Telecom news

• Three weeks of free events in the City of London

  03-08-2023 19:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Later this month, the City of London will be recreating a modern version of the ancient Bartholomew Fair, with more family-friendly events than the debauchery that the original was famous for.
  The fair was founded in 890 years ago, in 1133, and grew over the centuries to become London’s most important annual fair. However, the fair was shut down in 1855 by the City authorities for encouraging debauchery and public disorder.
  This year, a more wholesome version is returning to the City, with
  
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• Qualcomm earnings plummet amid continued smartphone slump

  03-08-2023 18:11
  US chip maker Qualcomm warned of impending job cuts as weak demand led to steep declines in both revenue and profits.
  Sales totalled $8.45 billion during the three months to 25 June, down 23% on last year. In an SEC filing on Wednesday, Qualcomm said revenues were negatively impacted by macroeconomic weakness, which in turn weakened consumer demand for new smartphones and other Qualcomm-equipped devices.
  A related and compounding issue for Qualcomm is that OEMs are sitting on higher-than-normal
  
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• BT drops some more ‘high-tech digital street units’ in Newcastle

  03-08-2023 18:02
  Seven of UK telco group BT’s Street Hub 2.0 units have been installed in Newcastle, dishing out WiFi, free emergency calls, directions if you are lost, and device charging.
  Street Hubs are presented as more modern alternative to traditional payphones and as well as providing relief for those lost or lacking in battery or signal, have the capacity to be fitted with 4G and 5G cells.
  Seven of these Swiss army knifes of digital street furniture were switched on today at sites across Newcastle
  
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• Vodafone bags UK smart meter upgrade deal

  03-08-2023 18:01
  The UK is adding a new mobile provider to its nationwide smart meter network for reasons that are not immediately clear.
  Vodafone has been chosen as the new supplier by the Data Communications Company (DCC) – the outfit that manages the network – and will build and operate a 4G IoT connectivity service under a contract that could run for up to 15 years.
  DCC said Voda’s 4G network – which currently covers 99% of the population – will provide the all-important comms l
  
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• Rakuten taps OpenAI for ‘state-of-the-art’ use cases

  03-08-2023 16:00
  Japanese tech conglomerate Rakuten has boarded the generative AI hype train, establishing an all-encompassing partnership with OpenAI.
  The two have signed an MoU under which they hope to come up with some new use cases for generative AI for what appears to be all of Rakuten’s businesses. That alone makes this a big deal, given its various operations span 70 countries and serve 1.7 billion users, 100 million of whom reside in its home market.
  Rakuten is present in a broad range of tech vert
  
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• TIM talks up Italy turnaround and says KKR deal on track

  03-08-2023 14:03
  TIM has presented a decent-looking set of second-quarter financials, due in part to a solid performance in its home market, where everything is “progressing as planned” with regard to the sale of its network assets.
  The Italian incumbent has struggled domestically for a number of years, but – as it predicted earlier this year – it is now turning things around. In the three months to the end of June the Italian business returned to growth for the first time in five years,
  
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• 1&1 does 5G deal with Vodafone, but Telefonica refuses to panic

  03-08-2023 13:55
  1&1 has brokered a roaming deal that will give it access to Vodafone’s 5G network in Germany, a move that is great news for both parties, but comes as a blow to the telco’s current MVNO host Telefonica.
  Technically, the operators have yet to ink the final terms and conditions of their deal, but they aim to do so as soon as possible. At this stage we know that 1&1 will be able to use Vodafone’s 5G network in areas that are not yet covered by its own network – the s
  
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• Three clocks H1 wins but inflation bites earnings  

  03-08-2023 13:28
  UK operator Three’s revenue, customer and margin numbers for the first half of the year are all up, but EBITDA was down 19%, blamed largely on inflationary pressure.
  Three’s revenue was up 4% to £1.23 billion YoY which it attributes to an increase in the active customer base, and net customer service revenue up was 8% to £816 million.
  Margin was up 9% to £808 million, thanks to a 7% growth in active customer base, driven by new business areas such as B2B, SMARTY and
  
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• Crossness’s Victorian pumping station resumes steaming this month

  03-08-2023 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Victorian steam powered pumping station at Crossness in south London will resume steam operations later this month for the first time in several years.The Victorian steam engines were installed at Crossness as part of Joseph Bazalgette’s massive London sewer network as the endpoint for the southern outflow, and was constructed with four massive steam engines to pump the sewage up from the sewer into the Thames.The four steam engines were left in place when the Victorian pumps were repl
  
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• A tube map for pigeon poo – the Guano Line

  03-08-2023 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  What if there was a tube map for pigeon poo? Wait, come back, it’s serious. Well, it’s a concept at least based on an ancient idea we’ve rather turned our backs on.
  Map of pigeon poo collectors – from the exhibition
  Bird poo — properly called guano — is a very good fertiliser and was once collected in vast quantities with people building ever larger dovecotes to keep birds in, and even mining Pacific islands for it. That died out with artificial fertiliser, bu
  
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