Eurobites: Openreach's full-fiber rollout could boost UK economy by £66B by 2029 – study

A new report from the UK's Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts that Openreach's full-fiber rollout could provide a £66 billion (US$82 billion) boost to the UK economy by 2029, bringing more than 620,000 economically inactive people back into the workforce and enabling more than a million people to work from home. The report also focuses on full-fiber's potential impact on children's education and on healthcare, claiming that over 13,000 more pupils could achieve pass rates that are higher at Key Stage 2 Maths, Reading and Writing as a result of the rollout and that 5 million more online and video appointments will be made available to National Health Service patients. It's worth noting that the CEBR was commissioned by Openreach to produce the report. (See Amid altnet woes, BT eyes dominance of full-fiber future.)

Telecom Italia (TIM) is to invest around €130 million ($135 million) in a new data center near Rome as part of a cloud-market push that will see TIM's overall data center capacity rise 125MW. The new facility, which will be connected to TIM's photonic network, is expected to be operational by the end of 2026. It will host GPU hardware suitable for AI applications and quantum cryptography equipment for increased security of data transmission.

Belgium-based operator Proximus has agreed to sell its 267 towers in Luxembourg to InfraRed Capital Partners for €108 million ($112 million). Proximus Luxembourg, operating under the Tango and Proximus NXT brands, will remain an anchor tenant at the sites being sold. The deal forms part of a broader Proximus plan to shed what it deems its non-core assets: The operator reckons more than half of its €500 million ($520 million) divestment target has already been covered, three years ahead of deadline.

Vodafone has been testing its connected driving safety system on the streets of Berlin. The Safer Transport for Europe Platform (STEP) uses the 5G network to connect road users with each other and with the transport authorities. Importantly, says Vodafone, STEP has been designed to be compatible with all existing third-party apps and in-vehicle navigation systems, so road users using any device can interact with it. During the trial, real-time information from pedestrians, road workers and cyclists was transmitted to cars via their smartphones. Data was processed on dedicated multi-edge computing servers that acted as mini data centers located close to the road, giving the data the shortest possible distance to travel and enabling latencies of less than 10 milliseconds.

Yogesh Malik has stepped down from his role as group CTIO at Tele2 after three and a half years with the company. Ove Wik, currently head of digital capabilities and technology at Tele2's Swedish unit, will cover Malik's duties on a temporary basis, effective today.