Telecom news

• BT Mobile joins Vodafone as most complained about UK mobile provider

  18-04-2018 16:24
  Ofcom has published its latest moaning charts and they reveal Vodafone finally has company at the top of this list of shame.
  The last time we checked in on the list Vodafone was still top but had been steadily getting its act together and was only just ahead of BT Mobile. Three months later Vodafone has managed to keep the complaints to a manageable level but BT has had a bit of an uptick and Vodafone has been relegated to second place for the first time in living memory.
  This seems to be part o
  
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• The London Buzz – 15th July 2026

  15-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – St Paul’s Church and Essex Road, Islington
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Former Hackney councillor ‘debanked’ by HSBC after Ukraine trip  Hackney Citizen
  Gatwick Airport chaos as flights declare emergency and diverted after sudden runway closure Standard
  Rainham Launders Lane fire: Pictures show charred earth Romford Recorder
  A leading Newham councillor has dodged questions over whether her pledges to roll out free parking in the borough will lead
  
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• Tower of London to open historic architectural archive to the public for the first time

  15-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Tower of London’s architectural archives will be opened to the public for the first time as part of a revamp of the Tower’s educational facilities.When it opens, the new Archive Study Centre will bring together more than 25,000 drawings encompassing over 200 years of design, building and conservation work across the Tower and other palaces cared for by Historic Royal Palaces.
  The decision to open the archives is part of a wider revamp of Historic Royal Palaces (HRP)’s educa
  
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• Austrian master returns to Britain after 170 years in free National Gallery exhibition

  15-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The first-ever UK exhibition of paintings by the 19th-century Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller has opened at the National Gallery, showcasing his range of landscapes, from arid to forested. He worked mainly around Vienna, Salzburg and later Italy, giving the works on display a slight air of tourist diary travelling around central Europe.Waldmüller is one of the most important figures in 19th-century Austrian art, known for his work as both an artist and an influential teacher
  
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• London Underground’s Central line is getting more trains at weekends

  15-07-2026 12:02 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Passengers on the Central line will see a new timetable introduced from Monday 20th July, bringing more frequent weekend services through central London but also reducing weekday trains on the Ealing branch.The biggest change is an increase in weekend services between White City and Leytonstone, with additional trains also running on Sunday early evenings to cater for growing leisure travel demand.
  However, the Ealing spur branch will be reduced to six trains per hour on weekdays — from an
  
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• London Open House 2026 preview goes live

  15-07-2026 11:06 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  It’s an early Christmas present for London architecture fans as the annual Open House London preview has gone live this morning.
  Euston Tower – from the top of the BT Tower
  The annual event sees hundreds of buildings open to the public for free, allowing visitors to wander in and take a look around. The vast majority are free to wander in and have a look around, but some are reserved for prebooked tours, and the very best will be in such high demand that they are allocated by ballot.
  
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• Visitng St Swithun’s Church, East Grinstead

  15-07-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  It’s St Swithun’s Day, when traditionally the weather is fixed for the next forty days, and a good day to visit St Swithun’s Church in East Grinstead.Obviously, I visited on a different day to publish the article today, and judging by the weather forecast for today, and what it’s been like recently, let’s hope the saintly weather giver is having a day off. I don’t fancy another 40 days of a heatwave.
  Back to East Grinstead, where there’s a large church,
  
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• Airtel Africa taps more bankers for rare London IPO of mobile money business

  15-07-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Flotation could raise around $1.5bn and provide a much-needed boost for the UK’s depressed public markets
  
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• Work begins on £15m Barking Eurohub to revive London rail freight

  14-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Work has started on the redevelopment of Barking Eurohub in east London, in a project intended to bring regular international rail freight services through the Channel Tunnel back to the capital.
  Barking Eurohub (c) Network Rail
  The 40-acre site is being transformed into an international intermodal freight terminal capable of handling containers and liftable lorry trailers arriving from continental Europe by rail. Once completed, the hub will support freight services linking the UK with markets
  
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• Clerkenwell Green’s subterranean Victorian toilets are being demolished

  14-07-2026 14:59 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Six years after they were blocked off with hoardings, a block of Victorian toilets in Clerkenwell Green is now a large hole in the ground.The subterranean toilets were installed by the sanitary engineer George Jennings around 1900 to replace a freestanding urinal in the middle of the road.
  Sadly, opening the new convenience was associated with a tragedy as the attendant who looked after the previous urinal, Denis Sheehan, was assaulted just a few weeks before the new convenience opened, and seem
  
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• Award-winning jewellery exhibition opens at the Goldsmiths’ Centre

  14-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  If you want to see what the next generation of jewellery makers and metalworkers are up to, then there’s an exhibition of their works on display at the moment.Hosted at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, this annual exhibition showcases a selection of winning entries from the 2025/26 GC&DC awards – the UK’s most prestigious accolades for jewellery, silversmithing, smallwork and the allied crafts.
  Among the highlights on display is Downy Feather Brooch by Janet Barber, recipient
  
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• The UK’s telecoms industry is now a billionaire’s playground

  14-07-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Xavier Niel and Sunil Mittal are poised to shake up Vodafone and BT after placing big bets on the UK’s major operators
  
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• How the UK’s telecoms industry became a billionaire’s playground

  14-07-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Xavier Niel and Sunil Mittal are poised to shake up Vodafone and BT after placing big bets on the UK’s major operators
  
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• Billionaire Xavier Niel could be the jolt Vodafone needs

