This week has seen the reported launch of 16 broadband internet satellites into low Earth orbit by Russian aerospace company Bureau 1440. News reports are calling this the country’s first operational step towards building a domestic satellite network.

LOT Polish Airlines, the flag carrier of Poland, says it has begun rolling out internet access on its long-haul fleet – with help from global communications company Viasat.

Telecommunications operator Orange has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AST SpaceMobile and Satellite Connect Europe, related to collaboration on direct-to-device (D2D) technology in relevant Orange markets.

Cloud and carrier-neutral data centre platform Digital Realty has announced its entry into Bulgaria, establishing a new market presence in Sofia, which it describes as one of Southeast Europe’s most important emerging interconnection hubs.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar announced on Thursday it has purchased regional ISP Shtorm to boost its presence in the fixed broadband space. No financial details were disclosed.

International network services provider RETN says it has launched a new fibre backbone route between Estonia and Latvia as part of its broader expansion plan to diversify connectivity between Northern and Central Europe.

Bosnia and Herzegovina market leader BH Telecom is upgrading its convergent charging and payments platform via an extension of its partnership with Qvantel.

Could the olive-growing industry be of benefit to data centre development? That’s a question that a new biomass-powered data centre planned in Croatia may be able to answer.

Sparkle revealed on Wednesday it has signed deals with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Elettra to build its planned GreenMed subsea cable connecting the Middle East and the Balkans to Italy via the Adriatic Sea.

Kyivstar has completed the full acquisition of Ukrainian medical digital services platform Tabletki.ua for US$160 million, strengthening the operator’s expansion into healthcare.

Neterra is modernising its Bulgarian backbone network using solutions from Infinera, a part of Nokia.

United Group has selected Intracom Telecom to upgrade its network as it looks to capture growing enterprise connectivity demand across its southeastern European footprint.

Telekom Srbija Group and its subsidiary Mtel are upgrading fibre connectivity between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina using Ciena’s coherent optical technology, as the operator looks to boost cross-border capacity and prepare its network for rising data demand.

Veon-owned Ukrainian telco Kyivstar said on Thursday it has registered over 3 million users for Starlink’s Direct to Cell (D2C) LEO satellite service  since it commercially launched the service less than two months ago.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation announced on Monday it has kicked off a 5G pilot programme in Lviv in cooperation with the country’s three main telcos – Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell – although a full-scale launch will only come after the ongoing war with Russia finally ends.

A sixth subsea cable has been damaged in the Baltic Sea, keeping regional authorities on high alert amid growing scrutiny of Russian-linked maritime activity, the Financial Times reported. 

Investment firm Stonepeak has agreed to acquire TeleTower, the tower company carved out of Eastern European operator Bite, in a move aimed at tapping growth in the region’s telecoms infrastructure market.

Veon-owned digital telco Kyivstar says it has made first investment in renewable energy by buying solar power company Sunvin 11, which owns a 12.9-MW solar plant in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine.

Ukraine will develop a national large language model (LLM) based on Google’s Gemma, with operator Kyivstar acting as strategic partner and operational lead alongside the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence under the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar said on Friday that it’s preparing to expand its testing of Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell (D2C) satellite service to all areas of Ukraine, apart from border zones, temporarily occupied territories and areas where fighting is happening amid the ongoing invasion by Russia.

EMIS, a provider of geospatial information systems (GIS) in Slovakia, and ICEYE, a leader in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data, have announced a strategic partnership to expand access to critical, near real-time hazard information for Slovak authorities.

Vodafone Group and Vodafone Ukraine have announced plans to begin construction of a new submarine cable system in the Black Sea, aimed at creating a digital corridor between Europe and Asia.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar says it is partnering with Mastercard to create new financial services, boost uptake of digital payments, and develop a more stable financial services infrastructure to support all this using Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell (D2C) satellite service.

Polish dry bulk vessel operator Polsteam has chosen Marlink, which supplies managed services for business-critical ICT solutions, to upgrade connectivity and cybersecurity solutions on board 50 of the vessels it controls.

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar announced on Tuesday that it has postponed the planned shutdown of its 3G network in Chernihiv due to increased shelling and power outages in the city.

Hungarian company 4iG Space and Defence (4iG SDT) says it has signed a preliminary, non-binding commitment letter with US-based Axiom Space, a global leader in commercial spaceflight and low Earth orbit (LEO) infrastructure development.

This week sees yet another 5G private network launch, in this case through a collaboration between Polish operator Plus, tech giant Ericsson and digital product engineering services company GlobalLogic.

Globalstar, a next-generation telecommunications infrastructure and technology provider, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Globalstar Europe SAS, has announced that the construction process has begun on doubling the size of its existing ground station in Estonia.

Vodafone Romania and Digi Romania have entered binding agreements to acquire separate parts of OTE’s subsidiary Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TKRM), reducing the number of mobile operators in the country to three.

Open RAN (O-RAN) has long been touted as a disruptive technology in mobile infrastructure with the concept of splitting the RAN into three components, encouraging a more modular architecture that claims to improve operator bottom lines.

EXA Infrastructure has announced plans to deploy a new fibre backbone connecting Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary to its network in Germany and Austria, which it claims will be the largest pan-European backbone fibre deployment in Central Europe in the last 25 years.