Mobile UK Claim Half of People Would Welcome Mobile Mast on their Street
A new survey of over 1,000 adults conducted by industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents mobile operators Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, has claimed that 51% of respondents are not bothered or would welcome a new mobile mast on their street to help improve service performance and reliability. The How Connected Are You? (PDF) survey, which attempts to gauge both the public perceptions of mobile connectivity and attitudes towards mobile infrastructure in the UK, found...
O2 UK Launch Cheaper Mobile Social Tariff for People on State Benefits
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today launched a new 4G and 5G mobile plan to support UK people on low incomes, which is a low-cost data (mobile broadband), calls and texts (SMS) plan that is only available to those on eligible state benefits and costs just £10 per month. The new ‘Essential Plan’ is available for both new and existing customers who receive a range of benefit payments, and comes with 10GB of mobile data, plus unlimited calls and texts. The plan can be taken as a...
BT Warn UK Lift Operators Not to Leave Users Trapped by Analogue Phone Switch Off
The CEO of telecoms and broadband provider BT Business, Bas Burger, has written a new letter to critical national infrastructure customers this week, including the likes of lift operators and medical equipment, which warns them of the need to switchover to a digital phone solution before the old analogue (PSTN) service is switched-off. Just to recap. The big switch-off was recently delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs / phone providers, telecare providers and consumers...
Leicestershire UK’s GigaHubs Full Fibre Build Connects 43 Public Sites
The Leicestershire County Council (LCC) has revealed that their recently completed £1.5 million “GigaHubs” project has now connected 43 public sector sites (schools, libraries etc.) to a new gigabit-capable full fibre broadband network, which forms part of the UK Government’s wider £5bn Project Gigabit programme. The fibre isn’t just available to serve public sector sites, since the new footprint of infrastructure that it creates can potentially also help to incentivise other broadband...
The Top 71 Slowest and Fastest UK Cities for Broadband Speed
A new analysis of 149,187 consumer broadband ISP speed tests claims to have identified the top fastest and slowest cities across the United Kingdom. For example, Canterbury (22Mbps) in Kent is named as the slowest city for the second consecutive year, while the fastest was found to be Lichfield (359Mbps) in Staffordshire. The data, which was gathered during a 12-month period by Broadband Genie using the BroadbandUK speed test solution, only included cities that had a minimum of 150 speed tests...
ISP Wessex Internet Puts FTTP Live in 2 Hampshire UK Villages
Rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet, which is rolling out a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Southern England, has today revealed that homes and businesses in the Hampshire villages of Sway and Brockenhurst are now going live on the new network. The deployment is part of the provider’s £14m state aid supported Project Gigabit broadband contract for the New Forest area (Lot 27.01) of Hampshire (England), which aims to bring their full fibre network to...
New UK Gov Reiterates Call for Limits on Building Broadband Poles UPDATE
The new Labour-led UK Government has somewhat echoed the previous administration today by calling on broadband operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” when rolling out new gigabit-capable networks. But they have “at this stage” rejected the idea of removing Permitted Development (PD) rights for poles. As we’ve said before, network operators typically like poles because they’re quick and cost-effective to build, can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or...
BSNL and MTNL forgo merger, sign 10-year service agreement
News The agreement will see BSNL take over the management of MTNL, with the former joining the latter as a management agency For many years now, India’s state-owned telecoms firms Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have been haemorrhaging subscribers, struggling to compete effectively against the country’s two largest telcos, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. In an effort to make the companies (and, therefore, the national telecoms sector itself) more...
Eutelsat adds Bayobab to list of OneWeb partners
News The partnership will make use of Eutelsat’s 600 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation Eutelsat and Bayobab, a subsidiary of MTN Group, have entered a multi-year agreement to improve digital connectivity across Africa. The collaboration will use Eutelsat’s OneWebLEO satellite constellation to address the continent’s connectivity needs, particularly for enterprise and cellular network backhaul in remote areas. Bayobab, a key player in Africa’s digital infrastructure, will use...
T-Mobile fined $60m over data security violations
News This fine is the largest ever issued by Committee on Foreign Investment, and one of only six issued in the last 18 months T-Mobile has been fined $60 million by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a regulatory committee that scrutinises foreign investment for national security risks. The CFIUS fined T-Mobile for failing to prevent unauthorised access to sensitive data, and not reporting the incidents prompt, which violated its nationl security agreement. ...