Virgin Media O2 UK Offers Free Calls to Help with Hurricane Beryl
Customers of mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) may like to know that the operator has just responded to Hurricane Beryl, which is wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, by crediting back charges on calls and texts from the UK to several of the affected territories from 3rd to 9th July inclusive. The territories able to benefit from this currently include Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Cayman Islands....
EE UK Pushes 5G Standalone Mobile Broadband Test to 1.85Gbps
Mobile operator EE (BT) claims to have achieved a “European first” with Nokia and Qualcomm in the UK by trialling Carrier Aggregation (CA) on 5G Standalone (5G SA) mobile technology with Five Component Carriers (i.e. 150MHz total bandwidth), which boosted their mobile broadband download speeds to 1.85Gbps. The majority of most UK 5G network today are Non-Standalone (NSA), which means they’re still partly reliant on older and slower 4G infrastructure. But SA networks are pure end-to-end 5G that...
Three UK Cause Confusion with Broadband Termination Letter in Swindon
Customers of Three UK’s wireless (4G and 5G) home broadband service in Swindon (South West England), which hails from the old ‘Relish’ wireless service that was acquired from UK Broadband Ltd. in 2017 (here), were recently left in a panic after the operator incorrectly informed them that their service would “no longer be available“. The confusion stemmed from a letter that was sent out to customers by Three UK last month, which stated: “Due to technical changes in your area, your current Home...
Virgin Media and Nexfibre’s FTTP Reaches 20,000 Extra Yeovil Homes
Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their parentage with UK broadband ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has today announced that they’ve added 20,000 additional homes in the Somerset (England) town of Yeovil to the coverage of their new 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network. The roll-out should give a boost to the town, but it’s worth noting that Yeovil is already well covered by full fibre lines from Openreach and Jurassic Fibre (All Points Fibre). A...
100Gbps Full Fibre Provider Vorboss Opens New London HQ
London-focused UK business ISP Vorboss, which has already rolled out a 100Gbps capable full fibre network in the city centre, have just opened a new City of London office headquarters at Exchange Square (Liverpool Street) to meet demand and support growth. Just to recap. Vorboss has spent the past four years deploying 500km of their own dedicated point-to-point fibre across Central London (covering most of zones 1 and 2), which we’re told is enough to potentially connect all commercial...
Vodafone Invests £120m to Deploy New SuperTOBi AI Chatbot
Broadband ISP and mobile operator Vodafone UK has announced that they’ll invest around £120m (Euros 140m) this year to deploy and upgrade their existing AI chatbot system with SuperTOBi, which will support customers via Generative AI (GenAI) technologies from Microsoft Azure OpenAI. Vodafone already has an existing chatbot system called TOBi, which is being used in 13 countries across Europe and Africa. But the new SuperTOBi system can “understand and respond faster to complex customer...
Wessex Internet Bring FTTP Broadband to 16 Rural Villages in Q2 2024
Rural UK ISP Wessex Internet, which is rolling out a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across remote parts of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Somerset in England, has listed the latest batch of 16 communities to be added to their live network coverage between April and June 2024 (Q2). The provider’s existing footprint is vaguely said to cover “tens of thousands of homes” (some of this may include their old fixed wireless network), while their current business plan...
Broadband ISP Plusnet to Introduce New UK Price Hikes Policy
Low-cost focused UK broadband ISP Plusnet, which is a BT Group (EE) sibling, is to follow their parents by introducing a new pricing model, which moves away from the old percentage (%) figures and inflation (CPI) approach to annual price hikes. Instead, from 9th July 2024, they’ll introduce a “clear and simple” view of future price rises, expressed in “pounds and pence“. The change is designed to reflect Ofcom’s recent move to BAN broadband ISPs and mobile operators from doing mid-contract...
Optus and Cisco partner for network security deal
News The partnership comes as a response to the growing complexities of cyber-attacks, skill shortages, stringent regulatory requirements, and the rise of hybrid workforces Australian telco Optus has announced a multi-year partnership with Cisco aimed at increasing network protection for enterprise and business customers. The announcement notes that because 37% of Australians now regularly work remotely, there has been an increase in the reliance of Software-as-a-Service public and...
Ericsson’s Vonage woes continue as company writes down further $1.1bn
News The new non-cash impairment charge is in addition to the $2.9 billion impairment logged last year Ericsson acquired application programming interface (API) specialist Vonage back in 2022 for $6.2 billion, saying at the time that it would play a central role its in ongoing growth strategy. The idea, in short, was that Ericsson would work together with Vonage to develop network APIs, allowing app developers to gain deeper access to telcos’ 4G and 5G networks, including features such as user...