Eurobites: Proximus to Roll Out IoT Network

News Analysis Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe 7/10/2015

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone does deal with Mediaset on pay-TV content; Sky offers fiber for free (for a year).

Belgian operator Proximus is to roll out a wireless network based on so-called LoRa technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). LoRa (long range, low power, long distance radio) technology connects sensor-equipped devices automatically to the Internet. The network will be available in major Belgian cities by the end of 2015, and the rollout will continue throughout the rest of Belgium and into Luxembourg in 2016. (See LPWA: A Threat to 'Wait & See' IoT Operators?.)

Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) has done a deal with Mediaset which will allow the mobile giant to offer pay-TV content from the Italian broadcaster to its 4G customers in Italy, reports Reuters. Live Champions League soccer will be included in the package.

Sky is hoping to lure more customers to its fiber broadband offering by offering it free for the first 12 months. Sky is locked in a fierce battle with BT over both broadband and pay-TV, with each accusing the other of unfairly dominating different sectors of the market. (See BT Demands Action on Sky's Pay-TV Dominance and BT Guilty of 'Under-Investment,' Says Sky.)

Caspar Bowden, a leading campaigner against what he saw as intrusions into citizens' digital privacy, had died of cancer, reports the BBC. Bowden, who co-founded the UK's Foundation for Information Policy Research, was asked to produce a report on how US surveillance affected the rights of Europeans in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading