Eurobites: UK telcos pledge to get more women into senior roles

Proptivity, a Sweden-based provider of indoor 5G infrastructure, has teamed up with Ericsson to bring what the pair describe as a first-of-its-kind indoor radio access network that can be used free of charge by all operators. Based on Ericsson's Radio Dot System, the network is located in a Stockholm shopping mall and office block owned by real estate company Fastpartner, which sees 5G as key to the future of its commercial properties. Surprisingly, perhaps, figures from the EU 5G Observatory show that Sweden is the slowest in Europe to roll out 5G, so all involved in this project hope that this "neutral host-led" shared approach will help the country catch up.

Back in the great outdoors, Ericsson's rival Nokia is claiming a new extended-range 5G mmWave downlink speed record on a test that used mmWave spectrum and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) over a distance of 10.86km at the OuluZone test facility in Oulu, Finland. Using Nokia's AirScale gear and eight component carriers, a top downlink speed of 2.1 Gbit/s was achieved, while on the uplink side of things 57.2 Mbit/s was recorded.

UK-based Colt Technology Services has expanded its cloud voice services by adding Genesys, Twilio and Zoom to its list of partners. Colt says it now can connect voice services with any cloud vendor that supports a Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) capability.

Sparkle, the international services arm of Telecom Italia (TIM), has appointed Elisabetta Romano is its new chairman (Sparkle's job title). The new appointment follows the resignation of Alessandro Pansa, who is leaving his role as president of Sparkle and Tesly in order, says the company, to better focus on his new position as a member of TIM's board of directors.

Don't expect any cage fighting between Thierry Breton and Mark Zuckerberg, but the EU and Facebook owner Meta have agreed to carry out a "stress test" on how the social media platform conforms (or not) to the EU's growing panoply of online content regulation. As Reuters reports, EU bigwig Breton said that he had had "productive discussion" with Zuckerberg, and seemed impressed that Meta already had 1,000 employees working on how its technology could comply with the EU's Digital Services Act.

UK operator BT has launched a Senior Skills program to encourage the over-65s to get more out of communications technology. Research carried out for BT found that though those in this age bracket were comfortable using Google Maps and WhatsApp, only 12% felt confident (or interested enough, presumably) to enter the brain-scrambling world of TikTok. This and other stats has prompted the operator to team up with UK charity AbilityNet to deliver more than 1,000 group and one-to-one training sessions to those over-65s who feel they need a guiding hand through the digital comms jungle.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading