Eurobites: Nokia gives Du some 400G backbone

Nokia has built a new 400G national optical backbone for Middle Eastern operator Du to help it meet its ever-growing capacity needs and improve its customers' network experience. The network crosses the UAE from west to east and is powered by Nokia's super-coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-Vs) and CDC-F ROADM technology. Du is owned by Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC).

Eutelsat has a struck a deal with Marlink to boost maritime satellite connectivity across the EMEA region. Marlink has signed a multi-year commitment for GEO High Throughput Ku-band capacity on the Eutelsat 10B satellite, providing Marlink with targeted bandwidth over the vast sailing areas and offshore locations covered by 10B. The agreement also provides Marlink with access to Eutelsat's ground infrastructure for uplink capabilities.

Elsewhere in space, Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems is part of the team launching new open-source analytics services on the Copernicus Data Space platform, which provides Earth observation data to more than 30,000 registered users. It is hoped that the new services will ultimately enable a better response to extreme weather conditions and climate change. Farmers, for example, would in theory be able to optimize yields through more targeted use of water, fertilizers and pesticides based on the Copernicus data.

Huawei is appealing against Spanish government rules that could see the controversial Chinese vendor being excluded from state-aided 5G rollout deals in rural areas of the country, Bloomberg reports (paywall applies). More than €500 million (US$527 million) of state cash is up for grabs.

America Tower Corporation Africa is claiming some sustainability brownie points for decreasing the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions per tower by 21% in 2022. ATC says it has invested more than $350 million in renewable energy deployments and energy-saving initiatives in Africa since 2018.

Netflix is to bring the curtain down on its free mobile access trial in Kenya, which has allowed people to stream around a quarter of its output without paying for the past two years. As Reuters reports, free access to the likes of Bridgerton will end on November 1.

It's the second Tuesday in October and that can only mean one thing: it's Ada Lovelace Day! Often described as creating the first ever computer program, Ada was best known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, which wasn't a laptop. So you can keep your generative AI and Zuckerberg hoodies: For one day only, punched cards and frankly unwieldy crinoline frocks are where it's at.