Eurobites: Nokia and Elisa claim European 5G cloud RAN firstEurobites: Nokia and Elisa claim European 5G cloud RAN first

Following a trial of the technology last year, Nokia and Finnish operator Elisa have now completed what they say is Europe's first commercial 5G cloud RAN deployment, in conjunction with Red Hat OpenShift, the hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes. The deployment completed end-to-end 5G voice and data calls with Nokia's 5G cloud RAN box of tricks, including its AirScale massive MIMO radios, baseband software and AI-assisted MantaRay network management solution. (See Nokia tells Ericsson to put up or shut up on cloud RAN.)

Nokia has also combined with Motorola on a "drone-in-a-box" offering for first responders and other emergency workers. The joint effort sees Nokia's 5G-connected UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) system allied to Motorola Solutions' drone software. It enables mission-critical industries to remotely dispatch drones from one or more operation centers to assess emergencies while receiving AI-powered intelligence that can inform decisions to help keep workers and premises safer. (See Eurobites: Swisscom and Nokia combine on nationwide drone network.)

Vodafone has launched an – uh-oh it's that phrase again – AI-powered anomaly detection tool for the IoT market. The tool, developed with Celfocus, tracks and learns from previous traffic patterns and, says Vodafone, identifies service anomalies "within minutes." (See Eurobites: Vodafone brings LTE-M into its IoT mix.)

Titan OS, the independent European operating system for smart TVs, has chosen ThinkAnalytics software to beef up its connected TV advertising offering, Titan Audience Segments. Available via its advertising arm, Titan Ads, Titan Audience Segments analyzes viewership data from Titan OS TVs to help advertisers better target their output.

Telefónica and Epic Games have agreed a long-term deal to make Fortnite and the Epic Games Store more accessible on Telefónica Android devices. As a first step, the Epic Games Store will now be pre-installed on all new compatible Android devices on the Telefónica network in Spain, the UK, Germany, Mexico and Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Telefónica's fiber infrastructure subsidiary, Bluevía, has appointed Carlos Posa as its new CEO, succeeding Luis Rivera. Posa is currently director of devices, supply chain and circular economy at Telefónica Spain; prior to his time at Telefónica he worked as a business consultant at Europraxis. (See Telefónica forms rural fiber JV under Bluevía brand.)

BT has been singing the praises of Sprinklr's AI-enhanced (check!) customer experience management platform, which provides the foundation for Aimee, EE's virtual assistant (EE being BT's mobile arm). Example: BT says that the GenAI-bolstered experience within Aimee which helps customers prepare for international travel has halved the need for online chat/messaging support, thanks to its ability to respond to customer needs. Around 60,000 customer "conversations" per week are now handled through Aimee, compared with around 30,000 per week two years ago, says BT. (See How BT worked to avoid GenAI lock-in.)

Brits are going to bed later, getting up earlier and going into the office more often, according to Virgin Media O2's latest "Year in Review" study, which combines broadband, mobile, movement and TV data with national polling findings to reveal trends in human behavior. In other news, the study found that broadband usage has risen by 8.1% over last year in data terms, while mobile data has seen a 9% uplift.