BT has revealed that is has installed points of presence (PoPs) for its new Global Fabric network-as-a-service platform in more than 45 of the world's major cloud data centers, with the first commercial services due to launch in early 2025. Live testing of the platform has been carried out since it was switched on a couple of months ago. Customers that do not have network connections into the cloud data centers hosting Global Fabric PoPs will be able to order new links from BT. The operator is also rolling out a demo of Global Fabric's digital management portal, which is meant to allow IT teams to learn how to set up and optimize their network configurations and experiment with application programmable interfaces (APIs).

BT-owned mobile operator EE now has 25 new sites on the outdoor small cell infrastructure set up by Freshwave in London's financial district. EE says it is seeing up to 7.5TB of data downloaded per week across all of the sites involved in the initial pilot. "Dozens" more sites are in the process of being built, says Freshwave, which describes itself as a "connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider." The network can accommodate all four UK mobile network operators on 4G and 5G "from day one," says Freshwave.

Amsterdam-headquartered VEON has sold its 49% stake in TNS Plus, a Kazakh wholesale telecommunications infrastructure services provider, to its joint venture partner, the DAR group, for $137.5 million. Following the sale, VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan will continue to operate, with business continuity provided by long-term commercial contracts with TNS Plus.

A new 5G Immersive Lab has opened in the northern English city of Newcastle, a facility intended to help small and midsized companies exploit the full potential of the mobile technology. The lab has been set up by Digital Catapult.

Belgium's Proximus has abandoned its Banx digital banking venture with Belfius, saying that it proved too difficult to "achieve sufficient scale in an already mature market." The two companies still plan to work together, with Belfius offering Proximus customers certain exclusive benefits if they choose to sign up to Belfius' established banking operation.

Nokia has added a new fiber access node to its Lightspan product range. The MF-8 is designed for midsized deployments and offers, says Nokia, "unmatched" capacity, six-nine reliability and sub-millisecond latency. It is capable of delivering 10/25/50G PON services as well as providing 100G "readiness."

New Ofcom rules come in to force in the UK today mandating mobile operators to alert customers when they start roaming, letting them know any "fair use" limits that apply, how to set up a spend cap to limit their spend and where to find additional information about roaming. Back in the good old days, before the UK flounced out of the European Union, EU "roam like at home" rules applied, and the sun always shone. But that's another story…