Did your virtualization cloud provider just do you a massive favor?
Contributed Article by Rakuten Symphony At Telecoms World Asia 2024, a familiar theme echoed in the halls: a certain virtualization leader’s post-acquisition pricing has reached untenable levels. Here’s the twist: they may actually have done you a massive favor. Why? These rising costs are a wakeup call. They are forcing operators to take a hard look at whether legacy platforms—once the backbone of networks—can support the demands of modern telecom operations. The cracks in the foundation...
Gov Launch £3.5m UK Rural Broadband Trials of Hybrid Networks
The UK Government (DSIT, UK Space Agency) has today announced the launch of a new £3.5m “Very Hard to Reach Programme“, which will conduct three projects that seek to use hybrid networks (e.g. a mix of satellite, fixed wireless and 5G/6G mobile technologies) to help improve broadband connectivity in remote rural areas. At present a little over 85% of UK premises can already access gigabit-capable broadband services via a fixed line connection (usually FTTP or Hybrid Fibre Coax), which is...
Broadband ISP Grain Extends UK Full Fibre Network into Ashington
Alternative network operator Grain (Grain Connect) has announced that they’re expanding their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network into the town of Ashington in Northumberland (England). The operator’s network currently reaches 220,000 UK premises RFS (21st May 2024) and has already connected 30,000 customers. The local roll-out in the town, which ultimately aims to reach “thousands of homes” (we don’t get anything more specific than that), is currently entering...
Deutsche Telekom, Skylo, and Qualcomm send direct-to-handset SMS from satellite
News The trial paves the way for bringing satellite-enabled messaging to customers in remote areas across Europe Deutsche Telekom, Qualcomm, and Skylo Technologies have completed what they claim is Europe’s first successful trial of text messaging direct-to-handset over satellite. The trial, conducted in Greece by Deutsche Telekom’s local subsidiary Cosmote, saw the Cosmote’s terrestrial mobile network integrated with Skylo’s GEO satellite network, allowing the device user to send and...
Sweden asks Chinese ship to return for investigation after Baltic Sea cable damage
News The investigation was launched after two cables were severed in the Baltic Sea last week Swedish Prime Minster Ulf Kristersson has requested that a Chinese ship return to Swedish waters as part of an ongoing investigation into the damage of two subsea cable systems in the Baltic Sea last week. Last Sunday, the 218km BCS East-West Interlink cable, which connects Gotland, Sweden, and Lithuania, was damaged and taken offline. The next day, the C-lion-1 cable between Helsinki, Finland, and...
Sky Threatens Legal Challenge to Vodafone and Three UK Merger
Sky (Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband etc.) has today warned the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that they could launch a legal challenge (appeal) if the proposed merger between mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK is allowed to proceed, unless significant changes are made to the proposed competition remedies. The merger itself, which would see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK) hold 49%, has repeatedly been promoted by the operators as something...
Australia regulator dishes out midband spectrum for private networks
News The newly allocated area-wide licences (AWLs) will allow organisations to build their own private wireless networks This week, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced the allocation of 47 area-wide licences (AWLs) for 3.8 GHz spectrum. This midband spectrum is some of the most highly prized by mobile operators for delivering 5G services, offering an excellent balance of capacity, speed, and coverage. Applications for the licences opened in May and...
384,890 Customers Take Utility Warehouse’s UK Broadband Services
Energy and communications provider Telecom Plus, which trades as Utility Warehouse (UW), has today published their latest Half Year Results (H1 2025) to 30th Sept 2024 and revealed that their broadband ISP grew its total UK customer base to 384,890 (up by 10.09k since H2 2024) and their mobile base hit 526,167 (up by 59.95k). The company is currently home to a total of 1,078,318 residential and small business customers (up from 1,011,489) across their various services and have previously set...
Virgin Media and Nexfibre Near Completion of Upp’s UK FTTP Integration
UK ISP Virgin Media (O2) has today confirmed to ISPreview that they and network operator nexfibre have nearly completed the integration of Upp’s full fibre (FTTP) broadband network. Most of the operator’s premises have already been transferred to nexfibre, but we’re told that the remaining properties should be completed next month (December). Just to recap. Upp was originally established as a £1bn project to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network across 1 million...
O2 UK Complete 4G and 5G Upgrades for 1,500 Postcodes in Derby
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced that they’ve completed a project to upgrade the capacity of their 4G and 5G based mobile services across “over” 1,500 postcodes in the city of Derby (Derbyshire, England), which should mean “faster” mobile broadband speeds and greater reliability. The work, which began at the start of 2024, forms part of O2’s ongoing effort to invest £2m a day into their mobile network, which enables them to deploy new technologies and keep up with...