Recent Blog Posts

The Ofcom decision today appears to open the way for BT to similarly complete the convergence begun with the EE merger. But first it has to raise the money.

A Texan lawyer has helped the internet through its Handforth Parish Council comedown by donning a sad kitten filter in virtual court. “I believe you have a filter turned on in your video settings,” ...

There are some things that require a permanent internet connection. One cannot listen to internet radio, watch YouTube or take part in a video conference, without a permanent, live, high-quality ...

A new variant of Covid has been detected among infants in the Bethlehem area. After receiving intelligence from a committee of experts, King Herod has decreed that all hospitality facilities will ...

The decision to delay over £3 billion of spend is one that deserves "robust" scrutiny by the hundred or so MPs whose parliamentary majorities may depend on improve on-line access to education, ...

A crack squad of Openreach engineers dispatched to investigate a Welsh village’s long-running broadband mystery has managed to pinpoint the unwitting culprits. “One morning during lockdown, we ...

The reality of our planet living through a pandemic has seen office culture successfully adapt to home working, but as businesses start building towards their employees’ safe return, one impatient ...

Most of the interest groups representing network operators, large and small, fixed and mobile are having good meetings on how to encouragement investment in their members current business models ...

“You’ve got to wear a face nappy if you want to come in here,” chunters a half-cut Tim Martin as Matt Hancock enters the Lord Moon of the Mall. “Only joking,” he slurs. “Who am I to tell the health ...

There is no double that business leaders will factor in working from home in the calculations they are doing to lower costs as part of their on-going post pandemic recovery plans. The latest IT ...

This is a guest post by Nicola Millard, principal innovation partner, BT The future isn’t at all what we expected. Ten years ago, we might easily have imagined the contact centre of 2020 as an ...

The time has come for Ofcom to regulate on price, quality of service (including the resilience required of a critical infrastructure utility) and behaviour and stop trying to predict costs and ...

We’ve all been in Amanda Holden’s shoes. One minute, someone’s sending you a petition explicitly linking 5G to Covid-19; the next, you’re accidentally sharing it with 1.9 million Twitter followers. ...

While questions are being asked of the government over its coronavirus exit strategy, one thing is clear: large parts of the UK workforce are able to work remotely, thanks to the efforts of IT ...

The effect of corporate and individual responses to the Covid-19 problem is to expedite changes in demand that make a nonsense of Ofcom's recent market reviews. They also overtake most of the ...

Earlier this week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) called for feedback on potential competition issues associated with an upcoming allocation for the 26GHz spectrum which ...

Fast, reliable Internet access is essential for business competitiveness in a post Brexit world. It is also critical to the rest of modern society. If the fixed and mobile networks of BT/EE, ...

The pioneers of the internet and the web saw themselves as liberators. They believed, passionately, they were creating a better world – one that was open, collaborative, broke down barriers, and ...

The BBC’s Dan Walker has sat down with Boris Johnson to probe him over all manner of hot topics, including the government’s decision to let Huawei build its 5G telecoms infrastructure. Having ...

This is a guest post by Srinivasan CR, chief digital officer, Tata Communications No matter how much technology keeps evolving, making predictions about the future is always a risky business. But ...

We are promised forests of magic money trees instead of plans to use technology to do more for less ... Meanwhile most on-line health systems are "As user friendly as a cornered rat"

No one size fits all needs. Every smart community (let alone "City") will probably need at least one Internet Exchange to handle local inter-operability. The UK as a whole will probably need more ...

So, the Labour Party wants free full-fibre broadband for all, and to nationalise Openreach. Cue bedlam on social media as the telecoms industry slams the proposals and the Conservatives scream, ...

At any large-scale event, whether it’s an independence day parade or a Coldplay concert, chances are you’ll see security personnel using push-to-talk devices or walkie-talkies to coordinate with ...

Singapore telco M1 is planning a 5G trial at the latest outlet of Haidilao, a well-known hotpot restaurant in the city-state, in a bid to demonstrate the use of 5G networks in the food and beverage ...

The INCA Conference provides an opportunity to "help" DCMS put flesh on the announcement of £5 billion for broadband at the Conservative Party Conference

The other day, the government announced yet another consultation on the future of the UK's digital networking infrastructure, this time exploring the possibility of liberalising the planning laws ...

Like any milestone birthday it’s a time for reflection, writes Andrew Meyer, director of NHS Digital's Digital Delivery Centre. Have you achieved what you wanted in the time passed, are there ...

On 24 July 2019, as jubilant Conservative party members emerged from Boris Johnson's victory speech in Westminster, one supporter was heard to remark Johnson had promised to "insert high-speed ...

Change is accelerating, making attempts to predict the future in order to regulate it ever more impractical - although that does not appear to stop some regulators from trying.

The BT share price looks set to drift down to under a £pound. That would leave it unable to invest other than from cash flows and Government subsidies. It would also be unsaleable because of the ...

This is a guest blog post by Tom Dailey, chief international legal, policy and regulatory officer at Verizon The regulatory and policy landscape is a really important topic for all businesses given ...

While enterprises are expected to be one of the early beneficiaries of 5G networks that promise low-latency connectivity for driverless vehicles and factory machinery, consumer use cases of the ...

I added a comment on Dominic Rabb's inclusion of degree apprenticeships in his call for Fairness and Choice to my recent blog on the IfA apprenticeship review.  In his opening campaign letter Rory ...

BT’s new chief executive, Philip Jansen, is to revise Openreach’s targets for its full-fibre broadband network roll-out upwards when he reveals BT’s full-year financial results on Thursday 9 May, ...

Theresa May has wielded the axe on her notoriously slapdash defence secretary after deeming him responsible for leaking National Security Council confab about the use of Huawei networking ...

The sacking of defence minister Gavin Williamson is another indication of how technology is influencing politics, and vice versa. While his crime was to leak details from a national security ...

This is a guest post by Simon Lockington, director of global solutions enablement at Equinix Asia-Pacific Industry watchers are predicting that 4G LTE subscribers in Asia-Pacific will naturally ...

Many people using the London Underground today will likely have noticed that the usual Virgin Media-run Wi-Fi service is not working. Some might even have been mildly inconvenienced by not being ...

BT has announced plans to train another 3,000 apprentices  on top of 3,500 engineers, including apprentices, hired last year. The announcement included an update on BT’s plans for new and upgraded ...

As the UK's full-fibre broadband roll-out gathers pace through 2018 and into 2019, many people continue to believe gigabit services are unnecessary overkill. CityFibre's Caroline Hughes reckons ...

Problems with quality, not just quantity threaten to derail full fibre roll out as they did cable TV roll out 25 years ago. Over the past couple of years broadband roll-out projects (BT, Virgin, ...

The government recently announced plans that – despite facing delays and setbacks – a new Emergency Services Network (ESN) will be phased in from the beginning of 2019. It will replace the legacy ...

This is a guest blog post by Brendan O’Rourke, head of design at BriteBill, an Amdocs company. It’s no secret that today’s customers are more demanding than previous generations. They share their ...

This might best be achieved by engaging sponsors via sector/market/problem specific practitioner workshops to distil current good practice into draft guidance that could be used by those who will ...

There is a term which crops up a lot in the technology sector - ‘legacy’. Occasionally, especially when talking to very long-established companies, the term ‘heritage’ occurs. It is useful ...

Facing negative PR all around after announcing a strategic realignment that is to see 13,000 employees made redundant and the closure of its central London HQ after over 100 years, even the good ...

After yet another set of lacklustre earnings and with over 10,000 staff facing the axe, embattled BT CEO Gavin Patterson needed a quick win. Today's launch of new consumer offerings from both BT ...

Are Britain’s internet service providers (ISPs) coming up short when it comes to helping their less tech-savvy users protect themselves against the scourge of telephone scams and online fraud? In a ...

At Huawei’s annual analyst summit in Shenzhen this week, the Chinese technology giant unveiled its predictions about what the future holds from a technology perspective in its Global Industry ...

An internet connection is as important as food and water to the displaced

Australia’s broadband is under siege from a group of vicious cockatoos with no known motive. The cables they’re eating are not thought to be made from any of the birds’ classic vices, such as fruit ...

Apple proudly claims it’s set the path of technology for the next decade with its iPhone X, but it would’ve been nice if it just did that with the one it announced half hour earlier. Instead, the ...

The money can only be spent by councils with above contract access or below contract spend to allow BT to extend access or improve services.

Unified communications expert Paul Clarke says the technology is still far from ubiquity especially as more CIOs implement mobile-first strategies. From a unified communications perspective, the ...

In this guest blog, Anthony Sutton from Cobham Wireless discusses how venue owners can maximise visitor satisfaction by improving mobile network availability. It’s match day! You’ve managed to get ...

Computer Weekly has been banging the drum for full-fibre broadband for several years. We’ve been critical of BT for its reticence and reluctance to embrace fibre to the premises (FTTP) as the ...

So the Digital Economy Bill, setting new standards for broadband and mobile provision, data-sharing and more, is law, waved through along with a whole bunch of other stuff the government would ...

Let’s think about the UK in 2027 for a moment. By then, just 10 years from now, we will have been out of the EU for eight years. We might not even be the UK any more, but if we are, the population ...

News of the Nokia 3310’s imminent relaunch has brought Downtime over all nostalgic. Take our hand, and come with us to the cloudless summer of 2001. It’s safer there. The sun shines brightly, the ...

The move to intelligent cities runs the risk of creating problems as seen during the industrial revolution. An intelligent planet needs more thought.

Did you hear the one about the time Openreach CEO Clive Selley visited the countryside and was shocked, shocked I say, to discover that people in rural areas have difficulty accessing ...

How does the UK fund a full fibre infrastructure if BT is unable and/or unwilling to pay the price?

Because apparently, 77% of Brits are more likely to dump their partner than their broadband provider. At least, this was the main finding of a survey of 2,000 UK consumers conducted by broadband ...

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement showed a welcome and necessary understanding of the need to look at the long-term future of the UK’s digital economy. The £1bn ...

The broadband business rates "holiday" does not, yet, fully address the problem.

The ending of business rates on full fibre broadband has fired the start gun for an explosion of activity. But there is much more to do.

The Home Builders Federation opposes Ashford Borough Council's fibre to the home policy because it goes further than their deal with BT for free fibre.

With BT Wholesale having announced that from 2020 you will no longer be able to purchase integrated services digital network (ISDN) and public switched telephone network (PSTN) circuits as it ...

As citizens of the UK try to decipher the new thinking and emerging rhetoric of a post-Brexit-vote government and a new Prime Minister, for us in tech there is already a welcome change of tone in ...

When the Prime Minister used her closing conference speech to say it is "just not right" that "half of people living in rural areas, and so many small businesses, can't get a decent broadband ...

Last month, European Commission (EC) president Jean-Claude Juncker laid out three key objectives for a new telecoms framework, to be met by 2025. These are: to give schools, universities, research ...

Telecom Spend Doubles. Gambling & betting companies telecom spend per employee is set to double from £1,100 in 2008 to £2,200 in 2019.  The spend has been increasing year on year stoked by the ...

Without a surge of investment in "future ready" fibre and wireless networks next spring, the UK will fall behind France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain, let alone Scandinavia and the Pacific Rim ...

A majority of the UK may have decided through the Brexit referendum that we officially don’t like the European Union, but as we work out what leaving it means, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad ...

Frustrated at the slow state of broadband in their area, a family of newts has moved house to take advantage of the opportunities provided by superfast fibre. A BT Openreach engineer found the ...

In a world where we need software to ‘just work’ and developers know that the average user attention span is just one or two seconds, it’s always pleasing to find a product with the Ronseal factor. ...

Both Ofcom and BT need to prioritise the modernisation of the UK digital communications infrastructure

Pulling forward investment in broadband to help shorten the post-Brexit recession will require making BT "an offer it cannot refuse".

BT is unlikely to be able to fund both its quadplay ambitions and the investment needed to provide reliable, resilient and secure converged ubiquity its customers (including business) want. ...

Imagine this. It’s the early years of the 20th century. While many people still get around using a horse and trap, cars have become affordable and more and more people are buying them. It’s clear ...

BT Group failing to invest potentially hundreds of millions a year in infrastructure, service standards at Openreach consistently poor

G-PON as we know it today is rapidly approaching the end of the growth phase in its technology lifecycle, writes Adtran's Ronan Kelly. There is a surge in gigabit broadband service offerings that ...

In the wake of last week's vote to leave the European Union (EU), if we are indeed going to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty later in the year - and despite the lingering hope that there ...

The political momentum behind the connected future enabled by the internet of things (IoT) is clear, writes Jonathan Hewett of Octo Telematics. Increasingly we see insurance positioned at the ...

This morning I came close to running a story that would have claimed the government had u-turned on a pledge to provide superfast - 24Mbps and above - broadband to every home in the country by ...

BT demonstrated this week the depths of its sensitivity to Ofcom’s threat to break up the telecoms giant. Ofcom’s communications market review, published in March, set out its desire to see fibre ...

Genband is a specialist in IP-based real time communications software for fixed wireline, mobile and cable service providers and large enterprises. Key in the developer proposition tabled by ...

Discussing the latest news and views about networking, telecoms and broadband.

Building the broadband economy - the economic, business and infrastructure challenges for a digital Britain.

Ronan Kelly at Adtran argues that the evidence against BT simply doesn't stack up

One of the hardest things about infrastructure planning in our web-enabled world is estimating capacity needs, says Nominet's Chris Griffiths

Stand easy, though the idea is intriguing, nobody is going to be nationalising Openreach any time soon.

The British Infrastructure Group's report was rushed, it was fudged, it poorly presents good arguments, and ultimately it damages the case for an independent Openreach.

Last Friday, just after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the government published a series of responses to a number of European Commission (EC) consultations around the Digital Single Market.Personally, ...

Few people seem to remember it now, but back in 1998, Bowie did indeed set up his very own ISP, BowieNet

It is entirely unsurprising that BT should turn to a man with insider knowledge to take the whee

ViaSat's Neil Fraser argues for a broader mix of technologies to bring the internet into connectivity blackspots

Why now?

This morning Virgin Media announced a £3bn investment to bring fibre broadband to 4 million new homes, but every day it neglects its existing customers.