T-Mobile Netherlands has chosen Nokia to supply managed security services, and will use the Finnish vendor's NetGuard Audit Compliance Manager software to improve its compliance and minimize risks. Nokia will also modernize the operator's optical network by consolidating its existing Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks into one new core and aggregation network that covers the entire country.

China's Whale Cloud is on the hook for MTN Rwanda's business support system (BSS) software needs, supplying the African operator with real-time billing and customer relationship management software.

UK broadband provider Giganet is extending its partnership with CityFibre to provide full-fiber services across 27 of CityFibre's city and town networks, covering 1.8 million homes. Giganet, which has recently announced the completion of a £250 million (US$353 million) funding round, has been offering its gigabit packages to residents in the southern coastal city of Portsmouth over CityFibre's network since the start of the year.

Orange Ventures, the VC arm of French telecom giant Orange, has launched a €30 million ($36.6 million) investment vehicle dedicated to funding startups working in the fields of the environment, inclusion and so-called "caretech." The new vehicle will target young European startups in their seed stage or with proven development potential, initially investing between €750,000 ($915,000) and €3 million ($3.6 million) in each round of financing.

London-based Community Fibre is launching what it calls "a COVID-19 recovery service package" for new customers on welfare benefits from the UK government. The 10Mbit/s service has no data cap and costs £10 ($14.13) per month on a year-long contract.

Telecom Italia (TIM) has teamed up with the University of Rome to create a Communication and Digital Media Academy that will offer courses for those working or wanting to work in the digital communications sector.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading