News

A recent ruling by the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in London means that UK mobile and broadband operators will effectively have to pay landowners of rural greenfield mast sites significantly more to place their masts, with the typical rental for such sites being expected to rise from £750 to £1,750 per year. In the past it was often landowners that would extract highly lucrative rental agreements in return for allowing telecoms operators to deploy infrastructure on their land (e.g. mobile...

The LSBUD (Line Search Before You Dig) organisation, which offers an online asset search facility to UK civil engineering firms for underground pipes and cables, has published their annual Digging Up Britain 2024 report and revealed that telecoms remains the “most active industry” when it comes to searching before digging (39% of searches). The report notes that, during 2023, the number of search enquires that passed through LSBUD’s portal reached 3.92 million (up from 3.75m last year). Thanks...

Mobile network operator Three UK has finally confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve withdrawn their old ‘Data Reward’ Pay As You Go (PAYG) plan for existing customers, which previously pledged that those who had already registered for it before 23rd May 2022 would “continue to receive … 200MB [of data] every month for life.” As we’ve always said, consumers would be well advised NEVER to put their faith in “lifetime” style service or promotional pledges like this, as we’ve yet to see any mobile or...

The new Labour-led Government (DSIT) has this afternoon announced that they’ve appointed Hazel Hobbs to act as the “interim” chair of their broadband and mobile centric Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, starting on 1st September 2024. She replaces Simon Blagden, who resigned “with immediate effect“ a month ago (here). Hazel has also been reappointed as a non-executive director of BDUK, having been a member of the Board since the organisation became an executive agency in March 2022. She will...

The Scottish Government (SG) has revealed that their £28.75m 4G Infill Programme (S4GI), which completed earlier this year (here) after spending several years improving mobile voice and data (broadband) coverage by building 55 new masts in remote rural areas, has benefitted 2,211 homes and businesses. The initiative, which was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered in partnership with WHP Telecoms (the main infrastructure provider), Cellnex UK and the...

Woking, 20th August 2024 – Strategic Imperatives, the UK’s leading provider of SaaS provisioning, connectivity, and monetisation solutions for the telecom industry, announced today that Netomnia, following its recent merger with Brsk and now the UK’s fourth-largest full-fibre network, has joined The Fibre Café platform. Powered by Strategic Imperatives, The Fibre Café is the UK’s principal integration platform, transforming access to the UK wholesale fibre market and accelerating the growth...

 Athens, 21st August 2024: Grid Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary and the telecommunications vehicle of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) of Greece, and Tamares Telecom, a leading fiber-based international communications and data service provider and network operator, a subsidiary of Aluma Infrastructure Fund, announced today the signing of a Heads of Agreement regarding their joint participation in Tamares Telecom Cyprus, a fully licensed operator in Cyprus and owner of a...

Neterra, a global communications service provider, has achieved carbon neutrality for 2023 and has been officially certified by the international organization Verra. This significant accomplishment is the result of the company’s dedicated efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and invest in sustainable projects. The Verra certification confirms that Neterra has offset 74 tons of carbon dioxide by supporting the “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Keo Seima Wildlife...

News  The regulator hopes the ruling will deter further use of AI-generated voice impersonation  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined US communications systems provider Lingo Telecom $1 million for transmitting robocalls that used a deepfake of President Joe Biden’s voice.   A robocall is an automated phone call that delivers a recorded message, usually on behalf of a political party or telemarketing company.   In this case, the robocalls targeted New Hampshire voters ahead of...

Viewpoint Recently, South Africa MTN and Huawei jointly launched the Ultra-Long-Haul (ULH) 400G optical transport backbone project, aiming to establish high-bandwidth, low-latency, and high-reliability connections between cities in the country, laying a solid foundation for South Africa’s digital and sustainable development, and Leaping towards the F5.5G era. MTN South Africa, in collaboration with Huawei, has successfully achieved the first ULH 400G commercial link from Cape Town to...