News

Last week we covered how Sky Broadband was responding to the UK government’s new internet and network security laws, which among other things prompted them to launch a new router upgrade scheme and be more transparent with customers about the state of security updates for their existing network kit. Since then, we’ve asked the other major ISPs how they plan to respond. Just to recap, there are actually two sets of laws playing a role here. The first reflects the new Secure by Design rules...

SpaceX has warned customers of Starlink’s mega constellation of ultrafast broadband satellites, which sit in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), that they may experience “degraded service” as a result of a major geomagnetic solar storm that hit the planet, which last night also caused the northern lights to spread across much of the UK. The operator currently has 5,935 LEO satellites in orbit around the Earth (altitudes of c.500-600km) and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027....

Network operator and UK ISP LightSpeed Broadband, which was last year acquired by Kompass Kapital (here) after suffering job cuts and a slowdown of their full fibre (FTTP) build in the East of England (here), has announced that they’re shifting their HQ from Spalding (Lincolnshire) to Peterborough (Cambridgeshire). The operator was, until last year, still busy expanding their gigabit-capable broadband network at full pace across parts of 32 market towns in South Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk,...

Broadband ISP Connexin, which is aiming to deploy a new 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network across 500,000 premises in East Yorkshire and beyond (England), has announced that they’ve become the next UK alternative network to be certified as a “B Corporation” (i.e. meeting key social and environmental standards). In case anybody is unfamiliar with what being certified as a B Corporation actually means. In short, this reflects for-profit companies that have committed to create a positive...

News  The news follows T-Mobile’s acquisition of Mint Mobile just last month  US mobile operators T-Mobile and Verizon are in discussions to separately buy parts of smaller rival US Cellular, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.  US Cellular serves over 4 million customers, predominately in rural areas. The company was put up for sale last year by its owners, TDS, in response to years of pressure from shareholders.  According to the report, T-Mobile is seeking to purchase over...

News The merger is under ongoing investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority  The UK government has this week released a “Publication of notice of Final Order” that provisionally approves the Vodafone–Three merger, subject to certain conditions.  Following a “detailed national security assessment”, the cabinet office has approved the merger, providing that:  – A National Security Committee is set up within the merged company to oversee any sensitive information that the company...

Press Release Nokia and Vodafone have announced the successful completion of a trial, leveraging Nokia’s anyRAN approach in collaboration with partners Arm and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The live demonstration, held at Nokia’s Open RAN Innovation Center in Dallas, Texas, showcased the completion of an end-to-end Layer 3 (L3) data call. To achieve this milestone, the test platform utilized leading technologies including Ampere® Arm-based general-purpose processors, the HPE ProLiant RL300...

  News The deployment will allow for increased operational efficiency in lithium mining plants in the Americas  Nokia has announced today that it has been chosen to provide a private LTE campus network to Canada-based lithium mining specialist Sigma Lithium, in with broadband provider Alcon.  Sigma’s LTE network will be deployed in a mining site in Brazil and will be the first of its kind in the Americas, according to Nokia.  The network will support 200 employees and add different mining...

News Devaluation of the Nigerian Naira and Malawian Kwacha has seen the company post a loss of $89 million after tax, despite a major uptick in subscribers This week, pan-African telecoms group Airtel Africa has reported its end of year results, with the company making a loss of the back of ongoing currency devaluation issues. The results showed a revenue decline of 5.3% to $4.98 billion from $5.26 billion the previous year. EBITDA similarly shrank by 5.7%, falling to $2.43 billion from $2.58...

The Government has concluded its national security probe of the proposed mobile mega-merger between Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) – conducted under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 – and decided to approve the deal, albeit with some relatively minor caveats. The issue of national security is one that has come up a few times before, with some MPs being particularly concerned about CKH’s perceived ties to China and any potential risks of access to sensitive national...