EU regulators imposed a total of $1.3 billion in fines related to the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws during 2021, according to a Bloomberg report. The two largest fines were handed out to Amazon ($851 million) and WhatsApp ($256 million) – the former incurring the wrath of the Luxembourg data protection authority and the latter upsetting the Irish equivalent. The worrying stat for the tech titans is that the overall fines total represents a sevenfold rise on the equivalent figure in 2020. (See Europe's GDPR: Don't Get Lost in Translation.)

The minority shareholders in South Africa's Vodacom have overwhelmingly voted in favor of the company's acquisition of a 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt for approximately 41 billion South African rand (US$2.738 billion). The proposed deal is conditional upon approval from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) and Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA). According to Vodacom, more than 80% of Egypt's 100 million population are "unbanked," so the operator sees great potential in digitally-based financial services there.

Proximus has signed an agreement with ORES which will allow the operator to use ORES' electricity poles to roll out fiber in Belgium's Wallonia region. According to Proximus, the deal will accelerate the creation of a multi-gigabit network open to all interested telcos, even in less densely populated areas of the region.

Neos Networks has won the contract to deliver a new dark fiber network serving the higher education and research sector in the north-west of England. The new network – which has been commissioned by Jisc – will replace the existing Janet North network and will provide gigabit capability to all sites covered.

In what is an extension of an existing contract, Norwegian mobile operator Ice has chosen Asset network planning software from Teoco to help it deliver 5G services.

UK altnet CityFibre has announced plans to extend its full-fiber network in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, pumping an additional £19 million ($25.8 million) into the project. Vodafone, TalkTalk and Zen are among the Internet service providers already using CityFiber's network in the so-called Granite City.

The government of Oman has signed a cooperation agreement with Huawei that will see the Chinese vendor work in tandem with local operator Omantel to "promote the development of ecosystem partners through 5G innovative solutions and platforms" in the Arab state.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading