News

Telecoms networks and broadband communications

• December 09, 2013 09 Dec'13

  DCMS offers small businesses broadband grants

  The government allocates £100m of the Urban Broadband Fund to enable small businesses in 10 cities across the UK to get faster internet connections

• December 06, 2013 06 Dec'13

  PM David Cameron opens Cisco’s startup centre IDEALondon

  Cisco’s innovation centre in London has been officially opened by Prime Minister David Cameron this morning on the third anniversary of Tech City.

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  DCMS puts transparency before BT’s commercial interests

  The head of telecommunications policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport claims the need for transparency in the BDUK roll-out is more important than BT’s commercial interests, but admits government needs to do better in pushing for more...

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  Insurance firms invest £25bn in UK infrastructure

  UK’s biggest insurance firms will invest £25bn into infrastructure projects including broadband roll-out and railway networks

• December 03, 2013 03 Dec'13

  Huawei invests £10m in UK university research

  Chinese telecoms firm Huawei boosts investment in the UK, promising £10m funding for universities' technology projects

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  Case study: Advantage Travel Centres implements UC infrastructure for mobile workers

  Advantage Travel Centres has implemented unified communications (UC) to improve the connectivity of mobile employees

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  CIO interview: Peter O’Rourke, director of IT, University Campus Suffolk

  Peter O’Rourke, IT director at University Campus Suffolk, is looking to students to shape the university’s IT infrastructure

• November 29, 2013 29 Nov'13

  Computer Weekly European User Awards 2014 open for entries

  Computer Weekly is running its European User Awards for a second year in 2014. Find out all the details here

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  BT ensures Rothbury broadband project goes ahead

  While alternative operators in rural locations have to wait for locations before getting RCBF funding and starting their broadband roll-outs, BT is a step ahead in Rothbury

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  BT to launch self-install FTTC broadband on New Year’s Eve

  The telecoms giant promises a cheaper install option, allowing customers to set up their own broadband from the last day of 2013

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  UK set to announce plans to tackle extremism online

  The government plans to order broadband providers to block extremist websites identified by a specialist unit set

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  Janet6 ‘offers the future’ for research networking needs

  Jisc takes back the network from a managed service provider to light up its own fibre and offer a future proofed service to researchers, universities, colleges and schools across the UK

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  4G connections to hit one billion by 2017

  Research from the GSMA predicts one in eight mobile connections will be 4G within the next four years

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  Spanish health authority cuts costs with Xbox consultations

  Accenture has been working with the health authorities in Spain’s Basque Country to reduce healthcare costs through technology

• November 25, 2013 25 Nov'13

  BlackBerry continues executive shakeup

  The mobile manufacturer ousts another two c-level executives, whilst another board member resigns

• November 18, 2013 18 Nov'13

  BT Openreach CEO to step down

  BT Openreach CEO Liv Garfield will leave the company in the Spring next year to take on the role of CEO at water company Severn Trent

• November 14, 2013 14 Nov'13

  Europe to follow US clearance of mobile devices on flights

  The European aviation regulator is to follow the US lead in easing restrictions on the use of mobile electronic devices during flights

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  Peterborough becomes ‘gigabit city’ after council inks fibre network deal

  Peterborough City Council signs CityFibre for a privately funded fibre network offering 1Gbps to 80% of its businesses by 2015

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  Virgin Media promises 152Mbps but at a price

  Virgin Media will launch the superfast 152Mbps packages in February 2014 but reveals its prices will rise by almost 7% for cable customers

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  Superfast broadband is 'Cornwall’s HS2'

  A total of 82% of premises in Cornwall can now access superfast broadband as Superfast Cornwall aims to connect 95% by the end of 2014

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  EE criticises government for being fixed on fixed-line broadband

  As EE launches 4G Wi-Fi services across rural Cumbria, the operator’s CEO criticises the government for focusing too heavily on fixed broadband infrastructure

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  BT backtracks on broadband postcode publication

  BT tells Computer Weekly local councils' BDUK broadband data is too commercially sensitive to publish

• November 08, 2013 08 Nov'13

  CIO Interview: Michael Ibbitson, Gatwick Airport

  Gatwick Airport is replacing in-house IT with cloud services in a multimillion-pound modernisation programme

• November 06, 2013 06 Nov'13

  Huawei invests $600m in 5G mobile R&D

  Network company Huawei has announced it will invest at least $600m in research and development for 5G technologies by 2018

• November 05, 2013 05 Nov'13

  UK government behind mobile broadband, says Ed Vaizey

  Mobile broadband is one of the technologies that can see us through to a fully connected society, says communications minister Ed Vaizey

• November 04, 2013 04 Nov'13

  EE to launch 300 Mbps 4G network in London

  Mobile operator EE has launched an LTE-Advanced network, which it claims to be the fastest 4G mobile network in the world

• October 31, 2013 31 Oct'13

  BDUK seeks new CEO

  The top job within the division with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport charged with rolling out broadband across the UK is up for grabs

• October 31, 2013 31 Oct'13

  UK cities fail to offer superfast broadband

  Not one of the UK’s 50 major cities has yet to reach average download speeds of 24Mbps – the government’s definition of superfast broadband

• October 31, 2013 31 Oct'13

  BT Sport hits telecoms giant’s profits

  The UK telecoms firm reports a fall in profits as it continues to invest into its new television services

• October 25, 2013 25 Oct'13

  Three quarters of UK homes can access superfast broadband

  A report from telecoms regulator Ofcom claims three in four homes can now access superfast internet connections and adoption of the technology is on the rise

• October 25, 2013 25 Oct'13

  BT and Whitehall tell council to keep BDUK postcodes quiet

  BT and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) told Cumbria County Council to keep BDUK roll-out locations secret

• October 24, 2013 24 Oct'13

  Recruitment firm Adecco outsources for cloud-based IT

  Adecco is moving to cloud-based IT services with pay as you go pricing through a five-year outsourcing agreement with BT Business

• October 23, 2013 23 Oct'13

  The commercial reality of Huawei’s trust issues

  The Chinese firm is working tirelessly to tell the world it can be trusted but, the US remains unwilling to budge

• October 22, 2013 22 Oct'13

  1.2m 4G customers increase EE’s data revenues

  EE has announced a total of 1.2m 4G users in its latest financial results.

• October 21, 2013 21 Oct'13

  Enterprises will adopt SDN before full standardisation

  Huawei’s president of marketing solutions for its enterprise business group claims enterprises won’t have to wait for standardisation before they can feel the benefits of software defined networking

• October 18, 2013 18 Oct'13

  Mobile operators ready to embrace Wi-Fi

  The CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance claims ‘the era of reticence and resentment is gone’ and mobile operators are now looking to how Wi-Fi can benefit them, rather than seeing it as their enemy

• October 17, 2013 17 Oct'13

  EE offers 4G broadband to rural areas

  The UK mobile operator is targeting its 4G broadband packages at rural areas missing out from superfast connections

• October 16, 2013 16 Oct'13

  UK average internet speeds up 48%

  The latest State of the Internet report from Akamai shows the UK rising up the ranks when it comes to average connection speeds

• October 16, 2013 16 Oct'13

  GSMA chairman quits

  Franco Bernabè has resigned his post as chairman of the GSMA following his departure from Telecom Italia

• October 16, 2013 16 Oct'13

  Huawei confirms UK R&D centre

  Huawei says it will build an R&D centre as part of its £1.3bn UK investment after the firm's CEO met Chancellor George Osborne

• October 14, 2013 14 Oct'13

  BT seeks startups for superfast broadband services

  BT joins East London's TechHub encouraging startups to develop applications and services using superfast connectivity

• October 11, 2013 11 Oct'13

  Building railways not broadband is a ‘strategic mistake’

  The chief technology officer for Microsoft in EMEA claims the government is making a mistake investing billions into HS2 rather than broadband infrastructure which could enable more mobile working

• October 10, 2013 10 Oct'13

  Ofcom hikes spectrum licence prices

  Mobile regulator Ofcom more than quadruples the annual fees mobile operators will have to pay for 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands

• October 10, 2013 10 Oct'13

  BT to offer mobile services over EE network

  The telecoms giant has announced EE is its preferred bidder as it looks to re-enter the mobile market as an MVNO

• October 09, 2013 09 Oct'13

  Alcatel-Lucent to axe 10,000 staff

  The networking company’s new CEO continues his cost saving plan by wiping almost 14% of its global workforce

• October 08, 2013 08 Oct'13

  Rural 10% forced to wait for broadband

  The most rural areas of the UK may have to wait for BT to complete the BDUK broadband roll-out before they get connected

• October 08, 2013 08 Oct'13

  UK breaks into ITU’s top 10 for ICT development

  UK takes eighth place in International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU’s) league table for ICT deployments and adoption

• October 07, 2013 07 Oct'13

  Government holds consultation on broadband delivery

  A meeting to tap the industry for its knowledge on broadband delivery is taking place in Whitehall today, but DCMS gives little notice for companies to be prepared

• October 02, 2013 02 Oct'13

  Ofcom announces UK white space trials

  UK organisations will play a major part in European tests for the wireless technology

• September 30, 2013 30 Sep'13

  Huawei poses no competitive threat to US networking firms, says Enterasys CEO

  Too few US organisations trust China government-linked Huawei for it to pose a threat to networking firms, says Enterasys’s CEO

• September 30, 2013 30 Sep'13

  Europe fails to invest in downtimes

  Enterasys CEO Chris Crowell says economic downturns are the best times to invest, but with more activity in the US than Europe

• September 26, 2013 26 Sep'13

  What does the Public Accounts Committee want from BDUK?

  MPs slammed the BDUK broadband process for making it too easy for BT. But how to rectify the situation? We take an in-depth look at the report

• September 26, 2013 26 Sep'13

  MPs slam BT's rural broadband tactics

  MPs have slammed BT's business practices in the roll-out of rural and superfast broadband

• September 23, 2013 23 Sep'13

  DECC names IT suppliers for smart meter project

  The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced the IT suppliers that will provide the technology to underpin smart meters

• September 23, 2013 23 Sep'13

  Visa completes network upgrade

  Visa Europe has completed the upgrade to its communications network, which will underpin its payments services and corporate connectivity.

• September 20, 2013 20 Sep'13

  Virgin Media to axe 600 jobs

  Virgin Media will cut up to 600 roles as part of a restructure following its acquisition by Liberty Global, but customer-facing roles will not be affected

• September 19, 2013 19 Sep'13

  Prime minister David Cameron defends progress of BDUK roll-out

  Prime minister David Cameron claims the BDUK broadband roll-out to rural areas is working, deeming criticism 'unfair’

• September 18, 2013 18 Sep'13

  BlackBerry quietly launches Z30 smartphone

  Mobile manufacturer BlackBerry has launched its latest flagship smartphone, the Z30, to little fanfare

• September 13, 2013 13 Sep'13

  Vodafone appoints new UK CEO

  After five years in charge, Vodafone veteran Guy Laurence is leaving his role to head up Canadian firm Rogers Communications and will be replaced by Jeroen Hoencamp

• September 13, 2013 13 Sep'13

  Huawei bets on European talent with mobile R&D

  Putting a cellular research centre in the homeland of Ericsson is a great idea for scouting talent, but will Huawei opening its doors win over the sceptics?

• September 10, 2013 10 Sep'13

  Case study: M2M and cycling aid Diabetes research

  The mHealth Tour will see cyclists use mobile technologies to investigate the link between exercise and blood sugar levels

• September 09, 2013 09 Sep'13

  West Yorkshire signs £22m BDUK contract with BT

  Four local authorities team up for the West Yorkshire project and award BT the contract for rolling out superfast broadband

• September 05, 2013 05 Sep'13

  Nokia and Vodafone deals damage European mobile industry, says Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe

  Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe slams Nokia and Vodafone for shrinking the European mobile as Neelie Kroes praises Nokia's bravery

• September 02, 2013 02 Sep'13

  Vodafone admits ‘advanced discussions’ with Verizon

  Media speculation that the UK firm will sell off its 45% of the US firm Verizon Wireless has truth to it, but the UK operator says there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached

• August 30, 2013 30 Aug'13

  How networks and data win Formula One races for Mercedes AMG Petronas

  Tata Communications joins the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team to bring speedy connectivity worthy of its cars

• August 30, 2013 30 Aug'13

  Newcastle and Milton Keynes sign BDUK contracts

  Two more councils award BT with the contract to roll-out superfast broadband as part of the government’s nationwide project

• August 29, 2013 29 Aug'13

  Vodafone and O2 join 4G party

  Vodafone and O2 have ended the temporary 4G monopoly of EE with the launch of services in three UK cities.

• August 28, 2013 28 Aug'13

  Leicestershire signs BDUK contract

  Leicestershire County Council signs a contract with BT to roll-out fibre broadband to 95% of homes and businesses by March 2016

• August 27, 2013 27 Aug'13

  BT to recruit 150 engineers in Scotland

  BT is creating 150 new posts in Scotland to help with its broadband roll-out across the country

• August 27, 2013 27 Aug'13

  BT to shut down dial-up in September

  BT tempts its customers over to broadband services, although also offers PlusNet narrowband alternative for those outside of its footprint

• August 22, 2013 22 Aug'13

  Vint Cerf: The internet and 40 years of openness

  Father of the internet and Google evangelist, Vint Cerf, speaks to Computer Weekly about tapping, privacy and IP addresses

• August 21, 2013 21 Aug'13

  Worcestershire County Council overlaps connected areas with BDUK broadband roll-out plans

  Worcestershire County Council lists 14 parishes as ‘intervention areas’ despite funding superfast broadband, breaking EU rules

• August 16, 2013 16 Aug'13

  Multimillion-pound broadband project axed in Yorkshire

  Despite millions of taxpayer’s pounds sunk into the Digital Region project in South Yorkshire, the councils involved decide to drop it to save £12.5m

• August 15, 2013 15 Aug'13

  Cisco announces BIG Awards startup semi-finalists

  Twenty of the UK’s most innovative startups have been shortlisted as semi-finalists for the Cisco Big Innovation Gateway (BIG) Awards

• August 14, 2013 14 Aug'13

  The 4G tariff wars

  With three of the four mobile operators having announced their 4G plans, Computer Weekly takes a look at what will be on offer

• August 13, 2013 13 Aug'13

  Case Study: M2M increases livestock feed efficiency by 10%

  Livestock feeding manufacturer Keenan chose Vodafone to supply a machine-to-machine solution to improve its nutritional data analysis

• August 09, 2013 09 Aug'13

  Privacy International challenges GCHQ collaborators including BT and Vodafone

  Privacy International has sent a solicitor’s letter to underseas cable operators accusing them of unlawful conduct

• August 07, 2013 07 Aug'13

  UK average broadband speed rises

  The average download speed for broadband in the UK has reached 14.7Mbps, but take-up of superfast connections still low

• August 06, 2013 06 Aug'13

  Case study: Birmingham rolls out free public Wi-Fi

  Birmingham City Council is working with Virgin Media Business to bring free Wi-Fi to public spaces and encourage mobile operators to invest in better 3G and 4G signals

• August 05, 2013 05 Aug'13

  BT signs two new BDUK contracts

  Oxfordshire and Worcestershire sign contracts with telecoms giant BT to roll-out superfast broadband across the two counties

• August 05, 2013 05 Aug'13

  Gigabit internet speeds brought to Bournemouth businesses

  CityFibre launches leased line broadband service in the seaside town of Bournemouth

• August 02, 2013 02 Aug'13

  Wales has worst access to superfast broadband

  Access to superfast broadband in Wales is significantly lower than the rest of the UK, according to a new report from Ofcom

• August 01, 2013 01 Aug'13

  O2 set for August 4G launch

  O2 confirms it will switch on its 4G network in London, Leeds and Bradford on 29 August, with 10 more cities going live by the end of 2013

• July 31, 2013 31 Jul'13

  Digital TV spectrum clear for 4G

  Ofcom confirms the 4G spectrum it auctioned off earlier this year is now cleared and ready to be used by mobile operators

• July 30, 2013 30 Jul'13

  DCMS reveals locations for mobile signal project

  Department for Culture, Media and Sport publishes a map showing UK areas that will benefit from £150m mobile infrastructure project

• July 30, 2013 30 Jul'13

  BT forms new business retail division

  BT Retail will split into business and consumer divisions when its leader ascends to the role of CEO in September

• July 30, 2013 30 Jul'13

  Where is BDUK rolling out broadband?

  The places in the UK that will – and, more importantly, those that won’t – be getting BDUK’s superfast fibre

• July 29, 2013 29 Jul'13

  Miller calls out local authorities for broadband plans

  Maria Miller writes to local councils telling them to publish their roll-out plans after BT confirms it is happy for the details to be made public

• July 26, 2013 26 Jul'13

  Sandwell Council poised to pull plug on multi-million BT deal

  BT could lose a contract with Sandwell Council in the West Midlands if it doesn’t adjust conditions and improve service

• July 25, 2013 25 Jul'13

  BT profits drop despite customer growth

  Whilst customers continue to sign up for broadband and TV services, reported profits plummet 16% and revenues fall by 1%

• July 24, 2013 24 Jul'13

  Government fails rural areas in broadband and mobile

  The rural affairs select committee says there is not enough government funding to put rural services on par with urban areas

• July 23, 2013 23 Jul'13

  Facebook app gives millions internet access through low-end phones

  Facebook app enables internet access for more than 100 million people in developing countries using low-end phones

• July 18, 2013 18 Jul'13

  Government agrees to review Huawei’s Cyber Security Evaluation Centre

  The UK government is to conduct a review of Huawei’s Cyber Security Evaluation Centre to ensure the right measures to protect UK telecommunications

• July 17, 2013 17 Jul'13

  BT accused of ‘bullying tactics’ over BDUK

  BT accused of bullying local authorities while negotiating broadband roll-out schemes, threatening to put them ‘to the bottom of the list’

• July 16, 2013 16 Jul'13

  Telecoms M&A ‘flourishes’ in UK

  Despite mergers, acquisitions and Equity Capital Market transactions falling in the first half of 2013, the telecoms market sees figures soar

• July 15, 2013 15 Jul'13

  National broadband projects key to UN goals

  The Broadband Commission claims national projects are the best way to ensure the benefits of the internet are enjoyed by all

• July 15, 2013 15 Jul'13

  Young’s signs Wi-Fi deal with BT

  A deal between BT and the Young and Co.’s Brewery is set to bring free Wi-Fi to its customers by the end of the year

• July 12, 2013 12 Jul'13

  EU expects 900,000 unfilled IT jobs in 2015

  The European Commission releases statistics about the progress of the Digital Agenda, calling for more people to improve their digital skills

• July 12, 2013 12 Jul'13

  BlackBerry ready to enable India to track messages

  BlackBerry is ready to provide Indian law enforcement authorities with a way to track emails, email attachments and chats sent over its services

• July 12, 2013 12 Jul'13

  O2 extends 4G backhaul with Virgin Media Business

  Mobile operator O2 will use Virgin Media Business’s superfast fibre network to bring capacity for its 4G roll-out later in 2013