In related news, Orange's cybersecurity division, Orange Cyberdefense, is creating around 800 new roles across nine European countries. Roles up for grabs include analysts, engineers and ethical hackers. The company currently employs 3,000 people.

NTT Ltd., the UK-based unit of NTT Data, is pooling its expertise with France's SES to offer satellite-based edge and private 5G to enterprise customers. The joint offering will combine NTT's private 5G and edge computing knowhow with SES' second-generation medium-earth orbit communications system, O3b mPower.

Vodafone UK has installed its first on-site solar panels at a mobile telephone exchange (MTX) network site in Gloucester, a city in southwest England. The site will use electricity generated from the panels to reduce reliance on the UK's national grid. The installation forms part of a wider drive to increase the energy efficiency of its network, an initiative that also embraces data analytics, AI and IoT. Vodafone says that since 2019 energy consumption on its network has remained stable despite the amount of data being carried on it tripling.

Virgin Orbit, the satellite-launch company owned by UK moneybags Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to find new funding, the BBC reports. Last week the company announced that it was laying off 85% of its 750-strong workforce. The company was unusual in that it launched satellite-bearing rockets from beneath the wings of specially modified Boeing 747 planes.

Meanwhile, namesake Virgin Media has had a bad few hours, with thousands of its UK customers being left without access to the Internet since yesterday evening. In its most recent tweet on the subject, the company said: "We've restored broadband services for customers but are closely monitoring the situation as our engineers continue to investigate." Several customers, however – at least the ones on Twitter – were still experiencing problems as lunchtime approached on Tuesday.

Bertrand Kan and Peter Shore have resigned as board members of Spanish towerco Cellnex after eight years in the role. According to Reuters, the resignations were prompted by pressure on the company's management from activist fund TCI, Cellnex's largest shareholder.

Has the ChatGPT backlash begun in earnest? A report in Handelsblatt (in German) quotes the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, Ulrich Kelber, as saying that "in principle" Germany could take a similar approach to that of Italy, which has temporarily banned ChatGPT. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for our generative AI overlords-in-waiting. Almost.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading