At the end of last week, the CAT announced that it had rejected CityFibre’s appeal against an Ofcom ruling that would allow Openreach to offer major discounts to its client internet service providers (ISPs).
In August year, Ofcom announced that it would allow Openreach to go ahead with its new pricing strategy, Equinox, which would see them reduce their wholesale prices by up to a third for ISPs taking out long term contracts.
The ruling spurred outrage from the UK altnet community, who said that the discounts would make competing with Openreach in many locations unfeasible, thus making the market less competitive.
While the altnets could not launch a legal challenge against the Equinox prices directly…
CEO of Broadband ISP Voneus Named New Chair of the UK ISPA
The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA UK), which is the national trade body for broadband and internet providers, has today had a key change in its leadership, which sees Steve Leighton (CEO of Voneus) taking over the reins from Andrew Glover (CEO of Air Broadband) to become the organisation’s new Chair. Andrew will hand over […]
G.Network Become Latest Full Fibre AltNet to Sign Armed Forces Covenant
London-focused broadband ISP G.Network has today become the latest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network builder in the UK to sign the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC), which reflects a pledge to recognise the contribution of serving personnel, both regular and reservists, veterans and military families – often as part of recruitment. A number of other telecoms and broadband […]
Telenet forms fibre JV with Fluvius
Today, Belgian operator Telenet has announced a new agreement with utility company Fluvius to form a joint venture (JV) to deploy full fibre throughout Flanders.
Telenet will own 66.8% of the JV, while Fluvius will own the remaining 33.2%.
The JV, with the working title of NetCo, will focus on combining the partners hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network infrastructure and upgrading it to full fibre, aiming to reach 78% of their combined footprint in Flanders by 2038. In some areas, NetCo will instead be upgrading the HFC network with DOCSIS technology…
Openreach Add 12 New UK FTTP Broadband Rollout Areas – July 2022
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today added 12 new places (towns and villages) to their £15bn rollout of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network, which also includes a few corrections due to past errors and a larger build on the Isle of Wight. Some 8 million premises are now covered. The rollout, […]
Three UK’s Ultrafast 5G Mobile Goes Live in 86 New Locations
Mobile operator Three UK has revealed that their ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband network has gone live in 86 new locations since the start of this year, including rural and coastal “staycation” locations like Dartmouth, Milford on Sea, Aberystwyth, Holywood and Irvine. The news comes hot on the heels of Three UK announcing that they’ve […]
FCC wants additional $3bn to ‘rip and replace’ Chinese network kit
Back in 2020, President Donald Trump signed the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act, essentially mandating US telcos to replace networking provided by vendors that the government deemed untrustworthy with regards to national security, such as China’s Huawei and ZTE.
Of course, ripping and replacing networking equipment, especially on a large scale, does not come cheap. Many US telcos were quick to point out that they would struggle to comply with the new rules without significant subsidies from the government…
Telefonica and Ericsson demo 5G network slicing for diverse use cases
The proof-of-concept shows end-to-end orchestration for full slicing life cycle support and radio resources partitioning, offering a key differential user experience to customers.
The proof-of-concept covered different use cases including a 360-video production in motion in collaboration with technology start-up YBVR, remote control of an automated guided vehicle (AGV), and gesture recognition in collaboration with Spanish SME Fivecomm.
The lab test was carried out at 5TONIC, a Madrid-based open research and innovation laboratory focused on 5G technologies, founded by Telefó…
Full Fibre Builder Connexin Acquires UK ISP Pure Broadband
Network builder and ISP Connexin, which is investing £80m to roll-out Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband infrastructure across parts of Hull and East Yorkshire (here and here), has today announced yet another acquisition as they gobble up Hull-based UK ISP Pure Broadband for an undisclosed sum. At present Pure Broadband tends to deliver its internet connectivity services […]
UK drone ‘superhighway’ cleared for take-off
Today, the UK government has announced that it has given the greenlight to ‘Project Skyway’, a plan to create a ‘drone superhighway’ between the Midlands and the Southeast.
The proposed drone corridor will be the longest in the world, spanning around 165 miles and connecting Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby. It will be built and developed over the coming two years, with plans to extend the corridor all the way to Ipswich and Southampton if early trials prove successful…