Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone offers fiber broadband in three more UK cities; GDPR fines, and who's getting them; ElevenPaths acquires Govertis.

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

August 25, 2020

3 Min Read
Eurobites: Deutsche Telekom makes cloud gaming play

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone offers fiber broadband in three more UK cities; GDPR fines, and who's getting them; ElevenPaths acquires Govertis.

  • Deutsche Telekom has commercially launched its own cloud gaming platform, called MagentaGaming. Customers who book the service by October 31 can use it free of charge for three months; after that, a monthly fee of €6.95 (US$8.22) kicks in. The service was launched in beta form a year ago at the Gamescon convention, and since then more than 20,000 users have given it a go. For the commercial launch, MagentaGaming appears in a new design, with some new functions, including the ability to set appropriate age group restrictions for their children. Deutsche Telekom clearly sees gaming as a major potential growth area: In July it invested €2 million (US$2.2 million) in RemoteMyApp, a Polish cloud gaming company, while last year it acquired a 25% stake in Cologne-based SK Gaming.

    • Vodafone has extended its Gigafast Broadband service to three new UK cities following a deal with Openreach, BT's semi-autonomous network access arm. Around 360,000 homes and businesses across Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool will now have access to speeds of up to 900 Mbit/s over full-fiber connections (so nearly Gigafast then, if we're going to be pedantic…). Vodafone hopes to increase this figure to 500,000 premises by mid-2021. Twelve other UK towns and cities are part of an existing full-fiber broadband agreement with CityFibre. Prices for a Gigafast 900 plan start at £55 ($72) a month.

    • The European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) more than two years ago, since when Accepting Cookies has become virtually a full-time job for many laptop-based wage slaves. Research company Finbold has released a study looking at which countries are the worst offenders when it comes to GDPR violations, and it seems Spain is ahead of the game, accruing 76 fines in 2020 to date. However, in terms of actual fine values, Italy rules the roost, notching up an impressive €45.6 million ($53.9 million) worth of knuckle-raps. The most common GDPR violation? "Insufficient legal basis for data processing." (See Vodafone Spain falls foul of GDPR regs (again), Eurobites: Privacy Champion Slams Web Giants Over GDPR Tactics and Eurobites: Most EU States Still Not Ready for GDPR.)

      GDRP Fines 2020 - Finbold

      View full data here

    • ElevenPaths, the cybersecurity arm of Telefónica, is to acquire Govertis, a company specializing in the dark arts of GRC (governance, risk and compliance) and IRM (integrated risk management) consulting. The acquisition is linked to Telefónica's startup incubation work through Wayra. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

    • Sweden's Net Insight has landed a media transport deal with Arena Sport, a pay-TV sports network which is based in Serbia but broadcasts throughout the Balkans. The deal, which centers on Net Insight's Nimbra platform, is worth approximately €150,000 ($177,000).

    • Swisscom is getting deeper into the insurance market, teaming up with travel insurance specialist ERV to offer flexible travel insurance that customers can take out on a daily basis, and partnering with AXA-ARAG to offer "Easy Cyber Insurance" to provide legal protection in cases of identity theft credit card misuse, online bullying and fraudulent retailers when shopping online.

      — 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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