O2 Switch On First Publicly Funded UK 4G Mobile Mast for Total Not Spot Areas
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today marked an important milestone by switching on the UK’s first publicly funded “Total Not Spot” (TNS) 4G (mobile broadband) mast site on South Uist in Scotland, which forms part of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme and its efforts to extend mobile coverage into remote rural areas. The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and...
Northern Ireland Tenders for £81m Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout
The Building Digital UK agency and Department for the Economy (DfE) have this week begun the supplier procurement phase of their future Project Gigabit broadband roll-out for Northern Ireland, which values the contract at up to £81m (state aid) and could potentially achieve almost universal coverage of 1000Mbps+ broadband speeds. So far a mix of commercial builds and some state-aid funded deployments under the £197m Project Stratum scheme have already helped to extend the coverage of fixed...
Neos Networks Signs Deal to Harness Vorboss’ Fibre Network in London
Neos Networks, which operates one of the biggest 34,000km long business fibre networks in the UK – spanning 550 exchanges, 90+ data centres and 676 Points of Presence (PoPs), has today signed a new deal to harness the 100Gbps capable full fibre network that has been built by ISP Vorboss in London. Just to recap. Vorboss recently completed the deployment of a 500km dedicated point-to-point fibre optic network across Central London (covering most of zones 1 and 2), which we’re told is enough to...
Connected Germany flourishes in Munich
Events This week saw Total Telecom’s Connected Germany conference make its triumphant return to Munich The two-day event saw more than 1,200 attendees come togther from across the country to discuss the biggest challenges facing Germany connectivity industry. From the country’s rapidly accelerating fibre and 5G rollouts, The event’s extensive agenda featured over 150 speakers representing every corner of Germany’s digital economy, from network builders and operators, to the public sector and...
UScellular sells spectrum to AT&T for $1 billion
News The deal follows a similar one with Verizon last month UScellular has announced a deal to sell part of its spectrum assets to AT&T for $1.018 billion. This transaction is part of the company’s strategy to monetise spectrum not included in its earlier agreement with T-Mobile. AT&T joins Verizon and other carriers in purchasing spectrum from UScellular as the company continues to streamline its holdings. Following this sale, UScellular will have sold around 55% of its spectrum...
UK ISP Origin Broadband Trials Taking on New Customers Again
Internet provider Origin Broadband, which is a trading name for Origin Communications and OB Telecom (TalkTalk), appears to have re-opened their order system to new broadband customers after closing it some months ago. The ISP is currently only available to those covered by Openreach’s national network. An Origin spokesperson told ISPreview: “Origin offers a broad range of connectivity solutions that can support the digital needs of any home. As part of that, we are carrying out a small-scale...
Connexin Calls on UK Gov to Recognise LPWAN as Critical Infrastructure
Fixed wireless operator and broadband ISP Connexin has today called on the UK government to expand its focus beyond full fibre and 5G mobile by recognising Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN / LoRaWAN), which are often used to help connect small IoT style sensors and meters, as “critical infrastructure“. Connexin, which is also involved in its own roll-out FTTP broadband technologies, is separately a member of the LoRa Alliance (LoRo = Long Range), a membership organisation where industry...
Virgin Media O2 Adopt New UK Pricing Policy for Broadband, TV and Mobile
Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today become the latest ISP to adopt Ofcom’s new guidance on inflation-linked annual broadband price rises. In practice, this means that new and re-contracting (upgrading) customers will be hit by a flat price increase of up to £3.50 (monthly) each April. The new policy reflects the regulator’s earlier move to BAN broadband ISPs and mobile operators from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to confusing inflation and...
Dorset Claims to be Deploying UK’s First WiFi-connected Steam Train
People travelling on the tourist focused Swanage Railway in Dorset (England), which is a heritage railway attraction that operates full-size steam and diesel passenger trains along the 5+ miles of line from Norden to Corfe Castle and down to the seaside town of Swanage, will soon gain access to onboard WiFi thanks to a new project. The Dorset Council teamed up with tech company Excelerate Technology UK to bring mobile network and satellite-powered (Low Earth Orbit) public WiFi to Purbeck Park...
Ofcom Move Forward with UK 5G Mobile Auction for 26GHz and 40GHz
The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published the final draft auction regulations for its plan to auction off a large chunk of millimetre wave (mmW) radio spectrum frequency in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands, which will be used by mobile operators to deliver faster 5G (mobile broadband) services – mostly in urban areas. At present EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media), Vodafone and Three UK already have access to several 5G bands between 700MHz and 3.8GHz. Such frequencies reflect the same sort of...