Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange PoPs into South Africa; du teams up with ecommerce portal; T-Mobile Netherlands gets TD-LTE in synch with Oscilloquartz.
Telefónica is to collaborate with Spanish carmaker SEAT on the development of connected-car technologies. The joint effort will focus on three main areas of work: the shared use of anonymized, aggregated data to help develop better mobility software; the application of 5G connectivity in connected cars; and the development of "digital transformation" projects as an integral part of the car manufacturing process. SEAT, a member of the German Volkswagen group, is the only company that designs, manufactures and markets cars in Spain.
Orange (NYSE: FTE) has opened two new IP and IPX points of presence (PoPs) in South Africa, one in Cape Town and the other in Johannesburg, offering better quality connections to surrounding countries.
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. (du) has struck up a partnership with SOUQ.com, which will allow du's customers to buy various telecom-related products, including SIM cards and top-ups, directly from the Amazon-owned online retailer.
T-Mobile Netherlands has deployed Oscilloquartz's OSA 5420 Series synchronization offering to enable the nationwide rollout of TD-LTE services. The box incorporates IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) technology.
Huawei Marine Networks Co. Ltd. has begun work on the construction of the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) subsea cable linking south Asia with east Africa. When complete, the 13,000km cable will connect Pakistan with Djibouti and Kenya, with a northern extension to Egypt and a southern extension to South Africa.
The Prime Minister of Ireland has revealed that a planned Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) data center in the west of his country could be in doubt. As Reuters reports, Apple boss Tim Cook failed to commit to the scheme when he met with Leo Varadkar. The project had already been delayed for two years due to planning objections. The Irish government's relationship with Apple is under pressure from the European Court of Justice, which is taking the government to court for its failure to recover up to €13 billion (US$15.3 billion) of unpaid tax which the Commission says is due from Apple. (See Eurobites: Don't Pick On Apple, Says Irish Telecom Tycoon.)
A group of doctors in London has teamed up with online healthcare provider Babylon to launch a pilot of a scheme that will allow those worried about their health to check their symptoms through a mobile app and then take part in a video consultation on their smartphone with a doctor within two hours of making a booking. However, as the BBC reports, the scheme has come in for criticism from the Royal College of GPs, which says that it will effectively allow prospective patients to be "cherry picked" by the group of doctors involved in the program, possibly at the expense of more elderly and vulnerable patients who prefer the continuity offered by a local practice.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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