News

Networking hardware

July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11
Broadband ads still misleading on speed, says Ofcom

Broadband advertising is still misleading on the actual speeds being delivered by ISPs, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom...
July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11
Ofcom urged to widen 4G mobile coverage in next year's spectrum auction

Ofcom has been urged to increase 4G mobile coverage in next year's radio spectrum auction. Industry watchdog the Communications Consumer Panel...
July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11
UK fails to make world’s top 10 high-speed broadband countries - but Ireland scrapes in

The UK has failed to make it into the top 10 countries with the highest average broadband speed, but neighbouring Ireland scrapes in...
July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11
Virgin Media trials 1.5Gbps broadband at London's Silicon Roundabout

Virgin Media has rolled out broadband speeds of up to 1.5Gbps as part of a trial for businesses in the "Silicon Roundabout" area of London...

July 22, 2011 22 Jul'11
TalkTalk scores lowest in Ofcom broadband satisfaction survey as Orange turns tables

Broadband connection speeds remain the biggest issue for UK broadband customers, according to the latest customer service satisfaction survey by telecoms regulator Ofcom.
July 21, 2011 21 Jul'11
Cass Business School centralises IT infrastructure to save £500,000

City University London's Cass Business School is moving its IT services and infrastructure to the university's centralised...
July 20, 2011 20 Jul'11
Eurostar outsources to build an IT infrastructure of its own

Rail firm Eurostar has outsourced its IT to enable it to build its own IT infrastructure in preparation for the rise in demand expected when London hosts the Olympics next year.
July 14, 2011 14 Jul'11
CEOs propose internet reforms to meet EC speed targets, but threaten net neutrality

European broadband speed targets will be missed unless authorities introduce cost-saving measures and allow revenue-generating business models, according to a report from three communications company CEOs.
July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11
Wales gets £57m in broadband funding

Wales is set to receive £56.9m to help provide superfast broadband to 90% of homes and businesses in the country and enable broadband access for everyone.
July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11
Government opens up data on NHS, schools, criminal justice and transport

The government is opening up public data from the National Health Service, schools, criminal courts and transport as part of its transparency drive.

July 06, 2011 06 Jul'11
Ofcom UK broadband speed map shows wide areas of internet underinvestment

An interactive map of broadband speeds has revealed large sections of the UK need investment in internet connectivity.
July 06, 2011 06 Jul'11
Birmingham City Council poised to roll out 4G superfast broadband network

Birmingham intends to roll out a 4G network to deliver superfast mobile broadband across the city.
July 05, 2011 05 Jul'11
Vaizey claims to favour light-touch regulation in the communications sector

Communications minister Ed Vaizey has claimed he favours a light-touch approach to regulation in the communications sector.
July 05, 2011 05 Jul'11
National Audit Office casts doubt on smart meter roll-out cost

The National Audit Office says it expects the cost of implementing smart meters across the UK to exceed the current budget and questions how a critical change in consumer behaviour will be stimulated.
July 05, 2011 05 Jul'11
Metering supplier Onstream moves legacy infrastructure to hosted private cloud

Gas and electricity metering supplier Onstream is transforming its IT infrastructure by moving its legacy infrastructure into a Microsoft-based private cloud.
July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11
Government signs framework agreement and names suppliers for public sector networks

The government has signed a framework agreement worth an estimated contract value of £5m to enable central and local authorities transition to public sector networks (PSN).
July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11
£20m turnover threshold could exclude SMEs and communities from £2bn broadband deals

Smaller network operators and local communities could be excluded from taking part in the government's rural broadband roll-out, according to leaked documents.
June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11
How's your software asset management?

Many CIOs expend lots of effort on making sure their hardware is under control but they should apply the same rigour to software
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Smart grid security challenge highlighted in report

Government plans to create a smart grid for energy networks will require a coordinated focus on cybersecurity as communication networks play a key role, according to a report from The Energy Networks Association (ENA).
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Cambridgeshire County Council signs PSN deal with Virgin for £30m

Cambridgeshire County Council has signed a seven-year public sector network (PSN) contract with Virgin Media Business, estimated to be worth £30m.
June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11
Welsh Assembly networks fire and rescue control rooms for £2m

The Welsh government has joined up its fire and rescue control rooms using a £2m grant.
June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11
BA audits heterogenous SAN

British Airways has certified its business continuity plans using Data-Shield's SAN Assessment service.
June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11
Smart meter project lacks public support due to concerns about rising energy costs

Fears of initial price rises and a lack of evidence on future savings could de-stabilise government plans to reduce energy consumption through smart metering, according to a survey of 1,000 consumers.
June 16, 2011 16 Jun'11
Westminster City Council signs £190m framework agreement with Virgin

Westminster City Council has signed a £190m framework agreement with Virgin, following a wide area network (WAN) contract worth £2.5m.
June 15, 2011 15 Jun'11
Government to create market for personal identity data

The government is preparing to create a marketplace for citizens' personal data to be used for accessing online public services, according to documents that were issued to industry in preparation for the coalition's next-generation identity scheme.
June 08, 2011 08 Jun'11
World IPv6 Day: Why it really matters

Wednesday 8 June 2011 is World IPv6 Day, which means around 200 organisations, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, will offer content over IPv6 for a 24-hour trial to highlight security holes.
May 27, 2011 27 May'11
Government promotes wholesale rural broadband competition with £2bn framework deal

The government is inviting bids from telecoms firms to create competition in wholesale superfast broadband services in rural and hard-to-reach areas of the country, with the incentive of winning contracts worth up to £2bn.
May 27, 2011 27 May'11
UK government announces next wave of rural broadband deployment

Consumers and businesses in Wiltshire, Norfolk, Devon and Somerset are to benefit from the next phase of the UK government's drive to roll out superfast broadband connections to rural areas.
May 27, 2011 27 May'11
Mobile internet download speeds average just 1.5Mbps

On average, UK users achieve a mobile internet download speed of 1.5Mbps, compared with 6.2Mbps average fixed broadband download speeds.
May 20, 2011 20 May'11
MPs call for extending mobile broadband coverage to 98% of UK

MP and rural broadband campaigner Rory Stewart tells Computer Weekly why next-generation mobile should be extended to include an extra two million people in the UK.
May 16, 2011 16 May'11
Sony swamped by password reset requests as PlayStation Network restored

Sony has begun the phased restoration of its PlayStation Network - suspended after hackers accessed systems, exposing up to 100m Sony user records in the data breach - but the process is not running smoothly.
May 12, 2011 12 May'11
Government gets the smart metering ball rolling

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has put out a notice out to IT suppliers informing them to be ready to bid for work in its plan to introduce smart meters to UK homes, businesses and public sector organisations.
May 12, 2011 12 May'11
Government urges councils to accelerate superfast broadband roll-out

The government is calling on local authorities to accelerate broadband roll-out to help it deliver superfast broadband services to 90% of homes and business by 2015.
May 12, 2011 12 May'11
BT fourth quarter results show 9% profit growth to £495m

BT has increased its full-year dividend by 7% and reported market-beating fourth-quarter results, saying it expects to continue to grow profit and free cash flow.
May 12, 2011 12 May'11
Cisco warns quarter results will fall below analysts' expectations

Technology industry bellwether Cisco Systems has warned that company profit and sales in the current quarter may miss analysts' estimates.
May 10, 2011 10 May'11
TalkTalk broadband offers centralised web filtering

TalkTalk claims to be the first major UK internet service provider to allow broadband customers to block malicious or offensive material at server level.
May 05, 2011 05 May'11
Brocade develops ethernet fabric for cloud computing

Brocade has developed a fabric-based ethernet network, designed to tackle the challenges of networking in a cloud computing environment.
May 03, 2011 03 May'11
Cloud computing: How to avoid a network bottleneck

Cloud computing can put a huge load on a business's network. Organisations need to ensure network access from the user's browser on the local area network (LAN), to a cloud-based datacentre across on the public internet are fit for purpose.
April 26, 2011 26 Apr'11
Bradford in top 100 fast internet cities

The city of Bradford has made it into Akamai's top 100 list of fast internet cities, coming in at 99th.
April 18, 2011 18 Apr'11
Microsoft executive's departure sparks Apple cloud rumours

