Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KPN provides coverage to North Sea oil rigs; ITU identifies 5G spectrum; more Telia staff changes; Cobham goes deeper underground.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

November 22, 2019

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Germany Cools on Huawei's 5G Future

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KPN provides coverage to North Sea oil rigs; ITU identifies 5G spectrum; more Telia staff changes; Cobham goes deeper underground.

  • In another sign that, despite earlier indications to the contrary, Huawei may be at least partially squeezed out of the German telecom equipment after all, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told members of her Christian Democratic party (CDU) that Germany will use more European components in the rollout of its 5G network than it does in the existing infrastructure. According to Reuters, Merkel told the CDU's executive committee that while Huawei-made kit accounted for around 70% of the existing mobile network, both Ericsson and Nokia would bet a bigger piece of the network action in the future. (See Eurobites: Our 5G Door Is Open, Germany Tells Huawei.)

    • Dutch incumbent KPN has teamed up with Tampnet, a company specializing in telecoms for the offshore energy industry, to expand 4G coverage in the North Sea for business customers. The installation of an offshore antenna network will expand the current coverage area by more than 5,000 sq km, taking offshore mobile coverage as far as 300km from the Dutch coastline. This will be a boon not only to those working on oil rigs but also to wind farm workers, fishermen and defense personnel. Figure 1: The North Sea? KPN and Tampnet have it covered. The North Sea? KPN and Tampnet have it covered.

    • Spectrum regulators at the ITU's World Radio Conference 2019 (WRC-19) in Egypt have identified several millimeter-wave frequency bands for 5G services. More than 10GHz of spectrum for 5G in the 26, 40, 47 and 66GHz ranges was earmarked, paving the way, says the GSA, for governments and regulators around the world to make frequency bands available for ultra-fast 5G offerings.

    • Telia's C-level staff changes continue with the news that Thomas Kjærsgaard, who has been serving as acting CEO at Telia Denmark since September, has been upgraded to permanent CEO. On Thursday Telia Norway announced that its current CEO, Abraham Foss, was leaving, to be replaced by Stein-Erik Vellan. (See Eurobites: Telia Norway Brings in New Broom.)

    • Cobham Wireless's idDAS (intelligent digital distributed antenna system) offering on Berlin's underground transport network has been expanded to deliver 4G coverage to customers of Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, building on an existing arrangement with Telefónica.

    • BT has done a deal with Amazon which allows new and existing BT TV customers who recontract to sign up for Amazon Prime Video free of charge for six months, meaning that they can access the live soccer matches being screened exclusively by Amazon Prime in December and January. This season, for the first time, Amazon Prime is showing two full Premier League "rounds," consisting of 20 matches.

    • Today sees the launch of Egypt's first communications satellite, Reuters reports. Tiba-1 is due to be fired into orbit at 21:08 GMT on one of Europe's Arianespace rockets from a space center in French Guiana.

      — 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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