There are many carriers in Europe attempting to make the transition from plain-old telco to whizz-bang technology company, but Telefónica is making the best fist of it. That is the conclusion drawn by Omdia (a Light Reading sister company) in a new report, "'Telco-to-Techco Strategies Benchmark." According to Omdia's analysts, Telefónica ranks fourth in the world in the telco-to-techco stakes, behind three Asian companies but ahead of all its European rivals. Specifically, the report highlights the progress made by the Telefónica Tech subsidiary, which provides digital services such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, IoT and artificial intelligence. The report also focuses on how Telefónica is promoting the transformation of its networks and systems through what it calls its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) program, which aims to make the technological transition toward a more "disaggregated" and "softwarized" architecture.

The Dutch government is attempting to wrest back control of export licensing requirements relating to some of the extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography equipment made exclusively by ASML, equipment that is used to make advanced chips powering top-of-the-range computers and other devices, including Samsung's smartphones. According to a Reuters report, the US had previously unilaterally regulated the export of such equipment in a bid to restrict access to the technology by Chinese chipmakers. (See ASML, an obscure Dutch firm, may be the most vital cog in tech.)

Pan-African operator MTN has rallied round Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita after allegations by an unspecified number of employees that Mupita gave preferential treatment to a female executive surfaced in the media. In a statement, MTN said that "attempts to engage with the complainant [via an independent law firm] were unsuccessful and found that there was no evidence of improper conduct by those cited in the complaint." The MTN board accepted the law firm's findings and now considered the matter closed, the statement added. (See also: MTN board backs CEO Ralph Mupita amid favoritism allegations)

Nearly 77 million patients worldwide are now being remotely monitored through IoT technology, according to a new study from Sweden's Berg Insight. This number includes all patients enrolled in so-called mHealth care programs in which connected medical devices are used as a part of the care regimen, though connected medical devices used for various forms of personal health tracking, such as Fitbits, are not included in this figure. The three main applications of the technology, says Berg Insight, are monitoring of patients with sleep therapy devices, glucose-level monitoring of patients with diabetes and monitoring of patients with implantable cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices.