Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vivendi slams Elliott's management of Telecom Italia; CityFibre goes with Calix for SDN bells and whistles; Deutsche Telekom gets biometric.
Telia Company has launched a "pre-commercial" test 5G network in Helsinki's city center with the ultimate aim of starting commercial services in early 2019 following Finland's 3.5GHx frequency auction. The trial network, set up in collaboration with Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), will run on test frequencies issued by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority.
And the Telia/Nokia love-in has also resulted in Nokia signing a long-term agreement to use the service hosting facilities at Telia's recently opened Helsinki data center, the largest of its kind in Finland, according to the carrier.
Vivendi has slammed the management of Telecom Italia (TIM) by activist investor Elliott as "disastrous," Reuters reports. Elliott wrestled control of TIM from Vivendi in May, promising a major shake-up at the carrier, but since then TIM's share price has gone south by 35%, noted Vivendi. (See Telecom Italia Molders as Shareholders Feud.)
UK altnet CityFibre has chosen AXOS, Calix's software-defined access operating system, to add extra programmability and intelligence to its growing fiber network. (See CityFibre's Gigabit Vision.)
Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) has chosen Nuance Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAN)'s biometric technology to help simplify the customer authentication process when customers are calling the service hotline. Customers will be able to speak their requests rather than navigating their way through a phone menu, and the sound of their voice will be used to confirm their identity. For more details, see this story on our sister site, Telecoms.com.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) has warned that EU proposals to limit the use of data mining to non-profit bodies could severely hamper the region's digital development, Reuters reports. Next week the European Parliament will take a vote on the proposals ahead of talks with member states and the European Commission.
UK-based Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) has signed a "partner market" agreement with Telecom Argentina (NYSE: TEO), under the terms of which Vodafone will provide strategic advice to and share examples of "global best practice" with the South American carrier.
Sweden's Net Insight AB (Stockholm: NETI-B) has teamed up with Bambuser, a mobile live streaming platform, for a remote TV production offering that will allow footage shot from mobile phones to be combined with that shot from professional TV cameras in a "seamless" way. The product will be on show at IBC later this month.
Also showing its wares at IBC will be Agama Technologies AB , which has partnered with THEO Technologies, purveyor of the THEOplayer universal video player. The pair hope that their partnership will allow OTT video service providers to combine their respective technologies to ensure a high-quality video experience for their customers across all browsers and devices.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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