Eurobites: Vodafone Signs Up to Open Source IoT Group

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: T-Mobile Austria picks Huawei for optical transport boost; TrueSpeed wins investment for rural rollout; BT qualifies to bid for US government work.

Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD), the Europe-based mobile giant, has signed up to the Prpl (pronounced "purple") Foundation, an open source consortium focused on improving the security and interoperability of embedded devices within the Internet of Things. Through joining the group, Vodafone hopes to accelerate the harmonization of software platforms for in-home devices such as routers. Enrique Marti del Olmo, Vodafone Group's head of fixed devices, connectivity and security, will join the Prpl Foundation's board of directors.

T-Mobile Austria has chosen Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. 's OTN optical transport offering for its planned metro WDM and backbone WDM. The deployment will increase bandwidth to 200G per wavelength -- T-Mobile Austria's existing backbone network provides a maximum of 40 100G wavelengths, which is struggling to cope with growing traffic loads.

TrueSpeed Communications, a UK startup that has laid a fiber network serving five small towns in Somerset, has attracted an investment of £75 million (US$97.8 million) from Aviva Investors, a London-based infrastructure fund, the Financial Times reports (subscription required). The cash injection is intended to enable TrueSpeed to expand its network across rural Somerset.

BT Federal, a US subsidiary of BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA), has been chosen by the US General Services Administration (GSA) as one of the companies eligible to bid for work under the US government's Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. The EIS contract is intended to find contractors to deal with all aspects of the US government's IT, telecom and infrastructure requirements, and BT Federal's selection means it will be able to bid for work from individual US government agencies. Services falling within the contract's ambit include voice-over-IP, audio conferencing, web conferencing, cybersecurity and Ethernet services.

Four UK banks have been appointed to prepare the ground for an IPO of towers company Arqiva , according to Broadband TV News. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is the largest shareholder in the company, with 48% of the shares.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading