Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that they’ve extended the coverage of their ultrafast 5G based (mobile broadband) network to more than 150 new locations across the United Kingdom, including various Christmas markets and places such as Kettering, Carlisle, Portlethen and Merthyr Tydfil etc. At present, EE’s 5G network already covers over 50% of […]

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The pair’s “one million phones for the planet” initiative is designed to encourage customers to trade in their old devices and support the circular economy

This week, Vodafone has announced a new partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), initiating a new campaign to encourage smartphone reuse and recycling.

As part of the new three-year “one million phones for the planet” project, Vodafone will launch various strategic initiatives in its European and African markets to promote more sustainable choices by customers, as well as leverage mobile technology to tackle conservation and sustainability challenges.

The largest part of partnership, however, revolves around extending the lifecycle of customer smartphones.

Vodafone says it will offer competitive prices for customers to trade in old handsets, which will be refurbished and resold where possible.

According to Vodafone, purchasing a refurbished smartphone saves roughly 50kg of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) and reduces its environmental impact by 87% compared to a newly manufactured device.

Beyond reuse and refurbish approaches, Vodafone is also rolling out a suite of phone repair services, hoping to extend the lifespan of existing devices.

Phones that cannot be resold will be recycled or repurposed for social or charitable causes.

From today, for each phone traded in to Vodafone during the three-year programme, the operator will donate £1 to WWF conservation projects.

“Every one of us has a role to play in helping to bring our world back to life, and the technology we use every day can play a major role in tackling the climate and nature emergency,” said Tanya Steele, Chief Executive of WWF-UK. “Through our partnership with Vodafone, we will be exploring how everyone can reduce their environmental footprint using digital technologies and services, while also using mobile technology to drive forward key WWF conservation projects around the world. We look forward to working together on our shared vision for the planet.”

The new project will run alongside similar device campaigns Vodafone already has underway in Germany and the UK.

Are operators doing enough in the battle to combat climate change? Join the operators in discussion at the upcoming Connected North conference in Manchester

Also in the news:
Vestager: Restricting “high-risk” vendors a “matter of urgency” for EU
UKRI selects BT consortium for intelligent drone project
IRIS cable set to link Iceland and Ireland

The post Vodafone and WWF partner for phone recycling drive first appeared on Total Telecom.

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The Angolan government is already trying to find an international buyer for a stake in local telco Unitel, just a month after seizing control of the business from its disgraced former owners

According to Angolan media sources, the Angolan government is considering privatising Unitel, with Minister for Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, saying the move would provide greater stability and efficiency for the state’s strategic asset.

The move indicates a rapid turn around for the Unitel, which was finally nationalised just last month, following a lengthy legal battle.

These ownership issues centred around Unitel’s entanglement with Isabel dos Santos and Leopoldino do Nascimento, who until recently each held 25% stake in the operator via Vidatel and Geni, respectively.

Isabel dos Santos is the eldest child of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola until 2017. During her father’s time in office, dos Santos amassed an enormous Angolan business empire, making her a billionaire and one of Africa’s richest women.

However, since her father’s retirement, the new Angolan government has been trying to prosecute dos Santos for corruption, arguing that she had illegally exploited her privileged position and misappropriated public funds.

Leopoldino do Nascimento, better known in Angola as General Dino, who served as the head of the ex-President’s Communication Service, is facing similar accusations.

In 2019, the government ordered that dos Santos’ Angolan bank accounts be frozen and her stakes in Angolan businesses – including Unitel and Banco de Fomento Angola – be seized by the state.

The Angolan government ultimately took the decision to seize do Nascimento’s stake in Unitel in January 2022, while dos Santos’ stake was seized at the end of last month after the failure of her last legal challenge. Interpol would later issue an international arrest warrant for dos Santos at the request of the Attorney General of the Republic of Angola.

The seizure of do Nascimento and dos Santos’ stakes left Unitel entirely nationalised, with the government already holding the remaining 50% of the business via Group Sonangol, a state-owned utility company.

But the government had no intention of keeping hold of the stakes long-term, saying in 2019 that it would look to sell at least part of its reclaimed stake in the business via a public tender process.

