Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Danish joint venture appoints CEO; Interoute throws down the gauntlet; Italian quartet face the music.
A consortium of vendors, operators, SMBs and academic organizations is hoping to keep Europe at the forefront of 5G developments with the launch of 5G NORMA, which (almost) stands for "5G Novel Radio Multiservice adaptive network architecture." The group is proposing an "end-to-end architecture that takes into consideration both Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network aspects," and says it will base its approach on NFV principles. It is expected that the consortium will have a 30-month lifespan, beginning this month. Vendors involved include Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) , Nokia Networks , NEC Corp. (Tokyo: 6701) and ATOS, while on the carrier side, Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT), Orange (NYSE: FTE) and Telefónica are all signed up.
Telia Company and Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN) have appointed Hilde Tonne CEO of their proposed joint venture in Denmark. Tonne was already part of Telenor's group executive management. Telia Denmark's CEO Søren Abildgaard and CFO Dennis Kilian have been appointed as respectively deputy CEO and CFO. However, the joint venture is by no means certain to go ahead, as it already faces a "statement of objections" from the European Commission .
Interoute Communications Ltd. is citing test results from a "cloud agency" called Cloud Spectator that state Interoute's transatlantic cloud service delivers greater throughout and lower latency than Amazon Amazon Web Services Inc. , Rackspace and Microsoft Azure. That's what Eurobites calls "picking a fight." (See Interoute Claims Transatlantic Cloud Service Bragging Rights .)
Four Italian mobile operators face non-compliance proceedings from the country's telecom regulator, reports Reuters. Telecom Italia (TIM) 's TIM, Vodafone Italy , Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA and H3G Italy are having their knuckles rapped for continuing to supply customers with payable services they did not knowingly request.
Recently formed components vendor Socionext Inc. has been highlighting its involvement in the recent "record-breaking" optical transmission trial -- achieving 38.4 Tbit/s over 762 km/472 miles -- that took place on the Lyon-Marseille-Lyon link of Orange's network. The other companies involved in the trial, which was part of the ongoing CELTIC-Plus SASER (Safe and Secure European Routing) project, were Coriant, Ekinops and Keopsys. (See Socionext Touts Role in Record-Breaking Optical Trial.)
Alcatel-Lucent has completed the transfer of its optical transport equipment plant and related services in Trieste, Italy to Flextronics. The two companies have also signed a five-year renewable contract for the supply of optical products.
Vodacom Pty. Ltd. 's proposed takeover of fixed-line operator Neotel (Pty) Ltd. has received the backing of South Africa's Competition Commission, reports Reuters, though there are strings attached.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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