Comms Dealer has made its first announcement of keynote speakers at this year's Comms Vision Convention, to be held at Gleneagles Hotel, 8th-10th November.

Vodafone is putting around €2bn in investment into ultrafast fibre connections in Germany, the UK company's biggest European market.

The investment will move Vodafone toward 13.7 million new connections to homes and businesses in Germany by the end of 2021.

UK-based audio-visual and document solutions distributor Midwich has bought a majority stake in Gebroeders van Domburg, a distributor of audio-visual and lighting solutions in the Netherlands.

Tech Data has been appointed as a UK distributor for the full range of fitbit activity trackers, and is looking to extend the reach of the wearables to new areas of the market including the corporate and healthcare sectors.

After recent dips, the worldwide wearables market has bounced back ahead of the launch of a new Apple smartwatch later this month.

Brussels-listed Econocom has taken a major stake in Jade Solutions, a UK-based enterprise mobility solutions provider.

The move sees the Econocom Group continuing its expansion in the UK and Ireland, and is another step forward in its journey towards becoming a full digital services provider, it says.

European cloud distributor intY has revealed plans to triple its US partner network over the next 12 months. The company also plans to expand into the Middle East and Africa.

As part of the US growth strategy the firm will expand from its current base in Seattle to a new operation in Utah.

Red Box Recorders' link-up with a transcription technology specialist has come to fruition with the launch of a transcription service that enables customers to extend their analysis of spoken voice.

It can be used to enhance audio capture and retrieval, meet compliance needs and strengthen training across contact centres and trading floors.

The rise of machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and robotics along with with more modern employment expectations will cause a seismic shift in the nature and practice of work as we know it, according to the World Economic Forum.

 Network reliability and running multiple services over a single pipe with the option to segregate bandwidth and prioritise critical data traffic are key features of TalkTalk Business's new cloud-ready connectivity products.

In its interim results for the six months to 30th June 2017 Maintel's revenues rose 68% to £63.8m (up from £38.1m) with recurring revenue at 73%, down 2% on last year's H1.

Group gross profit increased 50% to £19.6m (H1 2016: £13.1m), and the period ended with net debt of £24.2m.