Telecom news

• BT launches Hull-based Open RAN trial

  26-01-2022 01:00
  The topic of Open RAN has been of growing importance for operators around the world for over two years now, with most major international players exploring the technology in some form or another. In January 2021, for example, a quintet of major European operators – Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Orange, Vodafone, and TIM – signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on further developing the technology.  In the UK, all four of the country’s mobile operators ha
  
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• More people now qualify for discounted train travel as Disabled Persons Railcard expands

  04-03-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The range of people who can qualify for discounted train tickets with a Disabled Persons Railcard has expanded this week.The new eligibility criteria for the Railcard will be phased in over two stages so that both visible and non-visible disabilities are better recognised and supported. They are designed to provide benefit when the evidence requirements are straightforward and to introduce assessment for more complex cases later in the year.
  New groups who are eligible include those who:Receive
  
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• Expecto Merchandum: Giant Harry Potter shop coming to Oxford Street

  04-03-2026 09:16 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bad news for the dodgy souvenir shops selling questionable wizarding tat around central London, as an official Harry Potter shop is opening on Oxford Street.
  The Ribbon store and office development (c) Orms
  Joining the existing Harry Potter Shop at King’s Cross as the UK’s only official Harry Potter retail destination, the new store will open about halfway between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road.
  The shop will also be hard to miss.
  Covering around 21,000 square feet across two
  
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• The curious case of the red corbel on Risinghill Street

  04-03-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Stuck up high on the side of a 1970s block of flats near Angel tube station is a most peculiar sight – a red stone decorative capital or corbel.There’s nothing to indicate what it is or why it’s there, but a very plausible theory can be worked out.
  Fortunately, the first hint comes from a foundation-stone-style plaque beneath it, which doesn’t mention the red protrusion above but offers a hint of what is going on.The plaque states:
  ON THIS SITE STOOD THE OFFICE
  OF THE PEN
  
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• Barbican’s £231m renewal gets green light – with year-long closure planned

  03-03-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A £231 million overhaul of the Barbican Arts Centre has been approved, with the City of London committing £191 million to the first phase of the major renewal programme.
  The remaining funding to complete the project will be sought through philanthropic and partnership support.
  Main foyer (c) ianVisits
  At the heart of the scheme is a substantial upgrade to the Barbican’s Conservatory. Longstanding maintenance and accessibility issues will be addressed, alongside the creation of
  
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• Shell shocked: Strawberry Hill plans to rebuild Horace Walpole’s lost garden seat

  03-03-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Strawberry Hill House & Garden has launched an appeal to restore Horace Walpole’s long-lost Shell Seat — once one of the most enchanting features of his celebrated eighteenth-century garden.
  Jean-Henri Müntz, View of the Shell Seat and Bridge at Strawberry Hill, 1755. Ink drawing. Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
  Designed as a place for rest, conversation and gentle spectacle, the Shell Seat was part of Walpole’s self-styled “land of beauties”, a lan
  
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• Mind the Art: Tube stations transformed into atmospheric paintings

  03-03-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A series of large-scale paintings depicting Tube stations, paired with the ambient sounds of the Underground, are on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery, creating an immersive plunge into the depths of London’s transport network.The paintings are by Jock McFadyen, accompanied by an ambient underground soundtrack by Jem Finer.
  One of the paintings is of Bank tube station, showing an advertising space that had the adverts scraped off, leaving behind almost abstract art in their wake. Many o
  
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• London Overground trains are calling at London Bridge station this Saturday

  03-03-2026 12:43 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This Saturday, there will be a fairly rare sight as London Overground trains will be calling at London Bridge station.Running all day on Saturday 7th March, the unusual London Overground service between London Bridge and West Croydon is needed because TfL engineering works are closing the Windrush line north of New Cross Gate.
  Edited TfL Overground map showing affected area
  Therefore, on Saturday only, between 7am and 10pm, a special train service will operate between London Bridge and West Croy
  
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• Kentish Town’s disused cinema to be restored as a community space and work hub

  03-03-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A former Kentish Town cinema that had fallen into disrepair is to be renovated and converted into a new community event space and workspace for hire.
  An artist’s impression of the Kentish Town Neighbourhood Space. Picture credit: IF_DO Architects
  The former Palace Cinema on Prince of Wales Road in Kentish Town was built in 1913 by the prolific cinema designer, John Stanley Beard, but closed as a cinema in the 1950s. The cinema used to have its main entrance on Kentish Town Road (next to th
  
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• Lost tiles and ghost poster frames revealed at Oval tube station

  03-03-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  For a few weeks, you have a chance to see fragments of the 1920s at Oval tube station as the 1990s cladding has been removed for repair work.Oval tube station opened as part of the City and South London Railway in 1890 and originally had a distinctive red brick station building with a large glass dome for lifts down to the platform.
  When that branch of the Northern line was modernised in the 1920s, they also rebuilt Oval tube station, replacing the lifts with escalators and the Victorian Arts an
  
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• Battersea Power Station is offering free Chimney Lift trips to shoppers

  02-03-2026 17:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Battersea Power Station is offering free trips up its Chimney Lift – if you spend £50 in the local shops.The Chimney Lift is a glass elevator that fits inside one of the four chimneys and whisks you to the top, where it emerges and gives you about 10 minutes to see the sights before being sucked back down to the ground again.
  As a ticket for the Chimney lift can cost £24 for an adult, so long as you have a desire to spend £50 on clothes or similar, then it’s not a b
  
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• Ares to inject £115mn into TalkTalk as potential bidders explore options

  02-03-2026 12:00 via ft.com
  Capital infusion into UK broadband provider will partly replace £47mn debt facility which was due to be redeemed in March
  
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• You can now have afternoon tea in the Old Bailey

  27-02-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, known the world over as the ‘Old Bailey‘, regularly offers tours of the grand building, but they are now adding an afternoon tea option as well.
  Old Bailey Great Hall (c) ianVisits
  First things first, as this is not a cheap lunch.
  Afternoon teas never are, but this is particularly not cheap. However, as a one-off special treat, it’s going to be difficult to beat for the location alone.
  The afternoon starts with a tour of the Old
  
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• Tickets Alert: Attend the Lady Mayor’s lecture at the Guildhall

  27-02-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will be a chance to go into the Guildhall’s impressive Livery Hall later this year, when the Lady Mayor of London gives the annual Gresham Lecture, and free tickets are now available.
  Entrance to the Old Library, Guildhall (c) ianVisits
  The event is Gresham College’s annual Lord Mayor’s lecture, which by the City of London’s standards, is a fairly new annual tradition that was started in 2010, and takes place in either Mansion House or at the Guildhall each yea
  
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• Gold, Gods and a Pricey Pharaoh: Ramses exhibition will worry your wallet

  27-02-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  All that glitters sometimes can be gold, and a new exhibition about the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses the Great, is full of glittering gold things to see. If you can afford the ticket price.From the moment you step inside, the tone is clear: this is not an academic museum exhibition, but more of a bling-filled showroom of goodies to gawp at. If you went to the Tutankhamun exhibition in 2019, then you’ll know what to expect, as the Ramses exhibition has been organised by the same people.
  Low lig
  
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• New DLR trains not expected to return to service until this Summer

  27-02-2026 12:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Passengers won’t be able to ride the new DLR trains until later this year, as investigations into braking problems continue.A couple of weeks after the first of the new trains came into service last year, a problem occurred when one of the trains overshot its stopping point. Three of the fleet of 54 new trains had entered service, so all three were removed while the braking issue was investigated.
  The investigation remains ongoing with the manufacturer’s supply chain and the relevant
  
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• Adverts are returning to Euston station’s big screen

  27-02-2026 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Euston station’s big screen will be showing adverts again, although not quite as eye-burningly bright and big as last time.
  Proposed screen with space on either side for adverts (c) Network Rail
  Network Rail says that it plans a two-week trial to test advertising content on the screen’s outer sections from Monday 2nd March.
  They say the trial was developed with feedback from customers and stakeholders, drawing on lessons learned when the full-width screen was first introduced in 2024
  
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• Save up to 50% on West End hits with this week’s theatre offers

  27-02-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This week’s sale and discount theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct.Shadowlands
  Hugh Bonneville reprises his critically acclaimed role
  From £37 – GREAT SEATS AT £65Kinky Boots
  Opens 17 March 2026
  Kinky Boots struts back into the West End!
  From £15 – BOOK 7+WEEKS AHEAD AND SAVEMagic Mike Live
  Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike Live at the Hippodrome has everything you could ever want!
  From £48 – SAVE UP TO 34%I’m Sorry, Prime Ministe
  
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• UK’s second-tallest residential tower planned for last big Vauxhall site

  26-02-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The UK’s second-tallest residential tower could be built in Vauxhall, as part of a development on the last remaining large plot of undeveloped land near Vauxhall station.
  (c) Vauxhall Square
  With 68 floors and standing 230.5 meters AOD, the new tower would be a shade shorter than the 78 floors 239 metre tall Landmark Pinnacle tower in Canary Wharf. As you might have guessed from the numbers, the new tower, to be built in Vauxhall Square, although only slightly lower in height, has far fewe
  
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• Green light given to pedestrianise Oxford Street as traffic sees red

  26-02-2026 15:36 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is set to go ahead, with Transport for London (TfL) now planning how it will remove road traffic from the busy shopping street. In 2025, the Mayor consulted on his proposal to designate a Mayoral Development Area and establish a Mayoral Development Corporation to drive the regeneration of Oxford Street
  Since then, there have been a couple of consultations on the Mayor’s plan to take control of the area from Westminster Council, and although pedestrian
  
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• The Royal Mews collection of horse-drawn carriages is reopening

  26-02-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Tucked away behind Buckingham Palace are the Royal Mews, home to the King’s horses and historic carriages, and they’re reopening to the public next week after their winter closure.The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace evolved from the King’s Mews, originally just to the north of Trafalgar Square and originally to house royal hawks.
  The name ‘mews’ derives from the word ‘mew’, meaning moulting, as the birds were confined there at moulting time. As a result,
  
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• Go-Ahead’s 1,000th electric bus boosts London’s zero-emission fleet

  26-02-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Go-Ahead, which operates 170 bus routes across London, says that it has taken delivery of its 1,000th electric bus.
  (c) Go-Ahead
  Go-Ahead London is the largest bus operator in London, running over 2,500 buses across 170 routes, serving more than one million passengers daily. The delivery of the newest bus means that almost half of Go-Ahead London’s routes are now served purely on zero-emission buses.
  The zero-emission buses at Go-Ahead London will cut carbon emissions by around 60,000 tonn
  
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• British Museum announces Bayeux Tapestry ticket sales dates

  26-02-2026 12:34 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Tickets for what will be a genuine once-in-a-lifetime event will go on sale on Wednesday 1 July 2026, as the British Museum prepares to host the Bayeux Tapestry.The exhibition of the 70-metre-long masterpiece, telling the dramatic story of the Norman Conquest stitch by stitch, is expected to become one of the most sought-after exhibitions in the Museum’s history.
  Prices are still to be confirmed.
  Tickets for visits between September and December 2026 will go on sale on 1st July, with two f
  
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• Southwark’s “Owl and the Pussy-Cat” house could be restored and opened to the public

  26-02-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Southwark’s 19th-century “owl and the pussy cat” house could be restored and opened as a cafe under plans to redevelop the modern building next to it.Sitting on Southwark Bridge Road, next to the railway line between Blackfriars and Elephant and Castle, the two 19th-century townhouses are locally famous for the small statues of an owl and a cat in the upper-floor niches.
  It’s said the previous owner added them around the turn of the millennium.Why they are there is still
  
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• Charing Cross station to be hit by three-week summer closure warns Southeastern

  26-02-2026 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Both Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations will have to close for three weeks this summer as part of a major programme of engineering works on the busy stretch of railway leading into Charing Cross.
  Charing Cross station (c) ianVisits
  During the 22-day closure, Southeastern trains into central London will continue to run, but many trains will be diverted to alternative terminals. Most services that would normally use Charing Cross will instead run to London Victoria, London Cannon Street or L
  
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• Why you end up following a stranger through a busy railway station

  25-02-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’re trying to get through a busy railway station, you might think you’re planning your own route through the crowd, but you’re probably following a stranger — even when you don’t realise it, and even when it’s not the fastest route.
  Liverpool Street station
  The unseen “crowdsourced” pathing was uncovered from watching how train passengers navigate around a platform obstruction at Eindhoven Centraal station.
  Researchers analysed three years of
  
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• Bromley’s historic archives to get bigger home in Priory Gardens

  25-02-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bromley’s historic archives are to get a new home, after plans to demolish their existing site and build a larger modern building were approved by the local council.
  Existing site (c) Bromley Council
  An enlarged archive store is needed in part because the council closed the local museum a decade ago, and the replacement space provided in Bromley library is too small to hold the entire collection. The library is also about to move to a new location, and the new site will not be able to hous
  
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• Could rising contactless fares push commuters back to season tickets?

  25-02-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This Sunday, contactless tube fares will rise by an average of six percent, but if you can switch to season tickets, those fares are being frozen.Even with more people commuting to work more frequently now, paying with contactless daily still seems like a saving, but depending on your travel pattern, fare rises may push the monthly spend closer to what a season ticket would cost anyway.
  The advantage that a season ticket offers is that you get a whole week/month/year of travel for a fixed amount
  
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• Tickets Alert: Guided tours of the Richmond Theatre

  25-02-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  In the centre of Richmond is a grand theatre that recently marked its 125th anniversary, and they offer tours of the building.The Richmond Theatre opened in 1899 as the Richmond Theatre and Opera House. Designed by the prolific theatre builder, Frank Matcham, barring some modest changes, it’s pretty much still the same theatre that opened over 125 years ago.
  A few changes are pointed out in a tour – such as the decently sympathetic extension to one side to create more space, and as w
  
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• Camden’s iconic Black Cap gay pub to reopen in March 2026

  23-02-2026 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Camden’s legendary gay pub, The Black Cap, has confirmed its reopening date, a smidge over a decade since it was forced to close.The pub, which has been a gay haunt since the winter of 1965/66 was forced to close in 2015 when the owners decided they wanted to redevelop the site. The owners themselves closed in 2020, and the company’s administrators sold the building to a new owner who has been working to reopen the venue once again as a gay cabaret pub.
  It had been expected to reopen
  
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