The operators will be able to bid for spectrum in the 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 3.3GHz, and 26GHz bands.
Licences awarded will be valid for 20 years, with equal payments expected annually throughout this period. Winning bidders may also choose to surrender the spectrum after 10 years with no further payment obligations.
These measures, combined with the scrapping of spectrum usage charge as part of the telecoms relief package announced last year…
Fibre rollouts in jeopardy as cable prices soar
With the coronavirus pandemic highlighting just how crucial connectivity is to a modern society, the rapid rollout of fibre networks has become a cornerstone of government economic rejuvenation strategies around the world.
But with the pace of fibre rollouts increasing in most markets around the world, cracks are beginning to appear in the fibre supply chain that could threaten the achievability of these ambitious goals.
According to market research firm Cru Group, fibre prices are soaring…
Internet Streaming Takes Hit as Amazon Prime Hikes UK Prices
The UK market for broadband-based video streaming services, which is already under pressure from the ever-increasing problem of content fragmentation across too many platforms, looks set to suffer another blow today after Amazon announced that prices for their Prime Video would be hiked for the first time since 2014. In a new letter, which has […]
Survey Claims 43% of UK Pensioners Struggle to Pay for Internet Access
A new study of 1,500 London based pensioners, which was conducted by Perspectus Global in July 2022 and commissioned by Age UK and ISP CommunityFibre, has claimed that 43% of those over the age of 60 are “struggling to pay for internet access” via broadband and mobile data services as a result of the cost-of-living […]
Earthquake detection using submarine cables
A 2015 United Nations report estimated that every year, an average of 60,000 people and $4 billion USD in assets are exposed to the global tsunami hazard, which can be triggered by certain types of undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Over a number of decades, various countries have deployed dedicated tsunami warning systems, like floating buoys, to augment land-based seismic detectors.
Seismic waves travel 20 to 30 times faster through the earth&rsquo…
Full Fibre UK ISP Gigaclear Seeks up to £300m Rollout Boost
Infracapital-backed rural broadband ISP Gigaclear is reportedly working with bankers at Rothschild to raise up to £300m of additional capital to help fuel their ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure, which has so far covered 300,000 premises (up from 250,000 in December 2021). The operator’s full fibre network is already present in rural villages […]
Broadband and Phone Price Hikes for UK Shell Energy ISP Users
Most of Shell Energy’s broadband and phone customers in the UK have been informed that the ISP will hike their prices by an average of 6.1% a month from 1st September 2022. But those who joined or renewed on or after 9th January 2022 will escape the hike, which is at least mercifully below the […]
TalkTalk Trial Free Automatic UK Upgrades to FTTP Broadband UPDATE
Budget conscious UK ISP TalkTalk appears to have begun a new programme trial, which is giving “some” existing customers a free automatic upgrade to full fibre broadband – provided they don’t already have such a package and are covered by the new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. At present TalkTalk’s platform supports several full fibre networks from […]
Government Offer £25m to Help Develop Future 6G UK Mobile Kit
The UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has today set aside £25m as part of their new Future Open Networks Research Challenge (FONRC) fund to help support the development of future 5G and 6G based mobile broadband equipment (focused primarily on O-RAN). The goal of this fund is to enable academics […]
Virgin Media O2 Donate Another 15 Million GigaBytes to National Databank
Broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have agreed to supply a further 15 million GigaBytes (GB) of free data to the Good Things Foundation’s National Databank, which gifts free mobile broadband data to community groups and the people they support to aid internet connectivity – either via SIM cards or vouchers. The […]