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Intel and telcos left in virtual RAN limbo by rise of AI RAN
A multitude of general-purpose and specialist silicon options now confronts the world's 5G community, while Intel's future in telecom remains uncertain.
Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle Nibbles into northern Europe; UPC mobile customers move over to Sunrise; AI for Spain's industrial sector.
Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle Nibbles into northern Europe; UPC mobile customers move over to Sunrise; AI for Spain's industrial sector.
Beeline, the Georgian mobile operator owned by Russia-focused VEON, is to use Nokia's cloud-native software to modernize its core as it extends its 4G network with "5G-ready" equipment. According to Nokia, the deal means it is now the sole network vendor for VEON in Georgia. Beeline's 4G network currently reaches 90% of Georgia's population. (See VEON gains confidence as growth accelerates.)
Still in Nokia territory, the Finnish vendor has teamed up with Türk Telekom to deploy what they claim is the first private wireless network in Turkey. The network is for consumer durables company Arçelik (no sniggering at the back, you Brits!) and will be deployed at Arçelik's washing machine manufacturing factory in Çayırova. It will support accurate indoor positioning for real-time asset location tracking as well as enabling new video analytics-based applications for site safety and security.
Sparkle's Nibble network – which is based on SDN principles and built on a 6,500km photonic backbone – is to be extended into northern Europe. The network currently connects Sparkle's two major submarine landing stations in Sicily – Palermo and Catania – with Milan, Marseille, Frankfurt and Paris to the West and with Athens, Istanbul and Tel Aviv to the East; the extension will hook it up to London, Amsterdam and Brussels. Figure 1: Nibbling at northern Europe: Elisabetta Romano, CEO of Sparkle with Manlio Di Stefano, Italy's Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs with responsibility for business and digital
Following last year's acquisition of Sunrise by Liberty Global's UPC Switzerland, 280,000 UPC Mobile customers are being transferred to the Sunrise UPC mobile network. The migration will take several weeks, with residential customers being migrated automatically via an "over the air" update. (See Liberty Global gets down to business with Switzerland's Sunrise.)
Telefónica is one of six large companies who have come together to form IndesIA, which they describe as the first consortium of data economics and artificial intelligence for Spain's industrial sector. The ambition of the consortium, which also includes Microsoft, is to position Spain at the forefront of data/AI use in industry, with greater automation and sustainability than is currently the case.
The EU Court of Justice has ruled that any individual national supervisory authority within the European bloc may be able to take the likes of Facebook to court for "any alleged infringement" of data privacy laws, even if they are not situated in the company's nominated EU base country. As Bloomberg reports (paywall applies), Ireland has become the chosen European base for a number of tech giants, Facebook among them, but has faced criticism for not acting quickly enough on data-privacy matters.
Denmark's Nuuday, which is in the process of being hived off from parent company TDC, has appointed Jon James as its new CEO. James, who has held senior positions at Tele2 Holland, Com Hem and Virgin Media, succeeds Michael Moyell Juul, who has been the CEO of Nuuday since November 2019.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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