News

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published the results of a recent study it conducted into the costs of improving power resilience at UK mobile network sites (masts etc.). This finds that the cost of ensuring “almost everybody” could maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours, in the event of a power cut, would be approx. £1bn. Communications providers in the UK currently have a legal obligation to identify, prepare for and reduce the risk of anything that compromises...

News Nokia’s current CEO, Pekka Lundmark, is stepping down from the role after five years in the role This week, Nokia has announced that it has appointed Intel’s head of the data centre and artificial intelligence group, Justin Hotard, to replace their outgoing CEO Pekka Lundmark. Hotard will formally take over the role on April 1. Word that Nokia’s board was looking to replace Lundmark first began circulating in September last year, with reports suggesting that Nokia had approached numerous...

Press Release TalkTalk confirmed as first large-scale broadband partner for Kraken platform, joining global energy and water utilities, as Wi-Fi provider takes next step on customer-focused transformation TalkTalk has signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Kraken – the operating system revolutionising global utilities – to propel its ongoing transformation and ambition to become the most recommended Wi-Fi provider in the UK.  TalkTalk will adopt Kraken as its sole customer management...

Viewpoint by Jon Abbott, Technologies Director & Industry Advisor at Vertiv Telecommunications infrastructure has evolved in response to growing demand. But right now, that evolution is happening at a pace the industry hasn’t seen before. The surge in data traffic, the push for lower latency, and the rise of AI-driven applications are forcing operators to rethink how networks are built and managed. The challenge is no longer just about expanding capacity – it hinges on enabling networks to...

Digital IPTV platform provider Netgem TV has today announced that their broadband-based TV box and service, which is typically bundled by ISPs like Brsk, Connect Fibre, TalkTalk, CommunityFibre and a few others, has added UK support for Fox’s free (ad supported) Tubi video streaming service. “We’re thrilled to be expanding Tubi’s footprint further in the UK, and that Netgem’s customers will now have access to the largest free content library in the country.” said Ross Appleton, Tubi’s GM for...

Network analyst firm Streetwave, which is currently conducting various UK surveys to study the coverage and speed of 4G and 5G mobile broadband networks using bin lorries and private vehicles, has published another free and interactive visual map of their results – this time for the London borough of Brent. Just to recap. Streetwave have spent the past year harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection lorries to map mobile network / broadband coverage and speeds in various parts of the UK,...

Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet appears to have Finally begun to make their long-awaited top tier Full Fibre Max package available over CityFibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which means you can now take symmetric speeds of 2.3Gbps for just £55 per month. Just to be clear about this, the new package is currently only available via parts of CityFibre’s network that have been upgraded to support XGS-PON technology (here) and that means availability is quite...

Rights Holders, having recently succeeded in forcing even some third-party public Domain Name System (DNS) resolvers to block websites that have been found to facilitate internet copyright infringement (piracy), are now turning their attention to major Virtual Private Networks (VPN) like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others. For those out there who may still be unfamiliar. A VPN essentially encrypts and routes your internet traffic through a different protocol and server (i.e. a private...

The UK Government will shortly attempt to deliver on their pledge to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here) by publishing an updated Code of Practice for broadband operators to follow, which will set out new guidance on the divisive issue. We now have a good idea of what that new code will include. Just to recap. The deployment of poles (usually made of wood or metal) to run overhead fibre is a common practice (over 4 million have already been built). This is because...

Good news, SpaceX’s global Starlink broadband network is currently listed as finally coming to the poorly served Falkland Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory, sometime in 2025. Bad news, the service is already being used by hundreds of local customers and the company has just started to cut them off. At present there are about 3,700 people living and working on the largely self-governing and self-sufficient Falkland Islands, where all of the fixed line (phone, broadband) services...