In a surprise move, Nokia announced Monday that President and CEO Pekka Lundmark will leave March 31 and will be replaced by Justin Hotard, currently the leader of Intel’s Data Center and AI Group. Lundmark has led the Finnish company for five years and will stay on as an adviser through the end of 2025. “When I returned to the company in 2020, I called it a homecoming, and it really has felt like one,” Lundmark said on LinkedIn Monday. “I’m proud of the work our brilliant team has done in re-establishing our competitiveness and technology leadership, and in positioning the company for growth in data centers, private wireless and industrial edge, and defense.” Sari Baldauf, chair of Nokia’s board, noted Lundmark joined the company at a difficult time. “Under his tenure, Nokia has re-established its technology leadership in 5G radio networks and built a strong position in cloud-native core networks,” she said. “Network Infrastructure has delivered growth and significant profit improvement, and Nokia has secured the longevity of its patent licensing business.”

Deutsche Telekom is working with a consortium of companies to recycle electronic components from smartphones and other devices and reuse them to build other gear. The first prototype device is the NeoCircuit DSL router, unveiled last week. “Together with our partners, we are not relying solely on traditional electronics recycling, where large parts are still simply incinerated,” said Henning Never, manager of the project: “Instead, we focus on reusing functional components such as processors, memory and transistors.” The other members of the consortium are Citronics, Evonik, Fairphone, Infineon, MaxLinear, Sagemcom and INC Innovation Center.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association raised concerns Friday about reports that the U.K. government has ordered Apple to create a backdoor in its devices, giving security services access to users’ encrypted Apple files worldwide. The order was apparently issued under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act, CCIA said. “As the recent Salt Typhoon breach makes clear, end-to-end encryption may be the only safeguard standing between Americans' sensitive personal and business data and foreign adversaries,” said CCIA President and CEO Matt Schruers: “Decisions about Americans' privacy and security should be made in America, in an open and transparent fashion, not through secret orders from abroad requiring keys be left under doormats.” Apple didn't comment.

GSMA is looking for a new chair to replace former Telefonica Chairman and CEO Jose Maria Alvares-Pallete, who resigned from the Spanish operator two weeks ago. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel Group and GSMA’s deputy chair, will serve as acting chair until the board makes a selection next month, GSMA said this week. Marc Murtra, who replaced Alvares-Pallete, took a seat on the board.

The U.K.'s Office of Communications has granted a non-geostationary orbit network license to Amazon's Kuiper, letting it deliver satellite-provided broadband there, the agency said Monday.

U.S.-based Keysight Technologies has partnered with Spain's University of Malaga on a 6G research and innovation lab located on the school's campus, Keysight said Thursday. “The facility is dedicated to advancing 6G technology through comprehensive solutions that address key use cases and technological challenges,” the company said. Among the areas of research are spectrum, AI and machine learning in networks, sensing and the use of digital twins.

Europe is in danger of falling behind North America, East Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council nations in deploying 5G, GSMA warned in a report Wednesday. 5G is poised to become the “dominant mobile technology on the continent by 2026 and already accounts for the majority of connections in Germany and Switzerland,” while adoption rates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and the U.K. are in excess of 40%, the report said. However, GSMA warned that European providers could struggle to deploy 5G standalone (SA) service, which doesn’t rely on an LTE backbone to operate. As of September, 18 European operators had launched 5G SA, and 5G-advanced is “set to deliver new solutions for enterprises, enabling uplink and multicast services at better latency, increasing accuracy for extended reality applications and improving the reliability of AI,” GSMA said. “Unless key regulatory challenges that restrict investment capacity in the European sector are resolved, the increased adoption of these technologies in Europe will progress more slowly” than in other regions. “Europe is at a crossroads in its development of the digital infrastructure that its businesses and citizens will need to succeed,” said GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer John Giusti: “It is concerning to see it falling further and further behind other large markets around the world.”

Europe is falling behind on 5G as the U.S. and other nations move forward, Borje Ekholm, Ericsson CEO, warned this week. “The companies, countries, and regions that lead with 5G today will reap the lion’s share of innovation and become the economic and political powerhouses of tomorrow,” Ekholm wrote: “Just as railroads catalyzed industrialization, next-level mobile networks will reshape the economic and political landscape, driving sustainable growth.” The U.S. and China were the first to build nationwide 4G networks and “India, the US, and China, along with parts of the Middle East, are already racing ahead in the 5G era,” he said. China has deployed more than 10,000 private networks “while India has doubled down on its 5G efforts to deploy more than 1 million 5G cells within a year.” The choice in Europe is clear: “Either continue leading the world in regulation, or start competing in innovation and technologies such as 5G.”

Deutsche Telekom announced on Tuesday it’s combining national and international wholesale businesses into a single entity -- T Wholesale. “This move is intended to provide clients with streamlined solutions that address needs both within Germany as well as globally, reflecting the growing demand for integrated telecommunications services,” the company said. The wholesale parts of Deutsche Telekom serve more than 250 telecom providers and resellers in Germany with 900 international customers and partners, the company said.

Ukrainian mobile operators will begin shuttering their 3G networks this year, freeing space for 4G and improved services, regulator NCEC announced on Facebook, according to an unofficial translation. To ensure that customers are treated fairly during the transition, NCEC ordered that operators provide "maximum information and attractive offers" and notify subscribers before 3G ceases in their areas. It recommended that people with 4G/LTE-enabled phones switch now to 4G and that those without them consider upgrading. The shutdown won't affect calling, SMS texting or other basic services, the regulator said. In November, NCEC auctioned (in Ukrainian) 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum to pave the way for 4G and, ultimately, 5G services.