Today, BT has announced that it is furthering its partnership with Toshiba, launching the first commercial trail of a network using quantum security in the form of quantum key distribution (QKD).
The test, which is being carried out over BT’s (Openreach’s) fibre network, will be performed by professional services group EY, with Toshiba providing the QKD equipment and key management software. The test will see EY use the network to communicate between two of its sites in London, one at London Bridge and the other at Canary Wharf.
Quantum computing, in its current state, is still very much in its infancy, with very few practical applications recorded outside the laboratory…
BT Group Turning EE into its Flagship Brand for UK Consumers
Telecoms giant BT (EE) has today announced another shake-up of its branding, which in simple terms will see EE – over time – become the “flagship brand for our consumer customers” (i.e. converged broadband and mobile plans etc.) and BT become the flagship brand for their Enterprise and Global units. The announcements (here and here) […]
Netomnia Start FTTP Broadband Build in St Neots and Falkirk
Netomnia – supported by UK broadband ISP YouFibre – has confirmed that they’ve begun to build their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in the Cambridgeshire town of St Neots (England) and the Stirlingshire town of Falkirk (Scotland). Services have also started to go live in Bridgend, Hamilton and Lancaster. The operator, which has so […]
Shell Energy Takes Flak in Q4 2021 Study of UK Broadband Complaints
Ofcom’s latest Q4 2021 (calendar) study of UK consumer complaints has named Shell Energy as attracting the most gripes for fixed broadband services, while TalkTalk did the same for landline phone and Virgin Mobile took flak for Pay Monthly mobile services. Finally, Virgin Media (VMO2) were on the naughty step for Pay TV. As usual, […]
Cuckoo Launch Service to Get Broadband Online Within 24 Hours
UK ISP Cuckoo has today launched a new “world-first” service called “24-Hour Eggspress Wi-Fi“, which claims it can beat the “industry’s standard 14-day wait time” when switching broadband providers by getting customers online “anywhere” in the United Kingdom within 24 hours. But there’s a little more to it than that. Firstly, we should point out […]
Broadband Speeds Help York Top List of Best UK Hybrid Working Places
Uswitch.com has attempted to identify the top 104 UK locations for hybrid workers, which sees the city of York come top thanks to its broadband speeds (159Mbps), good schools, low crime, and closeness to Leeds. By comparison, Hastings was the least desirable due to sluggish broadband, a lack of GPs and poor air quality. The […]
Openreach Begins ISP Pilot of All-IP Solution for ADSL Broadband
Openreach will next month launch the UK ISP pilot phase of their new Single Order Transitional Access Product (SOTAP), which forms part of the withdrawal process for the old analogue copper telephone network. This will make it possible to offer a standalone ADSL broadband line, with optional phone services via VoIP etc. The current plan […]
Anti-Dumping – UK Probes Imports of Chinese Fibre Optic Cables
The UK Government’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), which is the arm’s length body at the Department of International Trade (DIT) and is tasked with investigating “unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports“, has opened two new investigations into imports of fibre optic cables from China. As nearly all of our readers will already know, […]
European telcos need to pull three key levers to address the 5G energy issue
Rising energy prices focus the mind
The rapid increase in global energy prices since the turn of 2022 — sharply affected by the Russia-Ukraine War since February — has pointed an even greater spotlight on 5G energy and sustainability. At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, major wireless equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia highlighted 5G portfolio announcements that emphasized the generation’s superior energy efficiency and sustainability, and indeed, recent IDC conversations with European CSPs underlined the fact that energy efficiency is a top priority for most network operations executives.
5G networks are incredibly high-performance systems that can serve wireless bandwidth of up to 1 Gbps at ultra-low response rates (latency) of less than 20ms to thousands of densely connected devices (phones, things, machines). This massive performance uplift versus 4G is achieved with a powerful 5G RAN infrastructure that can include densely packed 64x or 128x massive MIMO (mMIMO) antennas (by comparison…
NTT and Sky Perfect JSAT launch Space Compass JV
Why Space Compass was formed
There is an urgent need to ensure the sustainability of economic and social activity. This makes it all the more important to effectively and fully utilize stratospheric and near-Earth space for ICT infrastructures. This involves creating ICT infrastructures that support a number of fields, including energy, environment and climate change, disaster prevention, marine infrastructure, and security. In addition, as represented by the ARTEMIS program*1, public and private sectors in many countries are cooperating to extend human activities not only to near…