Vodafone UK is proclaiming the promise of 5G, with over 50% of UK adults agreeing that it could significantly impact their daily lives. But the telecom giant is also sparking conversation around its proposed merger with Three, a move believed to accelerate the UK’s digital future. The benefits of this merger extend to healthcare, utilities, and railways, showing strong potential to enhance these sectors through technologies enabled by 5G connectivity. However, this ambitious union faces challenges, including the controversial issue of spectrum distribution, crucial for 5G delivery. Yet, in the ever-evolving telecom landscape, it might be the willingness to navigate these challenges that determines their success.
Ofcom delves into an investigation concerning BT’s recent 999 emergency call service outage. BT’s back-up system reportedly failed in providing efficient location data, intensifying the emergency identification process. This significant service disruption stirred discussions in Parliament, with technology minister Lord Camrose emphasizing the company’s delayed communication to the government about the issue. While BT extended an apology planned a full internal investigation, Ofcom’s survey will spotlight possible breaches of regulatory norms mandating constant network access to emergency organizations. The potential consequences are yet unclear.
Ofcom discusses AI’s potential benefits and risks, examining its use in content and telecom industries and addressing concerns about malicious usage. The regulator works with companies to assess safety risks, implement mitigation strategies, and enhance transparency to protect users and promote responsible AI integration.
UK government invests £7 million in bridging rural connectivity gaps, trialing satellite, fixed wireless access, and fixed-line broadband solutions. Aimed at supporting agriculture and rural tourism, this investment addresses ongoing disparities in broadband speed and availability between urban and rural areas.
Broadvoice recognized as a top UCaaS provider by TrustRadius In its Winter 2023 “Best of” awards, TrustRadius named Broadvoice, a provider of hosted voice and unified communications as a service (UCaaS), as one of the top three products for Best Relationship, Best Value for Price and Best Feature Set in the UCaaS category. The awards are based on key data and unbiased user ratings from July 1 to December 31, 2022. The b-hive unified communications technology from Broadvoice offers virtual contact centers, cloud PBX, UC, collaboration tools and the next-generation b-hive Communicator for employees to use in streamlining communications and collaboration capabilities. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/237r7ms2 Zoho announces their Trident UC platform Trident, a new platform for collaboration, productivity and communication experiences, has been unveiled by Zoho Corporation. Trident provides users with a single platform and lessens tool ambiguity by bringing together mail, messaging, audio/video conversations, calendar, tasks, and more…
As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, prepares revised regulations that will hold telecom companies to a higher standard, the UK operator BT is stepping up its efforts to fight scammers. In order to achieve this goal, Hiya Protect, a network-level monitoring system that can detect and reject suspicious calls, will be used by the company. This technology will be available to both fixed-line and mobile EE subscribers. According to a study done by the Hiya team, 29 percent of all phone calls in the UK are spam. 50 percent of those calls are fraudulent, making the UK the most fraudulent country in Europe. This demonstrates the scope of the problem, which affects a vast number of people in the UK. Naturally, Ofcom is aware of this problem. According to calculations made by the telco regulator, a quarter of UK adults dealt with at least one instance of suspicious…
Vodafone and CK Hutchison are in negotiations to merge their companies in the United Kingdom in order to establish a market-leading mobile network that may advance the roll-out of 5G services and boost Internet accessibility. Combining Vodafone UK with Hutchison’s Three, Britain’s third and fourth largest networks, would result in a company with around 27 million mobile subscribers. Vodafone stated that CK Hutchison would hold 49% of the business and Vodafone would own 51%, an arrangement that would be accomplished by altering debt ownership rather than by trading cash. Reports of a possible partnership between the two companies surfaced earlier this year. The global corporation CK Hutchison stated that no legally binding agreement for such a merger has been entered into, but the proposed acquisition is expected to require that both businesses would integrate their UK companies. CK Hutchison further said that there is no guarantee that any…
Following a period of public debate, the UK government has decided on new security requirements for telecom providers. It now intends to introduce the Electronic Communications (Security) Measures Regulations 2022 and an accompanying Telecommunications Security Code of Practice to Parliament before the regulations take effect. The new rules seek to better secure UK telecoms networks from cyberattacks. Once in effect, telecoms businesses will be expected to follow tight standards around network failure or the theft of sensitive data, with the regulatory agency Ofcom receiving additional powers to verify providers are adopting suitable and proportional security measures. The government declared that the new telecommunications security legislation, designed in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will be among the toughest in the world and will provide the UK with much stronger measures. They will strengthen the UK’s cyber resilience by incorporating strong security practices into providers’ long-term investment…
Ofcom has a plan for phone boxes Under new guidelines published by the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, stronger security for public call boxes went into effect. The new guidelines update from Ofcom’s aims to guarantee that strategically located phone boxes are not removed and that they are modified to provide extra services. As a result, phone boxes will be protected against removal if they are still needed by a local community. Millions of UK residents continue to rely on older technologies such as landlines and payphones for connectivity. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mryanv67 TIM to cut 1,200 jobs to minimize costs TIM has reportedly secured an agreement with labor unions that will allow the company to cut up to 1,200 positions, allowing TIM to save significantly on domestic personnel expenses. Cuts will be implemented through a voluntary early retirement program, which will be the first step in the Italian incumbent’s larger…
As sanctions bite, Russia’s MTS begins to discount cell phones MTS, Russia’s largest operator, reported a 76.2 % year-on-year drop in Q1 net profit, blaming the results largely on rising interest rates caused by Western sanctions. Russia boosted local interest rates to 20% in the early days of the conflict before lowering them twice, leaving rates around 14% today. MTS has resorted to selling used and discounted smartphones, and is planning to sell its tower assets, in keeping with the current trend of monetizing passive assets located throughout Europe and beyond. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/c65t43kb Verizon warns of record rise in ransomware According to Verizon Business, the number of ransomware attacks on enterprises has increased by 13% year-on-year, resulting in a rise exceeding that of the previous five years combined. Ransomware was involved in some manner in one-quarter of the cases investigated, with desktop-sharing software and email being the two…