Europe

PwC hires Brian Burns as a director to continue expanding its technology, media & telecommunications (TMT) deals strategy and operations team in London.

KPN has bought a cloud-based provider of IT services to health and public sector organisations in the Netherlands.

Interconnection bandwidth is expected to grow at a 45% CAGR to reach 5,000Tbps by 2020, dwarfing global IP traffic in both growth (24%) and volume (855Tbps), according to Equinix’s inaugural Global Interconnection Index.

BT says it is investigating the promised benefits of virtualisation by replacing traditional network equipment with off-the-shelf IT and data centre gear.

Openreach has demonstrated gigabit speeds across G.fast technology as part of a trial with NetComm Wireless.

Openreach has axed plans to trial Dark Fibre Access later this month following a Competition Appeals Tribunal ruling that halted Ofcom’s dark fibre plans.

Vivendi and Telecom Italia have both engaged lawyers to advise them on whether the French media group exercises control over the Italian operator with its 24% shareholding.

Broadband users in South London were left without internet services for most of the weekend after rats chewed through fibre cables.

Private investment group Abu Dhabi Investment Group (ABDIG) has acquired a 62.5% stake in Fiber Prime Telecommunications (FPT) and named the CEO tasked with heading the company.

AMS-IX Hong Kong has announced that users will now be able to connect with the Internet Exchange (IX) via dedicated ports with a capacity of 100Gbps.

France-IX confirms that Djibouti Telecom has signed an agreement to peer its IP traffic through the leading French internet exchange’s Paris and Marseille IXPs.

Alan Harper, strategy director of Vodafone until 10 years ago, is to become acting CEO of Avanti Communications until the satellite company finds a replacement for David Williams.

Altice appears to be preparing a bid of $185 billion or more for US cable operator Charter Communications, according to widespread reports.

Analysts say network transformation is catching on, with growth hitting 71% a year and market leaping from $3.6bn to $54bn.

The GSMA has fired a warning shot to countries planning to implement wholesale open access networks (WOAN), claiming they are failing to fulfil promises of better connectivity.