Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Telecom Italia prepares for DAZN probe; Nokia gets into testbeds with Greece’s 5G Ventures; Virgin Media O2 sets up ‘national databank’ for the barely connected.
- Telefónica’s cybersecurity arm, Telefónica Tech, is to incorporate C2RO Perceive, a video analytics offering, into its armoury of IoT and Big Data software. The software, from Canadian firm C2RO, is used in spaces such as retail outlets and entertainment venues to detect patterns in consumer behaviour by analysing data collected from surveillance cameras, without contravening European GDPR legislation. C2RO Perceive will form part of Telefónica’s Smart Steps platform, which combines anonymous and aggregated mobile customer data with other behavioural data to generate information that is useful to business owners.
- Telecom Italia (TIM) is working on proposals it will put to Italy’s antitrust authority in a damage-limitation exercise following the regulator’s announcement that it was launching an investigation into the operator’s deal with streaming service DAZN. As Reuters reports, one of the proposals being considered is a promise not to bundle its broadband offer with TIMvision pay-TV services. TIM struck its deal with DAZN – which centres on Italy’s Serie A soccer – back in March.
- And in less controversial news, TIM has earned itself some EU brownie points by being recognised by the European Commission as an “active member” of the Digital Skills and Job Coalition, an initiative that aims to reduce the digital skills deficit in the region. The gong was given in recognition of TIM’s Operazione Risorgimento Digitale education programme.
- Nokia has agreed to jointly develop 5G testbeds in Greece with 5G Ventures, an organisation backed by the Phaistos Investment Fund. The Finnish vendor will provide 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) equipment and software for the development of the testbeds, which will be located within the facilities of institutions that are working with 5G Ventures. 5G Ventures and Nokia will also jointly organise seminars and workshops to help spread the 5G love.
- UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 has teamed up with the Good Things Foundation charity to set up a “national databank” that provides free mobile data to people in need. The databank will launch with 7.5 million GB of O2 mobile data, which Virgin Media O2 hopes will help 200,000 people get connected by the end of 2023. It will, however, be open to all mobile operators, acting as a central hub where community groups can access free data voucher codes and SIM cards. According to figures from communications regulator Ofcom, more than 7 million people across the UK are unable to access mobile data or broadband at home.
- Zimbabwean operator TelOne has told all its employees who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 to go on leave “to reduce their exposure [to COVID-19] and the consequent risk to all others … until such a time as the situation eases”. As New Zimbabwe reports, 60% of TelOne workers have had the necessary jabs to date. In a separate announcement, the company that it was also was withdrawing COVID-19 allowances for all unvaccinated employees.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading