Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom Reaches Out to 'Smart Factory' Partners

Nokia has opened a 5G laboratory and demonstration area at its headquarters in Espoo, Finland. Called "5G Future X Lab," the facility will enable interested parties to learn more about 5G and gape in wonder at Nokia's demonstrations of network slicing and more. The vendor already has a (5G-less) Future X Lab in New Jersey. (See Nokia Opens '5G Future X Lab' at Finland HQ.)

UK regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation into the outage that afflicted customers on the BT-owned EE mobile network on May 21, 2019. As ISP Preview reports, the outage, which lasted for several hours, left some customers unable to contact the emergency services -- a failure that could see EE fall foul of the UK's Communications Act 2003.

In more positive news for BT, the operator has teamed up with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Facebook to launch their third annual competition for startups working in the telecom infrastructure field to join the TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centre (TEAC), which is based at the BT Labs in Martlesham, Suffolk and in London's Tech City. Interested companies should apply by October 18 via the TEAC website.

Following hard on the heels of T-Mobile in the US, Vodafone UK has teamed up with Microsoft for trials of the software giant's Project xCloud cloud-based game-streaming technology on Vodafone's 4G and 5G mobile networks. Those wanting to take part require a phone or tablet running Android 6.0 or higher and Bluetooth 4.0, a Microsoft account and a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One wireless controller. (See T-Mobile to Test Microsoft's 'Project xCloud' Game Streaming on Mobile in US.)

Nine out of ten Austrians never leave home with their smartphone, and the smartphones they take with them are increasingly likely to be secondhand ones. These are two of the findings of the latest attempt by Telekom Austria to gauge the influence of mobile phones on society. A press release on the subject provides Eurobites' quote of the week: "The development of written communication on smartphones is mainly attributed to the thrilling use of WhatsApp." Some of these Austrians need to get out more.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading