Eurobites: VMO2 powers masts from street cabinets

UK converged operator Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has been testing new "smart" mobile masts which draw the electricity they need from adjacent VMO2 street cabinets via a fiber optic cable rather than directly from the grid. The masts, or "poles," as the operator prefers to call them, are smaller than a typical mast so do not require planning permission. They can be installed in less than a day and are topped by small cells to boost mobile coverage in busy areas. VMO2 – which is part of the Liberty Global empire – has around 25,000 street cabinets dotted around the UK, so the potential is there for a wide-scale rollout of these new-style poles.

Orange has chosen Infinera's GX Series modular networking platform for what is being presented as the first step in a wider upgrade of Orange's network infrastructure across Europe. The new deployment, spanning 3,000km, will connect the French cities of Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux.

Vodafone UK has promoted Max Taylor from chief commercial officer to CEO, succeeding Ahmed Essam, who will become the operator's CEO of European markets and Germany executive chair. Taylor took on the chief commercial officer role in March 2019.

RETN has announced a 900km backbone upgrade in Denmark and Sweden which, it says, will boost connectivity between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Infinera gear was used in the project, which avoided going subsea by using the Øresundsbron, the iconic bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden.

Connectivity companies have been busy rerouting Internet traffic to avoid subsea cables damaged by the February sinking of the Rubymar ship in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels. As the Financial Times reports (paywall applies), Microsoft, HGC Global Communications and Seacom all said they have been affected by the incident.

Jordanian operator Umniah has plumped for Ericsson's AI-powered network diagnostics software following a proof-of-concept trial using Umniah's existing network infrastructure which focused on call termination analysis and advanced RAN analytics to tackle network issues in a number of areas, including the city of Amman.

Norfolk County Council 1, Apple 0. That's the surprising scoreline after a legal case which saw the provincial UK authority lead a successful class action on behalf of its pension fund against the tech giant over alleged fraud related to misleading shareholder information. As the BBC reports, Apple boss Tim Cook had denied that sales of the iPhone were under pressure in China but two months later Apple downgraded its revenue forecast, citing tensions between China and the US, leading to a big fall in Apple's share price. Apple was forced to fork out $490 million to settle the lawsuit.

Orange has appointed Frédéric Texier as head of media relations and digital influence. Texier was previously director of corporate communications at carmaker Renault.