European Commission files objection to VMware’s takeover by Broadcom
News The Commission said the deal could be directly harmful to market competition, leaving Broadcom’s hardware rivals with only limited access to crucial VMware software VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom was first announced in May 2022, with the $61 billion megadeal immediately ringing alarm bells for various regulatory bodies. By December that year, the European Commission was already signalling its disapproval, launching an in-depth investigation into the deal’s potential impact on market...
What makes a fibre optic cable? The big impact of tiny variables
Contributed Article by UCL Swift Fiber optics have paved the way for rapid data transmission across longer distances. The connection performance of fiber optic cables must be at its maximum in order to meet this demand. This requires extreme attention to detail, as connectivity issues can depend on very minute variances. In this article, we will discuss bore diameter, core concentricity and circularity, including what they are and how they affect fiber optic power. Bore Diameter Ferrules come...
Trooli quietly acquired by Agnar UK Infrastructure
News After months of rumour, the UK altnet has seemingly a majority stake to newly formed Agnar UK Infrastructure Ltd For months now, the future of UK fibre altnet Trooli has been uncertain. Rumours have suggested that numerous parties were potentially considering a takeover bid, including the including rivals Virgin Media O2 and Zzoomm, with analysts suggesting such a deal could be worth over £100 million. More recently, at the end of last month, the Financial Times reported that two...
LetterOne pushes back against government order to sell Upp
News The investment firm argues that it is not a threat to national security and that it will fight for the right to own the UK altnet At the start of 2021, private investment firm LetterOne acquired a 100% stake in UK altnet Upp, with the goal of investing £1 billion to build a full fibre network in the East of England. The deal was immediately controversial, with politicians and security experts calling into question the national security implications of LetterOne’s ownership and ties to the...
ISP Plusnet Discount UK Residential Full Fibre Broadband Plans
Broadband provider Plusnet will this morning further discounted the offers on their existing range of ultrafast and gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) powered packages for new residential customers – provided via Openreach’s national network, which sees the provider shaving another few pounds off each of their plans. As usual, these packages all include unlimited data usage, a […]
List of UK Places Live with CityFibre’s FTTP Broadband ISPs – 2023 Edition
At present, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of where Cityfibre are actively building their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network and which of those deployments have gone allow (i.e. allowing you to order a live service from an ISP). The following list may help to answer this. Just to recap. The operator […]
FSB Warn Unreliable UK Broadband Hurts Small Rural Businesses
A report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) – ‘The Growth Belt: Supporting Rural Small Businesses’ – has today highlighted the way rural businesses are struggling against a backdrop of mounting energy costs, poor transport links, and “unreliable broadband“. Focusing upon the internet connectivity aspect. The new report found that 32% of rural firms […]
Uswitch’s new digital divide analysis highlights UK’s North–South divide
News Nine of the ten poorest scoring councils were located in the North of the UK, while all 10 of the highest scoring were situated in affluent parts of the South This week, the UK government announced its new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, promoting the use of the latest technology to turn the UK into a “digital superpower”. But, looming in the background of all this talk of 5G innovation and 6G progression, is the stark reality that connectivity is far from a given for many in the UK....
Half of All UK Homes Now Covered by Full Fibre Broadband
The latest independent data from Thinkbroadband has revealed that 50% of homes across the United Kingdom (c. 15.365 million) now have access to a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which transmits data over optical fibre cables using laser light. This splits down to 49.22% in England, 46.53% in Scotland, 46.09% in Wales and 90.50% in Northern […]
etisalat by e& plans to focus on 5.5G to gain a business edge
VIEWPOINT A growing number of telcos have started to move towards 5.5G to further improve the customer experience and provide new and innovative use cases to increase their revenue. e& in the Middle East region is at the forefront of adopting new-age 5.5G technology to provide a superior user experience to their subscribers. “We believe that next generation 5.5G technology will deliver an ultra-experience, larger bandwidth, higher spectrum efficiency and higher-order modulation. Speeds...