In Croatia, Nokia has teamed up with OIV, a provider of nationally strategic communications infrastructure, to supply a 5G private wireless network to AD Plastik, a manufacturer of automotive components based in Zagreb. According to Nokia, its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) application platform will provide reliable 5G connectivity for machinery in AD Plastik's factory, overcoming the limitations of the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure.

In other private network news that involves Nokia, Virgin Media O2 Business has switched on a 4G network for British Sugar connecting four factory sites spanning the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Nottinghamshire. The network, which Virgin says is easily upgradeable to 5G, will connect multiple IoT (Internet of Things) devices, hopefully boosting productivity and improving on-site health and safety.

Once the weekly pantomime of Prime Minister's Questions is over and done with, the UK government's Product Security and Telecoms Infrastructure Bill will get its second reading in parliament today. The proposed legislation is intended to prohibit sales of connected digital devices with poor or non-existent cybersecurity. Under the terms of the bill, easily guessable default passwords which come programmed into digital devices will be banned, and manufacturers will have to be more transparent to customers about the length of time connected products will receive security updates. Smartphones, smart TVs, games consoles and smart-home devices will be affected.

Sky's European rollout of NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service continues apace, with select customers in Germany and Austria now getting access to it at no additional cost. Switzerland and Italy are next on the list.

Deutsche Telekom has been rated the most valuable telecom brand in Europe in the latest Brand Finance Global 500, coming in second only to Verizon globally in terms of telcos. The German incumbent is now worth US$62 billion, say the branding boffins – an increase of 18% over the previous year's figure. The most valuable brand in the list is, of course, Apple.

Openreach, the semi-autonomous network access arm of BT, is investing £27 million ($36 million) in a network upgrade in the Yorkshire and Humberside region of the UK. Once the work is complete, 90,000 more homes and businesses will be able to access full-fiber broadband, should they so desire.

Lavishly sideburned Canadian rocker Neil Young has issued an ultimatum to Spotify, the Sweden-based audio streaming service, saying that if the platform doesn't drop the COVID-skeptic Joe Rogan podcast he will pull his music from the platform. "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both," harrumphed the grizzled songsmith in a letter to his label that briefly appeared on his website. And that presumably includes evergreen floor-filler The Needle and the Damage Done.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading