The European arm of Chinese carrier China Telecom will name the host of its forthcoming UK MVNO play before September, managing director Ou Yan told Telecoms.com. China Telecom Europe will be launching a UK MVNO before the end of Q112, targeting the half a million Chinese living in Britain with a SIM-only, Chinese content offering.
UK consumers are enjoying a boost in their average broadband speeds, but the gap between actual and advertised speeds has also increased, according to new findings from communications regulator Ofcom.
An advisory group is calling on the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom to ensure that the LTE spectrum auction scheduled for 2013 deals with coverage ‘not-spots’ across the country. The Communications Consumer Panel is asking Ofcom to enforce coverage obligations on the operators taking part in next year’s LTE spectrum auction for each of the four UK nations; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The suggestion is that money be retained from the spectrum auction and a reverse auction run in order to provide upgraded rural coverage.
UK regular Ofcom has told incumbent BT that it must reduce the wholesale prices it charges ISPs for delivering broadband services to primarily rural areas. The regulator said that the price reduction of 12 per cent below inflation will make it more affordable for ISPs to offer service to remote areas. It also said that it expects the move to promote competition between ISPs, leading to cheaper prices to consumers. It could also lead to faster speeds, as ISP’s will be able to purchase more capacity from BT Wholesale without increasing costs.
Startup ISP Hyperoptic has announced that it will be launching a 1Gbps fibre optic service in the UK in September. The service is a full fibre-to-the-premises offering and will offer symmetrical 1Gbps speeds for download and upload.
The UK’s public service broadcasting organisation, the BBC, has announced that it is to create an independent mobile coverage map of the UK, working in partnership with network analyst firm Epitiro. The broadcaster has developed an Android app in conjunction with Epitiro that, when downloaded by consumers, will feedback data on the availability and strength of signal at different locations throughout the UK.
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Rupert Murdoch’s media powerhouse, News Corporation, has withdrawn its offer for UK broadcaster BSkyB, amid the phone hacking scandal that has rocked UK politics and the media.
UK communications regulator Ofcom has launched an interactive map of the country’s fixed broadband landscape, using data provided by communications providers and giving a range of information including the availability of superfast broadband and average broadband take-up.
Backhaul specialist MLL Telecom is pitching a managed service offering for UK LTE networks, designed to help operators cope with the incremental data increases they will face one LTE networks are rolled out.
Although 3D TV has major support from leading UK service providers like Sky and Virgin, it is not expected to be an instant success. Statistics released this week forecast that less than half of the 11 million 3D TV-ready homes in the UK by 2016 will be active users of the technology.
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