• Subsea cable to the Canary Islands; mce tapped for device self-assessment.

Elsewhere in Vodafone Europe: Canary Islands' Subsea cable

Elsewhere in Vodafone Europe: Canary Islands’ Subsea cable

Source: CityFibre

  • Spain: Vodafone Spain (VfS) partnered Netun Solutions to launch Help Flash IoT, a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT)-connected emergency warning light. The device connects to traffic control centres to reduce the response time in a road traffic emergency.
  • VfS will extend the 2Africa subsea cable network to connect the Iberian Peninsula and Canary Islands. The cable will be jointly owned by VfS and state-owned cable operator Canalink, built by Alcatel Submarine Networks, and expected to launch in late-2023. Vodafone joined the 2Africa project, which aims to connect 23 countries in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, in 2020 (Vodafonewatch, #186).
  • UK: Vodafone UK (VfUK) expanded its wholesale partnership with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure provider CityFibre, to add Ethernet services for businesses. Under the new agreement, Vodafone can offer “1Gbps” or “100Mbps” connections in twelve cities: Cambridge, Coventry, and Peterborough initially, and later Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Portsmouth, and Southend-on-Sea. Vodafone has had a wholesale relationship with CityFibre since 2017 (Vodafonewatch, #160, #181, and #182).
  • Israel-based mobile device lifecycle management solutions provider mce Systems signed an agreement to make its “cosmetic assessment” technology available to Vodafone UK (VfUK) customers. The technology, which allows users to verify the cosmetic condition of a device using the camera on the device itself, aims to enable self-valuation for device trade-ins. The feature is available to the operator’s customers via a white-label app.
  • VfUK confirmed it has “no current plans to change our approach to roaming in the EU [European Union]”, after rival mobile network operator EE introduced a £2 (€2.34) daily fee for new or revised contracts. Brexit means that operators are no longer beholden to EU rules on free roaming within the bloc, and BT’s EE was the first to make a policy change in the wake of the move. Telefónica UK and Three UK have introduced fair-usage caps for data allowances.
  • BAI Communications won a 20-year concession to provide mobile connectivity to the London Underground metro network. The Transport for London contract will build on 4G trials on the Jubilee Line, for which Vodafone UK was among the participants (Vodafonewatch, #181).

Topics