And here's another four-year contract win: This time it's Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD), which has won a €100 million ($108 million) deal with utility firm ScottishPower Energy Networks. Vodafone will manage and upgrade performance monitoring and fault identification systems across the company's power transmission and distribution networks, which cover more than 3.5 million homes and businesses across the UK.

Anders Olsson has left his job as EVP of strategic projects at Tele2 AB (Nasdaq: TLTO) to join Nordic rival Telia Company as COO and head of global services and operations. Olsson will get his feet under his new desk by July 8 at the latest. (See TeliaSonera Appoints Anders Olsson as COO.)

Elsewhere in the Nordics, OSS vendor Netadmin System i Sverige AB has appointed Mats Ekelund its new CEO. Ekelund's previous roles include stints at Sogeti and Scala Business Systems. He replaces Olle Hillström, who has acted as interim CEO for Netadmin throughout 2015. Netadmin became a part of Canada's Volaris Group in 2015. (See Netadmin Appoints New CEO.)

The UK has got a taste for OTT video services -- but it prefers the flavor of the free stuff. That is one of the conclusions of a report into the European OTT market by Parks Associates , which found that BBC's iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD (now All4), and Demand5 -- all free catch-up or on-demand offerings from broadcasters -- are the most popular services. As far as paid OTT services go, Netflix has a clear lead over its rivals, with a near 20% share of the UK's broadband households subscribing to its product.

GÉANT , the pan-European research and education network, has deployed Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN)'s Cloud Xpress offering to to extend its 100G network connectivity into data centers. The GÉANT network connects over 50 million boffins and boffin-support workers at 10,000 institutions across Europe, supporting scientific research in areas such as energy, the environment, space and medicine. (See GÉANT Connects Data Centers With Infinera's Cloud Xpress.)

Telecom Italia (TIM) 's towers business, INWIT, has finalized the purchase of 76 sites for mobile networks in the Lombardy region of Italy. INWIT paid €7.9 million ($8.5 million) for the sites.

As the world celebrates the engagement of Sky founder Rupert Murdoch to down-on-her-luck former supermodel Jerry Hall, his company has been told by regulator Ofcom that it must offer its customers whose line rental costs increased last month an extra 30-day "amnesty" to exit their broadband and landline contracts without incurring a financial penalty, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Irish BSS supplier Openet Telecom Ltd. is offering its OVLM (Openet VNF Lifecycle Manager) software free of charge from March onwards. Openet hopes that the move will accelerate the adoption of vendor-interchangeable and interoperable virtual network functions (VNFs) and help operators to realize the benefits that open NFV is claimed to deliver. (See Openet Offers Free VNF Manager Code.)

Lise Fuhr has begun her reign as director general of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) . Prior to taking on her new role, Fuhr was COO of DK Hostmaster and DIFO, the company managing Denmark's .dk domain name.

Network operator Interoute Communications Ltd. is to open a new UK office in the city of Nottingham. The new digs -- in a refurbished Art Deco building, no less -- will be home to Interoute's group finance and UK sales employees.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading