Telecom Italia (TIM) has signed up to the smartphone Eco Rating initiative that was set up last year by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, Telia Company and Vodafone to provide accurate information at point of purchase on the environmental impact of producing, using, transporting and disposing of smartphones and feature phones. Each device is assigned a score, on a scale from 1 to 100 – the higher the score, the more environmentally friendly the phone. During 2022, EE, NOS and Proximus also joined the initiative.

Telia has come up trumps in a test of Sweden's four largest mobile networks carried out by Umlaut, which is part of Accenture. The testing process was carried out over an extended period in larger metropolitan areas, smaller municipalities and along road networks. Telia received 941 points out of a possible 1,000, 81 points more than its nearest competitor. The other three main mobile operators in Sweden are Telenor, Tele2 and Three.

Swisscom is to propose Monique Bourquin as a new board member, replacing Barbara Frei, who will step down at the end of March 2023. Bourquin served as CEO of Unilever Switzerland for several years and now sits on the board of a number of companies in the food and consumer goods sectors. Swisscom intends to expand its group executive board from six to nine members from April 2023.

Also on board patrol is Telefónica, which has sought to beef up the leadership of its myriad advisory boards with six new additions. Rosauro Varo, José María Alonso and María Jesús Almazor join the Telefónica España Advisory Board; María Paula Camacho and Gonzalo Martín-Villa join the Telefónica Hispam Advisory Board; and Marisa de Urquía joins the Telefónica Tech Advisory Board.

France's privacy watchdog, CNIL, has fined Microsoft €60 million (US$63.88 million) for failing to put in place a mechanism that allows its website users to refuse cookies as easily as accepting them, Reuters reports.

The Guardian, the UK's left-leaning broadsheet newspaper, suffered a suspected ransomware attack on Wednesday, the BBC reports. Staff were told to work from home, though the company still manage to publish globally to its website.

This is the final Eurobites of 2022. Eurobites Towers wishes you an agile and seamless holiday season. In the words of the late, great Terry Hall, enjoy yourself (it's later than you think).

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading