The UK Government’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), which is the arm’s length body at the Department of International Trade (DIT) and is tasked with investigating “unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports“, has opened two new investigations into imports of fibre optic cables from China. As nearly all of our readers will already know, […]
European telcos need to pull three key levers to address the 5G energy issue
Rising energy prices focus the mind
The rapid increase in global energy prices since the turn of 2022 — sharply affected by the Russia-Ukraine War since February — has pointed an even greater spotlight on 5G energy and sustainability. At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, major wireless equipment vendors such as Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia highlighted 5G portfolio announcements that emphasized the generation’s superior energy efficiency and sustainability, and indeed, recent IDC conversations with European CSPs underlined the fact that energy efficiency is a top priority for most network operations executives.
5G networks are incredibly high-performance systems that can serve wireless bandwidth of up to 1 Gbps at ultra-low response rates (latency) of less than 20ms to thousands of densely connected devices (phones, things, machines). This massive performance uplift versus 4G is achieved with a powerful 5G RAN infrastructure that can include densely packed 64x or 128x massive MIMO (mMIMO) antennas (by comparison…
NTT and Sky Perfect JSAT launch Space Compass JV
Why Space Compass was formed
There is an urgent need to ensure the sustainability of economic and social activity. This makes it all the more important to effectively and fully utilize stratospheric and near-Earth space for ICT infrastructures. This involves creating ICT infrastructures that support a number of fields, including energy, environment and climate change, disaster prevention, marine infrastructure, and security. In addition, as represented by the ARTEMIS program*1, public and private sectors in many countries are cooperating to extend human activities not only to near…
Virgin Media O2 UK Finally Launches New Stream TV Service
After a lot of beta testing, broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) UK has today officially launched their new TV streaming (IPTV) product – called ‘Stream‘ – that makes popular TV channels, on-demand apps, and movies available to customers via a single small set-top-box – all via your internet connection on a 30-day rolling contract. The […]
TIM’s submarine fibre-optic cables used for the first time in Italy to detect seismic events
The submarine fibre-optic cables of TIM can be used by research and science thanks to the experiments conducted by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) Potsdam to monitor seismic events related to active volcanism.
The experiment…
Broadband ISP Fibrus Boosts Senior Team as Staff Count Hits 300
Full fibre operator and UK ISP Fibrus, which is currently rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Northern England and Northern Ireland, has today strengthened its leadership team with three senior appointments and reported that they now directly employ almost 300 people. At present, their FTTP infrastructure has so far managed […]
Rural Cornwall ISP Wildanet Extends Full Fibre Build to Pensilva
Rural broadband ISP Wildanet, which a year ago began the £50m rollout of a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) network across parts of Cornwall (here), has now begun to rollout their network to local homes and businesses in the village of Pensilva, which sits in the civil parish of St Ive. […]
ISP Virgin Media O2 Business UK Cut Wholesale Ethernet Prices
Broadband ISP Virgin Media Business (VMO2) has today confirmed that they’ve reduced the prices of their high-capacity fixed wholesale services to businesses, ISPs and rival networks across all Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) bandwidths and National Ethernet services. Some by as much as 2.8% per annum. Some operators first began reporting this move over a week […]
Mobile Operator EE UK to Ship Nreal Augmented Reality Glasses
Mobile operator EE is keen to try and play-up the advantages of their latest 5G based ultrafast mobile broadband network and, in keeping with that, they’ve today announced an agreement with Augmented Reality (AR) innovator Nreal to exclusively launch their new ‘Nreal Air’ glasses in the UK “later this spring“. At present EE aren’t saying […]
Zayo Completes Dark Fibre Network to Proximity’s UK Data Centres
The Zayo Group, which operates a large metro and long-haul fibre optic network in the UK, has completed the build of a new high-capacity Dark Fibre network at Proximity’s edge colocation data centre in Chester Gates near Manchester. The company is also nearing completion of another connection for Proximity’s Nottingham edge data centre. Combined with […]