European telecom operators agreed to extend for 12 months their agreement allowing displaced Ukrainians to stay connected, the European Commission announced. The pact, signed in April 2022, allows telcos to mutually lower the rates they charge to connect calls across borders. Data from the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, which monitors the impact of the agreement, shows the regime efficiently allowed operators to provide affordable calls. Twenty-two European and seven Ukrainian telcos have signed on, and the EC urged all operators to do so. Simultaneously, it said it's preparing to integrate Ukraine into the EU roaming area, which would provide a more stable, long-term solution.

Ericsson plans to build a next-generation smart manufacturing and tech hub in Tallinn, Estonia, with a net investment of $169 million, the company announced Wednesday. The company plans to consolidate all its operations in Estonia in a 50,000 square-meter hub “that comprises test labs, warehouses, production lines, and offices,’ Ericsson said: “It will be used for co-developing cellular ecosystems and production techniques mainly with customers and partners in Europe but with global impact on industrialization for volume production.” The company said it signed an agreement to buy property for the hub, to be located in Ulemiste City in Tallinn, with hopes of opening in early 2026.

China has been blocking thousands of foreign websites and internet technologies since 1996, Strand Consult said in a report released Thursday. The restrictions imposed by China “continue to evolve and are increasingly sophisticated,” Strand said: “They encompass basic blocking and filtering tactics and are also systemic within the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] physical internet architecture and access level, comprising exchange points, hardware, and software. Moreover, restrictions are delivered at many levels of government and enterprise, whether top level regulators like the Cyberspace Administration and the State Information Council or the censorship practices of PRC companies themselves.” Strand said the system is “guided by hundreds of thousands of ‘internet commentators’ who are hired to model preferred discussion and behaviors online, virtual internet police avatars, and stiff punishments for transgressions.”

China-based Dahua disputed Motorola Solutions’ objection to giving Dahua’s compliance plan with FCC rules confidential treatment (see 2306260041). “Rather than maintaining ‘silence’ on the key issue of how the Compliance Plan implicates confidential information as [Motorola] argues, Dahua USA has provided substantive justification for why confidential treatment is consistent with the Commission’s rules,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-232: “Dahua USA has explained that the Compliance Plan contains information regarding its internal organization, operations and strategy, and its agreements with distributor and dealer partners.” Dahua, which is on the FCC’s covered list of companies deemed to pose a security risk, filed the plan with the FCC in April to show how its gear won’t affect public safety or other secure communications.

Mobile World Congress Shanghai drew 37,000 attendees, with nearly 3,000 from outside mainland China, GSMA said Friday. Attendees represented more than 8,000 companies and hailed from more than 115 countries, the group said. The conference ended Friday.

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom is ahead of the curve as the EU urges member states to do more to ban high-risk suppliers like Huawei and ZTE from their telecom networks (see 2306160060), the company said. “In view of the security discussion, Deutsche Telekom was the only mobile network operator in Germany to decide as early as 2019 to remove Huawei from its core network” and “it does not use the second controversial manufacturer, ZTE,” said a Tuesday blog. DT is pushing open radio access network technology, the company said: “This makes it possible to use components from different manufacturers. It will increase the diversity of manufacturers and also strengthen European sovereignty with regard to digital mobile communications networks.”

The FCC proposed to reject an application for Communications Act Section 214 authorization by U.K.-based cloud provider Content Guru after the company failed to answer questions posed by Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Service Sector. The committee recommended dismissal of the application, said a Wednesday notice by the Office of International Affairs. The FCC asked for a response by July 28. “In your letter, state whether you intend to pursue the application and if so, indicate when you will provide the Committee with the information it has requested,” the notice said: “If you do not respond to this letter, the above referenced application will be dismissed without prejudice pursuant to the Commission’s rules.” The company didn’t comment.

In a project led by Tele2 and Orange, GSMA and international operators are targeting the more than 5 billion mobile phones, “currently sitting unused and unloved in desk drawers around the globe,” for reuse or recycling. The project is “intended to help reduce ‘e-waste,’ extending the longevity of mobile devices by giving them a second life, as well as recycling materials to be used in new smartphones,” GSMA said Tuesday: “A refurbished phone can have 87% lower climate impact than a newly manufactured phone.” Other providers participating include BT Group, Globe Telecom, Singtel and Telefonica.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom joined the GSMA's “Open Gateway” initiative designed to provide universal access to operator networks for developers, GSMA said Monday, ahead of this week’s Mobile World Congress Shanghai. The initiative was unveiled in February (see 2302270069) and now is supported by 29 mobile network operators. “China represents the largest 5G market in the world, so having China’s three largest operators committed to this initiative demonstrates its global significance and the strong business case it offers,” said Mats Granryd, GSMA director general.

The FCC shouldn’t give China-based Dahua the confidential treatment it seeks for its compliance plan with FCC rules, Motorola Solutions said. Dahua, which is on the FCC’s covered list of companies deemed to pose a security risk, filed the plan with the FCC in April to show how its gear won’t affect public safety or other secure communications. The plan “contains sensitive business information regarding a privately-held company’s day-to-day operation,” Dahua said in an April filing. “Dahua’s request that its compliance plan be shielded in its entirety from public inspection should be denied because it runs afoul of Commission rules, which prohibit such blanket and overbroad claims of confidentiality,” Motorola said, posting Monday in docket 21-232: “Dahua has not made the substantive demonstration for confidential treatment as required by the Commission’s rules, doing little more than parroting the criteria for confidential treatment under those rules.”