To tax or not to tax? That is the question that has been under discussion behind closed doors by the European Commission since May, when the regulators said they were considering forcing Big Tech companies to contribute financially to telecoms network rollout costs.
At the time, a recent report from the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) had found that the six largest content providers accounted for 55% of network traffic in Europe and suggested that an annual contribution of &euro…
European countries clash over Big Tech tax to pay for networks
To tax or not to tax? That is the question that has been under discussion behind closed doors by the European Commission since May, when the regulators said they were considering forcing Big Tech companies to contribute financially to telecoms network rollout costs.
At the time, a recent report from the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) had found that the six largest content providers accounted for 55% of network traffic in Europe and suggested that an annual contribution of &euro…
Reliance Jio the big winner in India’s $19bn 5G auction
India has concluded its long-delayed 5G auction, raising almost $19 million in what proved to be a much more competitive process than anticipated.
The seminal 5G auction made spectrum in a huge array of spectrum bands – 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz, and 26GHz – available to the operators for the first time.
The Indian operators have been trialling the new technology for the past year, with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) all suggesting they would look to launch 5G services in 2022 as soon as the auction has concluded.
For a long time, however, the extent to which the Indian operators would want to compete in the 5G auction was unclear…
London ISP CommunityFibre Shift to Amazon’s Cloud Contact Centre
London-focused UK ISP CommunityFibre has appointed contact solutions provider SVL to upgrade their existing contact centre by migrating it to the cloud-based Amazon Connect platform. The move is intended to help expand their support centre over the coming years to meet the needs of a growing customer base. At present the operator, which also owns […]
Vodafone UK Guaranteeing Best Price for Smartphone Trade-In
Mobile operator Vodafone has upgraded their existing ‘Trade-In Tool‘ to include a new “unbeatable price promise“, which they claim will “guarantee customers the best price for their current smartphone” vs any other mobile network’s trade-in price (excluding promotions) for eligible devices. The operator’s upgraded Trade-In Tool also gives customers an instant and “guaranteed quote” while […]
London Full Fibre ISP CommunityFibre Discounts Broadband Plans
London-focused UK ISP CommunityFibre (CF), which has already covered 500,000 premises with their 3Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (aiming for 2.2 million by the end of 2024), has today refreshed and discounted some of their broadband packages. For example, you can now get 1Gbps for just £25. The main changes this time around are the […]
Rumoured departure of TIM’s network chief could hamper restructure
Today, anonymous sources have told the media that TIM’s head of network operations could soon leave the company, potentially jeopardising new CEO Pietro Labriola’s plans to restructure the business.
At the start of this year, however, Pietro Labriola, previous head of TIM Brasil, was announced as the new Group CEO…
FCC kicks off latest 5G spectrum auction
At the end of last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the launch of its latest 5G spectrum auction, which it hopes will help fill in the gaps of rural wireless coverage.
The auction, Auction 108, will offer 8,017 county-based licences in the 2.5 GHz band for areas where this spectrum is currently unassigned, primarily rural areas.
 …
Artists Paint ISP Ogi’s Full Fibre Broadband Street Cabinets
Broadband ISP Ogi, which is busy investing £200m to build a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 150,000 premises across South Wales by 2025 (here and here), has teamed-up with a local art gallery – Breakout Gallery – in Haverfordwest to give their street cabinets a rather.. unique look. A series of artworks, based on […]
Humboldt: The first subsea cable connecting LatAm with APAC and Oceania
Today, Chilean state-run infrastructure fund Desarrollo País and H2 Cable, a subsidiary of Singapore’s BW Digital, have announced they now seeking a partner to begin work on the Humboldt Cable, a submarine cable system set to link Latin America to the Asia Pacific and Oceania regions for the first time.
The planned Humboldt Cable will span roughly 15,000km as it connects Valparaiso, Chile, to Sydney, Australia. From there, Humboldt will interconnect to other cable systems in Asia.
The initial plans for the system also include provisions deploy additional branches to the Juan Fernández Islands, Easter Island and New Zealand, further diversifying the route…