EU conditionally approves Orange and MasMovil’s joint venture in Spain
The merger between Orange and MasMovil in Spain, worth €18.6 billion and first announced in June 2022, has been given the green light by the European Commission. However, the regulator also applied certain conditions that MasMovil must comply with.
The merger will reduce the number of telecom operators in Spain from four to three. As such, approval was given for Romania’s Digi, currently the largest MVNO in Spain, to acquire spectrum from MasMovil and become a fourth mobile operator.
Digi will also have an option for a national roaming agreement. The newly formed joint venture will directly compete with Telefonica and Vodafone Spain.
European telcos have closely watched this deal as they look for consolidation opportunities.
Google introduces Gemma AI for open-source
Google has unveiled a new open AI model called Gemma, which aims to assist developers and the open-source community build AI responsibly.
Google has used the same research and technology that is part of its Gemini AI to create Gemma. It is available in two versions — Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B. Both versions are pre-trained and instruction-tuned variants that are lightweight enough to run on a developer’s laptop or desktop.
Google has also introduced a new debugging tool and a guide for best practices, together forming the Responsible Generative AI Toolkit.
According to Google, Gemma exceeds much larger models when it comes to key benchmarks, and both sizes of the model outperform other open models available.
Wyze camera breach let 13,000 users see into other people’s homes
Home security firm Wyze has apologised for a security breach that briefly allowed up to 13,000 security camera customers to see into other people’s homes.
Last week, Wyze co-founder confirmed that “so far”, the company had found 14 people who, due to the breach, could see into strangers’ properties after they were shown an image from another user’s Wyze camera.
But according to reports, the number of affected customers has ballooned to over 13,000.
In an email to customers, Wyze acknowledged the issue, saying it stemmed from an AWS outage that took down the devices on Friday morning. The breach appears to have occurred when the firm rebooted the system, though Wyze claims this is down to a “third-party caching client library”.
BT sells iconic London tower to hotel chain
British Telecom, also known as BT, has recently agreed to a £275 million deal that would convert the iconic BT Tower in London into an upmarket hotel.
The deal with US-based hotelier MCR Hotels would potentially see the 177m tall, Grade II-listed building in London’s Fitzrovia re-opened to the public. The tower is known for its rotating viewing platform that offers breathtaking views across the London skyline.
The BT Tower was first opened as the Post Office Tower by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1965. At the time, it was London’s tallest building and served as a communications hub, featuring 57 microwave aerials at its peak. However, these aerials have been removed since then.
