Eurobites: Sky's UK and Ireland boss steps down

Stephen van Rooyen has decided to step down as CEO of Sky UK and Ireland after 17 years with the Comcast-owned purveyor of pay-TV, broadband and more. In a statement on LinkedIn, van Rooyen said he believed it was the "right time" to make a move, adding that the "journey has been extraordinary … Better than almost any I could ever have imagined." According to Variety, van Rooyen's team will now report directly to Sky group CEO Dana Strong. Prior to his time at Sky, van Rooyen worked as director of strategy and planning at Virgin Media after a six-month spell as a consultant with Nokia.

Meanwhile, striding through the "in" door at Ericsson is Lars Sandström, who arrives as the Swedish vendor's new chief financial officer, replacing Carl Mellander. Sandström is currently CFO at Getinge, a medical technology firm; prior to that he was worked at Volvo and Scania, among others. Mellander, who today unveils Ericsson's full-year and fourth-quarter earnings, will officially leave the company at the end of the first quarter.

Apple has coughed up $13.65 million in payment of a fine imposed on it by Russia's antitrust authority for what was viewed as abuse of market dominance. As Reuters reports, the fine relates specifically to in-app payments. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Apple paused all product sales in Russia and limited its Apple Pay service there.

A new report from Sweden's Enea examines the use of mobile phone tracking in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and in particular the claim by the Russians that the use of such tracking was behind Ukraine's successful strike on Russian troops in Makiiva on New Year's Day 2023. The report, which was based on open source material combined with intelligence from Enea's own mobile network, concludes hesitantly that it may have been possible for Ukrainian forces to track signals from the Russians' mobile phones and thereby locate them.

Three Finnish universities are collaborating on research into how large language models – the algorithms that can perform natural language processing that lies behind the likes of ChatGPT – can be integrated into 6G infrastructure. The University of Oulu, Aalto University and the University of Helsinki are appealing for contributions to a forthcoming white paper on the subject.

Proximus has been carrying out trials of live broadcasting via 5G in collaboration with RTBF, Belgium's public broadcaster. During the trials, a temporary private 5G network was set up in Bertrix enabling RTBF to connect two remote-controlled cameras and receive video feeds from these cameras in their control room on the site of the "Viva for Life" event. These two panoramic cameras were connected to a 5G network dedicated to RTBF, while the audience on site got to watch the live feed on a screen connected to a 5G router.

UK-based Neos Networks has updated its Livequote platform for wholesale connectivity buyers, adding 15 new features such as real-time order and quote status and chat messaging.

Sunita Sharma is returning to UK altnet Hyperoptic as the company's new head of brand and communications, after spending three years with Lit Fibre as its director of customer experience. Sharma was part of the Hyperoptic team at its launch in 2011.