Eurobites: Sparkle secures UAE investment for subsea link

Vivacom, the Bulgarian mobile operator that is part of the Netherlands-based United Group, is to trial open RAN technology from Parallel Wireless. The trial will cover open RAN for 2G, 4G and 5G and, says Parallel, will include a cluster of sites that demonstrates the successful integration of open RAN in both urban and rural environments.

Ericsson, Vantage Towers and rail operator Deutsche Bahn are to receive government funding to develop and test new 5G mobile network infrastructure running alongside train tracks in Germany. Once complete, the new infrastructure will offer passengers gigabit speeds for their phone and data connections, says Ericsson. The German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport will provide €6.4 million (US$6.9 million) to fund the trials.

Spanish towers company Cellnex is teaming up with airport management company Aena to bring a private 5G network to San Sebastian airport in what is a first-of-its-kind project for Spain, according to Cellnex. Other partners in the project include Nokia and Inetum, which is supplying drones.

Finland-based forestry machine manufacturer Ponsse has turned to Telia for its IoT needs, allowing, among other benefits, its machines to receive reliable connectivity in remote locations across the world.

Sky Mobile has carried out new research which it says shows that 9 million Brits could be shelling out £100 ($126) more than they need to each year due to their understandable reluctance to shop around for a cheaper mobile tariff. According to the research, 19% of UK mobile phone users have never changed their network provider and 28% haven't switched mobile provider for more than five years. Apathy is largely to blame, with 17% believing they wouldn't save any money from switching, while one in ten say it's just too much hassle.

Several Dutch ports – including Rotterdam, Europe's largest – fell victim to distributed denial-of-service attacks last week by "Russia-aligned" hackers, Bloomberg reports (paywall applies). A hacker group called "NoName057(16)" claimed the attacks were a response to the Netherlands' plans to buy tanks for the Ukrainian military.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading