The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has reiterated concerns that BT continues to exert substantial influence over decisions affecting Openreach, the national broadband network. After years of complaints from rival providers that BT — Openreach’s previous owner — had favoured its own retail operations in strategic choices, Ofcom intervened last year to change the company’s structure. … Read more

The UK government has published its Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, outlining a strategy to deliver what it calls “world-class” connectivity across the country. The report begins by reviewing recent broadband progress. It notes the government met its target in December last year to provide superfast broadband—currently defined as above 24 Mbps—to 95 percent of UK … Read more

South Korea’s three leading telecom operators—SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+—have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to create and adopt a unified Network Open API standard. The agreement is designed to speed digital transformation across the industry, simplify integration for developers and businesses, and improve compatibility with international services. Historically, each operator provided its … Read more

The GSMA has found that mobile operators are struggling with spectrum costs, and those costs are holding back necessary investment to improve network performance. On average, the GSMA reports that consumers pay roughly 38% less for mobile services than they did ten years ago. That’s good news for household budgets, but it masks serious pressures … Read more

Amazon’s cloud service experienced a brief outage this week, interrupting service across parts of the U.S. East Coast and affecting several high-profile sites, including Netflix, Reddit and Foursquare. Some European customers also faced disruption after lightning struck a data center in Dublin, Ireland. The affected Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems were restored within about half … Read more

BlackBerry maker RIM has announced a partnership with Spanish telecom giant Telefónica to trial NFC mobile wallet technology across Europe. While NFC payments are already widely adopted in parts of Asia, uptake in Western markets has been slow as the industry navigates competing interests among device makers, carriers, banks and retailers. Recently, however, several major … Read more

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/cnythzl) The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom recently confirmed plans to free up the 700 MHz frequency band by 2022 so it can be used to carry data over long distances. Across Europe the band is currently used for television broadcasting and wireless microphones, while in regions such as the United States and parts … Read more

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/shakzu) The Trump administration plans to rename the generic “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) program to “Countering Islamic Extremism,” shifting the focus away from all forms of terrorism toward a specific ideological group, according to five people briefed on the matter. The announcement comes days after a white supremacist attack on a Muslim community … Read more

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Tomasz Wyszołmirski) Each year, roughly 80,000 to 100,000 people attend the Super Bowl, and the heavy use of mobile phones for socializing, travel planning, and “second screen” experiences puts significant strain on local networks. To prevent service disruptions for its customers during Super Bowl 50, Verizon announced a $70 million investment to upgrade … Read more

Analysts at Deloitte conclude it would be “near impossible” for the United States to catch up with China in 5G given a substantial investment gap and much faster deployment in China. Deloitte found that since 2015 China has outspent the United States by roughly $24 billion on 5G-related infrastructure and has more than ten times … Read more