Telecom Egypt readies for country’s first 5G services
News Initial 5G deployments will take place in Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, and Luxor This week, Telecom Egypt has announced a 5G equipment deal with Nokia, which will see 5G RAN equipment deployed in a number of major Egyptian cities. The deal covers Nokia’s AirScale portfolio, which include baseband units and its latest generation of Massive MIMO radios. The deployment will begin later this year in Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, and Luxor, with more widespread deployments expected to...
Skyline Networks to Boost UK Fibre and Wireless Broadband Deployments
Business focused broadband ISP Skyline Networks appears to be gearing up for an expansion of their fibre optic and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, which is already delivering gigabit-capable broadband and Ethernet (leased line) style services to parts of Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Norfolk. The plan was hinted at after the company put in an application for Code Powers from Ofcom. Such powers are typically sought to help speed-up deployments of new fibre and cut costs,...
City of Bath to Deploy New 5G OpenRAN Mobile Pilot this Summer
The Western O-RAN Deployment (WORD) project, which is supported by £9.9m of public funding from the UK Government (here), is to begin rolling out a new Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN) using 5G Standalone technology to serve parts of the City of Bath in Somerset (England) where demand is at its highest – starting “later this summer“. The 2-year project, which is part of the government’s wider Open Networks Ecosystem Competition (ONE), is being led by Telet and aims to deploy the new 5G SA...
Altnet ISP Pulse Fibre Goes Wholesale on UK FTTP Broadband Network
Alternative network provider Pulse Fibre, which recently revealed that they’re aiming to complete over 250,000 unique “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband connections into new build dwellings (here), has today announced the launch of their own wholesale platform for retail ISPs to harness. At present we still know much about Pulse Fibre’s plan to implement their own 10Gbps capable “end-to-end dedicated fibre optic network” to residential properties. But direct customers of the service can expect to...
Mobile Operators Shun Plan to Expand 4G on Tyne and Wear Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro, which is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system that is operated by Nexus (public body), looks unlikely to see 4G and 5G mobile coverage being expanded from O2 (Virgin Media), Vodafone and Three UK after the operators “turned down the opportunity to install equipment in the tunnels.” The transit system, which has had some 4G (mobile broadband) coverage from EE (BT) in the tunnels since 2019, currently serves Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North...
Welsh Government Sees Opportunity to Review Gigabit Broadband Plan
The First Minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething (Labour), has jumped on the recent 2024 General Election result by indicating that it gives them a “window of opportunity” to re-engage with the new Labour-led UK Government – in the hope of “putting right what’s gone wrong” with Project Gigabit‘s broadband roll-out plan. But big changes risk big delays. Just to recap. The £5bn (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband scheme (i.e. aiming for 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and “nationwide”...
Euro 2024 – Three UK Delays Opening Stores to 10am on Monday
Mobile network operator Three UK has announced that they will be opening all 244 of their stores in England and Head Office at 10am on Monday, apparently so “colleagues can enjoy the European Football Championship final this weekend” (translation – recover from a hangover or after seeing another flaky performance on the pitch). “This special adjustment to store opening hours will come into play on Monday 15th July and will allow colleagues in England to make the most of all the excitement...
AT&T data breach leaked “nearly all” of its customers mobile numbers
News The breach, which occurred in 2022, could affect tens of millions of customers Today, a regulatory filing from AT&T has revealed a major data breach that occurred in 2022, with hackers able to access call and text message records of “nearly all” of the operator’s wireless customers. The data was reportedly compromised between April 14 and April 25, 2022, as well as a single day in January 2023. The breach exposed call and text records, though AT&T says this does not include the...
Vodafone, Qualcomm, and Xiaomi clock 1.8 Gbps 5G download speeds
Press Release Vodafone, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Xiaomi continued their innovative streak with the successful test in Germany and Spain of a new 5G technology capable of download speeds close to 1.8 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) using a new smartphone. Specifically, they tested enhanced technology which improves the way data and video is transmitted from the radio network over 5G to a customer’s mobile device. Called 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), it is a step up from today’s...
SoftBank buys Graphcore, targets further AI investments
News SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said earlier this year that AI will be SoftBank’s ‘next big bet’ when it comes to technology This week, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the acquisition of struggling UK-based AI chipmaker Graphcore. Official financial details have not been disclosed, but anonymous sources speaking to the Financial Times valued the deal at $600 million. Graphcore creates specialised AI chips, known as intelligence processing units, which can be used to train and...