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Network access provider Openreach (BT), which has a huge fleet of 23,000 cars and commercial vans to help their engineers roll-out and support their UK broadband infrastructure, has revealed that they’re testing Geotab‘s connected vehicle fleet telematics technology to improve driver safety, cut downtime and support their sustainability ambitions. (more…)
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Telecoms giant BT has in recent weeks been gradually notifying their existing UK home broadband customers, specifically those with legacy packages that once came bundled with the streaming TNT Sports Pack add-on for free (formerly BTSport), that they’ll need to start paying for the add-on from 16th October 2026. Some customers never even used it. (more…)
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Today, BT has announced the purchase of TalkTalk’s consumer and wholesale divisions on a debt-free basis.
The deal will see BT will absorb TalkTalk’s roughly 1.5 million retails customers and 1 million wholesale customers. Service for these customers will continue uninterrupted and will likely only change once BT begins migrating them to its own systems.
Clive Selley, the current CEO of BT International and previously the CEO of Openreach until March this year, is set to ‘lead the stabilisation and integration planning of the acquisition’, according to the company press release.
Martijn Blanken will take Selley’s place as CEO of BT International.
TalkTalk had been formally seeking buyers for its consumer unit and its wholesale unit (PXC) since the start of the year, having struggled financially for years. In recent months, excusive talks were being held with both Opus Broadband and Octopus Investments for the consumer business and PXC, respectively, but no deals materialised.
The company was due to enter administration today.
“This is a genuinely unprecedented situation, where millions of citizens and businesses were at risk if TalkTalk had collapsed. BT is the digital backbone of the country, with a presence in every postcode. We have been connecting the nation for generations, stepping up in the moments that matter, and BT acquiring TalkTalk is now the only viable option to keep millions of customers connected and supported,” said Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group.
“Our immediate priority is to stabilise the business and provide a safety net for the households and businesses who rely on TalkTalk. Once the regulatory process has been concluded, TalkTalk’s customers will benefit from access to the UK’s best network, and the full range of market-leading products and services that BT offers. And, over a period of time, the transaction will create value for all our stakeholders – customers, colleagues, the country, and our owners.”
BT’s late interest in buying the units was reported by the Financial Times last week, with BT reportedly checking for potential anti-trust pitfalls. Further reports suggested that BT’s initial approach had been rejected, leading to a higher offer being made on Sunday.
While financial details of the agreement were not revealed, BT said it estimates a roughly £400 million hit to its finances for the 2027 financial year as a result of the deal.
Naturally, a deal of this magnitude has already drawn attention from regulators, who will be concerned that the deal further entrenches BT’s dominant position in the market.
Following the deal’s announcement, the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN), obligating the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate the deal.
For DCMS, the primary concern is the continuity of vital connectivity services and the “genuine risk to life and public services – including to hospitals, schools and emergency care”.
In a responding statement, BT said it welcomed the PIIN announcement, saying it would “work constructively with the Government and the CMA during their review”. Indeed, the company has pointed to ensuring continuity of service as a key driver of the deal, arguing that the acquisition was in the public interest.
The CMA is expected to report its findings on October 19.
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Original article Total Telecom:Read More
Sateliot, the European satellite telecommunications operator, has successfully launched five new satellites for its 5G NTN IoT network as scheduled, enabling the company to increase connection frequency and service capacity in areas without terrestrial mobile coverage. With this mission, named Draconis, the company brings the total number of satellites launched since its foundation to 11 and advances the commercial deployment of a technology that has already been validated.
With the nominal initial status of all five units confirmed, their incorporation into the constellation will reduce the time between satellite passes and increase connection opportunities for devices. Specifically, they will double the average number of daily passes and halve revisit time.
In addition, the five new units incorporate technological improvements compared with the four satellites launched in 2024, including an optimized payload and a more reliable and efficient onboard data storage system.
They also feature upgraded versions of the onboard central computer and attitude control system, providing greater stability and facilitating in-orbit manoeuvres, as well as memory systems that are more resilient to space conditions, particularly radiation.
These five units, which will orbit at an altitude of 510 km, incorporate the connectivity technology developed by Sateliot for its 5G NTN IoT network. Each satellite measures 20 x 10 x 35 centimetres, weighs 10 kg and has an operational lifetime of five years. Alén Space was responsible for their manufacturing, while Exolaunch handled their integration with the launch vehicle.
The satellites operate as telecommunications towers in space, extending the coverage of mobile operators through wholesale agreements so they can provide Internet of Things services in areas beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
The five new satellites form part of a single constellation of more than 500 satellites that will evolve through successive technological generations, from massive IoT to higher-capacity and mission-critical services, including D2D capabilities.
According to Jaume Sanpera, CEO and co-founder of Sateliot, “The Draconis mission is a strong reflection of where the company stands today. We have validated the technology and are now increasing capacity and service regularity to scale together with mobile operators. Our goal is to make satellite connectivity a natural extension of their networks wherever terrestrial coverage does not reach and, using this same standards-based and interoperable infrastructure, evolve towards increasingly critical and resilient services. We are building a European telecommunications infrastructure based on our own technology, built on the 3GPP standard and with a global ambition”.
How is satellite communication evolving? Join the dicussion at Satellite Live 2027, co-located with Connected Britain
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The post Sateliot launches five new satellites for 5G NTN IoT appeared first on Total Telecom.
Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Network benchmarking provider Ookla (Accenture), which collects data from consumers via their broadband and mobile Speedtest.net service, has published an interesting examination of the performance differences between voice calls handled by the 4G centric Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and 5G based Voice-over-New-Radio (VoNR) technologies. (more…)
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The SpeedGeo project, which compares broadband connection quality by benchmarking the internet speeds of real users, has published their Q3 2026 results and once again named Virgin Media as the fastest fixed broadband ISP. But the study only examined a handful of the largest ISPs, which ignores all of the smaller often faster altnets and retail providers that exist. (more…)
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The incredibly confusing twists and turns of the debt-ridden TalkTalk Group’s attempts to dispose of both their consumer broadband ISP business and their PXC (PlatformX Communications) wholesale business has finally reached a conclusion today. BT has agreed to acquire both businesses from administration. (more…)
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Fife-based alternative broadband operator Gigaloch, which had been rolling out a new full fibre (FTTP) network into rural parts of West Cheshire (England) and Scotland until they ran into financial difficulties last year, appears to be suffering a delay to implementation of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) – due to the receipt of a secondary preferential claim from HMRC. (more…)
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The Octopus Inheritance Tax Service (OITS), which is a discretionary investment service managed by Octopus Investments, has revealed that they’re going to split out their fibre broadband assets (i.e. those held by Fern Trading – Vorboss and AllPoints Fibre Network) from other investments. The move comes shortly after Octopus backed away from a deal to acquire PXC from TalkTalk. (more…)
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Sky has revealed that the future release of their next Sky OS 2.0 software (firmware) for the provider’s broadband-based Sky Glass and Sky Stream pay TV streaming devices and service will bring some major enhancements, including revised cloud recording (PVR) capabilities and AI-powered voice search. (more…)