Eurobites: Eir fined €2.8M for not playing ball on poles-and-ducts access

Irish operator Eir has been fined €2.8 million (US$2.95 million) for failing to allow other companies access to documentation about its infrastructure, specifically its poles, ducts and cabinets. As the Irish Times reports, communications regulator ComReg conducted a five-year investigation into the matter, concluding that Eir had failed to comply with "access and non-discrimination obligations." It's not the first time Eir has incurred the wrath of the regulator – last year it was fined almost €2.45 million ($2.58 million) for overcharging customers.

Dutch data center operator Cloudbear has chosen Nokia to upgrade its infrastructure. Nokia's deployment, implemented on the Kubernetes-based CBWS hosting environment, includes data center fabric switching and gateway routers that provide IP data center interconnection and IP peering.

The C-Lion1 subsea cable that runs between Helsinki and Rostock has been fixed earlier than expected following a so far unexplained rupture last week, Finnish website YLE reports. Another damaged cable, running between Sweden and Lithuania, is also working again, says Reuters (paywall may apply). Initially, Russian sabotage was thought to be the likely explanation for the damage to the cables, but now an anchor-dragging Chinese bulk carrier, the Yi Peng 3, seems to have become the chief suspect.

Vodafone has won praise for the due diligence it carries out on "conflict minerals" – metals that are sometimes mined in conditions of conflict or forced labor – used in its supply chain. Non-profit organization Development International said that Vodafone was "currently leading the charge by investing in high-quality conflict minerals due diligence and reporting and achieving full compliance to SEC regulations and conformance with OECD recommendations." The four conflict minerals – tin, titanium, tungsten and gold – are used in a range of everyday products, including smartphones and other electronic devices.

The AI juggernaut continues to gather momentum. A Swisscom study has found that 71% of Swiss people aged between 12 and 19 have tried out ChatGPT or similar applications, and a third of all young people already use AI tools at least once a week. The study, carried out in partnership with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), also found that there are clear signs of saturation in smartphone-based media use by young people, with a "natural ceiling" being reached.

Telefónica Tech has landed a cybersecurity gig at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. The agreement includes the provision of three discrete but related services: managed detection and response; digital forensics and incident response;  and digital risk protection.