Telecom news

• Babylon 5 is coming to Blu-Ray

  21-07-2023 18:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This is pure nerdy indulgence, to talk about a 1990s science fiction show – but Babylon 5 is amazing, and is being released on Blu-Ray at long last.
  (c) Warner Bros
  One of the first, if not the actual first, attempts at a long running story set within a science fiction setting, with most episodes each stand-alone, but incrementally adding to the story arc being laid out.
  The first series is a bit OK but underpins the rest of the story, and it really gets into its stride in the second serie
  
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• See the art the Royal Academy rejected for the Summer Exhibition

  21-07-2023 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Each year, thousands of artists submit their creations to be included in the Royal Academy of Art’s summer exhibition, but what happens to the rejects?
  A pop-up exhibition is opening next week that has taken some of the 13,000 rejected pieces and will put them on display in a gallery next to Bermondsey’s White Cube.This Alternative Royal Academy Summer Exhibition offers you to see for yourself if these artists should have made the cut, and if you can find an artist as talented as pre
  
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• BT and OneWeb hook up remote island to internet via satellite

  21-07-2023 15:30
  The island of Lundy can now enjoy decent internet, as UK telco group BT and satellite firm OneWeb complete their ‘first real-world example’ of how remote areas can be connected via LEO satellite.
  The island of Lundy is 19 kilometres off the coast of North Devon, and apparently its 28 permanent residents and 21,000 seabirds haven’t had reliable internet before now.
  In terms of how it works, connectivity is delivered via installation of an Intellian outdoor satellite antenna syst
  
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• TfL to stop selling the Day Travelcard from Jan 2024

  21-07-2023 14:35 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) is likely to scrap the Day Travelcard following a consultation earlier this year. The Mayor of London has now signed an order telling TfL to stop selling the travelcards in January 2024, although an option does exist to keep it, if they can find someone to cover the costs.The Day Travelcard isn’t that widely used by Londoners, as it’s a paper ticket aimed at visitors, but adding it when buying a train ticket to visit London is a lot more convenient for visi
  
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• Apple reportedly threatens to remove FaceTime and iMessage in UK over snooping row

  21-07-2023 14:21
  Apple has reportedly warned the government that it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK if it were to pursue its proposed amendments to a 2016 Act.
  The proposed changes by the UK government and Home Office under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 would give the Home Office permission to demand security features of communication service providers to be disabled without notifying the public, i.e. secretly.
  An eight-week consultation was opened by the government and i
  
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• Ofcom looks at mobile, both at home and away

  21-07-2023 13:03
  EE can boast the best latency among UK mobile network operators, while O2 has the slowest download speeds, according to new data from Ofcom, which is also keeping an eye on what the MNOs are up to when their customers are travelling overseas.
  The UK telecoms regulator on Thursday published its latest annual Mobile Matters report, which uses crowdsourced data to gain insight into what mobile users experience when connected to different operators’ networks and via different technologies. The
  
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• Tube strikes for next week have been cancelled

  21-07-2023 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A week-long series of strikes on the London Underground have been cancelled after both the RMT and ASLEF unions agreed to suspend them.ASLEF members were due to walk out on Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th July, but the union now says that strike action has been suspended. The RMT has also suspended all strike action planned for next week on the London Underground after making progress in the pensions and jobs dispute.
  The decision by unions to suspend their strike action followed talks between Tr
  
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• Apple plots fashionably late arrival to generative AI party – report

  21-07-2023 12:45
  In keeping with its tradition of shaking up a market by being one of the last ones to enter it, Apple reportedly has designs on generative AI.
  So says a report from Bloomberg this week, anyway. The outlet cited unnamed people in the know who claim that the iPhone maker has developed its own framework for large language models (LLMs) in an effort to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard.
  Using this framework, called “Ajax”, Apple has created a chatbot service that is sup
  
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• Oxford Street offering free shops to independent businesses

  21-07-2023 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Oxford Street could soon look less like a row of garish American Candy stores and more eclectic, with a scheme to offer free shops to small and independent businesses.Called “Meanwhile On: Oxford Street”, it’s not just for retailers, as they are looking for anyone who could make use of a high street location – such as to show off their products, exhibitions, or even craft workshops.
  The campaign is aimed at businesses looking to launch their first store or physical space,
  
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• Cycle lanes will return to Kensington High Street

  21-07-2023 11:20 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Kensington High Street will get its cycle lanes back after a consultation found a majority support for them. However, the new cycle lanes will be advisory only — not the partially segregated cycle lanes that were controversially removed in 2021.
  The removed cycle lane
  The decision to restore the cycle lanes follows a consultation to put cycle lanes on Fulham Road, and the eastern and western sections of Kensington High Street, and found more than 60 percent support or partly support the re
  
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• Verizon ramps up cross-border IoT strategy with eSIM platform

  21-07-2023 10:47
  US telco Verizon has further extended the reach of its IoT services with a new global eSIM platform.
  Called Verizon Global IoT Orchestration, it enables devices operating in multiple regions to connect to a local eSIM profile from one of Verizon’s operator partners, appearing for all the world like a network connection in that partner’s service footprint.
  Operator partners are a crucial ingredient then, and on that score, Verizon has signed up Bell Canada and Telenor. This will give
  
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• New Piccadilly line trains arrive in Germany for testing

  21-07-2023 10:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The first of the new Piccadilly line trains that will start carrying passengers in 2025 has been spotted heading to a test track in Germany.
  (c) Siemens Mobility
  Most of the new trains are being built by Siemens at their new factory at Goole in Yorkshire, although the first units are being built at their factory in Vienna, Austria.
  Before they can be used on the London Underground though, they need testing — and as it happens, Siemens owns an old British military base in Germany that&rsquo
  
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