Telecom news

• A guide to Open RAN

  14-08-2023 17:49
  Telecoms.com has gathered together a panel of industry experts to define and analyse the future trajectory of one Open RAN, or the approach to building out networks from an à la carte menu of equipment manufacturers.
  Open RAN is one of those esoteric industry terms that doesn’t tend to survive escape from Planet Telecoms’ orbit. While your average person on the street might have half a chance of visualising what all the fuss is about with the rise of satellites connectivity, o
  
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• Tron on the Tube: London Underground’s new trains are being tested on the Piccadilly line

  20-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Tron arriving at Platform 3 was the Piccadilly line’s new trains out on a weekend of trials ahead of passengers being able to ride them.The new trains are the first of a fleet of 94 new trains being built in Yorkshire at the moment, and will eventually replace the Piccadilly line’s existing 50-year old rolling stock. However, before passengers can ride the new trains, they need hundreds of hours of testing and assurance that they will work as expected. And testing has been underw
  
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• Three Ireland owner in talks over sale to Liberty Global

  20-01-2026 06:00
  Offloading mobile operator would be CK Hutchison’s latest disposal of European telecoms interests
  
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• Dredging the past: Hanwell’s historic canal side ponds being repaired

  19-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A series of 210-year-old reservoirs next to the Grand Junction Canal in west London are currently being dredged and repaired decades after they fell out of use.Every time a boat passes through a canal lock, thousands of litres of water are released and must be replaced, usually from other sources. To reduce water loss, engineers sometimes build side ponds next to canals with several locks in succession.
  These side ponds allowed water to be “put aside” rather than lost. When a lock ch
  
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• HS2 completes construction of its longest tunnels beneath the Chilterns

  19-01-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  HS2 says that construction of its longest tunnel, running from the edge of London under the Chilterns, has been completed, nearly 5 years after work began.
  View inside HS2’s Chiltern tunnel in Sept 2025 (c) HS2
  Digging the two tunnels was completed in March 2024, but work was also underway above the tunnels, digging down from the surface to create two large ventilation shafts.
  HS2 says it has completed work at two of the line’s Chiltern tunnel vent shafts, located at Chesham Road and
  
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• Major engineering works halt London–Peterborough trains on weekends

  19-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s going to be a month of weekend train cancellations through north London due to engineering work on the East Coast Mainline affecting Thameslink and Great Northern services between London, Peterborough and Royston.The works being carried out include platform upgrades at Alexandra Palace station, track renewals along the line, several switch replacements and upgrades to overhead equipment.
  They are also carrying out work on the £1.4 billion East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP),
  
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• ‘Blimey, never knew that’: the British Museum’s Hawai’i exhibition surprises

  19-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Candidly, most people visiting the British Museum’s Hawaii exhibition probably walk in with a lot of stereotypical preconceptions about the island nation.
  And will walk out with a totally different understanding of it.Understandably, we probably think of it as not much more than the Pacific island nation that’s part of the USA, home to Pearl Harbour and the long-running TV show Hawaii 5.0.
  In fact, it was the British who (probably) were the first Europeans to make first contact when
  
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• UK taxpayers exposed with creditors set to take over struggling broadband provider

  19-01-2026 08:57
  National Wealth Fund, NatWest and Lloyds make move after unsuccessful attempt to sell Gigaclear
  
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• London’s Alleys: Ann’s Place, Whitechapel, E1

  19-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This tiny runt of an alley is so small that it doesn’t even appear on most maps*, but is passed by thousands, as it’s next to Petticoat Market.This part of London sits just outside the historic City walls, so it attracted traders who wanted to avoid the strict rules binding City merchants.
  The land was later acquired by Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Cleveland, who developed it, hence the main road being named Wentworth Street. If you’re wondering about Ann’s Place, that w
  
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• Brussels in move to bar Chinese suppliers from EU’s critical infrastructure

  17-01-2026 06:00
  Proposed Cybersecurity Act would phase out groups such as Huawei and ZTE from telecom networks and solar energy systems
  
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• Pikes at the Palace: English civil war re-enactors to march through London

  16-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A Sunday morning later this month will take on the colours and clatter of another age, as more than 200 men and women in full English Civil War dress gather in the heart of London.The occasion is the annual march organised by the English Civil War Society to commemorate the death of King Charles I, executed on 30 January 1649. For more than half a century, the Society has marked the anniversary on the last Sunday of January with a solemn procession down The Mall, recalling what contemporaries de
  
