European Commission ends antitrust probe into Apple’s contactless payments
News The Commission will close its four-year antitrust investigation into Apple’s mobile payment platform Apple Pay following the US tech giant’s decision to open up its tap-and-go payments tech to third parties The European Commission (EC) has announced that it will close its investigation into anticompetitive practices related to Apple’s iPhone’s contactless payments policies. The investigation was opened four years ago, when European regulators took issue with the fact that Apple would not...
G.Network and Peadbody Trust Bring Full Fibre to More Camden and Westminster Homes
London focused broadband ISP G.Network, which has spent the past few years building a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of the city centre (here), has completed the “first phase” of a new deployment with the Peabody Trust – extending their fibre optic service to more homes across Camden and Westminster. The curiously named Peabody Trust is said to be one of the UK’s oldest not-for-profit housing association and their partnership with G.Network has, since the first...
Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Finally Fixes Upload Profile Fault
Internet provider Virgin Media (O2) has finally fixed a fault that left a small number of their broadband customers, specifically some of those on top tier packages (e.g. 1Gbps), with half their normal upload rate (i.e. 50Mbps instead of 100Mbps). But it’s unclear why the seemingly simple problem took over a month to resolve. The issue, which was raised by a couple of ISPreview’s readers (special credit to David) and via Virgin Media’s Community Forum, first appears to have started at the very...
Vodafone Spain agrees job cuts deal with Spanish work union
News The dispute relates to major planned job cuts following Vodafone Spain’s acquisition by Zegona last month Spanish trade unions have accepted the workforce reduction plans offered to them by Vodafone Spain’s new owner Zegona Communications, who acquired the company back in June. The Spanish trade union UGT had scheduled strikes for the 9th and 11th of July – with partial strikes being carried out on various days throughout the month – in protest against a redundancy plan announced by...
Power play: Thailand’s biggest telco to merge with energy giant
News The $20.5 billion deal would see the parent company of Advanced Info Service (AIS) combined with Gulf Energy Development This week, Thailand’s seventh-richest man, Sarath Ratanavadi, has revealed ambitious plans to merge his energy company Gulf Energy Development with its telecoms subsidiary, InTouch Holdings, the parent company of Thailand’s biggest telco AIS. The move would see the formation of a new public limited company with an estimate value of $20.5 billion. Gulf already owns a...
King’s Speech Reveals Plans for New UK Cyber Security and Planning Reform Laws
The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services. Just to recap. The Labour Party’s 2024 General Election Manifesto (here) has previously made clear that they would be...
Smart homes to redefine convenience
Contributed Article by Gavin Miller, CEO, Asurion Europe Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen an increasing reliance on our digital devices, with the average UK user now spending close to six hours per day on the internet.[i] Additionally, we are seeing more household items than ever before with connectivity capabilities. Appliances such as TVs, speakers, thermometers and even microwaves now often include a ‘smart’ element that sees them become part of our network of online devices in the...
Smarter, faster, better: The role of AI in fast-tracking a 5G future
Insight This article was written by VanillaPlus Increasingly prominent and controversial, in almost equal measure, AI engines are redefining all manner of work functions and human tasks (ChatGPT) and even reinventing our understanding of art (Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc.). This technology marks a paradigm shift in our ability to predict, analysis, create and control content, processes and events with far greater potential than current applications suggest, and, extrapolated over time,...
Driver Insurance Claim Delays Critical Openreach Repair in Suffolk Village
Homes in the Suffolk (England) village of Felsham have been left without access to broadband and phone services for over a week because, allegedly, Openreach (BT) are unable to fix the problem – a damaged telecoms pole that was struck during a car accident on Cockfield Road – until they’ve received “an estimate” from the driver’s insurance company. According to the Suffolk News (via Thinkbroadband), a Ford Fiesta collided with a pole last Monday, which was then hit again by an unfortunate...
CGI and Starlink Spread Broadband to Remote Norfolk UK Industrial Sites
A collaboration between IT consultancy firm CGI and the Norfolk County Council (NCC) in England has leveraged a hybrid approach to help bring “ultrafast” broadband speeds to several remote industrial sites in the county, which uses a mix of wireless networking and Starlink’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The announcement is somewhat light on any useful technical details about the hybrid solution, which has been built in collaboration with suppliers Ingen and Onwave. But it’s said to have...