>Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefónica's smart bins; Ericsson draws on Viavi's geolocation smarts; Orange wants to plant trees.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

December 8, 2021

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Colt beefs up its metro network with help from CityFibre

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefónica's smart bins; Ericsson draws on Viavi's geolocation smarts; Orange wants to plant trees.

  • Colt Technology Services has teamed up with CityFibre to beef up its metro network in eight UK cities, Glasgow, Leeds and Bristol among them. According to Colt, the partnership enables it to use an "innovative access model" to connect commercial buildings as on-net locations, supporting managed Colt services. Colt's IQ network comprises 29,000 on-net buildings and more than 900 data centers across Europe, Asian and North America.

    • Telefónica's IoT and cybersecurity unit, Telefónica Tech, is providing 5G narrowband (NB-IoT) connectivity for a "smart bin" project in Barcelona. The bins in question feature a special connected "ring" that can recognize the barcode on the discarded packaging and identify what type of waste has been placed in them. The scheme can also reward those doing the recycling, allowing people who are prepared to digitally identify themselves to score points that can be exchanged for environmental incentives or donated to causes that are of benefit to wider society. Figure 1: Smarter than your average bin. (Source: Telefonica Tech) Smarter than your average bin.
      (Source: Telefónica Tech)

    • Ericsson has added geolocation capabilities from Viavi to its Intelligent Automation Platform, which the Swedish vendor describes as a service management and orchestration product that enables any mobile network to be, as the name suggests, intelligently automated. Viavi is supplying its Nitro Mobile product, which captures, locates and analyzes "mobile events" across the network, providing operators with a clearer window into what's going on and – potentially – make more money from it.

    • If in doubt, plant a forest. Orange has become the latest telco to get in on the tree-growing game, creating a €50 million (US$56.4 million) "carbon fund" that promises returns in carbon credits only. The Orange Nature fund will invest in various carbon sequestration projects around the world: afforestation, reforestation and the restoration of natural ecosystems such as mangrove swamps. The project forms part of Orange's commitment to achieve "net zero" by 2040. (See The greenwashing of telecom.)

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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