--- title: B2B TECH & TELECOMS NEWS (16/08/2021 - 20/08/2021) description: In this week's news roundup, we looked at the top news stories from the B2B tech & telecoms industry. --- [Ilex Insights](https://blog.ilexcontent.com/blog) # [B2B TECH & TELECOMS NEWS (16/08/2021 - 20/08/2021)](https://blog.ilexcontent.com/blog/b2b-tech-telecoms-news-20-08-2021) Written by [Ilex Community Manager](https://blog.ilexcontent.com/blog/author/ilex-community-manager) | 20-Aug-2021 08:55:49 In this week's roundup, we looked at the top news stories from the B2B tech & telecoms industry. The stories cover topics including data centres, 5G, renewable energy, subsea cables and cloud.  Here are our highlights: # monday:   # tet opens sixth data centre in Latvian capital  Latvian telco [Tet](https://www.tet.lv) has opened its sixth data centre in capital Riga, as it plans to grow its data centre business by 15% per year. The company has spent €1.4 million on its construction and installing another 60 racks to support increasing business demand. Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/2VZEcer](https://bit.ly/2VZEcer)   # Telefonica Germany turns frankfurter street light into 5g hotspot [Telefónica Deutschland / O2](https://www.telefonica.de/company.html)in cooperation with the energy provider [Mainova](https://www.mainova.de/de), has put Hesse's first smart 5G street light into operation in Frankfurt am Main.   Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/2VXB5Ek](https://bit.ly/2VXB5Ek)   tuesday: # Twitter's new design to get fix after headache complaints [Twitter](https://twitter.com/home) is making changes to its new redesign, after users complained of headaches and discomfort. Unveiled only last week, the redesign mainly involved high-contrast colours and a custom-designed font, Chirp.   Read the full story here: [https://bbc.in/3yVRlnp](https://bbc.in/3yVRlnp)   # new police cctv use rules criticised as bare bones A proposed code of practice covering police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been criticised by human rights groups. Live facial-recognition systems compare faces captured on closed-circuit television with those on a watch-list, alerting officers to a match. Read the full story here: [https://bbc.in/3AIJQ3G](https://bbc.in/3AIJQ3G)   # Wednesday: # internet revamp for the humble landline The technology that currently powers landline telephones is to be switched off in 2025. Landline operators in the UK will switch every home phone in the UK to an internet-based connection instead of traditional, copper-wire landlines. A total of 14 million lines are affected. Read the full story here: [https://bbc.in/3yXskbN](https://bbc.in/3yXskbN)   # qualcomm takes to the skies with 5g drone platform [Qualcomm](https://www.qualcomm.com) has unveiled a drone platform that offers 5G and AI capabilities in a bid to boost the development of commercial, enterprise and industrial drones. The vendor says it will aid drone innovation, accelerating the next generation of high-performance, low-power drones. Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/3CWTTEw](https://bit.ly/3CWTTEw)   #  thursday: # hydrogen power offers jobs boost, says government Thousands of new jobs could be created by investing in low-carbon hydrogen fuel to power vehicles and heat homes, the government says. Ministers have unveiled a strategy for kick-starting a hydrogen industry, which they say could attract billions of pounds in investment. Read the full story here: [https://bbc.in/3z4B1kC](https://bbc.in/3z4B1kC)   # Alaska Communications uses subsea for earthquake monitoring [Alaska Communications](https://www.alaskacommunications.com/Business) has partnered with the [University of Michigan](https://umich.edu) to develop earthquake monitoring solutions, working with the University's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences to allow monitoring data, collected from the ocean floor using the company’s subsea cable.  Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/3y4Jv9L](https://bit.ly/3y4Jv9L)   friday: # green automotive tech gets £91m boost Electric and hydrogen automotive innovations have been given £91 million of funding. Four projects that could save up to 32 million tonnes of carbon emissions and provide more than 2,700 jobs have been selected to receive the funding through the [Advanced Propulsion Centre](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiFjKPJmr_yAhVMXsAKHf21CecQ-TAoADAmegQIOxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apcuk.co.uk%2F&usg=AOvVaw0picG0GgC9mCecJf51QrUv) (APC)’s Collaborative Research and Development competition. Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/3giRKJj](https://bit.ly/3giRKJj)   # players unite on us federal innovation lab Data centre colocation company [Cyxtera](https://www.cyxtera.com) and multi-cloud computing firm [Nutanix](https://www.nutanix.com/uk) have partnered to launch a Federal Innovation Lab. It will enable US federal customers and industry partners to build proofs-of-concept and test mission-critical applications via on-demand infrastructure. Read the full story here: [https://bit.ly/3mgjkef](https://bit.ly/3mgjkef)     [View full post](https://blog.ilexcontent.com/blog/b2b-tech-telecoms-news-20-08-2021) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ilex Community Manager" }, "dateModified" : "2022-11-10T12:25:25.001Z", "datePublished" : "2021-08-20T08:55:49Z", "headline" : "B2B TECH & TELECOMS NEWS (16/08/2021 - 20/08/2021)", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 1066, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent40.net/hubfs/5631444/Screenshot%202021-08-16%20at%2009.40.18.png", "width" : 1910 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://blog.ilexcontent.com/blog/b2b-tech-telecoms-news-20-08-2021", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60.0, "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/5631444/Ilex%20Content%20Logo_High%20Res-1.jpg", "width" : 99.988716 }, "name" : "Ilex Insights" } } ```