Internet infrastructure

Understanding the metaverse

At this year’s South by Southwest in March, many events – not surprisingly – revolved around the metaverse. But what's happened since? Continue Reading

UK safety tech sector sees strong revenue and employment growth

Safety tech is now one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK tech industry, with jumps in revenue, investment and employment Continue Reading

Welsh rural areas, poorer people suffering from ‘sub-par, unreliable’ broadband

Report from Welsh parliament highlights ‘disappointment’ that so many in the country are unable to access superfast broadband Continue Reading

Operator and VC consortium makes £4.5bn UK fibre play with Virgin Media O2

Adding to existing infrastructure, Liberty Global, Telefónica and InfraVia Capital Partners form joint venture to construct and operate a wholesale fibre-to-the-home broadband network in the UK covering up to seven million premises Continue Reading

Fibre forges ahead but global fixed broadband shows varied growth in Q1 2022

Report from Point Topic finds fixed broadband subscriber numbers growing in 90% of covered territories, with FTTH accelerating. Continue Reading

Virgin Media O2 shows return to revenue growth and improved profitability

Merged company increases its fixed and mobile customer base with 8,000 fixed and 13,000 mobile contract net adds, leading to revenue and Ebitda improvements Continue Reading

BT sees challenging Q1 but beats the heat to ‘smash’ network development objectives

UK incumbent telco ends first quarter facing continued challenging enterprise market conditions offsetting growth in other segments, in particular strong growth of business with core fibre and 5G network assets Continue Reading

Netomnia, Truespeed advance UK altnets’ full-fibre march

Company claiming to be the UK’s fastest-growing wholesale fibre broadband operator expands reach across swathe of UK while Southwest England provider racks up 300 gigabit business customers Continue Reading

Gigabit Networks brings ‘futuristic’ broadband to Wolverhampton

Regional UK ISP adds to its growing reach across UK Midlands with 930Mpbs connectivity offer based on CityFibre infrastructure Continue Reading

Secret court asked to quash a decade of MI5 surveillance warrants following ‘systemic breaches’

The culture at MI5 was to ‘prioritise’ missions ‘over everything else’, including compliance with safeguards designed to protect the public, the UK’s most secret court heard yesterday Continue Reading

Eutelsat confirms OneWeb merger after ‘robust’ financial year

As it posts results showing growth in connectivity and mobile services, satellite operator inks agreement with joint venture satellite broadband provider to create what they claim will be a global connectivity leader Continue Reading

Ducktail infostealer targets Facebook Business users

Newly uncovered Ducktail operation targets individuals with access to Facebook Business service and tries to steal their accounts Continue Reading

UK fintech outperforms global sector

Investment in UK fintech continues to increase, outpacing a flat global sector, according to Innovate Finance Continue Reading

Drivers’ union calls for immediate dismissal of Uber executive

Uber’s continued employment of an executive directly involved in efforts to resist regulatory oversight puts the ride-hailing firm in breach of its 2018 licence conditions, says drivers’ union Continue Reading

Cost-of-living crisis drives UK consumers to rethink connectivity needs

EY survey reveals that despite general demands for hybrid and remote working, UK households are concerned by rising home technology costs amid the cost-of-living crisis Continue Reading

NTT reveals management plans for JUNO Trans-Pacific submarine cable system

In response to the growth of the global digital economy, Japanese technology companies collaborate to build and operate what they claim will be the largest submarine internet cable system between Japan and the US Continue Reading

CityFibre reveals full-fibre economic boost to Swindon, pilots virtualised network service delivery

Full-fibre platform provider trials Edgility Suite for rapid, cost-effective delivery of value-added services for business ISPs Continue Reading

Brits say social media must do more to block harmful content

UK citizens want social media companies to do more to prevent harmful content appearing on their platforms Continue Reading

Southern Cross announces world’s longest single-span submarine 400GbE net

Supplier of international capacity to carriers and ISPs in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region launches Southern Cross NEXT cable, aiming to pave the way for of 400GbE services across a 15,840km network Continue Reading

Ofcom publishes Online Safety Roadmap

The roadmap sets out how the online harms regulator will approach implementing the UK’s online safety regime, and tells tech firms to start preparing for the new rules Continue Reading

