News

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today finally granted approval for mobile operators Vodafone and Three UK to proceed with their merger deal (here), which will result in an expansion of their 5G Standalone (SA) network (broadband) coverage. But the merged company will have to comply with new legal obligations and consumer pricing controls. The merger, which is said to be worth £15bn+ and will see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK) hold 49%,...

Network analyst firm Streetwave has surveyed UK mobile coverage (4G, 5G etc.) and mobile broadband speeds along the East Coast Mainline – as operated by the London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which found that passengers can face “hours without mobile coverage access” while travelling between London and Edinburgh. But EE delivered the best service. The East Coast route is said to connect London and Edinburgh via Yorkshire, York, Durham and Newcastle. According to Network Rail, over 20 million...

Edge artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling real-time data processing and decision-making directly on devices, reducing latency and bandwidth usage while enhancing privacy by minimizing data transmission to the cloud. However, its widespread adoption has faced significant technical obstacles. The DIME project, led by a research team at IMDEA Networks and coordinated by Joerg Widmer, Research Director, and Jaya Champati, Research Assistant Professor, concluded this year, achieving a critical...

News  The milestone means passengers traveling through central London stations can enjoy reliable 4G coverage on their journeys  Transport for London (TFL) and neutral host provider Boldyn Networks have completed the rollout of high-speed mobile coverage across the entire Elizabeth Line. This marks another step in TfL’s ongoing efforts to improve connectivity across London’s transport system.  All UK mobile network operators — Three UK, EE, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2 — are participating in...

News The operator says it values its remaining 3% stake at around $330 million This week, Vodafone has announced that it is looking to sell its final 3% stake in Indus Towers, which it values at around $330 million. The sale will be achieved through an accelerated book build offering. Vodafone has been actively seeking to sell down its stake in Indus Towers since 2022, gradually reducing its stake from 28% to 21.5% earlier this year. In June, the company announced it was looking to sell a...

News The new tower is already being used heavily by the local community, with EE calling it “one of the busiest EE mobile sites in the area” This week, EE has announced the deployment of a new mobile tower in the remote Scottish Isle of Skye, having flown it in via helicopter. The new mast, which has been nestled in a forested area to lower its visual impact, now provides 4G coverage to 330,000 square metres of the central and northern parts of the island. The primary focus of this deployment,...

News US investment firm I Squared Capital has also filed a non-binding offer for the company, opening the door to a potential bidding war China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, has launched a HK$6.86 billion (US$881 million) bid to acquire Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), one of Hong Kong’s top internet service providers. According to stock market filing, this offer could increase to HK$7.8 billion (US$1 billion) when factoring in unvested share units and vendor loan notes. HKBN...

Network provider Openreach (BT) has revealed that the introduction, in April 2024, of a new website app (‘Change My Appointment‘) that put customers in charge of their engineer visits, has already helped to reduce missed appointments by 30%. The extra resources freed up by this have also boosted the number of engineers installing full fibre broadband services. Previously, customers could only amend appointments via a text service with limited date options. They would text a preferred date then...

Customers of mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) in the city of Bristol are starting to benefit from the deployment of a new 4G based small cell mobile (mobile broadband) network, which reflects a recent partnership with Cellnex UK and the Bristol City Council (BCC) in England. Small cells are mini shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which have been designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around +/- 100 metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy urban areas and...

Broadband provider iDNET has today become the latest UK ISP to begin harnessing MS3’s growing 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which currently covers over 210,000 premises (footprint) across locations such as Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham, and Mexborough etc. Hull-based MS3 is an Asterion-backed network builder that aspires to cover 535,000 UK premises with their gigabit wholesale fibre network across the Hull and Humber region of England by the end of...