Aqua Comms upgrades AEC-1 subsea network
News The 5,536km-long America Europe Connect (AEC-1) cable links the US to Ireland and the UK Subsea connectivity company Aqua Comms has expanded its network capacity by lighting a new fibre pair on the AEC-1 submarine cable system. The cable, which is Ireland’s first dedicated subsea cable, connects New York, Dublin, and London. The move is designed to meet the increasing demand for fast and reliable data transmission between the three nations. Aqua Comms says the move has also...
EU gives green light to Swisscom’s acquisition of Vodafone Italia
News Swisscom first announced the €8 billion deal back in March, and notified the EU in August The European Commission has given the green light to Swisscom’s acquisition of Vodafone Italia, without conditions. The clearance, granted under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, is a crucial step toward finalising the transaction. The Italian Competition Authority is still reviewing the deal, having launched a deeper investigation earlier this month to assess the transaction’s impact on market...
Superfast North Yorkshire UK Broadband Rollout Helped 200,000 Premises
The state-aid backed Superfast North Yorkshire (SFNY) project, which was supported by £100m of investment (£85m from public sources), has finally reached completion and helped more than 200,000 extra premises to access faster broadband speeds via a mix of different technologies (FTTC, FTTP, Fixed Wireless etc.) and operators (Openreach and Quickline). The SFNY project was managed by NYnet (i.e. the North Yorkshire County Council-owned broadband company) and financed by a mixture of funds from...
Vodafone Claim 5G SA Rollout Across UK Road and Rail Worth £3bn to Economy
Mobile operator Vodafone UK has today claimed, as part of their efforts to build support for a merger with Three UK, that their joint plans for a nationwide roll-out of 5G Standalone (mobile broadband) technology could save regular road users £2bn a year on fuel and boost productivity through remote working on trains by £1bn (GVA) a year. At present most existing 5G networks in the UK are Non-Standalone (NSA), which means they’re still partly reliant on some older 4G infrastructure. By...
BT to use new GenAI Gateway to avoid LLM ‘lock-in’
News The internal platform, built in partnership with AWS, will help BT to integrate Generative AI (GenAI) models from numerous providers into their operations BT’s Digital Unit has launched the GenAI Gateway, a new platform designed to streamline the company’s use of large language models (LLMs). Built in collaboration with AWS, the Gateway represents a unified platform offering secure access to advanced AI models from multiple providers including Anthropic, Meta, and Amazon. This, BT...
Step Telecoms Plans New UK Gigabit Speed Dark Fibre Network
A network operator called Step Telecoms UK has revealed that they’re planning to build a new gigabit-capable Dark Fibre network and lease it along with duct infrastructure on a wholesale basis to its data centre operator clients, which will initially focus on sites in London, Manchester and Slough (inc. some connections to coastal UK subsea cable landing stations). The plan was revealed as part of the company’s application for Code Powers from Ofcom, which are typically sought to help speed-up...
MVNO growth, eSIM, and the challenge of differentiation: Vodafone Wholesale talks market dynamics
Interview The UK’s wholesale mobile market is changing rapily in 2024, with the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) ecosystem set to expand to almost 25% of the market. At Connected Britain 2024, we caught up with Stuart MacLauchlan, Business Development Director at Vodafone Wholesale, about the growth of the UK’s MVNO market and how the shift to eSIM is gaining momentum. Check out the full interview below Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily...
Altnet Freedom Fibre announces Nathan Vautier as new CEO
Press Release Freedom Fibre, a leading UK alternative fibre network provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Nathan Vautier as its new Chief Executive Officer New CEO Nathan Vautier Nathan succeeds founder Neil McArthur, who will transition into a strategic role while continuing to serve on the company’s board, ensuring his ongoing involvement in Freedom Fibre’s growth and vision. As the founder and CEO of the business, Neil McArthur has been instrumental in securing the long-term...
Cellnex mulls sale of French data centres
News According to reports, the sale could raise hundreds of millions of euros Reports on Friday suggest that digital infrastructure specialist Cellnex is currently in discussions with advisors regarding the potential sale of its French data centre unit. While the financial details of any potential sale were not revealed, two anonymous sources told Reuters that the deal could fetch “a few hundred million euros”. According to the company website, Cellnex has over 100 Edge data centres in France,...
Alternative UK Broadband Network Freedom Fibre Appoints New CEO
Alternative UK broadband network builder Freedom Fibre, which has deployed a 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 300,000 premises (27th Mar 2024) and is home to 20,000 customers (12th Aug 2024), has this morning announced the appointment of Nathan Vautier to be their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The move will see Nathan replace the company’s former CEO and Co-Founder, Neil McArthur, who will instead transition into a strategic role while continuing to serve on the company’s...