Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom teams up on urban data; Openreach goes with Viavi for network management; Proximus in Bruges.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

March 2, 2021

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom bids for vaccination passport contract

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom teams up on urban data; Openreach goes with Viavi for network management; Proximus in Bruges.

  • Deutsche Telekom is hoping to land the contract to design and implement a "digital vaccination passport" in Germany, and is planning to submit a bid under a government tender for the project, Reuters reports. If DT gets the gig, however, it will have to get a move on: The German Health Minister wants the vaccination passports to be ready in 12 weeks, as part of the European Union's plan to enable its citizens to travel between countries again. The operator co-designed with software giant SAP Germany's Corona Warn App, which has been downloaded nearly 26 million times.

    • Deutsche Telekom is also part of an initiative looking to develop a data-driven platform that could help use urban data more efficiently and form the basis for the smarter cities of the future. The "Daten-Kompetenzzentrum für Städte und Regionen – DKSR" (Competence Center for Cities and Regions), is an independent company that has emerged from a joint venture between DT, Fraunhofer Morgenstadt, the Urban Software Institute and Axxessio.

    • Openreach, the semi-autonomous network access arm of BT, has chosen Viavi's Optical Network Monitoring System (OMNSi) to help speed up its full-fiber broadband deployment. The product, says Viavi, facilitates the management of fiber optic networks with fewer technicians through remote testing and accurate plant documentation.

    • Belgium's Proximus is taking the opportunity provided by the dearth of tourists in the normally rammed city of Bruges to crack on with its fiber rollout there. Construction is already underway in certain districts, and large parts of the city center will be connected before the end of the year, promises the operator. Proximus' rollout is underway in 17 cities across Belgium, with more than 460,000 homes and businesses already connected to fiber.

    • Eir Business, the B2B arm of the Irish incumbent telco, has completed its merger with Evros Technology Group, an IT services company. Inevitably, the merged entity hopes to provide "end-to-end solutions" across telecom and IT services, taking in cloud, cybersecurity and software development.

    • Russia-based BSS specialist Nexign is putting its faith in a universal billing offering based on open source database management systems. The product will be developed using a combination of its own money and a grant from the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT) and will, says Nexign, give customers the choice between using mainstream commercial databases and moving to open source database systems, such as PostgreSQL.

    • BT is boosting its appeal to sports nuts by adding, at no extra charge, Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 to its Big Sport and VIP packages. As well as tennis, cycling, motor racing and more, Eurosport is also covering this year's Tokyo Olympic Games, assuming they actually take place.

    • Three UK has announced that the application process for its two-year graduate intake program is now open. The program, which kicks off in September, will see 31 graduates join the mobile operator across five different business areas: technology, commercial, business, finance and HR. More details can be found here.

      — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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