Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Millicom pulls out of Wari deal; SEE launches cloud connectivity service; fiber for Yorkshire.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

July 31, 2017

2 Min Read
Eurobites: Ofcom Consults on 26GHz Band for 5G

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Millicom pulls out of Wari deal; SEE launches cloud connectivity service; fiber for Yorkshire.

  • Ofcom , the UK telecom regulator, has launched a consultation aimed at gathering input from interested parties -- or "stakeholders," as it terms them -- on the issue of making the 26GHz band available for 5G. The regulator is hoping to hear specifically from operators wanting to deploy networks as well as equipment manufacturers planning to build chipsets and network gear. The 26GHz band is also known as mmWave spectrum and is currently being prepared across Europe as the first high-frequency band for 5G.

    • Millicom International Cellular SA (Nasdaq: MICC) , the operator with extensive interests across Africa and Latin America, has terminated its agreement to sell its Tigo Senegal operation to Wari Group and instead signed a fresh deal with a consortium that includes NJJ Capital, the private holding company owned by France-based telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel. According to our sister site, Connecting Africa, Wari had failed to secure financing for the deal.

    • SSE Enterprise Telecoms, the UK data center operator, has launched Cloud Connect, a new service offering businesses a private, dedicated Ethernet connection to its preferred cloud services, be it Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure, enabling the businesses to bypass the public Internet.

    • UK altnet CityFibre has teamed up with NGC Networks on a plan to deliver full-fiber gigabit connectivity to businesses in the northern English cities of Wakefield, Bradford and Huddersfield.

    • The parliamentary constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber in the West Highlands region has some of the loveliest scenery in Britain -- but it's also got the worst broadband. That, as the BBC reports, was the verdict reached by the British Infrastructure Group of MPs, whose study revealed that 65.6% of connections in the constituency were below the UK government's proposed minimum standard of 10 Mbit/s.

      — 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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