News

Telecoms networks and broadband communications

• February 14, 2019 14 Feb'19

  Satellite broadband secures Cornish observatory a brighter future

  The Tolcarn Observatory near St Austell in Cornwall is putting its money where its mouth is and using satellite broadband to enhance its research work and educational outreach

• February 14, 2019 14 Feb'19

  Apple Business Chat powers Npower’s smart meter switch

  Energy supplier is using Apple Business Chat to help users through the process of switching onto new smart gas and electricity meters

• February 11, 2019 11 Feb'19

  Vodafone announces winners of Techstarter accelerator

  Vodafone has announced the winners of its startup accelerator programme, aimed at helping young companies developing technology for social good

• February 08, 2019 08 Feb'19

  Brexit is killing full-fibre broadband and 5G roll-outs, says CBI

  A CBI report has warned that Brexit is “sucking the oxygen” out of digital priorities such as full-fibre broadband roll-out and 5G mobile network deployment

• February 07, 2019 07 Feb'19

  Nordic region primed to pioneer 5G

  The Nordic region could pioneer the commercial use of 5G, with Finland and Sweden hotbeds for the technology

• February 07, 2019 07 Feb'19

  Government legislates to bring back roaming charges in no-deal Brexit

  All four UK operators have said they have no plans to reintroduce roaming charges, but EE, O2 and Vodafone have not committed themselves not to do so

• February 06, 2019 06 Feb'19

  Huawei: We are not spying on the UK

  Huawei’s Ryan Ding tells the British government that the company has never, and will never, use its technology to assist the Chinese intelligence services

• February 06, 2019 06 Feb'19

  Virgin Media tests 8Gbps home broadband service

  Fifty residents of Papworth, Cambridgeshire, are trialling an 8Gbps FTTP broadband service using existing fibre infrastructure

• February 06, 2019 06 Feb'19

  Suffolk County Council awards 20-year WAN contract

  MLL Telecom will work with CityFibre to extend Suffolk County Council’s existing WAN to 600 sites and offer them ultrafast connectivity services

• February 01, 2019 01 Feb'19

  BT stockpiles networking kit for no-deal Brexit as Patterson exits

  Outgoing BT boss Gavin Patterson shared some details on the company’s contingency planning for a feared no-deal Brexit as chief executive Philip Jansen formally takes charge of the business

• January 29, 2019 29 Jan'19

  How digital indoor systems can bolster ASEAN’s 5G networks

  Digital indoor systems, already being used at airports and subway systems, will help telcos monetise new digital services on 5G networks

• January 28, 2019 28 Jan'19

  Openreach to recruit 3,000 apprentices to support UK-wide full-fibre network deployment

  New recruits from “all walks of life” will be trained at one of 12 educational facilities Openreach is set to open across the country

• January 25, 2019 25 Jan'19

  Vodafone suspends use of Huawei hardware

  Vodafone’s UK CEO has said the operator will ‘pause’ its use of Huawei hardware for the foreseeable future

• January 25, 2019 25 Jan'19

  Chinese government grants BT new powers

  Enhanced operating licences improve telco’s ability to work with customers in China

• January 23, 2019 23 Jan'19

  MPs challenge Huawei over spying allegations

  The chair of the cross-bench Science and Technology Committee has written to Huawei seeking answers over its activities in the UK

• January 23, 2019 23 Jan'19

  Vodafone and O2 will ‘share’ 5G networks

  Vodafone and O2 have agreed non-binding heads of terms that will extend their 4G network-sharing agreement to 5G when it becomes available

• January 22, 2019 22 Jan'19

  XL Axiata teams up with Tibco in data science initiative

  The Indonesia telco’s data scientists will be provided with data science tools from Tibco to uncover customer insights and improve network planning, among other goals

• January 22, 2019 22 Jan'19

  Scottish Police Authority awards £21m mobile services deal to EE

  EE will oversee a three-year deal to transform police mobile capabilities in Scotland, alongside Motorola Solutions, Samsung and BlackBerry

• January 22, 2019 22 Jan'19

  Broadband divide persists across the UK, says Which?

  Latest statistics from Which? show the UK’s broadband divide persists, with many areas still missing out on high-speed services despite industry tub-thumping

• January 15, 2019 15 Jan'19

  O2 powers customer-centric network with Nokia AI

  Mobile operator O2 claims Nokia’s AI-driven Service Operation Center platform will help it anticipate its customers’ problems before they know they have problems

• January 14, 2019 14 Jan'19

  Mobile and broadband markets fail digitally excluded groups

  Financially vulnerable people, disabled and mentally ill people and elderly people all face significant challenges in accessing appropriate communications services, according to a new Ofcom report

• January 14, 2019 14 Jan'19

  Australia’s Optus dials into 5G

  Australia’s second largest telco Optus makes the country’s first 5G data call, paving the way for a fixed wireless service by the first half of 2019

• January 10, 2019 10 Jan'19

  Roadside 4G mobile signal availability improves across UK

  4G mobile network coverage along the UK’s motorways has seen substantial improvement, with Greater Manchester’s urban M60 having 100% availability and the Birmingham to Carlisle M6 seeing the greatest growth in coverage

• January 10, 2019 10 Jan'19

  Fife Council upgrades WAN to offer ultrafast broadband services

  Public sector sites across Fife in Scotland are to receive a transformational upgrade to their broadband speeds

• January 10, 2019 10 Jan'19

  BT faces tussle to keep EU contracts after Brexit

  The European Union will likely re-evaluate its telecoms contracts with BT following Brexit, and cancelling them altogether is a real risk in a no-deal scenario, according to leaked documents

• January 08, 2019 08 Jan'19

  First 5G smartphones may have massive price premium

  Android smartphone brands are already preparing to launch their first 5G handsets, but new technical requirements means they won’t be cheap to build, according to analysts at TrendForce

• January 07, 2019 07 Jan'19

  Equinix to open fourth Singapore datacentre in 2019

  The latest investment by Equinix in Singapore comes as datacentre operators look to fill vacant real estate arising from intense market competition between 2017 and 2018

• January 02, 2019 02 Jan'19

  SMEs urged to get on board with Network Services 2 framework

  Suppliers have until the end of January 2019 to sign up to the new government network services purchasing framework

• January 02, 2019 02 Jan'19

  Huawei aims to be more resilient in 2019 amid challenges

  Huawei’s rotating chairman Guo Ping outlines the firm’s priorities to optimise its product portfolio, empower employees and build a more resilient business structure

• December 28, 2018 28 Dec'18

  Top 10 mobile stories of 2018

  As 5G moves from theory to practical reality, we look back at Computer Weekly’s biggest mobile stories from the past 12 months

• December 19, 2018 19 Dec'18

  CMA acts on super-complaint over broadband, mobile charges

  The Competition and Markets Authority is to crack down on communications services providers who ‘penalise’ loyal customers over new ones

• December 19, 2018 19 Dec'18

  Top 10 broadband stories of 2018

  The networking industry swung firmly behind full-fibre broadband in 2018, with encouraging signs that the gold-standard of broadband service delivery technology is at long last taking off in the UK

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  Ancient Britain comes to life at Bath’s 5G testbed

  The West of England Combined Authority is running a 5G Smart Tourism project at Bath’s world-famous Roman spa

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  Broadband coverage improved through 2018, says Ofcom

  Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report reveals that the number of people who cannot receive a 10Mbps broadband connection has halved

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  Ofcom fires starting gun for new mobile spectrum auction

  Mobile spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz bands will be put up for auction either late in 2019 or early in 2020

• December 14, 2018 14 Dec'18

  Ofcom tells ISPs to be upfront about better broadband deals

  Telecoms regulator is rolling out a range of measures to make the broadband market serve the interests of consumers better

• December 12, 2018 12 Dec'18

  Finland’s IT sector recovers after break-up of Nokia

  Finnish government plays vital role in helping IT sector recover from the shock of Microsoft taking over the country’s biggest company

• December 11, 2018 11 Dec'18

  Slow action on broadband and 5G risks UK’s economic future, CBI warns

  A report from the CBI has called for the government to fast-track legislation to guarantee access to ultrafast network services

• December 10, 2018 10 Dec'18

  Vodafone’s 4G network goes underground

  Operator will roll out small 4G and 5G-ready antenna to boost network coverage over short distances in areas of dense usage, using manhole covers, among other things

• December 10, 2018 10 Dec'18

  BT upgrades InLink street kiosks for deaf, speech-impaired people

  BT has added a next-generation text service to its InLink street kiosks to make the service more accessible to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired

• December 10, 2018 10 Dec'18

  O2 expected to pursue Ericsson for compensation over 24-hour stoppage

  Mobile network operator could seek up to £100m in damages from its supplier, which failed to update expired software certificates, causing a day-long outage

• December 10, 2018 10 Dec'18

  Port of Rotterdam uses floating lab to learn about automation in harbour

  A ship will soon be converted to a floating laboratory to test automation technologies at the Netherlands port

• December 07, 2018 07 Dec'18

  O2 outage highlights importance of software certificate audits

  A major outage on the O2 4G mobile network was caused by an expired certificate and could easily have been avoided, it has emerged

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  BT and KCOM named broadband USO suppliers

  Ofcom has named BT, and in East Yorkshire, KCOM, as the designated providers for the incoming broadband universal service obligation

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  China demands release of arrested Huawei CFO

  The Chinese government has called for the release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was detained in Canada at the weekend

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  Software failure paralyses O2’s 4G network

  O2 is racing to fix a major outage on its 4G network that has left millions of mobile subscribers without access to data services

• December 05, 2018 05 Dec'18

  BT moves to strip Huawei kit from EE’s network

  Telco will remove Huawei’s networking equipment from the core of EE’s 4G mobile network

• December 04, 2018 04 Dec'18

  As commercial 5G nears, small cells generate interest

  Interest in small cells as an element of commercial 5G mobile networks is growing, particularly in countries with supportive regulatory environments. Meanwhile, a UK trial of wholesale small cell infrastructure has kicked off in London

• November 27, 2018 27 Nov'18

  Billions missing out on digital society as internet use soars

  As global internet usage continues to soar, billions of people around the world are missing out on the potential benefits of getting online, according to Cisco

• November 27, 2018 27 Nov'18

  Poor Wi-Fi connectivity damaging to home life, say UK consumers

  A study for BT has revealed a substantial proportion of UK families feel they are being let down by poor in-home Wi-Fi networks