NEWS

A new study published by comparison website Uswitch has revealed the shocking disparity of broadband speed experienced in some cities.

Topping the list is the Scottish city of Glasgow where the highest average download speed is 840.4Mbps, 866 times faster than in the slowest region which fails to even reach the level required by UK Government’s universal service obligation (USO) as an acceptable broadband speed.

The fastest speed in Glasgow was recorded in the deprived district of Milton, whilst four miles away the slowest was in posh Bearsden, which regularly hits the headlines for having some of the highest house prices in the city, perhaps at odds with perception that the digital divide is perpetuated by poor connectivity in less affluent areas.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bradford had the smallest disparity between fast and slow broadband with a gap of just 129Mbps between its fastest and slowest areas.

The research shows the broadband gap between UK households is widening as many customers upgrade to faster services. Across the UK 7% of broadband customers now get average ultrafast speeds of over 300 Mbps, but in Glasgow for example, more than a third of addresses (37%) in the slowest area did not have access to a superfast package.

Ernest Doku, broadband expert at Uswitch.com, says: “While the average UK broadband speed is increasing year on year, not everyone is benefiting. We are seeing a large and growing gap between customers benefiting from ultrafast speeds and those who are getting the bare minimum.”

Why not join Total Telecom for Connected North in Manchester on the 17-18 April 2023 to understand more about the connectivity landscape for the region.

 

PRESS RELEASE

“We are proud to have won this contract with Ice. Ice’s 5G development plans are ambitious, and we will provide the best mounting solutions available in today’s market. Griptel look forward to supporting Ice’s plan to deliver 5G services to their Norwegian customers,” says Pål Bjørdal, CEO of Griptel.

Griptel is Norway’s leading provider of mounting solutions for critical technical equipment such as 4G and 5G antennas for cellular networks. The company will supply Ice for the next five years, as Ice realises its ambition to build a world-class 5G network in Norway.

Ice is upgrading its current 3,200 base stations and plans to build 3,900 new base stations.

“High-quality and network reliability has been our top priority from day one. Vi deliberately chose Nokia, a European supplier for network and infrastructure. We have now chosen Griptel, a Norwegian supplier, who have designed custom-made mounting solutions of premier quality. Our goal is to build the best and most reliable 5G network in Norway,” says Eivind Helgaker, CEO of Ice.

Griptel provides specially designed mounting solutions to its customers, which already include both Telenor and Telia. With the Ice agreement, Griptel becomes a main supplier to all three mobile network operators in Norway.

Depending on how much equipment Ice will order, Griptel estimates the contract to be worth approximately NOK 200 million.

The agreement includes Griptel’s solutions to mount solar panels on base stations to reduce energy use.

Griptel has experienced strong and rapidly growing demand for its custom-made mounting solutions the last couple of years. The company is now looking to expand beyond Norway in close cooperation with its customers. Griptel strongly believes more challenging climate conditions will stress the need for robust and safe mounting solutions both in the telecommunications sector as well as other industries subject to severe weather conditions.

“Through the safest mounting solutions on the market, as well as our unique B2B online shopping solutions, our customers can make sure they avoid downtime, accidents, or other unwanted incidents, in addition to cutting costs. We will continue to deliver the best solutions for our customers,” adds Pål Bjørdal.

About Griptel AS

Griptel designs and manufactures mounting equipment in galvanized steel. The company’s products are the safest mounting equipment for vulnerable electronic equipment, communication equipment and other technical infrastructure. With mounting equipment of the highest quality, Griptel contributes to reduced downtime for electronic equipment, better HSE and lower maintenance costs. Own design and production at Griptel’s own factory give full control over the production process and quality. Griptel’s head office is located on Vøynenenga in Bærum, Norway.

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A new report from has used data from 16,500 consumer speed tests to reveal the ten UK cities with the biggest performance gap between those with the fastest broadband ISP speeds and those with the slowest. Glasgow was found to be the “most unequal city“, with its fastest speeds (840.4Mbps) being 866 times quicker than […]

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News

The deployment follows a small-scale rural rollout in Wales and the Southwest of England last year

Vodafone has long been a major proponent of Open RAN and now it is claiming a new European first: an urban deployment of Open RAN equipment in a live network.

Until now, Vodafone’s Open RAN deployments have primarily been centred around rural areas – presumably since these regions are less risky, impacting less customers if things go wrong and putting less stress on network capacity.

The operator’s first deployment of Open RAN in a live network took place on a very small scale in Wales and the Southwest of England in 2021, but since then Vodafone has increased its Open RAN ambitions, targeting Open RAN technology deployments at least 2,500 sites by 2027.

It is likely no coincidence that this timeline coincides with the deadline imposed on UK operators by the government to fully remove Huawei equipment from their networks, with Open RAN having long been touted as a possible alternative.

In total, Vodafone hopes to have 30% of its mobile sites in Europe using Open RAN equipment by 2030.

This week, the operator has taken yet another significant step towards this goal – albeit at a similarly small scale.

Vodafone says it plans to deploy Open RAN technology to 16 masts in Exmouth and Torquay over the next three months, a move that represents the first urban deployment of the open access technology in Europe.

“Vodafone was one of the first companies worldwide to commit to Open RAN at scale,” said Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone UK. “The potential of Open RAN is huge and clear to see.  But to realise this potential, we need to deploy the technology out in the live network and take it from rural to urban locations.  This is what we have now done – taking lab innovations into the real world and an essential step forward for the health and resilience of our industry.”

Vodafone is working with Dell, Intel, Samsung, Wind River, and Capgemini as technology partners for the deployments.

The UK government has ambitious Open RAN targets of its own, announcing in December last year that they would like to see 35% of mobile network traffic carried over Open RAN architecture by 2030. As such, they were predictably pleased by this announcement from Vodafone.

“Vodafone’s use of Open RAN in Devon is the first of its kind in Europe, proving once again that the UK is a leader in innovative solutions for mobile connectivity,” said Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez. “We encourage other providers to roll out Open RAN in urban areas and continue to support a more diverse, innovative and resilient telecoms supply chain through our £250m investment programme.”

Can Open RAN pose a threat to the dominance of the traditional RAN vendors? Join the operators in discussion at the upcoming Connected North conference

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