Eurobites: Virgin Media O2 gets gigabit to 10M UK homes

Ukrtelecom and Iskratel have together launched a €12 million fiber network expansion program in Ukraine, with gigabit connectivity set to reach 530,000 homes. The three-year program will provide more than 300 locations in various Ukrainian regions with gigabit-capable connectivity.

Nokia has hooked up with Infradata to connect ten regional NorthC data centers in the Netherlands to create a single "virtual data center" called Region Connect Ring in which data, applications and cloud services are available to customers located in any NorthC data center.

California-based Roku is to begin rolling out its streaming players in Germany later this year, its second European market after the UK, where it is a software partner of smart TV maker Hisense. As Reuters reports, Roku will be up against the likes of the Amazon Fire TV stick and Google Chromecast.

M-Pesa, the African mobile money platform launched by Vodafone in 2007, has reached 50 million monthly active users, with the number of customers doubling in the past five years. The milestone comes 18 months after Safaricom and Vodacom launched the M-Pesa Africa joint venture to accelerate growth of the service across the continent. M-Pesa has proved a boon in COVID-19 times, as transaction volumes have increased 44% year-on-year in the first quarter of the current financial year – although, for Safaricom at least, this didn't translate into increased M-Pesa revenues, as the Kenyan government told the financial services platform to reduce tariffs on small peer-to-peer transfers to reduce cash usage and help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum's SMS Protection Registry, which was developed and piloted in the UK, is being launched in Ireland and Singapore. The registry is intended to tackle the growing problem of SMS-based fraud – in the UK, major banks and government brands are being protected, with 352 trusted sender IDs registered to date. Conversely, more than 1,500 unauthorized variants are being blocked on a growing list, including 300 sender IDs relating to the government's coronavirus campaign.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading