Eurobites: Netmore plans LoRaWAN IoT network in UK

Swedish IoT operator Netmore is planning to build a nationwide LoRaWAN network in the UK as part of a wider international rollout that has already seen launches on Netmore’s home turf and in Ireland. IoT service providers will be able to test Netmore’s LoRaWAN offering free of charge on five devices for up to three months. Netmore is one of 26 operators participating in the LoRa Alliance initiative, which allows ‘seamless’ roaming in 27 countries.

Nokia has landed a juicy core network contract with Netherlands-based United Group and will supply UG’s operations in Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia with a range of core-related goodies including subscriber data management (SDM) software and its cloud packet core offering. The core deployments will be rolled out initially for the UG’s 3G and 4G networks on the cloud, via Nokia’s cloud infrastructure, starting by the third quarter of this year. UG will then roll out 5G non-standalone and standalone services.

Arm, the UK-based chip design company whose products appear in millions of smartphones, has had a handy latest quarter, seeing a 57 percent rise in total net sales, to $675m, in the three months to the end of June. Pre-tax profit for the quarter reached $80m, up from a loss of $60m in the same period last year. As City AM reports, a shortage of chips worldwide has worked in Arm’s favour, pushing up prices and boosting Arm’s chip-design royalty payments. Arm is currently owned by Japan’s SoftBank but is in the throes of being taken over by Nvidia, though the $40bn deal is by no means signed and sealed.

Community Fibre, an alternative network provider based in London, has taken a majority stake in Box Broadband, a full-fiber network operator that has passed 7,000 homes in the south-eastern English counties of Surrey and West Sussex. As Fibre Systems reports, the investment is intended to scale up Box Broadband’s rollout to 200,000 homes across the south of England by 2024. Box Broadband will remain an independent company following the acquisition, trading under the Box brand.

Good news for those who prefer to watch their boxed sets on inappropriately small screens: UK mobile operator EE is throwing in ‘free’ Netflix for new and upgrading ‘Smart Plan’ customers. EE is also making its ‘Full Works Plan’, which allows customers on the plan to choose three ‘Smart benefits’ or extras, such as Netflix, Apple Music and BT Sport (or even a ‘Roam Abroad Pass’ if you want to pretend Brexit never happened), to tack on to their basic package.

A team of classical music and AI boffins has been corralled by Deutsche Telekom into using artificial intelligence to ‘finish off’ Beethoven’s apparently unfinished 10th Symphony. The piece will be premiered in October at the Telekom Forum in Bonn, but if you can’t wait until then, here’s a sneak preview. That whirring sound in the background is Ludwig spinning in his grave.