SpaceX appears to be licking some extremely expensive wounds today after the company revealed “up to” 40 of the 49 Starlink broadband satellites that it launched to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on 3rd February 2022 will soon be toast, thanks to the impact of a pesky geomagnetic storm. At present Elon Musk’s risky venture has […]
Project Gigabit Updates on Start of First Live UK Procurements
The UK Government’s Building Digital UK team has published an update on the start of their first procurements under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout, which is now inviting bids for contracts worth up to £292m to upgrade rural premises across Cumbria, Durham, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire, Dorset and Teesdale. Project Gigabit seeks to extend 1Gbps capable […]
Vodafone UK Updates on Changes to Roaming and Basics Plans
Mobile operator Vodafone UK has informed us of some changes they’ve made to their SIM-Only “Basics” plans from 6th and 9th February 2022, which relates to the introduction of new roaming options (costs), the removal of data capping (not quite what it sounds like) and the enabling of a spend manager. The changes to roaming […]
Cybersecurity and Human Rights Groups Warn UK Against Encryption Ban
Some 50 leading security, human rights and technology experts have put their names to a new letter that accuses the UK Government of “misleading the public” with a “scaremongering” campaign against the use of end-to-end encryption on the internet, which helps to keep everything from financial transactions to messaging secure. Encryption is used all over […]
Gov Ponders Approach to Gigabit Broadband in Remote UK Areas
The UK Government has just published a response to its consultation on the question of how significantly faster broadband ISP networks can be extended to reach the final 0.3% of the country (i.e. under 100,000 premises), which are too expensive for their new £5bn Project Gigabit programme to reach in its current form. At the […]
Gov Names Winners of New Pilots to Aid 5G via Street Furniture
The UK Government has today awarded £4m to support 8 new 2-year long pilots under the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA) project, which will test ways of making it easier for network operators to access and deploy 5G mobile (mobile broadband) infrastructure on street furniture and public buildings. Deploying mobile infrastructure on public street furniture […]
Optus deploying Ericsson’s triple-band RU to help boost 5G rollout
Today, Ericsson has announced the deployment of its triple-band Radio 4466 solution by Australian operator Optus, allowing three spectrum bands to be deployed by a single radio unit.
The new solution will allow Optus to deploy both 4G and 5G services across 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.6 GHz spectrum layers via one device…
Zzoomm’s FTTP Broadband Goes Live in Crewe and Nantwich UK
UK ISP Zzoomm has announced that their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network has begun to go live in parts of the large railway town and civil parish of Crewe and Nantwich (Cheshire, England), with premises in the village of Shavington being the first to benefit. But competition is fierce. The provider, which holds […]
Iliad reportedly bids for Vodafone Italy
In the past few weeks, rumours have been circulating that Vodafone and Iliad have entered talks to discuss combining their Italian business units.
Now, it seems that those rumours are well founded, with further sources telling the media that French telecoms giant Iliad submitted a takeover bid to Vodafone just last week.
The Italian mobile market is currently highly competitive, largely as a result of Iliad&rsquo…
M&A rumours abound in Spain as Orange and MasMovil talks revealed
Today, Spanish newspaper Expansion is reporting that Orange is in talks to merge its Spanish unit with that or rival group MasMovil, citing anonymous sources.
According to sources, the move would create a 50:50 joint venture, half of which would be held by Orange, with the remaining 50% held by Masmovil’s owners: KKR, Cinven, and Providence.
The trio of investment funds themselves took control of MasMovil back in 2020…