The size of the stake for sale and the price tag attached have not yet been hinted, but the comments in the media suggest the stake sale could soon be underway.

Also in the news:
Vestager: Restricting “high-risk” vendors a “matter of urgency” for EU
UKRI selects BT consortium for intelligent drone project
IRIS cable set to link Iceland and Ireland

The post Angolan govt line up stake sale in Unitel first appeared on Total Telecom.

New data from Ookla, which operates the popular broadband ISP and mobile network speed testing service – Speedtest.net, claims to have today revealed the top fastest 5G handsets in the UK for mobile broadband speed. Interestingly, they’re all Apple iPhones. In order to be included in this table, a device had to have a market […]

Broadband ISP CommunityFibre (CF), which has already covered 675,000 premises in London with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (aiming for 2.2 million by the end of 2024), has introduced a series of new discounts across their 150Mbps to 10Gbps speed business packages – mostly reflecting 3 months of free service. The new offers – available to […]

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The new unit will employ 20 dedicated researchers, working alongside academics, CSPs, and other industry partners to explore the nascent technology

This week, Ericsson has announced its latest investment in the UK, this time taking the form of a new 6G-focussed research unit.

The investment, which will take place over a ten-year period, will employ 20 dedicated researchers, who are set to focus on various 6G-related areas, including network security, AI, energy efficiency, and cognitive networks.

The facility will also support numerous PhD students, as well as a providing a collaborative testing ground for CSPs and other industry partners to jointly research 6G technologies.

The specific amount of funding to be invested in the unit has not been disclosed but is in the “tens of millions of pounds”, according to the company press release.

“Ericsson is at the forefront of global research, innovation and developing open standards that will underpin a future of limitless connectivity and new technologies,” said Magnus Frodigh, VP & Head of Ericsson Research. “Establishing a research program in the UK means the country will be well positioned to utilise its existing high international level of knowledge in wireless systems and technologies to produce ground-breaking 6G research that not only can help shape the future of global standards but also deliver a more connected, efficient and sustainable society.”

The UK government, naturally, has been exuberant about this announcement, calling it a “huge vote of confidence in the UK’s innovative telecoms sector”.

“This pioneering research unit will create new jobs, support students and bring together some of our country’s finest minds to shape the future of telecoms infrastructure in the UK and across the globe,” explained DCMS Secretary of State Michelle Donelan. “Our mission is to lead the world in developing next-generation network tech, and we will soon publish a strategy outlining how we harness 6G to deliver more for people and business.”

With most of the telecoms industry still very much embroiled in the challenge of effectively monetising 5G’s capabilities, it can seem strange that Ericsson is committing so early and so heavily to 6G research. Indeed, the 6G era is unlikely to begin in earnest until 2030 and is currently largely amorphous, with the standardisation process itself still in the early stages of development.

Nonetheless, Ericsson has high hopes for the next generation of mobile connectivity, suggesting that it will “merge the digital and physical world, contribute to a more intelligent, sustainable and efficient society and help deliver new use cases that include multi-sensory extended reality, precision healthcare, smart agriculture, cobots, and intelligent autonomous systems”.

These are some lofty goals and it seems likely that many of these will turn out to be little more than hype, just as similar claims did for 5G. That said, it is never too early to get ahead of the game and Ericsson is far from alone in investing in 6G research, particularly as telecoms continues to take on an increasingly geopolitical element.

In Europe, just last month, the EU’s Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking initiative selected 35 6G-related projects to receive up to €250 million in funding. Similarly, the US, China, and South Korea are all heavily subsidising 6G R&D.

If Ericsson can position themselves as an early leader in 6G technology in Europe, the commercial opportunities could be enormous.

How can the UK become a world leader in 6G? Join the UK telecoms ecosystem in discussion about this and other fascinating topics at the upcoming Connected North conference in Manchester

Also in the news:
Vestager: Restricting “high-risk” vendors a “matter of urgency” for EU
UKRI selects BT consortium for intelligent drone project
IRIS cable set to link Iceland and Ireland

The post Ericsson to pour millions into UK-based 6G research unit first appeared on Total Telecom.