Reports that Apple has hired a senior Microsoft datacentre expert have sparked speculation of the company's plans to expand its cloud services portfolio....
April 15, 2011 15 Apr'11
Computer Weekly marks the end of an era as a new one begins

The first issue of Computer Weekly magazine in 1966 marked the start of an era in the UK IT industry - the first ever weekly technology publication. This is the story of how it all began.
April 14, 2011 14 Apr'11
Japan’s Fujitsu plans to take high-speed fibre broadband to rural UK

Fujitsu has announced plans to build a high-speed broadband network to reach five million homes in rural parts of the UK that will rival download speeds provided by BT.
April 13, 2011 13 Apr'11
Building an Olympics network

Preparation is clearly the key to Olympic success, as players on 27 July 2012 will see years of finely honed practice condensed into one gruelling fortnight
April 13, 2011 13 Apr'11
Cisco flips on video camera business in company shake-up

Cisco Systems has announced that it is to close down its Flip video camera business, confirming that its consumer division is a top target in the planned...
April 11, 2011 11 Apr'11
Securing the cloud is much like securing the enterprise, says industry analyst

Security is widely cited as the single biggest reason for not embracing cloud computing, but security is really made up of several aspects says Quocirca.
April 11, 2011 11 Apr'11
Manageability issues impede adoption of virtualisation

Virtual infrastructure management challenges are hindering the adoption of virtualisation within businesses, according to research.
April 07, 2011 07 Apr'11
Cisco investors seek to axe consumer unit in company shake-up

Investors have called for Cisco Systems to axe its low-margin consumer division after chief executive John Chambers announced plans for a company shake-up.
April 06, 2011 06 Apr'11
BT accused of obfuscation over infrastructure prices

BT has been accused of clouding the issues in its reaction to an ISPs' letter to communications minister Ed Vaizey threatening to boycott pilot rural broadband projects over BT's prices for third-party access to its physical infrastructure.
April 06, 2011 06 Apr'11
Cisco boss plans company shake-up

Cisco Systems' chief executive of 16 years, John Chambers, has announced plans for a company shake-up in the face declining investor confidence.
April 05, 2011 05 Apr'11
University of Nottingham saves £60k a year through VoIP migration

The University of Nottingham is saving up to £60,000 a year after moving to a voice over IP (VoIP) system.
April 05, 2011 05 Apr'11
BT defends pole and duct pricing as industry criticism spreads

BT has defended itself against criticism of its proposed pricing for access to its poles and ducts, despite further industry support for the concerns raised by a number of its rivals this week.
April 05, 2011 05 Apr'11
Broadband boycott threat comes as no surprise

It can hardly have surprised communications minister Ed Vaizey (pictured) and BT CEO Ian Livingston that would-be competitors to BT would find the terms, conditions – and prices – of access to BT's poles, ducts and other infrastructure unacceptable.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
Telecoms firms threaten BDUK boycott over BT terms and conditions

The government's £830m plan to provide high-speed broadband access in rural areas may be on the rocks following a letter to communications minister Ed Vaizey from network operators.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
The fundamentals of preparing for desktop virtualisation

Virtual desktop infrastructure allows IT departments to break free from the cost of PC renewal cycles and simplify desktop support.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
How West Nottinghamshire College tamed Microsoft Active Directory for desktop virtualisation

The configuration of an organisation's Microsoft Active Directory domain services can be a challenge when deploying virtualisation software.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
West Nottinghamshire College halves IT spend through 2X Software's desktop virtualisation

West Nottinghamshire College has halved IT costs and saved 80 man hours a week through desktop virtualisation.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
Cloud contracts stalled by existing support/maintenance

A survey of 200 IT directors within large enterprise organisations has found that IT directors are worried about the potential management headaches of cloud computing.
April 04, 2011 04 Apr'11
Vodafone sells SFR to Vivendi for £6.8bn cash

Vodafone has announced it will sell its entire 44% shareholding in French mobile network SFR to Vivendi for £6.8bn in cash.
April 01, 2011 01 Apr'11
Ofcom budget cuts reduce costs to stakeholders

Communications regulator Ofcom is to slash 170 jobs as it seeks to cut its budget from almost £150m to £116m for 2011/12.
April 01, 2011 01 Apr'11
Walsall council embarks on public sector network project

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council has embarked on a project to connect all its assets with its own PSN
April 01, 2011 01 Apr'11
TfL halts plans for tube mobile network in time for the Olympic games

Transport for London (TfL) has shelved plans to install a mobile network on London's underground in time for the Olympic games in 2012.
March 31, 2011 31 Mar'11
Flaws in NASA network put operations and personnel at risk, report reveals

Computer servers on NASA's agency-wide mission network have high-risk vulnerabilities that can be exploited from the internet, a US government report has revealed.
March 31, 2011 31 Mar'11
The mobile spectrum auction is just part of the job

The spectre of another expensive auction of radio frequencies, this time for so-called 4G or LTE mobile broadband licences, has raised ...
March 31, 2011 31 Mar'11
Ofcom to cut Openreach prices up to 9% in real terms

Ofcom proposes to impose real cuts of up to 9% on the wholesale price of a range of BT Openreach's products.
March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11
Vaizey wins cautious praise on net neutrality

The government won cautious praise for its approach to net neutrality, otherwise known as the open internet, at a public all-party parliamentary committee debate on Tuesday.
March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11
Government IT strategy 'lacks local council focus’

Jos Creese, president of Socitm, has welcomed the government's new IT strategy, but says it lacks details on the involvement of local government.
March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11
All for one fibre, one fibre for all, says ECTA

Countries should separate the provision of new fibre networks from their operation, executives from telcos struggling to enter new national markets told the European Commission and major banks on Tuesday.
March 30, 2011 30 Mar'11
Network failures cause BBC website outage

A network problem caused all BBC online news websites to suffer a complete outage for an hour.
March 29, 2011 29 Mar'11
Broadband may be lifeline for Cornwall country pub

A Cornish hotel owner hopes fibre-based broadband will put his pub on the world tourism map.
March 28, 2011 28 Mar'11
Public network could cut 6.4% government IT costs, says Cisco survey

Government IT figures believe the government could cut 6.4% of its £16.5bn annual spending on information and communications technology (ICT) without affecting front-line services, says network equipment maker Cisco.
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
Cumbria issues £121m tender for broadband and managed IT contracts

Cumbria County Council has issued a tender for two projects worth £121m over five years
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
CMA slams Ofcom's 4G auction process; Ofcom responds

Ofcom's proposed auction of so-called 4G spectrum ignores crucial consumer interests in price, quality of service (QoS), timescale and coverage in favour of revenue...
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
UK police cyber operations gear up ahead of new funding

The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit is expanding operations in anticipation of new funding over the next four years.
March 25, 2011 25 Mar'11
Rutland seeks owner-operator for next-gen broadband network

Rutland, the UK's smallest county, is seeking a broadband network operator to supply its 15,000 premises with next generation broadband access
March 24, 2011 24 Mar'11
Include community broadband networks, Vaizey urges counties

Counties anxious to roll out broadband networks may be able to get matched funding from government via a new process by the end of the year.
March 24, 2011 24 Mar'11
Programmable networks the goal as industry giants hook up

Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, Yahoo and 17 other companies are to work together to develop a programmable network management protocol they call Software-Defined Networking through a new body, the Open Networking Foundation
March 22, 2011 22 Mar'11
Digital Economy Act review starts tomorrow

The London High Court will tomorrow start its judicial review of the copyright provisions of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) called for by BT and TalkTalk, the UK's largest internet service providers.
March 22, 2011 22 Mar'11
Ofcom proposes cap to amount of spectrum for 4G licensees

Ofcom has released long-awaited proposals for the 2012 auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz frequencies, the so-called 4G or LTE spectrum, to create more capacity on the UK's mobile networks and possibly extend high-speed mobile broadband to more rural ...
March 16, 2011 16 Mar'11
Internet must be developed on democratic principles, says Alun Michael

The development of the internet should be based on "people-centric" principles, says MP Alun Michael, who represents the UK at the UN's Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
March 16, 2011 16 Mar'11
Ofcom grants Gigaclear powers to build 1Gbps broadband network

Businesses and residents of the Thames valley may soon have access to a 1Gbps broadband network, following Ofcom's decision to grant fibre provider Gigaclear powers to dig up roads and other public assets to lay fibre.
March 16, 2011 16 Mar'11
One million homes get 100Mbps broadband, says Virgin

A million homes can now get 100Mbps broadband via Virgin Media's cable network, the company said on Wednesday.
March 11, 2011 11 Mar'11
Rural broadband fund triggers technology tussle

News that the government may be giving serious thought to a "last mile first" approach when it comes to spending public money on broadband projects emerged this week to a cautious response from industry.
March 10, 2011 10 Mar'11
Rural communities to get broadband with £20m BDUK funding

Britain's hill farmers may be among the first to get high-speed broadband following the government decision to provide £20m for a new rural community broadband...
March 10, 2011 10 Mar'11
Scotland seeks OK for £75m broadband network - for TV distribution

Scotland may soon get a £75m digital network to help boost video-on-demand distribution of Scottish television material.
March 09, 2011 09 Mar'11
Glasgow wins IBM smarter city grant

Glasgow has become the first city in the UK to win an IBM smarter cities grant, worth £250,000.
March 08, 2011 08 Mar'11
Government to monitor companies supporting critical national infrastructure

The government is to increase its commitment to further contact with operators of the UK's critical national infrastructure (CNI).
March 08, 2011 08 Mar'11
Lancashire issues £40m broadband tender

Lancashire County Council has issued a request for between three and five tenders to provide superfast broadband to the county within three years at a cost of £20m to £40m.
March 08, 2011 08 Mar'11
UK 'dangerously reliant' on GPS sat nav

The UK could be dangerously dependent on satellite radio navigation systems such as GPS, warns the Royal Academy of Engineering.
March 08, 2011 08 Mar'11
Kroes seeks comms bosses' ideas for high-speed broadband funds

Europe's Digital Agenda boss Nellie Kroes invited CEOs from communications equipment manufacturers, network operators and content providers to suggest new ways to finance her broadband goals.
March 07, 2011 07 Mar'11
Libya internet blackout continues

Libya's internet service is still down following a weekend of blackouts, according to Google's Transparency Report.
March 04, 2011 04 Mar'11
South Korean websites come under cyber attack

Hackers have attacked around 40 South Korean government and private websites.
March 04, 2011 04 Mar'11
The future of networking?

In the past two months, three of the biggest IT networking suppliers have brought intriguing options to market for processing and transporting information
March 03, 2011 03 Mar'11
What lessons can be learned from the Vodafone UK network outage?

After a burglary caused a Vodafone UK network outage, Jenny Williams assesses the business impact of mobile infrastructure
March 02, 2011 02 Mar'11
Welsh Assembly sets ambitious broadband targets for national network

The Welsh Assembly is using ambitious European targets in a tender for next-generation broadband access in the principality.
February 28, 2011 28 Feb'11
Mllions affected as Vodafone UK stalls

As many as 3.2 million Vodafone users may have been unable to make calls due to a UK-wide network outage.
February 25, 2011 25 Feb'11
Regional development agency delays £150,000 community broadband project

A regional development agency has withdrawn at least £150,000 in funding for a community broadband project and is refusing to disclose the reasons for the delay, citing commercial confidentiality.
February 25, 2011 25 Feb'11
Update: London Stock Exchange resolves technical problems

The London Stock Exchange has fixed the technical glitch it has been experiencing with market data
February 25, 2011 25 Feb'11
Intel rolls out high speed cable 'Thunderbolt'

Intel has rolled out a high-speed PC connection technology named Thunderbolt, in collaboration with Apple.
February 24, 2011 24 Feb'11
Cost opacity puts off unified comms uptake

More than nine out of 10 communications managers want a unified communications infrastructure, but most worry about being able to identify and manage the...
February 21, 2011 21 Feb'11
Northern Ireland to get more fibre broadband

BT says it will speed up the provision of fibre to the cabinet in Northern Ireland, boosting the number of lines connected from 54% to 88%.