­­Orange completed the merger of Orange Romania S.A (ORO) and fixed provider Orange Romania Communications S.A (OROC), a move to create a fixed-mobile convergent player and remain competitive.

Nokia has moved closer to exiting Russia, with the country’s President Vladimir Putin authorising state-backed Rostelecom to acquire the Finnish vendor’s stake in a Russian joint venture.

Greek operator OTE Group inked an agreement to sell its Romanian mobile unit to Digi Communications.

Orange and Vodafone announced extension of their open RAN network pilot project in rural Romania to boost coverage and integrate 2G virtualised RAN (vRAN) technology, a vital step towards cloud migration. 

Ukrainian operator Kyivstar allocated US$90 million to defend against suspected Russian cyberattacks against its network, a move that affected growth said Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov.

GlobalNet, a Dutch backbone provider, says it has confirmed its expansion into Central Europe with one new point of presence (PoP) in Warsaw. The new PoP is based at the Equinix WA1 data centre.

Hungary’s 4iG Group and Elisa Polystar have signed a cooperation agreement for the implementation of an automated network management and customer experience monitoring system.

United Group acquired Bulsatcom, a direct-to-home satellite television and broadband internet provider in Bulgaria.

Veon’s Ukrainian subsidiary Kyivstar revealed at Mobile World Congress 2024 on Monday it intends to purchase and deploy Open RAN and 5G technologies from Japan’s Rakuten Symphony into its network.

Vodafone Group announced it will install new Open RAN sites in 20 cities across Romania, to enhance industrial efficiency and boost innovation in the country.

Vodafone Romania said on Monday it has signed a six-year partnership agreement with Ericsson to upgrade its RANs to standalone 5G and develop 5G services for consumers and enterprises.

Ciena announced on Monday that Telia Lithuania is using its coherent optics gear to launch the first 800G wavelength service between major cities in the country as part of a nationwide upgrade of its fibre-optic network.

Nokia was chosen by Armenian operator Ucom to upgrade its RAN and prepare it for a future deployment of 5G services. 

Veon-owned Ukrainian operator Kyivstar revealed plans to broaden its capex spend up to US$1 billion in the next five years, as the operator rebuilds its operations stricken by war. 

Telecom Egypt and Budapest-based telecoms/IT group 4iG have formally established a joint venture to build their proposed express subsea cable between Albania and Egypt.

Polish IT company Comarch announced that it has signed a deal with Ukrainian telco Kyivstar to help modernize and update its field service maintenance activities.

A widely reported but so far formally unconfirmed news story suggests that Cellnex, a leading operator of wireless telecommunications infrastructures, is considering a stake sale of its Polish unit.

Azerbaijan operator Baku Telephone Communications (Baktelecom) revealed it has deployed a fibre-optic GPON network in the Garadagh settlement in Baku.

Turkcell has signed an agreement to sell its units in Ukraine to the French investment firm NJJ Capital.

Croatian service provider Hrvatski Telekom and Montenegran operator Crnogorski Telekom have selected Croatian telecoms manufacturer Ericsson Nikola Tesla as the sole supplier of software and connected services for implementation of new 4G/5G core networks.

Poland's largest power grid operator PGE has selected Nokia to deploy a country-wide critical backhaul network.

Deutsche Telekom subsidiary OTE Group announced it is negotiating the sale of its subsidiary Telekom Romania to Quantum Projects Group (QPG) following a request to make the announcement public from Greek authorities. 

Google has been fined US$164,000 by a Moscow court. The fine, which was imposed on Tuesday, was said to be for repeated refusal to store Russian users' data on servers inside Russia.

Latvia’s Public Utilities Commission (SPRK / Sabiedrisko Pakalpojumu Regulesanas Komisija) has issued permits for 5G-ready spectrum to LMT (Latvijas Mobilais Telefons) and Tele2 Latvia following last month’s auction.

Next-generation digital services and consulting group Infosys has announced what it calls a new proximity centre in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as part of its continued growth in Europe.

Wind power is in the news again, with Google signing a power purchase agreement (PPA) to procure renewable energy from a wind farm in Poland and Amazon announcing a new 198 megawatt (MW) wind farm in India.

Hawe Telekom has selected Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent solution to deliver high-capacity wholesale services to network operators in Poland.