Eurobites: Vantage Towers beams up its boardEurobites: Vantage Towers beams up its board

Orange Egypt is to install more of NEC's iPasolink Ex Advanced microwave radio system units – which support 70-80 GHz band communications (E-band) – to help boost its LTE network capacity and lay a foundation for 5G.

Colt Technology Services has appointed Mirko Voltolini to the newly created role of vice president of strategy and innovation. Voltolini, who sits on the MEF board, was previously head of network on demand, overseeing the development of Colt's on-demand platform.

Hiya has been testing its real-time spam and fraud detection service, Hiya Protect, on Nokia's cloud-native Telephony Application Server. The two partners say the test marks the industry's first VoLTE network integration through a public cloud service to a major European carrier and proves that the service is able to keep subscribers protected from unwanted calls.

South Africa's MTN is donating $25 million to support the African Union's COVID-19 vaccination program. The donation will, says MTN, help secure up to 7 million doses of the vaccine for health workers across the continent.

Telefónica has improved its rating in Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index for the fourth consecutive year, notching up another ten points on the diversity-ometer. The Spanish giant is one of ten telcos worldwide included on the index, which measures gender equality across five "pillars": female leadership and talent; equal pay and gender pay parity; inclusive culture; sexual harassment policies; and pro-women branding.

Telia Carrier has switched on a new point-of-presence (PoP) at Telxius' Derio Communications Hub located near Bilbao, Spain. The move, says Telia Carrier, bolsters its fiber backbone and offers connectivity for customers seeking gateway access to a new, low-latency link from the Americas to Europe.

Work has begun on CityFibre's latest fiber foray, in the sea-faring UK city of Plymouth. The city-wide rollout builds on an earlier investment in Plymouth, which focused on business users.

A study by Citizen's Advice, a UK charity that helps people with financial, legal, consumer and other problems, has found more than one in six people are struggling to afford broadband during the UK's third lockdown, with certain groups, such as those from minority ethnic backgrounds, particularly affected. The charity is calling on Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, to fast-track mooted plans to force providers to offer cheaper tariffs to those on low incomes.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading