Five years ago this week… The German rumor mill was alive with the sound of Deutsche Telekom’s attempts to force a merger with Orange, yet again. The French telco immediately rubbished the tittle-tattle, but Faultline explored why the 2019 rumors were not so implausible, given the collaboration between the two operator heavyweights on developing the joint Djingo/Magenta voice assistant and smart speaker, released a year earlier, plus the BuyIn joint venture launched in 2011. Earlier this year (2024), DT and Orange were said to be exploring an expansion of BuyIn, a procurement alliance, to bring T-Mobile US into the fold. ————————————————————————————————————– TCL dives into HEVC Advance pool: Consumer electronics giant TCL has joined the HEVC Advance patent…