Eurobites: KPN teams up with pension fund to create new towercoEurobites: KPN teams up with pension fund to create new towerco

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom and Accedo extend the soccer-watching experience; privacy group attacks Meta's planned data scrape; Nokia bolsters DDoS attack protection.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

June 6, 2024

3 Min Read
KPN logo on office building
(Source: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro/Alamy Stock Photo)
  • KPN and Dutch pension fund ABP have joined forces to create new tower company called, for the moment at least, TowerCo. TowerCo will hold the passive mobile infrastructure assets of KPN, as well as those of NOVEC and OTC. This will add up to a portfolio of around 3,800 towers and rooftop sites in the Netherlands. TowerCo and KPN have reached a long-term master service agreement, setting out the terms under which KPN will continue to be a tenant of TowerCo for an initial period of 20 years. The new company is hoping to increase tenancy levels of its network by providing easier access to its towers and rooftops.

  • Deutsche Telekom and Sweden's Accedo are combining to showcase the potential for extended reality (XR) technology to soup-up the live soccer watching experience for users of DT's MagentaSport TV streaming service. The XR application, promise the companies in their press release, will "blend fans' physical and virtual worlds by displaying the match in the space around the fan, while also introducing a new layer of interaction where fans can access supplementary information such as team and player statistics and watch replays from different angles." That sounds harder work than actually playing.

    Deutsche Telekom TV soccer system
  • A pan-European data privacy group led by well-known Austrian activist Max Schrems has attacked Meta's plans to harvest users' personal data to help mold its own pet AI monster. In a statement, NOYB (None of Your Business) said it has become apparent that Meta plans to "use years of personal posts, private images or online tracking data for an undefined 'AI technology' that can ingest personal data from any source and share any information with undefined 'third parties'." This discovery has prompted NYOB to file complaints in 11 European countries, asking the respective data protection authorities to launch "an urgency procedure" to prevent Meta from initiating its mass data scrape, which was due to start on June 26.

  • Telecom Egypt and subsea operator SubCom says they have successfully completed the IEX Subsea cable system's landings in Egypt. The subsea system, which lands in Egypt at two cable landing stations – Zafarana2 on the Red Sea and Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean – connects two seas and two continents over two trans-Egypt terrestrial crossing routes. Once completed, the IEX system will connect Mumbai to Milan.

  • Nokia has upgraded its distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation capabilities, allowing, it says, its Defender Mitigation System software to better meet the demands of communications service providers and large digital enterprises when it comes to fighting this type of cyberattack. According to Nokia, DDoS attacks have become more frequent over the last two years, with many CSPs and businesses facing more than 100 attacks daily.

  • Liquid C2, part of the pan-African Liquid Intelligent Technologies empire, claims it has become the first Google Cloud Interconnect provider in Africa. Through this arrangement, says Liquid, customers will able to reduce their reliance on the public Internet, while improving security and business performance.

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About the Author

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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