philippines to implement its Digital Business Platform. Globe, which counts more than 60 million mobile customers, hopes that the Openet offering will beef up its legacy business support systems.

    • Israel's Hoopo, which sells a geolocation (or tracking) system for devices on low-power wide area (LPWA) networks, has launched itself on the world, announcing in the process that it has received $1.5 million in funding in develop its business from a group of investors that includes Ben Marcus, CEO of AirMap.

    • Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) has begun rolling out a sensor system to support a "digital parking service" in Hamburg. The sensors provide information on free parking spaces, offering, it says here, a sense of "Park and Joy" to the city's drivers. (Lovin' the positivity, guys!) The plan is to roll out the system to other congested German cities this year, including Bonn, Dortmund and Duisburg.

    • The UK courts have ruled that significant parts of the Investigatory Powers Act, which was criticized by human rights organization Liberty as an "extreme mass surveillance regime" and colloquially branded a "snooper's charter," are unlawful. As the Guardian reports, a lack of privacy safeguards in the legislation that paved the way for the Act led to it being condemned as "inconsistent with EU law." Several major companies, Vodafone and Apple among them, criticized the legislation when it was in draft form. (See Eurobites: Vodafone Slams 'Snoopers' Charter'.)

      — 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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