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• From Skylons to brick-walls – see the next generation of jewellery designers

  16-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you want a glimpse at the future of jewellery, there’s an exhibition of emerging jewellers and silversmiths at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in Farringdon at the moment.The display features designs ranging from Japonisme-inspired nature motifs and marine life frozen in wax and cast in metal to reclaimed glass reimagined with gemstones and stone-setting.
  Jewellery, generally being quite small and wearable, it’s only a small-sized exhibition, filling the Goldsmiths’ Centre&rsqu
  
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• Lifts approved for some London stations – but others lose out as DfT scales back plans

  16-01-2026 11:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The government has confirmed it is pushing ahead with plans to add lifts to more London railway stations, but has also cancelled several expected station upgrades.
  Bushey station (c) ianVisits
  There are stations that the Department for Transport (DfT) says are progressing to detailed design. These include Dalston Kingsland, Esher, Gunnersbury, Kew Bridge, and Raynes Park. Gunnersbury was already progressing to design work, so that’s more of a confirmation of what was already known.
  However
  
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• Mayor to push London council tax precept above £500 to fund policing and rail plans

  15-01-2026 21:08 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Mayor of London is raising the GLA’s take from London’s council tax to fund an increase in policing and support the potential West London Orbital railway link.In total, the Mayor is proposing that council tax increases by an additional £20.13 a year for an average Band D household, subject to final approvals next month. Consequently, the Band D council tax payable in the 32 London boroughs (the adjusted precept) is proposed to increase by 4.1% from £490.38 in 2025-26
  
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• Tickets Alert: 200th anniversary tours of London Zoo

  15-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  To celebrate its bicentenary, London Zoo is launching a programme of monthly history tours that delve into two centuries of animals, architecture and scientific discovery.The guided walks are included as a free extra with a paid Zoo visit and run on a rotating theme throughout the year, allowing visitors to choose tours that match their particular interests in the Zoo’s long and varied past.
  Each tour starts at 11:30am from the main entrance once you are inside the Zoo, and lasts for aroun
  
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• SpaceX partner EchoStar struggles to reach escape velocity

  15-01-2026 16:22
  Charlie Ergen’s future will probably be guided by what happens to Elon Musk’s company
  
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• Imber Bus confirms its 2026 date for a surreal ride through Salisbury Plain

  15-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An early notice that the annual Imber Bus Day has already confirmed its 2026 date, so you can reserve the date in your calendar now.ImberBus is a standard London bus route that runs just one day a year, weaving its way through the sealed-off military lands of Salisbury Plain, past burnt-out tanks and military bases to an abandoned medieval church in the middle of a military training village before scattering off to various random outposts all around the firing range and local villages.
  It’
  
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• Strawberry Hill’s new exhibition chases a lost dagger with a questionable past

  15-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Two daggers that didn’t belong to King Henry VIII have gone on display, as part of an exhibition about another lost dagger that also didn’t belong to Henry VIII.
  With me so far?We’re in Horace Walpole’s gothic manor house at Strawberry Hill, and he owned a richly decorated dagger that he was told had belonged to the King.
  However, more recent research has indicated that it was likely a decorative dagger made at the imperial workshops in late 16th-century Istanbul and expo
  
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• Archaeologists uncover Victorian children’s schoolwork in east London

  15-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Archaeologists working in East London have made a rare discovery that is seldom preserved in the historical record — an unusually intimate glimpse into the lives of Victorian children.
  Brick cellars heavily covered with soot (c) MOLA
  Among the finds uncovered by MOLA at the excavation site in East London was a fragment of a slate school tablet, still bearing the faint scratches of children’s handwriting and doodles, alongside a hoard of ceramic marbles – known as “al
  
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• Half price entry to Dr Johnson’s House on Friday afternoons

  14-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bargain (noun): Something pleasingly inexpensive – especially when it involves one of London’s great literary landmarks.
  Dr Johnson’s House (c) ianVisits
  If you fancy a cultured detour just off Fleet Street, there’s a definition worth learning first: entry to Dr Johnson’s House is half price every Friday afternoon. It gives you an ideal excuse to step off the pavement and into the birthplace of the modern English dictionary.
  House (noun): A seventeenth-century townh
  
