Uzbekistan’s Perfectum partners with Nokia for 5G
Press Release Nokia today announced a landmark 5G deal with Perfectum in Uzbekistan. This greenfield deal marks a significant step towards the deployment of cutting-edge 5G technology in the country, revolutionizing connectivity and paving the way for future innovation. As sole supplier, Nokia will provide a full end-to-end 5G standalone (SA) solution to Perfectum – including radio access, transport, core networks, and applications of network automation, service orchestration, mediation and...
TikTok ban inches closer as bill passes the Senate
News The app is currently used by over 170 million users in the US The US Senate has voted 79-18 to pass a landmark bill to force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the company or face a ban in the US. The bill gives ByteDance nine months to sell its 60% stake in TikTok, or the app will be blocked for use in the US. President Biden has already said that he will sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk. The bill stems from US concern that TikTok’s algorithm is powered by...
EU expresses wholesale concerns over KKR–Telecom Italia deal
News Regulators fear that that deal could diminish competition in the wholesale market The European Union’s antitrust regulators have begun asking rivals and customers if the acquisition of Telecom Italia (TIM)’s fixed-line network by US investment firm KKR would negatively affect wholesale competition in Italy, according to a Reuters report, citing people familiar with the matter. Rivals have reportedly been sent a 49-page document with 79 questions, which they have until the end of the...
Cornerstone’s Six Point Plan to Improve UK Mobile Infrastructure
Mobile infrastructure services provider Cornerstone (CTIL), which handles the UK network sharing agreement between O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone (Vantage Towers), has outlined a new plan to Government MP Sir John Whittingdale that it hopes will help digital infrastructure deployments – particularly for 4G and 5G (mobile broadband). The announcement seems to be built off the back of a meeting between Cornerstone’s senior leaders, Belinda Fawcett (Director of Property and Estates) and Jamie Hayes...
Ofcom Spring 2024 Study – Gigabit Broadband Covers 24 Million UK Homes
Ofcom’s spring 2024 study of UK fixed broadband and mobile coverage has reported that “full fibre” (FTTP) now reaches 62% of the UK (up from 57% in Sept 2023), while 80% are within reach of a gigabit-capable network (up from 78%) and 85-92% of premises can get an outdoor 5G signal from at least one operator (largely unchanged). The regulator’s latest report is based on coverage and service availability information that has been received from both fixed line UK ISPs and mobile network operators...
Broadband ISP KCOM Warns UK Customers Over SCAM Emails
Hull-based broadband ISP and network operator KCOM, which is operates its own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England, has warned customers to be on the lookout for a new phishing email that attempts to impersonate the company in order to commit fraud. The fraudulent use of a legitimate / trustworthy business image (phishing) is typically designed to fool users into entering their personal, financial or other private information. This data is then...
Telecom Acquisitions Joins Freedom Fibre’s UK FTTP Broadband Network
The Horsham-based Telecom Acquisitions (TAL Group), which is a holding company for several familiar UK ISP brands (Home Telecom, Fleur, No One and Eclipse Broadband etc.), has become the latest to join Freedom Fibre‘s new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network. Until recently, Freedom Fibre’s network was only accessible to consumers and businesses via packages from UK ISP TalkTalk, although over the past few months they’ve added the Fusion Fibre Group, Squirrel...
Rural UK ISP GoFibre Make Progress on Angus’ Full Fibre Broadband Build
Edinburgh-based rural ISP and network builder GoFibre (BorderLink), which is deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to parts of North of England and the Scottish Borders, has revealed that over 10,000 premises across towns and villages in Angus can now access their network. The provider is currently expecting their network to reach a total of c.120,000 UK premises during early 2024, and they’re currently live (Ready for Service) at 98,000 premises (homes and...
Vorboss Calls on Ofcom to Extend Auto Compensation to UK Business Networks
UK ISP Vorboss, which is investing £300m to deploy a 100Gbps full fibre network (Ethernet and broadband) – dedicated to business – across central London, has today begun lobbying Ofcom to introduce automatic compensation for business networks in order to help “drive competition on quality and reliability” in the market. The voluntary system (full summary), which was first introduced in 2019, typically requires member ISPs to compensate consumers (cash or bill credits) by £9.76 per day for...
Alternative Full Fibre Networks Grow to Cover 12.9 Million UK Premises
The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) and Point Topic have released their 2024 report into the impact of alternative “full fibre” (FTTP/B) gigabit broadband networks (AltNets), which reveals that their UK coverage grew by 57% in 2023 to top 12.9 million premises (up from 49% and 8.22m in 2022) and could reach 16.7m in 2024. The coverage figures above are lower than in other reports (e.g. Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2023) because INCA’s study excludes Fibre-to-the-Premises...