Eurobites: Switzerland's Sunrise plans job cuts in new year

Sunrise, the Swiss operator that has been a part of the Liberty Global empire since 2020, plans to cut 200 jobs in the first quarter of 2024. According to a company announcement, the redundancies will fall on those in management roles and other back-office areas – customer-facing positions will not be affected. André Krause, Sunrise's CEO, said that the corporate structure is being "streamlined" so that the company can "increase [its] flexibility and competitiveness in the market and to build a foundation for stable growth in the coming years." Sunrise recently renewed its MVNO contracts with TalkTalk and Digital Republic, which are both part of the Mobilezone group.

Deutsche Telekom, working in tandem with Ericsson, has equipped the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg with a private 5G standalone network which will be used to research the use of wireless connectivity for industrial production and business processes, among other things. The campus network comprises six indoor antennas and two further micro transmitting stations outdoors.

Nokia has deployed its AVA energy efficiency software for Kenyan operator Safaricom to help reduce its power consumption across its 5G, 4G and 3G networks. The software uses AI and machine-learning algorithms to shut down idle and unused equipment automatically during low usage periods. The rollout, covering approximately 30,000 cells, is expected to lead to network energy cost savings of 8-10%, according to the Finnish vendor.

Telecom Italia (TIM) has formalized the structure of its fixed-infrastructure "NetCo" unit in readiness for the completion of its sale to US investment firm KKR, which is expected to happen in the summer of 2024. Around 20,000 people work for the unit. (See TIM plots enterprising approach after NetCo sale.)

Guidelines for secure AI system development rustled up by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre have been endorsed by equivalent agencies in 17 other countries, the US, France, Germany and Italy among them. The agreement is being seen as a follow-up to the UK government's much-trumpeted AI Safety Summit earlier in the month, which climaxed with the fireside-chat bromance of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk.

Gigaclear, one of the myriad UK alternative network providers doing their level best to steal BT's lunch in the fiber rollout game, is bringing gigabit-capable broadband to around 16,000 homes and businesses, around 10,000 of them in rural parts of Oxfordshire and the rest in in northeast Staffordshire. The deployments, which are backed by £43 million (US$54 million) in state funding, form part the UK government's Project Gigabit.

Today's Guardian newspaper carries an obituary for Alistair Dixon, who has died aged 62 after a career in the telecom industry which spanned three decades and included a role in the development of the Three mobile network in Ireland in 2004-2005. After his time in telecom, Alistair moved into the hotel business with his husband Robert.