The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has denied Elon Musk’s Starlink an $886 million subsidy from the Universal Service Fund that was intended to expand broadband service in rural areas. The rejected award, submitted under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program, was turned down after the FCC concluded that Starlink had not demonstrated it could … Read more

Vodafone has become the UK’s largest provider of full-fibre broadband. Full-fibre broadband delivers speeds up to 25 times faster than traditional copper connections and is around five times more reliable. Vodafone’s full-fibre service is now available to over eight million premises in the UK, surpassing availability from TalkTalk, Sky, BT and Virgin Media. Broadband provider … Read more

China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom has urged the British government to decide independently on whether to permit Huawei equipment in 5G networks, rather than being swayed by allied countries. Beijing’s envoy in London, Liu Xiaoming, appealed for the UK to make its assessment based on national interests and long-term development needs, rather than simply … Read more

BT has introduced Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD), a new technology designed to transform how live content is delivered over the internet. Traditional unicast streaming creates a separate stream for each viewer. MAUD, by contrast, uses multicast to combine those individual streams into a shared feed that can be distributed to many viewers at once. MAUD … Read more

British telecoms regulator Ofcom has completed its 5G spectrum auction after a two-month delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for January, the auction was postponed amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. Industry leaders had urged Ofcom not to delay further, stressing that the timely release of spectrum is central to expanding mobile networks … Read more

Aduna — a joint venture involving Ericsson and major US carriers AT&T, T‑Mobile, and Verizon — has announced plans to make the first standardized network APIs for Number Verification and SIM Swap available across the United States by 2025. This collaboration aims to unify carrier-grade security capabilities to reduce fraud, simplify authentication for businesses and … Read more

The promise of 5G—with a seemingly endless list of potential use cases—has been discussed by service providers for years. As a major evolution beyond 4G, 5G brings a more dramatic leap in capability than the transition from earlier LTE generations. Over the next 12–18 months, standalone 5G deployments will expand, allowing operators to begin realizing … Read more

Rising living costs are forcing consumers to rethink their spending priorities, and telecoms companies that fail to respond are now facing the biggest threat to their business, according to EY’s annual report, Top 10 risks in telecommunications 2023. With household budgets squeezed, EY’s research finds 60% of households are worried about rising broadband subscription prices … Read more

BT has signed a Distribution Partner Agreement with OneWeb, under which the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite operator will provide connectivity services across the BT Group. This agreement formalizes and expands on a Memorandum of Understanding the two companies announced in July, in which OneWeb committed to helping BT address remaining digital divides across the … Read more

Commercial 5G networks are expected to be widely deployed by the start of the next decade, according to a new report from the GSMA. Released around Mobile World Congress, the report—titled “The 5G Era: Age of Boundless Connectivity and Intelligent Automation”—draws on a comprehensive survey of 750 operator CEOs and other industry stakeholders. It outlines … Read more