Extreme E, Vodafone Business deploy LPWAN to help tackle wildfires in Sardinia

Cloud-based IoT technology can operate in remote environments where the impacts of climate change have become the hardest to monitor Continue Reading

Weston-super-Mare projected to enjoy £144m economic boost from full-fibre roll-out

CityFibre releases research showing positive economic impacts of gigabit broadband roll-out to famous seaside resort Continue Reading

Virgin Media O2 Business switches on 5G-connected hospital

Business division of UK cable provider announces switch-on of what it calls UK’s first 5G-connected hospital Continue Reading

Cato Networks opens Copenhagen point of presence

Cato opens PoP in Danish capital to bolster resiliency and extend converged security and networking capabilities across Nordic region Continue Reading

MPs call for ban on Chinese surveillance camera technology

Nearly 70 MPs have called on the government to ban Chinese camera technology that is widely used by UK government agencies despite links to human rights abuses in China Continue Reading

UK altnets accelerate as fibre forges path to be fixed broadband standard

Research shows how direct fibre connections are lighting up the world of broadband, rapidly deposing copper-based legacy DSL networks Continue Reading

Assange appeals against Priti Patel’s extradition order

WikiLeaks founder is expected to raise concerns over the political nature of his prosecution, the likelihood of him receiving a fair trial, and the risk of a coercive plea bargain Continue Reading

Telstra taps Ericsson, Ciena to quadruple optical network service capacity

Leading Australian operator forges partnership with leading comms tech providers to make enhancements to next-generation optical network to increase the service capacity of optical network to 400 Gbps Ethernet Continue Reading

Brits battered by broadband outages in past year cost UK economy £1.3bn

Almost 11 million UK consumers experienced broadband outages of three or more hours over the past 12 months, representing almost two days offline Continue Reading

Spy agencies need ‘independent authorisation’ to access telecoms data, say judges

The High Court has ruled that UK intelligence agencies should seek independent authorisation before accessing phone and internet records during criminal investigations Continue Reading

Digital Poverty Alliance unveils evidence review

Evidence review into the state of digital poverty in the UK sets out policy principles and recommendations, which will be used as the basis for a national action plan to eliminate the issue Continue Reading

Hyperoptic aims to address cost of living crisis with Fair Fibre Framework

UK broadband provider announces affordability scheme that it says is part of a duty of care to protect and support customers and aid those struggling with increased financial pressures Continue Reading

CityFibre, Toob push the envelope further in UK gigabit broadband

Fibre-to-the premises provider launches full-fibre broadband for small to medium businesses in south of England, while independent full-fibre platform racks up 360km of infrastructure beneath the streets of Inverness  Continue Reading

Ukraine cyber agency enlists Radware to protect government networks

Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection is using Radware cloud DDoS protection and web application firewall services to protect the government from persistent Russian attacks Continue Reading

Non-European tech giants could be subject to EU-backed anti-greenwashing directive

EU-backed push to tighten up the sustainability reporting processes for companies that do business in Europe gathers pace Continue Reading

Germany – let’s stop debating data retention and start finding solutions

Germany has the opportunity to set the democratic precedent for ending the collection and retention of everybody’s call details record and metadata in the EU. It is time find real and effective solutions to crime Continue Reading

Altnets advance fibre broadband in East England

Colchester and Norwich get the opportunity to obtain full-fibre gigabit broadband as leading ISP and cable provider promises ability to work from home and connect online better than ever before Continue Reading

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians take up free language app offer

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have started free language courses from app-maker Babbel Continue Reading

Organisations struggle to support IT in a hybrid work model

Study from digital employee experience tech firm finds 95% of professionals face disruptive IT issues that hinder productivity, with particular problems regarding remote workers Continue Reading

What the EU’s content-filtering rules could mean for UK tech

EU proposals to clamp down on child sexual abuse material will have a material impact on the UK’s technology sector Continue Reading

UK homes and businesses increasingly turn to altnets for connectivity

The UK Independent Network Sector report shows that the independent broadband sector has doubled in size over the previous year Continue Reading

Added fibre for Nokia optical network services in US

Global comms tech provider unveils range of optical networking services for US market, including premier of 100G fibre in the country Continue Reading

Grain expands fibre network as CityFibre hits gigabit roll-out accelerator

When it comes to UK fibre development, size certainly does not matter, as two full-fibre companies of very different sizes announce major expansion of their gigabit broadband footprints Continue Reading

The state of Australia’s national broadband network

Australia’s national broadband network promises to improve broadband connectivity across the country but has been plagued by pricing issues. Here’s a look at where it is today and what lies ahead Continue Reading

Nokia beefs up Microsoft partnership to enhance mission-critical industrial edge performance

Comms tech provider forges partnership with cloud provider to enhance the performance of critical use cases pairing 5G private wireless, offering enterprises more options to tap into Azure for their OT environments Continue Reading

UK fibre roll-out continues apace with majors, altnets

CityFibre, Connexin, MS3 Network and Air Broadband announce further digital infrastructure investment, taking full-fibre gigabit connectivity to Buckinghamshire and North and East Yorkshire Continue Reading

FTTP coverage grows across UK

Latest bi-monthly update on superfast and ultrafast broadband deployments in the UK shows that as of April 2022, despite acceleration in overall full-fibre roll-out, take up of fibre-to-the-premises is still sluggish Continue Reading

More than 5,000 UK public buildings plugged into high-speed broadband

Some 1,200 schools, 340 libraries and 50 hospitals across UK now connected to gigabit speed broadband as Project Gigabit contracts worth more than £500m open for bids to upgrade up to 380,000 rural premises Continue Reading

BT beefs up broadband speeds for small businesses on copper lines

Telco targets small firms with technology claimed to be able to double download speeds and make upload speeds 10 times faster, on average, on slower copper broadband connections, as well as a low-frills fibre package Continue Reading

CW Nordics: How the Estonian government created a digital assistant to support citizens

As Estonia finalises the initial version of its government services digital assistant for launch, the man heading the project describes the birth of Bürokratt and beyond. Also read about Helsinki's role in a pan-EU project to introduce drone technology into emergency medical services. Continue Reading

Amdocs acquires MYCOM OSI to monetise next-generation 5G intelligent services

Acquisition of UK SaaS-based cloud network and service assurance company designed to expand comms software and services provider’s network service assurance and monetisation offering Continue Reading

JPMorgan’s UK digital retail bank reaches half-million customer mark

Chase Bank in the UK has already reached the half-million customer mark, but expects a profit to be some years away Continue Reading

Fintech unicorn Klarna to cut 10% of staff amid global shocks

Fintech unicorn to slash jobs in reaction to global economic shocks signalling challenges in the financial technology sector Continue Reading

Fibre claims more than three-fifths of global total fixed broadband subscribers

Study of 130 countries shows that by the end of Q4 2021, the number of global fixed broadband connections stood at more than a billion, with fixed broadband subscriber figures growing by 89% Continue Reading

Two-thirds of UK homes can now sign up to gigabit broadband

UK broadband roll-out gathers pace over the first three months of 2020, with ability to sign up for gigabit access open to 66% of households. Continue Reading

Relentless branch closures at Lloyds Bank continue as digital banking takes hold

UK bank branches are being shuttered in large numbers as consumers choose online banking, with Lloyds Banking Group announcing more closures Continue Reading

Openreach, CityFibre further full-fibre roll-out pace

As part of its regular programme of build updates, BT-owned broadband provision firm adds just under half a million homes and businesses, including both rural and urban areas, to its fibre network Continue Reading

Asia-Africa-Europe-1 consortium taps Infinera to upgrade submarine cable net

Owner of one of the largest sub-sea cable consortiums in the world makes technical choice in upgrading network to increase capacity and diverse resilience Continue Reading

CyberUK 22: Data-sharing service to protect public from scams

A new data-sharing service set up by the NCSC and industry partners will give ISPs access to real-time threat data that they can use to block fraudulent websites Continue Reading

GTT announces 400G upgrade of global IP network

New IP infrastructure designed to improve scalability and performance for enhanced internet services as IP traffic continues to increase, with initial phase of deployment expected to complete in the second half of 2023  Continue Reading

Avaya extends CCaaS reach on Microsoft Azure

Avaya and Microsoft expand partnership by pairing CCaaS with Azure to provide more options to increase productivity and customer engagement by accelerating digital transformation initiatives in the cloud Continue Reading

European retailers see embedded finance as a revenue builder

Retailers and e-commerce businesses are working with tech suppliers to embed financial products and services in their customer offerings Continue Reading

SES to enable GovSatCom satellite broadband with medium Earth orbit constellation

Luxembourg-based satellite provider SES delivers communications platform for governments and institutions will include medium Earth orbit satellite networks in project co-funded by leading European space agency Continue Reading

Verizon Business opens gates to international stadium, deploys SD-WAN at Bertelsmann

Business services division of US comms giant announces dedicated strategy aimed at stadiums and venues located in Europe and Asia Pacific, offering specific technologies designed to benefit their requirements Continue Reading

UK digital markets regulator to be given statutory powers

Digital Markets Unit will be put on statutory footing by UK government to ensure technology giants do not abuse market power, but announcement comes with no clear indication of when legislation will be introduced Continue Reading

IT infrastructure used to launch DDoS attack on Russian targets

Organisations could unwittingly be participating in hostile activity against the Russian government as compromised IT infrastructure is used without their knowledge to launch denial of service attacks Continue Reading

NHS email accounts hijacked for phishing campaign

Microsoft credentials targeted in phishing operation using hijacked NHSMail accounts Continue Reading

Community Fibre hits full-fibre benchmark as Giganet increases CityFibre commitment

Company claiming to be London’s fastest full-fibre broadband provider now taking orders from 500,000 London homes and 116,000 businesses, while former altnet and now the UK’s third-largest full-fibre provider extends partnership with key ISP Continue Reading

Tata Communications further strengthens IZO Internet WAN for global enterprises

Digital ecosystems enabler announced strengthened variants of its IZO Internet wide area network offering for global enterprises, in particular those looking at introducing cloud services to their existing IT and networking architecture Continue Reading

UScellular taps Qualcomm, Inseego to launch 5G mmWave fixed wireless in 10 US cities

US provider’s Home Internet+ service will use high-frequency 5G technology to provide high-speed internet to homes and businesses, with expansion from 10 to dozens of cities throughout 2022 Continue Reading

CityFibre study identifies £38bn economic benefits from full-fibre roll-out

Independent provider’s roll-out of full-fibre networks to 285 cities, towns and villages claimed to bring £22bn in productivity benefits, £4.8bn from a widened workforce and £1.2bn from flexible working, as well as creating 16,000 jobs Continue Reading

UK’s first full-sized autonomous bus takes the high road in Scotland

Live road testing is taking place for the next two weeks in what is claimed to be Europe’s most complex and ambitious public autonomous bus pilot, with passenger service due to go live in late summer Continue Reading

Interview: LF Energy on using open source to ready energy systems for phasing out fossil fuels

With the climate crisis putting increasing pressure on countries to decarbonise their economies, the founder of open source championing LF Energy talks about digitising power networks to be ready for renewables Continue Reading

‘Postcode lottery’ for UK gigabit broadband affordability

UK gigabit connectivity roll-out continues apace with total fibre-to-the premises coverage hitting 9.8 million at the end of February 2022, but pricing of basic tariffs and installation costs vary across the country Continue Reading

Orange opens Warsaw 5G Lab

Telco adds Polish facility to its roster of 5G Labs across Europe, allowing businesses across the country to have the opportunity to discover and experiment all the potential of next-generation networks Continue Reading

NexGen Networks deploys Equinix platform to scale business in Europe

Digital infrastructure company teams with fibre optic-based network systems provider to expand capacity in Europe in response to increasing demand for secure, low-latency interconnection Continue Reading

General Motors taps Cisco to accelerate in-car connectivity

Automotive giant becomes first manufacturer of its kind to deploy comms tech provider’s wireless backhaul technology for real-time, high-speed performance testing of pre-production vehicles Continue Reading

Scuderia AlphaTauri gets in gear with RapidAPI to improve performance

Challenger Formula 1 team deploys technology from growing US tech company to drive efficiencies and accelerate innovation from the factory to the track Continue Reading

Hispasat, GlobalSat team to offer free satellite broadband across Mexico

Broadening its Latin American connectivity footprint, Spanish satellite firm becomes part of Mexican federal agency programme to bring broadband to 500 rural communities Continue Reading

Zoom unveils platform innovations to elevate customer experience

Breakout videoconferencing leader announces conversation intelligence service and enhances online events offering, with aim to modernise how businesses engage with customers Continue Reading

Openreach accelerates UK full-fibre build

BT broadband provision division claims significant milestone in its full-fibre build programme, revealing it is more than a quarter of the way to reaching 25 million homes by December 2026 Continue Reading

Zhadnost DDoS botnet deployed against Finland

A coordinated DDoS attack hit two government ministries in Finland at the same time as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a virtual address to the Finnish parliament Continue Reading

Edge computing is critical enabler of transition to digital-first connected operations

Research reveals drivers of edge computing deployments, challenges and solutions for maintaining resilience, connectivity and supporting digital-first connected operations that are secure, reliable, resilient and sustainable Continue Reading

UK 5G nets ready for gaming explosion

Research reveals UK gamers are ready for a ‘post-console’ future, enabled by 5G connectivity, cloud and the metaverse Continue Reading

Consumerism in the metaverse

The Easter break and springtime gives everyone a chance to reflect, looking forward to holidays, spending time with the family and indulging in good food and retail therapy. Traditionally, with ... Continue Reading

PassiveLogic to get more active in smart building tech with $15m funding

Global alternative asset manager partners with provider of autonomous building systems and foundation technology for smart cities to bring the first general-purpose autonomous platform to the building market Continue Reading

The metaverse: A virtual reality check

The so-called metaverse is years away, but many businesses are keen to ride the industry hype in a bid to benefit from first-mover advantage Continue Reading

Netomnia, YouFibre secure further funding for fibre roll-out

As it works towards its target of a million premises passed in the next two years, growing altnet and ISP partner secure significant cash injection to support rapid scaling of multi-gigabit fibre broadband network Continue Reading

Disney combines digital, data and creativity to win advertising opportunities

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the executive vice-president for client and brand solutions at Disney Advertising Sales about how it is using data to subserve story-telling excellence. We delve into how rising energy costs negatively impacted the UK arm of Sungard Availability Services. And we look at the role of infrastructure as code in edge datacentres. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

UK altnet demands regulatory probe into broadband mid-contract price hikes

UK full-fibre broadband provider ‘startled’ to see majority of broadband customers are unaware of being locked into large-scale price rises Continue Reading

UK government backs trial of full-fibre broadband delivery through water pipes

Novel means to advance national gigabit connectivity roll-out sees Yorkshire test of full-fibre broadband deployment via drinking water mains Continue Reading

Amazon Project Kuiper gains orbit from Arianespace, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance

Cloud giant claims the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history with agreements to provide heavy-lift capacity for Project Kuiper to deploy most of its low Earth orbit constellation of 3,236 satellites Continue Reading

UK broadband providers keep up pace of full-fibre deployment

Alternative network provider brsk gets brisk with gigabit deployment in West Yorkshire, Lancashire and South Manchester regions, while CityFibre makes next stage of £43m buildout in key southern location Continue Reading

Competitive pricing, network monitoring drive SD-WAN selection

Research reveals competitive pricing and monitoring features rank highest in companies’ software-defined wide area networking SD-WAN supplier selection, while WAN optimisation and standardisation rank lowest Continue Reading

Hybrid work offers markedly positive improvements to culture

Study finds effects that hybrid working is having on business culture, with nearly half of study across the globe feel diversity and inclusion has improved during the pandemic. Continue Reading

Undersea cable market steams ahead in Africa and Middle East

Twofold capacity increase supports East Africa’s digital transformation as work continues on Equiano subsea cable linking Africa to Europe Continue Reading

McLaren Racing and Cisco extend partnership to drive innovation and hybrid experiences

Networking technology and services provider broadens role as official technology partner of leading Formula 1 racing team to provide network and collaboration infrastructure to enhance speed, scale and power across technology footprint Continue Reading

SES taps Thales to extend connectivity across Europe, Africa and Asia

What operator describes as ‘innovative, flexible’ software-defined geostationary satellite to replace NSS-12 at 57 degrees East to deliver service to hundreds of millions at the crossroads of three continents  Continue Reading

CityFibre broadens Zen reach across network

Deal between fast-growing infrastructure provider and leading ISP increases the latter’s exclusive commitments from an initial four cities to 285 cities, towns and villages across the UK Continue Reading

Babylon Health expands hybrid cloud infrastructure setup to include Google

Digital healthcare provider Babylon has opened up about the work it is doing with the Google Cloud team, as it grapples with trying to meet the infrastructure needs of its rapidly growing business Continue Reading