Telecom news

• Advance warning of Brixton to Beckenham Junction rail closure in July

  08-03-2022 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  In late July, the railway between Brixton and Beckenham Junction will be closed for 9-days as Network Rail carry out a major upgrade of the tracks in the Penge railway tunnel.
  Over the 9-day closure Network Rail says that it will be delivering a £4.5 million investment to replace the tracks through the Penge tunnel to help improve train service reliability. During the works, they will be replacing 3,970 metres of track in total, using engineering trains, road-rail vehicles and other heavy
  
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• Orange/MasMovil: everyone expects the Spanish acquisition

  08-03-2022 17:50
  Assuming the deal is cleared by the competition authorities, expect more to follow
  
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• Take a tour of the Poppy Factory

  08-03-2022 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  For a century, there has been a factory that employs former military personnel making Remembrance Poppies, and they offer tours of the factory.
  They’ve run tours for some years, but there’s now a new visitor centre that shows off the history of the Poppy Factory and how it was set up after WW1 to give work to injured soldiers.
  The factory is based in Richmond upon Thames and now has 22 Production workers and two special wreath makers, currently making in excess of 124,000 wreaths, 45
  
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• Red Hat wants to be the default platform for OpenRAN

  08-03-2022 14:01
  
  Open-source enterprise software vendor Red Hat reckons it’s perfectly positioned to be the default platform for the move towards OpenRAN.
  Telecoms.com spoke to Honoré LaBourdette, VP of Industry Verticals and Edge at Red Hat, at Mobile World Congress 2022 last week. The telco sector is one of her main areas of focus and, in that context, LaBourdette insisted “The industry is coming to Red Hat.”
  Asked to substantiate that claim, she noted that the industry is opening up t
  
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• Red Hat wants to be the default platform for Open RAN

  08-03-2022 14:01
  
  Open-source enterprise software vendor Red Hat reckons it’s perfectly positioned to be the default platform for the move towards Open RAN.
  Telecoms.com spoke to Honoré LaBourdette, VP of Industry Verticals and Edge at Red Hat, at Mobile World Congress 2022 last week. The telco sector is one of her main areas of focus and, in that context, LaBourdette insisted “The industry is coming to Red Hat.”
  Asked to substantiate that claim, she noted that the industry is opening up
  
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• The public will punish telcos that don’t commit to net zero – GenCell

  08-03-2022 13:13
  
  Green power firm GenCell spoke to us at MWC about what it sees as the need for telcos to adopt renewable energy, and warned of repercussions for any that do not commit to net zero targets.
  GenCell, having last month teamed up with German MNO Deutsche Telekom to perform a joint lab tests of a hydrogen-based backup power system for mobile sites called GenCell Box, was at Mobile World Congress last week presenting a case for more green energy adoption within telco infrastructures.
  In recent years l
  
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• Hither Green station set for a step-free upgrade with new lifts and footbridge

  08-03-2022 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Hither Green station in southeast London is to get a new entrance, footbridge and lifts to add step-free access to the station for the first time.
  New footbridge and lifts (c) Network Rail
  The station is raised up on an embankment, and at the moment, the entrance to the station is through an underpass (bottom left of the photo above) that runs under the railway with a ramp up to the platforms.
  The station is also a slightly complex layout as it sits at the junction of the Charing Cross to Dover
  
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• Orange Spain and Masmovil in talks to create €20bn JV

  08-03-2022 12:52
  
  After feeding off scraps of speculation about M&A in Spain for more than a year, Orange and Masmovil on Tuesday finally served up something substantial.
  The deal being negotiated will create a 50-50 joint venture with a combined enterprise value of €19.6 billion, revenues of €7.5 billion and EBITDAaL of more than €2.2 billion. It would boast more than 20 million mobile customers and 7 million fixed-line customers, which, based on data from Spain’s competition regulator t
  
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• English mobile masts are putting on weight

  08-03-2022 12:37
  
  Mobile operators in England will soon be able to increase the height and girth of many of their mobile masts without having to apply for planning permission.
  It has been a long time coming, but the government this week introduced a law change that will enable telcos to make existing masts up to 5 metres taller and 2 metres wider under permitted development rights, amongst other things, all in the name of speeding up 5G rollout.
  The government describes its new rules as a measure designed to &ldq
  
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• Altnet representative body sees strong membership growth after several years of record investment

  08-03-2022 11:51
  
  The Independent Networks Cooperative Association has welcomed new members from across the sector. London, UK, 8 March 2022: After a year in which altnets received record levels of investment and showed how important they are going to be in the delivery of Gigabit Britain and bridging the digital divide in 2021, more and more companies are joining the sector’s representative body, the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA). So far 19 new members have joined since...Source: Real
  
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• Orange and MasMovil in exclusive talks to form €19.6bn Spanish joint venture

  08-03-2022 10:28
  Telecoms deal would value Orange at €8.1bn and MasMovil at €11.5bn
  
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• A sneak preview of London’s new Elizabeth line railway

  08-03-2022 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This weekend will see the last of Crossrail‘s mass tests on the Elizabeth line as it nears its opening date, and ahead of that, a group of us were given a sneak preview of what it’s like to ride at speed through the new tunnels.Starting at Paddington, a quick, very quick and smooth, trip to Liverpool Street was on offer, and a chance to have a look at the two completed stations.
  A clearly very excited Mark Wild, Crossrail’s CEO was keen to show off not just the stations and rai
  
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• What’s in a name? Telecom industry’s leading brands in 2022

  08-03-2022 01:00
  Since 2010, Brand Finance has been compiling an annual report on the most valuable and strongest telecoms brands. The company has assessed 5,000 of the world’s biggest telecom brands, including the leading 150 in their dedicated report, the Brand Finance Telecoms 150 2022. Brand value is understood as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market. Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures
  
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• Orange and MasMovil talk €20bn tie-up in Spain

  08-03-2022 01:00
  Today, Orange and MasMovil have today announced that they have entered into discussions to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) in Spain. The deal values Orange’s Spanish unit at €8.1 billion and MasMovil’s at €11.5 billion, for a combined enterprise value of €19.6 billion.The combined, converged operator would have roughly 7.1 million fixed line customers and 20.2 million mobile subscribers. Its combined FTTH network would reach over 16 million homes…read more
  
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• No blue bars: New UK laws aim to eliminate 'not spots'

  08-03-2022 01:00
  Reforms to planning laws will mean fewer phone masts will be needed overall to level up the country with improved 4G and 5G mobile coverage as telecoms firms will be able to upgrade existing infrastructure over building new masts.Mobile network operators will get more freedom to make new and existing phone masts up to five metres taller and two metres wider than current rules permit. This will boost the range of masts, create room for the extra equipment needed for faster networks and make it e
  
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• How we’re bringing connectivity to more of Britain for our emergency services

  08-03-2022 01:00
  To support this crucial work, our police, fire and rescue, ambulance services and other first responders, need ultra-reliable connectivity to provide secure and mission-critical communications that they can also trust to keep them safe too.  Whether it’s ambulances sending vital patient data to hospitals so staff can prepare for a patient’s arrival; police officers controlling a volatile crowd calling for urgent back-up; or fire and rescue crews assessing burning buildings, bas
  
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