Energy and communications provider Telecom Plus, which trades as UW (Utility Warehouse), has published their latest biannual (H1 FY23) report and revealed that they ended the period with 341,392 broadband ISP customers (up by 17,769 in the last 6 months) and 364,062 mobile customers (up by 39,289). Aside from that, there’s not a lot new […]

Alternative network builders Cityfibre and toob have today signed a unique network access agreement, which will see both sides aiming to benefit from each other’s deployments of their respective gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP networks across the UK. Just to recap. Toob currently aims to cover 1 million premises across the South of England by […]

Network supplier Ericsson has today announced that they’re investing “tens of million pounds” (GBP) in order to establish a new research unit in the United Kingdom, which will be used to help test and develop the next (sixth) generation of 6G mobile and wireless broadband technologies. 6G is currently still in the very early research […]

STARTUP STORIES

We meet bugshell, the Berlin based startup who are building a community to make penetration tests more efficient, transparent, and accessible.

Tell us about your start up
Bugshell is a cybersecurity platform that helps companies analyze the security of their IT from an attacker’s perspective. To do this, the platform taps into a European community consisting of highly specialized cybersecurity experts. Similar to online dating, bugshell matches the needs of its customers with the skills of its experts. Currently, bugshell offers penetration testing and phishing simulations. Our target customers are the German Mittelstand.

What is your USP?
Our USP is the ability to match the best-fitting experts to the requirements of our customers and the ability to transparently map the entire cybersecurity testing process on our platform. This results in significantly more time for testing and higher quality. What is also unique is our EU-exclusive approach.

We only work with European cybersecurity experts using European servers.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
IT security is one of the most pressing problems of our time. Companies in the telecom sector are a constant target of cyberattacks. A perfect match for our services, as we test the IT security of a company from an attacker’s perspective. We have also gained significant experience in this field, due to one of our largest clients working in this industry.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
From the very start of our founding in summer 2021, we have been backed by an experienced German business angel. This provided us access to a vast business network and enabled us to develop our platform at lightning speed.

Since April 2022, we are actively engaging clients on the market and have already tested several clients. So far, the feedback has been extremely positive. This is not only due to our transparent processes, but our ability to only test what is necessary at a significantly lower price than our competition.

Why did you establish the business?
Since 2019, damages caused by cyberattacks have risen by several hundred percent. In Germany alone we are looking at EUR 203 billion damages in 2022. This cannot continue and is the reason why we founded bugshell. We think that one of the biggest issues in cybersecurity is that the processes are too slow and not adaptable enough. Companies want to harden their IT security against cyberattacks but lack the ability to do so. To solve this problem, they would need a whole staff of highly skilled employees. But even if the necessary capital is available attracting top talent is extremely difficult.

Their only option is to work with external vendors that offer questionable and inconsistent quality. This is the framework in which bugshell has built its business idea for a scalable platform.

What is your motivation?
The reason to found bugshell was caused more by frustration than inspiration. We wanted to create a European answer against the rising threat of cybercrime. We are also adapting the European idea: Uniting the knowhow of cybersecurity experts from different members states on one platform.

What does the future hold for your business?
Cyberthreats are on the rise and so is the cybersecurity testing market. The German market is the fastest growing market in the EU. Bugshell is, therefore, perfectly positioned. Our goal is to become Europe’s leading IT security platform. We want to foster innovation and give cybersecurity experts a larger voice, with the vision “For a safer digital world” in mind.

Company CV

HQ: Berlin, Germany
Employees: 8
Funding: Pre-seed (Currently in late seed venture capital round)
URL: https://bugshell.com/
Founders

Volker Haupt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/volker-haupt-302461a4/
Inko Lorch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inko-lorch/
Jakob Semmler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakob-semmler-858437158/

Bugshell are one of the startups exhibiting at Connected Germany on the 6 – 7 December 2022. The event takes place at Mainz Congress, Germany. Get your pass HERE

The post Stay safe – think like an attacker first appeared on Total Telecom.