Eurobites: Openreach Looks Further Down the Fiber RoadEurobites: Openreach Looks Further Down the Fiber Road

And on the subject of UK broadband… Vodafone is claiming a UK industry first for its decision to share some of its 4G spectrum with StrattoOpencell, a move which allows the latter to offer high-speed mobile broadband in remote areas beyond the current reach of fiber connectivity. Under the terms of the three-year deal, which takes advantage of a recent ruling by UK telecom regulator Ofcom, StrattoOpencell will use Vodafone's 2600MHz spectrum to offer mobile data speeds of up to 120 Mbit/s to residential and business customers. Users at a holiday park in the (mainly rural) English county of Devon will be the first to benefit from the arrangement.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto faces the pleasure of sitting down with his US counterpart Donald Trump today to discuss "5G alternatives" to equipment from Huawei and ZTE, Reuters reports. Previewing the meeting, an unnamed US official said: "Finland is home to Nokia which has quickly developed 5G technology that is at least on par with that of Huawei and ZTE and presents one of the viable alternatives to those countries that cherish privacy of their citizens' data, the integrity of their networks, the security of their critical infrastructure."

Telensa, a UK-based "smart streetlight" specialist, has launched Urban IQ, an offering that connects sensors on light poles and then "visualizes" the collected data using a dashboard built on Microsoft software. Urban IQ is designed to work with any mix of sensors, including those from third parties.

Swisscom is benefiting from the decision of three Swiss banks -- Basler Kantonalbank, Bank Cler and Neobank Yapeal -- to outsource some of their processing of financial transactions. Swisscom operatives handle the banks' connection to local and global payment systems, and screen incoming and outgoing financial transactions for the banks in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Telefónica boss José María Álvarez-Pallete has been trying to bring members of the European Parliament up to speed with the challenges being presented with the transition to "the new digital economy." Speaking to them in Brussels, Álvarez-Pallete said: " The transition presents challenges that we must address. It is about data, it is about the digital economy, it is about fundamental rights. We have to prepare our networks for this traffic explosion." The sub-text being: So don't make it any more difficult for us than it already is, guys.

Nokia is patting itself on the back for what it describes as its "12 months of 5G achievements." Among the "six world firsts" it trumpets are the tests into new aspects of the 5G standard in real-world industrial conditions at the Port of Hamburg in Germany and the first over-the-air 5G data transmission using 2.5GHz and massive MIMO antenna technology, on Sprint's live commercial network in San Diego. (See Eurobites: DT, Nokia Put 5G to the Industrial Test.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading