Telecom news

• Apple and Accenture announce alluring alliance

  29-08-2017 17:46
  Apple and Accenture have jumped into bed with each other to create a new digital agency which will help customers design business solutions for iOS.
  It’s a relatively simple idea; the digital economy is growing and people want to make money off it, but they don’t know how. In theory, when you take experts from one of the largest business consultancies in the world, and put them together with Apple employees, they should be able to make your idea more compatible with the iPhone or iPa
  
  Read more

• Londoners can abseil off a Premier League stadium for a lifesaving cause

  22-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you fancy abseiling off the side of a football stadium while raising money, then the London Ambulance Charity is offering you the chance to do so.Abseilers will be able to descend 42 metres from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday 19th March, to raise money for wellbeing support for frontline crews and defibrillators in priority areas across London.
  The funds raised will support wellbeing initiatives for ambulance crews and 999 call handlers.
  A £25 registration fee per person will app
  
  Read more

• £2m heritage funding will make London’s papyrus archive easier to visit

  22-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The London headquarters of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) will become easier to visit, as it has been awarded a £2 million grant to upgrade its building.
  What the EES premises could look like following its refurbishment (c) Egypt Exploration Society
  The EES says that following an application, it has received a £2 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is to be spent on upgrading its heritage centre, protecting its archival and manuscript collections, and en
  
  Read more

• Oyster cards could be loaded onto smartphones under new TfL deal

  22-01-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Oyster cards could be coming to smartphones, as Transport for London (TfL) confirms that Spain’s Indra Group has been awarded a seven-year contract to run its revenue collection systems.Indra Group will replace USA-headquartered Cubic, which has operated the Oyster card since its launch in 2003. The decision to swap suppliers was announced last year but was challenged by Cubic, which had the handover put on hold while it pursued its case in court.
  Although the dispute is still pending, a c
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• UK’s broadband ‘altnets’ need some serious rewiring

  22-01-2026 13:59
  Even with the benefits of merging, it is hard to see the numbers stacking up
  
  Read more

• Government pledges £1.5bn to fix crumbling museums and cultural buildings

  22-01-2026 10:37 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The government has announced £1.5 billion in funding for museums and cultural centres over the next five years, which will mainly go toward clearing a backlog of maintenance of their buildings.
  British Museum (c) ianVisits
  Spread across more than 1,000 institutions, £600 million will go to the big 17 national museums, with £900 million devoted to regional and smaller venues across the UK.
  The rest of the funding is broken down into tranches:
  £160 million for local and reg
  
  Read more

• Canary Wharf lights up after dark as its free Winter Lights trail begins

  22-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Canary Wharf’s 10th annual Winter Lights festival has opened, filling the docklands estate with 16 light displays, including six new commissions.In addition to the new temporary installations, the trail also highlights nine of Canary Wharf’s permanent light artworks, many collected from previous editions of the festival.
  The free festival runs for just over a week – but be aware that it gets very busy at weekends, so I would recommend a mid-week visit if possible.
  In previous y
  
  Read more

• Railway engineering works close lines, but unlock a little-used bit of track near Twickenham

  21-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s going to be railway disruption in southwest London next month, which is bad news for locals, but good news for trackbashers.
  Strawberry Hill station
  Due to Network Rail engineering work, SWR services between New Malden and Twickenham and on the Shepperton branch line will be affected between Saturday 14th February and Tuesday 17th February 2026.
  On Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th February, buses will replace trains between New Malden, Shepperton and Twickenham.
  Affected services on 1
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• HS2 prepares to bore its final tunnels as Euston TBM launch date confirmed

  21-01-2026 13:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The first of the tunnel boring machines that will dig HS2’s last two tunnels is due to set off on its journey to Euston station next week.
  Rail Minister and HS2 CEO at Old Oak Common station box in 2024 to see the two TBMs preparing to build HS2 to Euston (c) HS2
  In a notice to local residents, HS2 said it expects to launch the first tunnel boring machine (TBM Madeleine) from the Old Oak Common site in the week beginning 26th January 2026. This will dig the upline tunnel, which will carry
  
  Read more

• Not the good guys: Exhibition confronts Britain’s colonial wars

  21-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Three often-overlooked post-WWII conflicts are the subject of a new exhibition that examines how colonial Britain still tried to pull the levers of political control across the globe.Bringing together testimonies from people in Kenya, Malaysia and Cyprus, the exhibition tells the story of their struggles for independence and, at times, of those who fought to retain the status quo.
  Their voices sit alongside young British National Service conscripts, revealing how these conflicts quickly escalate
  
  Read more

• Closed for a decade – part of the Thames riverside path has reopened at last

  21-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A section of the Thames path that has been sealed off via a noisome detour since 2017 has finally reopened, with a new large riverside plaza.This is the Bazalgette Embankment, which sits atop a deep shaft as part of the Thames Super Sewer, designed to intercept sewage from overflowing Victorian sewers from entering the river. It’s as much a functional space below as it is a public space above, but that hidden space underneath is also partly why we have a large open plaza here, to give acce
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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),
  
  Read more

• ‘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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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’
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

• 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
  
  Read more

Follow @Telecom_UK_ on Twitter!