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• Tickets Alert: 2026 tours of privately owned Longford Castle

  14-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An unusual castle built on the banks of the River Avon 450 years ago, and still a private home, offers occasional tours through the summer, with tickets now available.
  Longford Castle (c) ianVisits
  This is Longford Castle, the private home of the Earl of Radnor, a 16th-century building whose strikingly unconventional exterior hints at what lies inside. Behind the walls is an art collection, rich enough in Old Master paintings to rival many major galleries, set within interiors that reflect centu
  
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• Urban Rewilding: Beavers could return to a south London park

  14-01-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London’s largest Beaver enclosure could be coming to South London soon as part of a rewilding plan for South Norwood Country Park.Croydon Council’s proposal would introduce a family of beavers to the park to help restore wildlife habitats, improve water quality, and create a healthier natural environment.
  The council is working with Citizen Zoo, specialists in urban rewilding, who are assessing the site’s potential. Citizen Zoo also helped deliver London’s first openly ac
  
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• Ticket checks ramped up on the DLR in fare evasion crackdown

  14-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Fare evasion is set to get harder on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) as the operator steps up ticket inspections on trains.As most of the DLR stations don’t have ticket barriers, there’s a certain level of trust that people tend to do the right thing and pay for transport, and the vast majority do pay to take a ride on the DLR.
  A trial in 2023 tested whether making the ticket machines more noticeable would help reduce incidents of people genuinely forgetting to tap in/out on t
  
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• Man arrested over £260,000 graffiti spree on Northern line trains

  14-01-2026 08:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A person suspected of causing nearly £260,000 of graffiti damage to tube trains has been arrested following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.
  Bakerloo line train at Lambeth North tube station (c) ianVisits
  Officers from the BTP’s Operational Support Unit forced entry to a property in Barnet, north London, during the early hours of Friday 9th January.
  A 48-year-old man was arrested at the address on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody for questioning. He
  
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• Wellington Arch at 200: The monument that lost a statue and gained a tunnel

  14-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Today marks the 200th anniversary of Wellington Arch being approved to be built at Hyde Park Corner. Although today it’s in a different location, it has a different statue on top and is technically still unfinished.Originally called the Grand Triumphal Arch, it was built in part to commemorate Britain’s victories in the Napoleonic Wars and as part of King George IV’s remodelling of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.
  Announced in 1825, it would take a year of wrangling to settle o
  
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• TfL launches hunt for women who inspired Londoners to start cycling

  13-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) and Santander Cycles have launched a call for nominations to celebrate women who inspire others to get on two wheels.
  “I do not see why Ladies should not have a Lark as well as the Gentlemen.” – 1819 satirical print
  Members of the public are being invited to put forward the name of a professional women’s cycling star or an ‘unsung hero’ from their own community, along with a short explanation of how that person encouraged them to tak
  
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• Friends, foes and six-foot canvases: Turner and Constable face off at Tate Britain

  13-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s a bit of Kane and Abel in the Tate Britain at the moment, as they pitch two friends turned rivals – Constable and Turner – together in a single exhibition.
  Born within a year of each other, but to very different families, the two set out to become artists, but on different paths that eventually led to rivalry in the art galleries of London.
  Critics of the time pitted the two against each other, comparing Constable’s truth to Turner’s poetry. Despite their di
  
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• Distressed debt buyer applies to put UK broadband operator into administration

  13-01-2026 10:35
  FitzWalter Capital’s move at G.Network is set to mark the first insolvency in Britain’s ‘altnet’ sector for years
  
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• Distressed debt buyer applies to put UK broadband firm into administration

  13-01-2026 10:35
  FitzWalter Capital’s move at G.Network is set to mark the first insolvency in Britain’s ‘altnet’ sector in years
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of UK construction sites

  13-01-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The annual event, which showcases the construction industry by letting people go behind the hoardings onto building sites, returns in March, and booking is open now.Although aimed at potential future constructors, the curious public is also welcome to visit some of the venues.
  The event, Open Doors 2026, showcases the construction industry and aims to demonstrate the variety of careers in the trade. Open Doors aims to change perceptions around construction and encourage the next generation
  
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