News & AnalysisRSS

Dish says Softbank poses national security threat

Dish Network has accused Softbank, of posing a threat to US national security.

US satellite TV player has stirred controversy in its bid to acquire mobile operator Sprint by accusing rival bidder, Japanese operator Softbank, of posing a threat to US national security.

UK wholesale fibre start up gets £50m injection

Hyperoptic has received an equity investment of £50m from currency speculator billionaire George Soros

UK start up wholesale fibre provider Hyperoptic has received an equity investment of £50m from currency speculator billionaire George Soros. The firm said the funding will enable it to meet its plans to reach more than 500,000 UK homes with its 1Gbps fibre broadband within the next five years. The investment is led by Quantum Strategic Partners, Soros’ private investment vehicle.

AT&T to gain over $730m annually from monthly admin fee

AT&T has imposed a $0.61 monthly fee on its postpaid users, standing to gain around $732m in extra revenue as a result

US operator AT&T has imposed a $0.61 monthly fee on its postpaid users, standing to gain around $732m in extra revenue as a result. The Mobility Administrative Fee was introduced this month.

Operators charge 15 times more per GB in Germany than Finland

Mobile operators are charging over three times more per gigabyte in Germany than in the UK, and up to 15 times more than in some smaller EU member states such as Finland

Mobile operators are charging over three times more per gigabyte in Germany than in the UK, and up to 15 times more than in some smaller EU member states such as Finland, research published today has revealed.

Virgin Media sells backhaul to Sky in £49m deal

BSkyB has signed a £49m backhaul network capacity deal with Virgin Media Business

UK fixed line operator BSkyB has signed a £49m backhaul network capacity deal with wholesale provider Virgin Media Business. Under the terms of the contract, Virgin Media Business’ network will connect around a third of Sky’s unbundled local exchanges with Sky’s own wholly owned nationwide broadband network.

Ericsson to close down telecom cable business

Ericsson is to close down its telecom cables operation

Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson has announced it will close down its telecom cable manufacturing business. The news follows the sale of its power cable operation to Danish cable manufacturer NKT Cables for SEK250m ($38.4m) earlier this month.

BitTorrent traffic dropping sharply in US, as VOD wins favour

BitTorrent usage is dropping in the US as consumer switch to paid services, report claims

The amount of traffic generated in the US by BitTorrent, the file sharing internet protocol , has dropped significantly, according to a report from policy control company Sandvine.

Over the past six months BitTorrent accounted for 9.2 per cent of peak-period traffic, down from 11.3 per cent in 2012 and 17.2 per cent in 2011, the report said. Sandvine attributes the drop in the usage of the file sharing protocol to the increasing availability of subscriber-based, paid-for, on-demand content from applications such as Netflix. Indeed, online video service Netflix maintained a 29 per cent peak-period traffic share in the US, ahead of YouTube, which climbs to 15.4 per cent compared to 13.8 per cent in 2012.

EC’s super-fast broadband estimates challenged

Point Topic estimates the total cost at €80bn

Providing super-fast broadband to the whole of the European Union could be much less expensive than previously thought, according to UK research firm Point Topic, which estimates that the whole economic area could be served for €80bn – less than a third of the €270bn estimated by the European Commission in its Digital Agenda.

Vodafone sees 90 per cent drop in full year profit

Vodafone has seen a 90 per cent year on year drop in profit for the full year 2013

Operator group Vodafone has seen a 90 per cent year on year drop in profit for the full year ended March 2013. The operator posted a profit of just £673m, down from £7bn a year earlier, hit hard by a £7.7bn impairment charge in Italy and Spain over the course of the year.

Jolla unveils first device claims “magic” software

The first Jolla

Finnish start up Jolla Mobile has unveiled its first device, due for commercial launch later this year. The touch screen slab doesn’t appear to have a name but its creators make much of the smart cases, dubbed the Other Half, which will affect the phones UI when attached, presumably via NFC.

Thai operators apply 15 per cent price cut

Thailand’s mobile operators have agreed to lower their 3G tariff plans by between 15 to 20 per cent

Thailand’s mobile operators have agreed to lower their 3G tariff plans by between 15 to 20 per cent, as instructed by national telecoms regulator the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

MoCA shipments ‘slowly reaching a boil’

coax line

Multimedia over coax (MoCA) helped drive the global home networking device market to $4.9bn in the second half of 2012, up five per cent on a sequential basis, according to US firm Infonetics Research.

Yahoo bets farm on Tumblr acquisition

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's CEO

Internet firm Yahoo on Monday moved to acquire blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1bn in cash. In some ways this is a last ditch attempt to keep Yahoo relevant and CEO Marissa Meyer made a promise during the announcement “not to screw it up.”

Telekom Austria implements M2M platform

Telekom Austria has implemented an M2M platform as it looks to offer M2M services internationally

Operator group Telekom Austria is stepping up its M2M service offering internationally with a platform supplied by software provider and system integrator Comarch.

Tunisian operators deploy submarine cable connecting Europe

Orange Tunisie and Tunisiana will deploy submarine cable connecting Tunisia to Europe

Two of Tunisia’s mobile operators have signed a deal with with backbone operator and cloud services provider Interoute for the deployment of a submarine cable connecting Tunisia to Europe.