News

The Government claims to have kicked off a “renewed push” today to “reach full gigabit [broadband] coverage by 2030“, which they’ve done by announcing that Openreach (BT) has secured several contracts under the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme. This could eventually be worth up to £800m (state aid) and may upgrade 312,000 premises in remote rural areas of Scotland, England and Wales. Project Gigabit has been running for the past few years and aims to extend networks capable of delivering download...

The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) looks set to start a year-long trial that will upgrade trains on the Far North and Kyle lines (railway) in the Highlands of Scotland with “the best Wi-Fi experience of any train service” in the UK. The capacity for this will be supplied by unspecified broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The project, which appears to have the backing of both ScotRail and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), aims to start fitting the new system during this autumn...

Telecoms analyst firm Juniper Research has used an April 2024 survey of 3,300 UK mobile subscribers to identify that iD Mobile ranks top as the “leading network operator in the UK for subscriber roaming satisfaction in 2024“, which saw them achieve a net promoter score of 77%. The survey claims that 85% of iD Mobile subscribers reported a positive experience when managing their mobile subscription whilst abroad. Since the UK left the European Union (EU), subscribers no longer qualify for the...

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles a key chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via 950+ members (broadband and mobile operators etc.), has today announced that alternative full fibre network provider toob has become the first ISP to take a 400G (Gbps) port at the IXP for their peering services and more. Just for some context. Toob is a Hampshire-based operator that was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m...

News AustralianSuper says Optus is failing to deliver the more than 500 additional towers it requires as part of a deal with Australia Tower Network According to The Australian Financial Review, Australian telco Optus is in the midst of a dispute with pension fund AustralianSuper, with the latter accusing them of failing to build new towers as per their agreement. Back in 2021, AustralianSuper bought a 70% stake in Australian Tower Network (ATN) from Optus’ parent company Singtel for A$1.9...

News The partnership will offer businesses the tools they need to innovate while protecting their data    Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) has teamed up with Google Cloud to bring advanced cloud services to Indonesia, addressing the country’s strict data residency, security, and privacy requirements.   The expanded partnership will introduce Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) to various sectors across the country, allowing organisations to manage AI and data-heavy tasks while maintaining control...

News In the company’s latest annual report directors warned that the business could collapse “in August 2024 or sooner”  TalkTalk has staved off defaulting on its debt by securing a refinancing package exceeding £400 million, led by its founder, Sir Charles Dunstone.  Announced today, the deal involves shareholders — including Dunstone, Ares Management, and Toscafund — immediately injecting £65 million in interim funds into the company.  An additional £170 million is set to follow, contingent...

News  The UK mobile operators will all be promoting the campaign on their various platforms  This week, Mobile UK, the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators (MNOs), has launched its Better Connected Rural Campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the benefits of connectivity to rural communities.  The campaign began today with a podcast episode featuring Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer of Three UK, which discussed how mobile connectivity is transforming the UK’s...

News The deal will see Altice UK’s 24.5% stake in the business transferred gradually to India’s second largest telco, Bharti Airtel This morning, it has been announced that billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice UK is selling its stake in BT to Bharti Airtel. The move will see Altice UK transfer its 24.5% stake in the business to Airtel piecemeal, with an initial instalment of 9.99%. The rest of the stake will be transferred following the prerequisite security checks by the UK government. The...

New data from Thinkbroadband has provided an updated independent assessment of how big – in terms of network coverage (premises passed) – the top 20 largest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP networks in the UK have become by the end of July 2024. In this article, we compare that data against official coverage claims. One of the challenges with keeping tabs on the rapid UK growth of full fibre broadband networks is that some network operators often make coverage claims that are...