Eurobites: Elisa helps Ålcom turn to solar power for basestation backupEurobites: Elisa helps Ålcom turn to solar power for basestation backup

Ålcom, the local operator serving Finland's Åland Islands, is to power its basestation batteries through solar panels, using Elisa's Distributed Energy Storage (DES) offering. Deploying DES, which, as you would expect, comes sprinkled with AI and machine-learning fairy dust, increases the resilience of Ålcom's network, says Elisa, and reduces its dependence on the grid. Among other benefits, DES optimizes the timing of electricity purchases from the grid by scheduling charging and discharging periods for the batteries to help take advantage of lower prices.

Deutsche Telekom has won a court case, the result of which will force the European Commission to pay it €1.8 million (US$1.9 million) in compensation relating to interest on an annulled part of a fine that the Commission refused to hand over. As Bloomberg reports, Deutsche Telekom was fined €31.1 million ($33.3 million) in 2014 for actions that were seen as stifling its broadband rivals. On appeal, that fine was cut by €12 million ($12.8 million), which has already been repaid by the Commission. It was the interest on this amount that was at issue.

Nokia has introduced Network Exposure Platform (NEP), a new software offering intended to expand and simplify the number of application programming interfaces (APIs) available to operators and their partners. NEP is, says Nokia, the first implementation of the GSMA Operator Platform standard. It supports Linux Foundation CAMARA APIs, TM Forum Open APIs and edge-based APIs, among others. APIs allow developers to use network capabilities to build new applications for their customers.

Bulgaria's Vivacom has begun testing 5.5G, the technology that is based on the recently finalized 5G Advanced (Release 18) standard. As Bulgarian website Nova reports, average download speeds of more than 10 Gbit/s and upload speeds of more than 1 Gbit/s were achieved. Vivacom is particularly interested in using 5.5G in industrial applications, drawing on RedCap (reduced capability) and passive IoT technologies.

Free, the Iliad subsidiary, has brought the Max streaming service onto its TV platform in France, with subscriptions starting at €5.99 ($6.42) a month. Max includes content from the likes of HBO, Warner Bros., Eurosport and Discovery.