Eurobites: Telefónica Deploys Nokia's Virtual Router

Omantel Wholesale has connected the Gulf to Africa (G2A) and Silk Road Gateway-1 (SRG-1) cable systems to help deliver ultra-low-latency networking between Africa and Asia. SRG-1 connects Oman to Pakistan with onwards connectivity to Afghanistan, China, Iran, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, while G2A connects Oman to Somalia and provides onward connectivity to Ethiopia.

Denmark's TDC A/S (Copenhagen: TDC) has had a disappointing third quarter, with revenue down 2.3% year-on-year to 5.2 billion Danish kroner (US$775 million) and operating profit down 11.6% to DKK 2.2 billion ($328 million). According to CEO Pernille Erenbjerg, TDC's domestic market is still proving to be hard going, though things look a little rosier in Norway. TDC has recently sold its Swedish subsidiary to Tele2 AB (Nasdaq: TLTO) for 2.9 billion Swedish kronor ($322 million).

Nordic operator Telia Company has criticized the Swedish government's decision to cancel the planned auction of spectrum in the 700MHz band for reasons relating to concerns about the country's public safety network. In a statement, Telia said that the decision "greatly complicates and delays the important expansion of mobile infrastructure in particularly rural areas."

Lycamobile, the MVNO that specializes in serving migrant communities, is launching 4G services in Sweden in partnership with Telenor. The operator now says its expanded Swedish network covers 99.5% of the Swedish population.

Israel's Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) has signed up to the Facebook -led Telecom Infra Project (TIP), which aims to bring connectivity to the "unserved and underserved" across the world. (See Gilat Satellite Networks Joins Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Facebook, TIP Splash Some Open Sauce on Optical Networking.)

Mitel Networks Corp. has netted a deal with Nordsee, a leading European fish retailer. Mitel's cloud and collaboration tools will be used to connect multiple Nordsee sites; rivals who missed out on the contract were said to be gutted.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading