The Italian competition authority has opened an in-depth investigation into Swisscom's planned €8 billion (US$8.7 billion) acquisition of Vodafone Italia to check whether it complies with Italy's merger rules. Swisscom maintains that the deal is still "on track" and is likely to complete in the first quarter of 2025. It added that the acquisition has already received unconditional approval from both the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Italy (so-called "Golden Power" legislation) and the Swiss competition commission. Vodafone's sale of its Italian unit is part of a series of transactions pursued by Vodafone to either rid itself of underperforming operations or bolster them in Italy, Spain and the UK. (See Vodafone agrees to €8B sale of Italian biz to Swisscom.)

Nokia and OTE claim they have set dual world-record optical transmission rates over long distance using the Finnish vendor's super-coherent photonic service engine technology. In the field trial run under what the companies call "real conditions," 800 Gbit/s was achieved on a single channel over 2,850km, while 900 Gbit/s was recorded over 1,290km. This was carried out over a DWDM link transmitting a full load of DWDM channels over 4.8THz of spectrum and supported a total network capacity of 25.6 Tbit/s per fiber. The companies also demonstrated 1.2 Tbit/s transmission on a single channel over 255km.

Nordic operator Telenor has hooked up with Google Cloud to bolster its analytics capabilities. Telenor will use Google Cloud's BigQuery, integrated with Vertex AI and Looker, to enhance its existing on-premises data platforms across Telenor's Nordic businesses into a more harmonized cloud-native data and analytics orchestration platform, called Nova. Additionally, Google Cloud will provide Telenor with real-time data tools, enabling the operator to generate deeper analytical insights in a matter of minutes rather than days.

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has introduced what it calls the "one touch switch" process for broadband and landline customers wanting to switch to or from a different network, such as going from BT to Virgin Media. Under the new process, landline and broadband customers in theory only need to contact their new provider to make the change and do not have to pay notice-period charges beyond the switch date. Providers have been trialling the process since July with largely successful results, says Ofcom, though it admits that a minority of switches might be unsuccessful under the new system, due to "outstanding issues" when matching customer information. For this reason, existing switching processes are being kept in place as a backup for a six-week transition period.

Sparkle, the international services arm of Telecom Italia (TIM), is providing Airtel Business with capacity on its Blue & Raman subsea cable, which connects Italy and India. With this additional capacity, Airtel says it will be able to further diversify its global network across multiple international subsea cable systems to serve the growing demand for data services in India and its neighbors.

The UK government is officially designating data centers as Critical National Infrastructure, allowing the government to support the sector in the event of it being hit by the likes of large cyberattacks, environmental disasters or IT blackouts. The announcement comes as a plan by data company DC01UK to build in Hertfordshire what is described as Europe's largest data center – in what would be a £3.75 billion ($4.89 billion) investment – is unveiled.

Saily, the eSIM pecialist that is part of Lithuania-based Nord Security, has launched an offering for business travelers that it says will provide connectivity for employees in more than 150 countries. Once the eSIM is installed, users can top it up with mobile data plans that will activate automatically once the user reaches their destination.

UK altnet Hyperoptic has launched a managed Wi-Fi service for managers of apartment blocks that it says guarantees site-wide, consistent connectivity, with dedicated portals simplifying onboarding for residents and guests. The service includes account management, round-the-clock support and appropriate hardware. Research commissioned by Hyperoptic to coincide with the launch of the service found that 23% of renters "thoroughly check" Wi-Fi speeds before committing to a new property.