Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Broadcom fallout hits European chipmakers; O2 embraces the Apple Watch; Ericsson upgrades in Indonesia.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

June 14, 2019

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Telefónica Hooks Up With Santander for 5G Banking

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Broadcom fallout hits European chipmakers; O2 embraces the Apple Watch; Ericsson upgrades in Indonesia.

  • Telefónica has teamed up with Spanish banking giant Santander to develop a clutch of 5G "use cases" that aim to demonstrate how the emerging technology can play a useful role in the financial sector. Two bank offices in Alcobendas, near Madrid have been connected over 5G, and will use it for ultra-high-resolution videoconferencing. 5G will also provide the basis for a low-latency storage system embedded on Telefónica's edge computing infrastructure, as well as offering opportunities for virtual collaboration between bank employees.

    • Shares in European chipmakers dipped in early trading following a warning from US-based Broadcom that the fast-developing US-China trade war and anti-Huawei measures were hitting demand for chips, Reuters reports. (See Eurobites: US Huawei Ban Hits European Chipmakers.)

    • O2, the Telefónica-owned UK mobile operator, is extending its "custom plans" to include the Apple Watch, meaning that customers can get their mitts on the pricey fitness-focused gadgets by paying as little as £9.99 (US$12.62) a month for the first six months, and £14.99 ($18.94) a month thereafter, once they have paid the minimum £20 ($25.27) upfront device cost. The Apple Watch must be paired with an iPhone 6 or newer on an O2 postpaid monthly tariff. O2 introduced its custom plans last year, offering customers the choice of how much to pay for their device upfront and the length of their contract (between three and 36 months) and adjusting the monthly payments accordingly.

    • Ericsson has landed a core network upgrade contract at Indonesian mobile operator Telkomsel, preparing the ground for 5G rollout. The operator is being promised scalable software architecture, faster launches of new services and a lower total cost of ownership, among other goodies.

    • Vodafone ran into a spot of bother on its European networks on Thursday, with data-related problems being flagged up in the UK, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Germany. As the BBC reports, a fault with an international data pipe was blamed for the trouble.

    • Belgium's Proximus has been doing a bit of light re-branding, introducing the phrase "Think possible" (maybe it works better in Flemish) as its go-to mantra. It has also introduced several new products, a TV interface and a cloud gaming service among them.

    • Sigfox operator WND-UK is trumpeting the fact that 87% of the UK population is now covered by its IoT network. This summer WND-UK hopes to extend this to 90% population coverage, deploying around 2,000 Sigfox basestations in total. (See French Toast? Sigfox on Skid Row and Eurobites: Sigfox Gets Its Teeth Into UK IoT.)

    • Ooredoo Algeria has turned to Nokia to help it develop its next-generation network core, deploying what the Finnish vendor describes as North Africa's "first virtualized Mobile Gateway."

    • Dutch incumbent KPN has completed the sale of its remaining shares in Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG. The proceeds of the sale, says the operator, will be "retained to increase operational and financial flexibility."

      — 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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