Big UK ISPs Ordered to Block More Pirated Book and Journal Websites
The Publishers Association (PA) has convinced the High Court to force most of the major broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) to extend and expand their existing block of websites, focusing on those that were found to facilitate internet copyright infringement (piracy) of books and journals. At present such blocking orders, which in the UK flow from Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), aren’t cheap to bring but...
Europe is the top target for hacktivists, Orange Cyberdefense report reveals
News Orange Cyberdefense, cybersecurity arm of Orange Group, has published its Security Navigator 2025 report, a strategic guide to understanding changes in the cyber threat landscape Now in its sixth year of publication, this year’s report reveals a stark increase in politically motivated cyberattacks across Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At a launch event this month in London, Char van der Walt, Head of Security Research at Orange Cyberdefence, and Sara Puigvert,...
Trial Seeks to Improve Broadband on Public Transport in Swansea Bay Area
The Welsh Government (WG) and a consortium of partners have today kicked off the StarBws project, which will trial a mix of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite and 4G mobile (wireless) technologies from Starlink, Peplink and wavemobile in order to improve broadband for passengers travelling on public transportation in rural parts of the Swansea Bay area. Getting good internet connectivity on public transport in rural areas can be a challenge, not least due to obstructions such as tree canopies and...
Rising network bandwidth: 2025 trends and best practices
Contributed Article The need for speed – high-speed internet – along with greater bandwidth capacity will continue to be critical for communities everywhere in 2025 and beyond By: Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer of Great Plains Communications Network operators should anticipate demand for more and more bandwidth, as network traffic growth shows no sign of slowing down. What’s driving all the bandwidth consumption? We rely on the internet for products, services, and applications we use...
Voneus Drops Out of Project Gigabit Broadband Contract for Mid West Shropshire
In an unexpected development, the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has just announced that rural broadband ISP Voneus has “mutually agreed to terminate” the £17m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which would have expanded a full fibre (FTTP) network to 6,000 premises in hard to reach areas. Breaking news.. more to...
Virgin Media UK and Nexfibre Expand Full Fibre to 13,000 Homes in Stoke
Broadband operator nexfibre, which shares some of their UK parentage with retail ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has today announced that they’ve made their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network available to more than 13,000 additional homes in the city of Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire, England). The city already had a significant level of coverage from Virgin Media’s own gigabit broadband network, although the nexfibre build – most of which has taken place around...
Cumbria Overbuild Questions Raised Over Fibrus and B4RN’s Broadband Networks
Residents in the rural Cumbria (England) villages of Kirkoswald and Great Salkeld, which previously worked with local ISP B4RN to build a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network (partly funded by government vouchers), have been left puzzled after Fibrus started building a similar network in the same area under a publicly funded Project Gigabit contract. A quick look at both of the Eden Valley villages shows that they appear to be well covered by B4RN’s network, which is a registered Community...
Openreach Expand Pilot to Help UK Telecare Users Switch to Digital Phones
Openreach (BT) has today announced that they’ve expanded their small scale ‘Prove Telecare’ trial into a full pilot, which aims to help UK consumers with old analogue based phone (PSTN / WLR) and telecare systems to safely migrate to modern broadband (FTTP etc.) connections with IP / digital phone (VoIP) services. Just to recap. BT and Openreach recently delayed their planned switch-off of copper-based analogue line services (PSTN phones and WLR) from the end of December 2025 to 31st January...
TalkTalk to cut hundreds more jobs in effort to save £120m
News The “radical” restructuring is the latest step to avoid company collapse UK ISP TalkTalk is set to cut hundreds of jobs, as announced in an investor’s meeting last week, The Telegraph has reported. According to the report, the firm has already begun redundancy consultations, as it plans to cut 130 jobs in its consumer division based in Salford. More are set to follow at its wholesale business, Platform X. Earlier this month, the company’s latest accounts revealed that it had reached...
Gigs Raises $73 Million To Enable Tech Companies To Launch Their Own Mobile Service
SAN FRANCISCO, 12th of December 2024 – Gigs, the operating system for mobile services, today announced that it has raised a $73M Series B led by Ribbit Capital. All existing investors, including Google’s Gradient, YC and Speedinvest participated in the round. Gigs will use the funding to expand its geographical footprint and invest in an expanded suite of products and services for tech companies. This will enable more tech brands to meaningfully innovate in telecom, provide more value to their...