Reliance Jio secures $2 billion 5G loan
News The loan will be used to help Jio purchase 5G equipment from Nokia, with the Indian operator racing to deploy the new technology India’s leading telecoms operator Reliance Jio has secured a loan of almost $2 billion to find its purchase of 5G equipment from Nokia. Reportedly arranged by HSBC, the loan is one the country’s biggest offshore loans for the 2024 financial year. The deal with Nokia was secured in October last year. “The deal was concluded recently after talks over the past...
Generative AI in the telco industry: Three waves of adoption
Contributed Article by Dr Ishwar Parulkar, Chief Technology Officer for the Telco Industry at AWS Generative artificial intelligence (AI), a type of AI that is capable of producing new content such as conversations, stories, images, videos, music, and code, continues to make headlines on how it will transform industries – telco included. Anticipated growth is substantial. In fact, our own survey of telco leaders, facilitated with Altman Solon, found that adoption of generative AI use cases...
Report Warns New BlueWalker 3 Satellite for Mobile is Too Bright
A new report has revealed that the prototype BlueWalker 3 satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which was launched by AST SpaceMobile to provide 4G and 5G mobile (broadband) coverage to regular handsets on the ground, is so big that it outshines 99% of the stars visible from a dark location on Earth – that’s […]
ISP TalkTalk Sells UK Business Division to its Own Shareholders
Broadband ISP TalkTalk has revealed that, following its recent demerger news (here), the group has finally sold their business division (TT Business Direct) to its own shareholders for £95 million – after seemingly being unable to turn earlier interest from Sky and Daisy Group into a tangible deal. As previously reported, the long-established internet and […]
Ashford Borough Council in Kent Reports on Broadband Progress
The Ashford Borough Council (ABC) in Kent, England, has published a review of the local area’s progress on improving broadband and have identified, perhaps unsurprisingly, that “more needs to be done” to ensure that all local residents and businesses benefit from access to “fast and reliable internet connections“. The report notes that “superfast” broadband coverage […]
AltNets Pickup Wins at UK WISPAs 2023 and Comms National Awards
A couple of separate industry award events have just recently been held – the UKWISPA Awards 2023 and Comms National Awards – both of which saw various UK alternative broadband network builders and ISPs picking up wins across various different categories. We’ll begin with UK Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, which holds an annual event […]
Havering Seeks Gigabit Broadband Network for Council Flats
The Council for the London Borough of Havering has this week announced that they are “seeking expressions of interest from broadband suppliers” to help extend the benefits of gigabit-capable connectivity (FTTP) to over 4,900 council-owned flats in the area, which are currently only served by “old copper broadband lines“. The council’s Expression of Interests form […]
nexfibre announce new CEO alongside rollout milestone
News Nexfibre is a joint venture created between InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global, and Telefonica This week, fibre network operator nexfibre has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer, Rajiv Datta. Datta, who has over 25 years’ experience in the telecoms and digital infrastructure industries, replaces interim CEO Bernardo Quinn, who will remain as an advisor to the board until the end of the year.. Datta will assume the role immediately and will oversee...
European telco CEOs pen open letter calling for ‘Fair Share’ legislation
News The letter is signed by 20 CEOs from most of Europe’s largest telecoms companies Today, the GSMA has published an open letter from 20 European telco CEOs calling on EU policymakers to overhaul the regulatory framework and mandate Big Tech companies to help contribute to telco infrastructure costs. “A revision of spectrum policy, accepting the need for scale to avoid market fragmentation, and a fair and proportionate contribution from the largest traffic generators towards the costs of...
Gov to Review UK Rural Broadband Options and 10Mbps USO
The UK Government has today launched two interesting new consultations, including one that is seeking views on a looming review of the legally-binding 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband and another that will help better understand how to improve broadband for “Very Hard to Reach” areas. We’ll start with the somewhat maligned USO. The […]