Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 5G's Bastille day; T-Systems gets edgy; O2 does security deal with Sophos; Macron won't pick on Huawei.
Remote surgery is fast becoming operators' go-to showcase for how 5G can literally be a life-changing technology. Now Telecom Italia (TIM) has got in on the act, using 5G-powered immersive reality to allow a leading authority on surgical technologies, Professor Giorgio Palazzini, to remotely operate on a patient in an operating theater through the use of a virtual reality visor connected over 5G to three simulcasting cameras in the operating theater. The technology allowed Professor Palazzini to zoom in on important details, while in the same view showing the live image of the patient's internal organs, thanks to a web-connected laparoscopic camera. The whole procedure was livestreamed to more than 30,000 surgeons around the world.
In what is, by comparison with the above, a more frivolous demonstration of the wonders of 5G, UK mobile operator EE used augmented reality technology to livestream a performance by rock band Bastille to fans hundreds of miles away equipped with Nreal's mixed reality glasses and 5G smartphones. According to EE's breathless blurb, the "audio-visual extravaganza was presented as a 360-degree experience, giving fans a front row seat at Bastille's unique performance, complete with stunning augmented reality graphics, which featured city walls tumbling down, yetis and digital trains, making it a commute to remember."
Deutsche Telekom's IT services arm, T-Systems, has introduced an edge computing platform intended for use in production and logistics environments. Called EdgAIR, it works directly on site, says the company, negating the need to send data via a central computer center.
Telefónica UK, the mobile operator that trades under the O2 brand, is to offer security offerings from Sophos to its small and midsized business customers. Those signing up will be granted access to the Sophos Central cloud-based security platform to deploy, configure and manage their services.
Another day, another European leader sounds off about Huawei: Reuters reveals that when asked about potential security risks posed by the controversial Chinese vendor, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he would never look to stigmatize any particular telecoms company, or any particular country for that matter. (See Eurobites: Germany Cools on Huawei's 5G Future and Eurobites: Our 5G Door Is Open, Germany Tells Huawei.)
The number of "superfast" (30 Mbit/s or faster) broadband access lines in France has reached 10.6 million, representing a 2.3 million year-on-year increase in subscribers and 36% of all French broadband customers. This is the headline finding from the latest broadband "scoreboard" from communications regulator Arcep, a report which also found that majority of the growth continues to be in the "AMII Zones," those parts of the country where the Government has issued a call for investment letters of intent.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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