Nokia is trumpeting a 5G rollout deal with TTN, Telenor and Telia's joint network in Denmark. The Finnish vendor will provide its ReefShark SoC-based AirScale 5G RAN product range, including 5G massive MIMO antennas to deliver enhanced mobile broadband services to TTN's consumer and enterprise customers. The rollout will initially focus on Denmark's four largest cities before expanding to cover most Danish customers during 2022. TTN is Denmark's largest mobile network, comprising more than 4,300 sites.

Telia and Nokia are also involved in a new standalone 5G private network for Kalmar, a cargo handling company. The network will operate at Kalmar's Technology and Competence center in Tampere, Finland, which has extensive facilities for prototyping, simulation and testing. While Telia is providing the connectivity, Nokia is supplying its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) offering, which is described as an industrial-grade digitization platform that provides a reliable private wireless network with industrial connectors and edge computing capabilities on a cloud-based monitoring system.

South Africa's MTN is hoping to roll out open RAN technology across its mobile network by the end of 2021, with the help of Altiostar, Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, TechMahindra and Voyage. The move is partly motivated by MTN's desire to reduce its power consumption and associated carbon emissions. MTN says it first rolled out open source technology in 2019 to improve rural coverage.

The Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group (Gigatag), a body set up at the behest of the UK government to help promote high-speed broadband, has produced a set of recommendations which it hopes will get things moving, gigabit-wise. Among the more interesting items on the list: Regulator Ofcom and industry should develop common and less confusing terminology to describe broadband services, while the government should undertake its own nationwide awareness-raising activities, consider funding for "local digital champions," subsidizing small businesses' broadband and doing more to encourage "social tariffs" for low-income families struggling to afford decent broadband. All laudable stuff, but a lot of it strangely familiar…

UK fiber provider Hyperoptic has gone with EXFO for its network testing needs, choosing the cloud-based Nova Fiber offering. Hyperoptic supplies fiber to multi-dwelling units and single houses across more than 40 UK towns and cities, and it is expanding its footprint through its partnerships with over 250 developers and 50 councils.

Sky, the UK-based provider of pay-TV and more, has opened its first retail store in London, at the Westfield Stratford City shopping mall. The company already has similar outlets in a number of other UK cities, offering its TV, mobile and broadband products all under one roof, as well as in-store advice.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading