Orange Belgium and Telenet have signed two wholesale agreements under the terms of which they will gain access to each other's fixed networks for 15 years. The deal is conditional upon the completion of Orange Belgium's acquisition of 75% of the capital (minus one share) of local cable operator VOO – which itself is subject to approval by the European Commission. Orange Belgium will secure access to Telenet's hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network and its forthcoming fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, while Telenet will gain entry to VOO and Brutélé's HFC network and forthcoming FTTH network in the regions of Wallonia and Brussels-Capital. (See Orange Belgium starts talks on VOO, enfin.)

Hrvatski Telekom, the Croatian subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has begun building out fiber infrastructure in central Dubrovnik and the surrounding municipalites of Dubrovačko primorje, Konavle and Župa dubrovačka. The operator says that 9,065 addresses will be provided with "fast" (40 Mbit/s) and "ultra-fast" (100 Mbit/s) broadband access as a result of the work, which represents an investment of more than €7.5 million (US$8.1 million) on the part of Hrvatski Telekom.

London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, is taking the credit for the fact half of London's homes now have access to full-fiber broadband, compared with an equivalent figure of 4% in 2017. Later this year Khan and his team will be publishing guidance to the new London Plan adopted in 2021 requiring all new homes and developments in the city to have fiber and mobile connectivity from day one.

MTN's group president and CEO, Ralph Mupita, has called for the Africa's regulatory framework to move beyond the "era of voice" to make help make universal broadband coverage by 2030 a reality. "As the world continues to undergo major digital transformation and disruption, our regulatory frameworks need to evolve to reflect these technological advancements," Mupita told delegates at the Africa Prosperity Dialogue event in Ghana.

Video streaming in the UK appears to be staging minor recovery after a year-long period of belt-tightening saw around a million households pulling the plug on subscription video-on-demand, preferring instead to save their hard-earned cash for essentials. This, Reuters reports, is the conclusion of a new study from Kantar, which found that in the final quarter of 2022 the number of UK homes that had at least one paid-for streaming service rose by 55,000 to 16.24 million, or 56% of UK households.

UK sportswear retailer JD Sports – a.k.a. "The King of Trainers" – has suffered a data breach that has led to the name, billing address, delivery address, email address, phone number, order details and the final four digits of payment cards of approximately 10 million customers being stolen by hackers. As Retail Gazette reports, the cyberattack relates to online orders placed between November 2018 and October 2020.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading