Revolutionising local authority digital transformation: An outcomes approach
Spotlight Series In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, it’s crucial for local authorities to pivot from a technology-centric approach to one that prioritises outcomes. This was the central theme of a discussion panel that I chaired at the Connected North conference in April 2024, where the panel underscored the need for technology to serve as a tool to achieve specific, community-oriented goals rather than being an end in itself. Technology solutions searching for problems...
Oracle expands Italia footprint via TIM’s Turin data centre
News The move marks Oracle second cloud region in Italy, aiming to meet the rapid growth in demand for cloud computing services This week, cloud giant Oracle has announced a new deal with TIM Enterprise, the B2B unit of Italian incumbent operator Telecom Italia (TIM), to form a cloud region centred around TIM’s data centre in Turin. The Oracle Cloud Turin Region will see private companies and public sector bodies access to a wide variety of cloud services, as well as leveraging big data,...
Business Comms Provider Wavenet and Daisy Corporate Services to Merge
Broadband, communications and managed service providers (MSP) Wavenet and Daisy Corporate Services have this afternoon announced that they intend to “join forces” to create the UK’s “largest independent IT managed service provider.” The merger will, it’s said, create a £500m revenue company that supports over 22,000 businesses and public sector organisations delivering cloud, cyber security and connectivity solutions. The deal will also see Daisy Chairman, Matthew Riley, join the Board as a...
Samsung and Telefonica partner for German vRAN site
News After initial lab trials beginning in October, the site is now being opened commercially This week, Samsung and O2 Telefonica have announced the launch of their first German virtualised RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN commercial site in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria. It is the first time that Samsung’s 5G vRAN has been used in a German commercial network. The launch follows their collaboration announced in October 2023, where the two companies pledged to test vRAN and Open RAN technologies. Now,...
UK ISP Sky Broadband Offer Free Upgrades for Unsecure Routers
Internet provider Sky Broadband has responded to this week’s introduction of the government’s new network security laws (here) by emailing customers with older Sky routers to warn them that their device “no longer receives service and security updates.” The good news is that those who receive these letters might be in line for a free router upgrade. One of the measures under the new Secure by Design rules, which started being enforced from 29th April 2024, is that manufacturers and retailers...
London ISP Community Fibre Merges Brand with Box Broadband
Network builder and UK broadband ISP CommunityFibre (CF), which runs a large 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across London and surrounding areas, has notified that their sibling Altnet for Surrey and West Sussex, Box Broadband, will in the near future be adopting CF’s branding. In case anybody has forgotten, Box Broadband was originally acquired by CF back in the summer of 2021 (here) and, at the last update some time ago, they were claiming to have covered around 50,000...
FCC tightening national security standards for device testing labs
News A new proposal would bar entities that are “national security concerns” from receiving wireless equipment authorizations from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities Republican and Democratic members of the FCC have announced bipartisan support for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would hold impose strict national-security criteria to test labs and telecommunications certification bodies that approve wireless devices for the U.S. market. The...
Openreach Name Next 84 UK Areas for Copper to FTTP Switch – Tranche 16
Network operator Openreach (BT) has published the next batch of 84 exchanges (Tranche 16) in their “FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell” programme, which reflects areas where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre and will thus stop selling copper based analogue phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP becomes the only available product). Currently there are two schemes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes criss-cross. The first starts with the gradual...
Copper Cable Thieves Strike Openreach’s Network in New Forest
Homes and businesses in the New Forest (Hampshire, England) village of Everton were left cut-off from part of Openreach’s UK broadband and phone services this week, which occurred after criminals caused significant damage to the network while attempting to steal the operator’s copper telecoms cable. The incident, which began on Monday, impacted 128 premises across the community and local reports (here) quote Hampshire Police as saying that 70 metres of copper cable was pulled up from a point...
Abzorb Transforms Norfolk County Council’s Network Infrastructure with a £1.2 Million Unified SD-WAN Project
Brighouse, 1st May 2024 – Abzorb, an innovator in public sector and business networking, has a developed and delivered a £1.2 million network transformation project for Norfolk County Council (NCC) that reduces costs while increasing performance and security across 221 sites. It developed a unified software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) solution that enables NCC to use the most cost-effective connectivity provider at each site with monitoring and visibility delivered in a single...