GTS Central Europe, which owns and operates an extensive fiber network spanning the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, has upgraded to 100G with the help of Ciena. After a trial period, GTS went with Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform with WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors to provide 100G capacity along its high-traffic routes in Poland, Czech Republic and Germany.

Neelie Kroes, the European Commission's ever-busy vice president for the Digital Agenda, has been presenting her vision of a single European market for telecom to the European Parliament, reports Bloomberg. The "Connected Continent" plan calls for roaming charges to be killed off and rules governing networks across Europe to be standardized. (See Euronews: Roaming Cuts Kick In, Big-Time and Euronews: 'Single Market' Plan Rolls Into Action.)

French conglomerate Vivendi is once again considering selling off SFR, its telecom unit, reports Reuters, citing French newspaper Les Echos. SFR has struggled in the face of competition from cut-price challenger Free Mobile, and Vivendi wants to focus its energies on its pay-TV, music and video-game interests. (See Euronews: SFR Drags Vivendi Down, Euronews: Vivendi Vexed Over Free Ride and Iliad Disrupts the French Mobile Scene.)

On the subject of things Vivendi, the Moroccan government is insisting that Middle Eastern operator Etisalat takes on a local partner as a condition of buying the French company's 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom, reports Reuters. (See Euronews: Bidding War for Maroc Telecom Stake.)

The convoluted saga of who owns what at operator Turkcell has taken another turn, with a British court ruling that Turkish conglomerate Cukurova Group must pay $1.57 billion to recover its stake in Turkcell, a stake that was seized by Russian group Altimo after Cukurova defaulted on a loan repayment. The full, mind-bending details can be found in this Reuters report.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. plans to invest more than €100 million ($128 million) in Romania during the next five years, according a report on Balkans.com. The Chinese vendor now claims a headcount of 800 in this eastern European country.

Gilat Satcom Ltd. has supplemented its satellite data services coverage of Africa with an MPLS transport network that connects the continent's east and west coasts and also offers international connectivity via the WACS and EASSy subsea cables. The company is also considering building some data centers targeting, among others, oil and gas firms operating in the region.

The CBI, a U.K. business lobby group, has called on the British government to, in a nutshell, pull its finger out on the rollout of "super-fast" broadband. In its "Let's Get Digital" report (not to be confused with this Olivia Newton-John paean to posing pouches), it calls on the country's politicians to "set aside the carping" so that they can "map out digital plans together for the next decade and beyond." (See Euronews: UK Fiber Funding in Disarray.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading