Eurobites: Orange Goes Subsea With Google

Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is teaming up with Niantic and MobiledgeX in a bid to make augmented reality applications work better over mobile networks. Niantic, creator of Pokémon GO, will bring its Real World gaming platform to the party, using MobiledgeX APIs on "edge" servers and Deutsche Telekom's embryonic 5G network. (See Deutsche Telekom targets 99% 5G coverage in Germany by 2025.)

US-based Zayo Group Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) has announced "success-based" expansions [so much better than those failure-based ones -- Ed]) of metro fiber networks in four European markets, namely London, Paris, Dublin and Amsterdam. This is the plan: In London, Zayo will build a new fiber route from Hatfield, Hertfordshire to Stratford in east London, as part of a strategic ring outside the city; in Paris, Zayo will expand its footprint in La Defense, a major business district west of the city center; in Dublin, an unnamed multinational company has selected Zayo for a dark fiber ring around the metro area; and in Amsterdam, Zayo will upgrade and expand its fiber network between Schiphol-Rijk and the Amsterdam Science Park.

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Around 300 UK-based engineers are among those being transferred from chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor plc to Apple as part of a broader $600 million deal, the BBC reports. Boffins in Swindon (UK), Livorno (Italy), Nabern (Germany) and Neuaubing (also Germany) will be pledging their allegiance, whether they like it or not, to the Cupertino-based behemoth in an agreement that will also see Apple buying up some of Dialog's patents and facilities. Apple uses Dialog's chips to monitor power consumption in its iPhones and iPads.

The 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA), which represents the private side of the 5G Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) research program, has signed a letter of intent with the European Space Agency that the two parties hope will foster the development of new 5G services useful to the space sector.

Late for work? Need an app that can detect what mode of transport you're using and can automatically offer relevant advice? Me neither. But this is the scenario envisaged by researchers at the University of Sussex's Wearable Technologies Lab, who believe that the machine-learning techniques they have used in a global research competition could enable smartphones of downtrodden commuters to predict road conditions and offer route or parking recommendations. The research team collected the equivalent of more than 117 days' worth of data, monitoring aspects of commuters' journeys in the UK using a variety of transport methods to create what it describes as the largest publicly available dataset of its kind.

Figure 1: He's late for work... but is he bothered?

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading