Advanced Television

Telco

Openreach reveals digital switch next steps

UK digital network infrastructure provider Openreach has revealed the next steps in its ongoing programme to help upgrade the old analogue phone network to a new digital all-IP world. In more than a hundred locations across the UK, covering around 1.2 million premises, Openreach is planning to stop selling its legacy analogue services and instead […]

May 13, 2020By Colin Mann

Report: UK nets stand firm during pandemic

Average UK broadband speeds largely held up during the Covid-19 lockdown – despite rising demand from home working, online lessons and TV streaming. Ofcom’s Home Broadband Performance Report reveals how broadband speeds changed before and after the lockdown measures came in – when there was a surge in broadband use. Download and upload speeds fell […]

May 13, 2020

Vodafone Spain extends 5G to six more cities

Vodafone Spain continues deploying 5G throughout Spain with the addition of six more cities to a total of 21 Spanish municipalities. The six new added cities are Benidorm, Badajoz, Alicante, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca and Valladolid to be added to the existing Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Málaga, Zaragoza, Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastián, Coruña, Vigo, Gijón, […]

May 13, 2020From David Del Valle in Madrid

Ericsson CEO: “5G greatest open innovation platform”

Speaking at the launch of a new online event series, Ericsson President and CEO, Börje Ekholm, has highlighted the importance of connectivity during times of crisis and the opportunity there is to rethink the role of networks in the future, and suggested that 5G will be “the greatest open innovation platform ever”. Speaking from his […]

May 11, 2020By Colin Mann

Liberty Global, Telefónica to merge UK operations

As recently rumoured, and following confirmation that talks were taking place, Liberty Global and Telefónica are to merge their UK operations in a 50-50 joint venture that brings together Liberty’s multiplay operator Virgin Media and Telefónica’s O2, the country’s largest mobile platform. The pair say the combination creates a stronger fixed and mobile competitor in […]

May 7, 2020By Colin Mann

BT: £12bn full fibre investment

BT has announced what it describes as “the UK’s biggest communications infrastructure investment in a generation”. Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the telco’s Year End results, said that BT had risen to the challenge of the coronavirus crisis, keeping the nation and the NHS connected, standing by its customers and supporting the most vulnerable […]

May 7, 2020By Colin Mann

Slovenia, Croatia set for 10 Gbit/s networks

Broadband solutions provider Iskratel is to provide active and passive telecommunications equipment for the construction of an ultra-fast fibre-optic (XGS-PON and GPON) broadband network in 210 municipalities as part of the CEBF (Connecting Europe Broadband Fund) financed RUNE (Rural Network) project with its partners Rune Enia in Slovenia and Rune Crow in Croatia. As part […]

May 7, 2020

Perspective: Telefónica, Virgin Media tie-up is seismic shift

Following the news that Telefónica has confirmed the current discussions with Liberty Global regarding a potential integration of their respective UK telecommunications businesses, O2 UK and Virgin Media; Natasha Rybak, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Telefónica’s

May 5, 2020

Virgin Media, O2 merger talks confirmed

A filing made by Telefónica to the Spanish media regulator May 4th confirms that its O2 cellular operator in the UK is in formal talks with Liberty Global-backed Virgin Media. As is usual in these cases, the filing stresses there is no certainty of the talks leading to a successful outcome: “The process started between […]

May 4, 2020By Chris Forrester

Analyst: Virgin/O2 talks ‘bolt out of the blue’

Although raising the possibility of such a move nearly a year ago, Paolo Pescatore, TMT Analyst at PP Foresight, has nevertheless described the possible merger of Liberty Global’s UK multiplay operator Virgin Media with Telefónica’s O2 mobile telco in the UK as “a bolt out of the blue” and an intriguing move that is more […]

May 4, 2020By Colin Mann