A new report from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has called for more consolidation in the European telecom sector and the harmonization of EU-wide spectrum licensing rules. The Future of European Competitiveness, as the report is called, covers a broad range of topics and industries, but in the section on the telecom sector Draghi says the "cornerstone initiative" for the EU is to modify its stance toward "scale and consolidation of telecoms operators to deliver a true Single Market, without sacrificing consumer welfare and quality of service." On the spectrum front, he calls for "EU-wide design features to help create scale." It's a stance that appears to fly in the face of some of the EU's previous pronouncements on such issues, not least those of EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, who as recently as April said that there was no evidence to suggest that "more concentrated national markets lead to better outcomes." (See Eurobites: EU's Vestager remains unconvinced by clamor for consolidation and EU bigwigs gibber about M&A and fume about Huawei.)

An investment consortium led by Iliad founder Xavier Niel has completed its acquisition of Ukraine's third-largest mobile operator, Lifecell. As Reuters reports, the operator will merge with Datagroup-Volia, a company offering fixed-line and pay-TV services. "The closing of this landmark transaction will serve as a signal to others that Ukraine offers compelling opportunities, and that the time to invest is now," said Niel in a statement. Lifecell was previously owned by Turkish operator Turkcell.

Vodafone Germany is going all-out on solar power, committing to equip all basestations and smaller regional data centers on its fixed network with solar panels by the end of 2025. Once installed, calculates Vodafone somewhat randomly, these panels could generate enough energy per year to charge a small electric car almost 28,000 times and drive around 6 million kilometers. Initially, the operator will work with solar power specialist Sonnenkraft to equip 86 network locations across the country with photovoltaic panels, each with an output of 398 kWp (kilowatt peak).

The European Court of Justice has had a busy start to the week. First, it set aside a previous judgement by the EU's General Court concerning tax rulings issued by Ireland in favor of Apple, concluding in a final judgement that Ireland had given illegal tax benefits worth €13 billion (US$14.3 billion) to the tech behemoth and they should be clawed back into Irish state coffers. Second, the court upheld a fine of €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) imposed on Google for what was seen as abuse of its dominant position by favoring its own comparison-shopping service, dismissing the search giant's previous appeal against the fine. Your move, tech titans...

Belgian operator Proximus has announced a strengthening of its partnership with Infosys, centered on exploiting the products and services offered by Proximus's international subsidiaries such as Route Mobile and Telesign. The new collaboration will, says Proximus, improve digital security by providing "robust DI [digital identity] and fraud protection solutions, ensuring trusted communication online."

Deutsche Telekom has officially opened its new cybersecurity center in Bonn, which, says the operator, is drawing heavily on artificial intelligence and machine learning to help fend off the bad guys. Each day, says DT, the Master Security Operations Center analyses several billion pieces of security-relevant data from a quarter of a million data sources "almost fully automatically," as well as evaluating up to 95 million attempted attacks on its Internet-based decoy traps.

Online platforms have overtaken "traditional" TV as the main source of news in the UK for the first time, says communications regulator Ofcom. According to Ofcom's figures, 71% of adults now get their news fix online, compared to 70% still turning by default to ye olde tellybox. More than half of UK adults (52%) now use platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to access news, up from 47% in 2023. But age is a massive factor here: only 28% of those aged 55 or over access news via social media, compared with 82% of 15-24s who prefer the Facebook/YouTube/Instagram/whatever route.

Talking Pictures, a surprisingly successful UK TV channel that is run by a father and daughter team and operates out of a humble garden shed, has turned to Sweden's Accedo for its streaming needs. Accedo will draw on its SaaS platform, Accedo One, to enable Talking Pictures TV to deliver its cult-following fare online.