News

Openreach and BT might have recently delayed their plan to withdraw old copper-based analogue line services (PSTN phones and WLR) from Dec 2025 to 31st Jan 2027 (here and here), but conversely they’ve also just issued contract termination notifications to all WLR providers with an effective date of 31st Dec 2025. Don’t worry, it’ll make sense. Just to recap. The big switch-off was delayed in order to give broadband ISPs / phone providers, telecare providers and consumers more time to adapt....

Customers looking to join Sky Mobile (Sky) will, from sometime later this morning, finally be able to take out a 4G and 5G capable mobile plan that includes “unlimited data” (mobile broadband). Previously, the biggest mobile plan you could get from Sky came with a 100GB monthly data allowance for £30 per month. The new unlimited data plan, which includes all the usual features (e.g. unlimited calls / texts and the ability to change your plan whenever you like) and a commitment not to raise...

Software and internet giant Microsoft have announced that they’re increasing the monthly price of their online Game Pass service for multiplayer Xbox and PC gamers. On top of that, they’re soon be replacing the standard sub for Xbox users, which means you’ll have to stump up for ‘Game Pass Ultimate‘ to access new games on release day. The official announcement only provides the pricing details for the USA (here), but they’ve also published a table that lists the changes for each country...

News Article by Bradford Randall, originally published on Total Telecom’ sister site, Broadband Communities Viavi Solutions Inc., also known as VIAVI, has announced a strategic partnership with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) to expand Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) testing capabilities for VIAVI’s Automated Lab-as-a-Service for Open RAN, also known as VALOR. The efforts, according to VIAVI, were made possible by a $21.7 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information...

Interview At Submarine Networks EMEA 2024, Isabelle Paradis, founder of Hot Telecom, interviewed Stacie Pascale, CPO of Aqua Comms, to discuss one of the hottest topics of the conference: spectrum. In the ever-changing submarine cable industry, two types of customers emerging when it comes to spectrum sharing: those looking to diversify and minimise capex, and those looking to scale rapidly and prepare for massive demand. “Spectrum sharing has been around for a long time, but mainly at the...

News The government claims the rapid growth has been spurred by initiatives like Make in India and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme This week, a press release from India’s Ministry of Communication (MoC) has revealed that sales of telecoms equipment made in the country have risen to Rs 50,000 crore ($5.99 billion). This represents an increase of 370% compared to the FY 2019–2020. Telecoms exports have also grown significantly, rising to approximately Rs 10,500 crore ($1.25...

The Comms Council UK, which represents the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has today released their shortlist of finalists for the organisation’s 16th annual 2024 industry awards event. Eli Katz, Chair of Comms Council UK, said: “I am delighted to announce CCUK’s 16th annual Awards finalists. It’s a great opportunity to highlight and celebrate the amazing talent and innovation in our sector – as the shortlist so clearly...

UK ISP Quantum Broadband (formerly Quantum Air Fibre) appear to be gearing up for an expansion of their ongoing efforts to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network “throughout Lincolnshire and the adjoining counties” in England, which provides ultrafast broadband to residential, business, and wholesale customers. The provider, which originally started life as a fixed wireless ISP, began branching out into FTTP a few short years back. In 2020 they set themselves a...

Viewpoint [Shanghai, China, June 27, 2024] At MWC Shanghai 2024, the World Broadband Association (WBBA) released the Net5.5G network construction standard during a WBBA Summit themed “AI Empowering Cloud & Broadband Excellence: Opportunities vs Challenges”. The standard defines for the first time the objectives and evolution timeline for network construction in the intelligent era, setting the direction for efficiently unleashing computing power and accelerating the development of...

The BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker, which is really intended for network operators and ISPs but has always been used by savvy consumers to check the status of BTW and Openreach based services, appears to have recently made a change that seems to stop displaying ADSL results in areas where VDSL or FTTP (or both) are present. Just to recap. Pure copper line based ADSL (SOADSL / SOTAP) broadband services offered highly variable speeds of up to c.20Mbps and were fed directly from the...