Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Zain KSA sells towers; Vodafone collaborates on open RAN use case; Telenor's Myanmar sale prompts investor unease.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

February 16, 2022

3 Min Read
Eurobites: BT and Distributed are together in Elastic Teams

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Zain KSA sells towers; Vodafone collaborates on open RAN use case; Telenor's Myanmar sale prompts investor unease.

  • BT's Digital unit has signed a £30 million (US$40.6 million) deal with Distributed, giving it access to Distributed's "Elastic Teams" register of developers on an ad hoc basis to tackle particular projects "remotely and for varied durations" that it might otherwise not have the manpower to handle. The contract brings with it a seat on the Distributed board for BT and an equity stake in the business.

    • Zain Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) has approved the sale of an 80% stake in its 8,069 towers to the kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF) led consortium for 3.026 billion Saudi riyal ($807 million). The consortium offer will see PIF acquiring a 60% stake, Sultan Holding Company acquiring 10%, and Prince Saud bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz acquiring 10%. Zain KSA will own the remaining 20% stake. Zain will retain all other antennas, software, technology and related intellectual property.

    • UK-based Vodafone is to collaborate with Juniper Networks and Parallel Wireless on an open RAN "use case trial." The trial, initially running in Vodafone's test labs in Turkey, supports O-RAN interfaces and addresses the challenges faced by mobile operators around personalized user experience, viable revenue generation and reduction in both capex and opex for 4G and 5G services.

    • A number of investors in Telenor are feeling uneasy about the Nordic operator's sale of its Myanmar unit – most of it to local company Shwe Byain Phyu – and the implications it has for the security of customers' data. As Reuters reports, human rights groups have claimed the sale could put the data of 18 million people into the hands of the ruling military junta, and they have staged demonstrations about the issue in Myanmar in recent days. DNB Asset Management, Telenor's fourth-largest investor with a 1.64% stake, wants a meeting with Telenor to discuss the sale.

    • Discovery has announced plans to launch a cheaper, "Ad-Lite" version of its Discovery+ streaming service in the UK and Ireland for £3.99 ($5.41) per month, or £39.99 ($54.22) per year. The move follows the successful launch of an Ad-Lite offering in the US.

    • Deutsche Telekom, Hitachi Energy and Securitas have teamed up to form what they're calling an "alliance against blackouts." The idea is that the threesome will pool their expertise to help protect critical infrastructure against hackers. See this Hitachi paper for more details of how they intend to collaborate against the bad guys.

    • Virgin Media O2 is to end early disconnection fees for those customers moving to a home not connected to its broadband network, saving them, says Virgin, up to £240 ($325). Customers will need to provide proof of their new address to enjoy the beneficence.

    • The Belgian port of Antwerp has chosen the 6th Network consortium – comprising Proximus, Dronematrix and Skeydrone – for a project, D-Hive, which allows drones to be deployed without manual intervention in the port to support its core operations. For example, the drones can be used to detect oil slicks and floating debris. Proximus activated its 5G technology at the port in March 2020.

    • UK altnet CityFibre has partnered with Deepomatic with the intention of deploying its image-recognition technology across CityFibre's network by the end of the year. CityFibre's engineers can use the app-based interface to upload images of a network build, upgrade or maintenance-related work prior to closing a job. The images are then analyzed in real time to either sign off the work as complete or highlight issues that still need addressing before the diggers move on.

      — 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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