Telecom Italia Sparkle , the international services arm of the Italian incumbent, has appointed Stefano Siragusa its new chairman and Riccardo Delleani its new CEO.

Middle East operator Etisalat has gone with Netcracker Technology Corp. for NFV orchestration, automation and more to support its Sahaab multivendor cloud program. The operator is hoping that its cloud-based network will be able to support new services such as 5G and the Internet of Things.

Russian cable operator ER Telecom has acquired Bryansk Cable Networks (BKS) for an undisclosed fee, Broadband TV News reports. BKS provides broadband services to around 40,000 subscribers in Bryansk, a city south-west of Moscow.

UK cable operator Virgin Media Inc. (Nasdaq: VMED) is offering 350Mbit/s "ultrafast" broadband to around 4,000 residential and business premises in the Welsh town of Wrexham. Previously the average download speed was 18.4 Mbit/s, according to Virgin.

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) has introduced a new "guest WiFi" service for small businesses, which the operator claims offers a more secure way for their customers to get online. The likes of B&Bs, coffee shops and gyms often leave themselves open to malware and other cyber risks by sharing the login details to their private networks with customers, but BT says this new offering on its Business Smart Hub router improves security by providing WiFi access to guest users over a secure network which is entirely separate from the company's private network.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading