Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Echostar teams up with Semtech for satellite-based services; Slovak Telekom increases its capacity with Intelsat; BICS simplifies SIMs.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

May 5, 2021

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Nokia launches blockchain-powered data marketplace

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Echostar teams up with Semtech for satellite-based services; Slovak Telekom increases its capacity with Intelsat; BICS simplifies SIMs.

  • Nokia has launched what it's calling a blockchain-powered data marketplace, a platform to facilitate the secure and trusted exchange and monetization of data for enterprises and communications service providers. The offering hooks into Nokia's existing Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING), which offers global IoT connectivity for a range of markets such as logistics and healthcare.

    • EchoStar Mobile, a mobile satellite services provider offering connectivity across Europe through a converged satellite and terrestrial network, is teaming up with Semtech to test satellite services enabled by the LoRaWAN protocol to bring new satellite-based connectivity to the IoT market.

    • Slovak Telekom has agreed a deal with Intelsat that will provide the operator with three new transponders for extra capacity, allowing it to beef up its presence in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, particularly with regard to its DTH TV services.

    • BICS, the international services arm of Belgium's Proximus, has added private mobile networks connectivity to its SIM for Things offering. This allows connected devices to function both inside and outside the private network on a single SIM, moving between the two scenarios as required.

    • A1 Telekom Austria Group has raised €2.5 million (US$3 million) in a Series A funding round for Whalebone, its cybersecurity startup that seeks to prevent communication with and downloads of malware. The round was led by Day One Capital.

    • Slightly further along the line is Antwerp-based Accelleran, a provider of open RAN software for 4G/5G networks, which has raised €6.8 million ($8.1 million) in in Series B funding in a round led by Cogito Capital Partners. Accelleran plans to use the funding to drive its expansion.

    • BT is adding Cisco's Webex videoconferencing software to its Cloud Voice offering, a cloud-based digital phone system for small businesses that works over the Internet or a private network and enables employees to make and receive calls with the same number, regardless of location or device.

    • Swisscom is to spin off a new startup, Rready, which will use the "Kickbox" innovation method to try to develop monetizable digital services. Among those backing Rready is Fyrfly, a Californian venture capital firm. Kickbox is a methodology developed by Adobe that encourages employees to come up with new business ideas.

    • What's shakin' on the UK fiber front? Well now, in no particular order: TalkTalk is launching 506Mbit/s full-fiber broadband in the Scottish town of Inverness; CityFibre is expanding its partnership with HighNet, bringing full-fiber services to the people of Glasgow and Renfrewshire through its new consumer brand, Brawband; and London's Community Fibre has signed a wayleave agreement with social housing landlord EastendHomes to bring full fiber services to 4,000 residents in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

    • Three UK has appointed Jon Davies as its director of digital. Davies joins Three after a six-year stint at Vodafone, though he has also done time at Adobe and Orange, among other companies.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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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