  10-07-2026 19:03 via ft.com
  Investors hope £4.4bn move for telecoms group augurs quicker and sharper improvements
  
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• The restored Banqueting House reopens fully next month

  10-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The restored Banqueting House in central London will be formally reopening in August, following a major restoration and a year of smaller previews.The Banqueting House has witnessed dramatic moments in history, including the execution of King Charles I. Originally created as a space to stage entertainments and completed in 1622 as part of the Palace of Whitehall, the Banqueting House is a masterpiece of classical architecture designed by Inigo Jones for James I. It was intended to host extravaga
  
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• This week’s theatre ticket sale offers from London Theatre Direct

  10-07-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This week’s sale and discount theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct.
  Royal Court Theatre (c) ianVisits
  From £10The Enormous Crocodile – Lyric HammersmithOpens 29 July 2026For my lunch today I would like… a nice juicy little child!From £10 – SAVE UP TO 47%
   CinderellaOpens 14th November 2026When the shoe fits… a fairytale begins.From £13 – SAVE UP TO 41%
   August Wilson’s FencesOpens 6th October 2026A powerful Ameri
  
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• Flash sale on Eurostar tickets to the European mainland

  10-07-2026 13:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Eurostar has launched a flash sale offering up to 50% off its premium train tickets, with one-way fares from London starting at £35 for a limited time.
  But only for couples and friends. If you’re a single person, then catch a plane instead.
  (c) ianVisits
  The sale cuts the price of selected one-way Eurostar Plus and Eurostar Premier tickets to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but does not apply to Standard class tickets.
  The offer is available for purchases before 11pm
  
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• Giant embroidery exhibition celebrates 400 years of London’s Upholders

  10-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A large circular embroidered artwork has gone on display for a couple of weeks to mark the 400th anniversary of the Worshipful Company of Upholders‘ grant of a royal charter.The artwork is a 2.3-metre diameter embroidery using the ancient English embroidery technique known as Opus Anglicanum. Designed by international iconographer Aidan Hart, the artwork brings together the skills of the Royal School of Needlework, Fine Cell Work and embroidery teams from 12 English cathedrals.
  The twelve
  
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• Bayeux Tapestry arrives in Britain under overnight police escort

  10-07-2026 09:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in the UK.
  It arrived in the UK yesterday, and, escorted by the Kent and Metropolitan police, it was taken from Folkestone to the British Museum in an overnight operation.
  That journey marked the first time the tapestry had been in the UK since it was made, probably by Canterbury embroiderers, and it was soon afterwards sent to Bayeux Cathedral in France. It has remained in France ever since.The British Museum says that it spent the past year working with colleagu
  
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• Xavier Niel becomes largest Vodafone shareholder

  10-07-2026 08:24 via ft.com
  French billionaire purchases stake from Emirati group e& in move to bolster European telecoms businesses
  
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• French billionaire Xavier Niel becomes Vodafone’s top shareholder

  10-07-2026 08:24 via ft.com
  Niel’s Vega entity acquired £4.4bn stake from Emirati group e&
  
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• Developer wants to cut museum space in favour of student housing

  09-07-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A property development in the City of London that will include a new permanent home for the Migration Museum is seeking to reduce the museum’s size, although it says this is with the museum’s consent.
  (c) 3XN, Migration Museum and Dominus
  The museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has made us who we are – as individuals and as a nation. It will include an educational outreach programme to engage with diverse communities across London and
  
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• Charing Cross station closing for three weeks later this month

  09-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There are just a couple of weeks to go before Charing Cross station closes for nearly three weeks due to maintenance work on the railway tracks.
  Charing Cross station (c) ianVisits
  From Sunday 26th July to Sunday 16th August 2026, both Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations will close to Southeastern services while a £20 million upgrade is carried out to the track, platforms, and structures in and around the stations.
  Additional weekend closures will take place before and after the main
  
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• TfL to shut Oyster Photocard website for eight days for system upgrade

  09-07-2026 13:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) is warning customers that its Oyster Photocard website will be unavailable for more than a week later this month while the ageing system undergoes a major upgrade.
  60+ London Oyster photocard (c) TfL
  The Oyster Photocard online service will be taken offline from 16th to 24th July to allow TFL to carry out maintenance and upgrade the back-office system that supports Oyster Photocards. The upgrade is intended to improve the reliability of the service, with TfL saying the
  
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• A Victorian archive room becomes London’s most atmospheric exhibition

  09-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There’s a chance to step through a normally locked metal door and enter a preserved world, little changed since its construction in the 1850s.This is one of the remaining fireproof storerooms from what was, at the time, the national archives held at the Public Record Office, known as the “strong-box of the Empire”.
  And at the moment, it’s open to visit because an audio artwork is taking place inside. The art is made up of people reading out extracts from letters that tell
  
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• The London Buzz – 8th July 2026

  08-07-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London – Croydon, North End, decorated to mark the Jubilee of Croydon’s incorporation in 1933
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Tennis fans are being rushed from Wimbledon to a major London hospital, which is seeing a near record high number of A&E admissions as heatwaves hit the capital. Standard
  The teenage millionaire hacker from Tower Hamlets who took down TfL London Centric
  Just over a year and a half after the old Market House in Brixton was turned into a curious Iris
  
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• London’s oldest charter heads to British Museum for first-ever loan

  08-07-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  When the Bayeux Tapestry goes on display at the British Museum later this year, it will be joined by London’s oldest document, the William Charter that recognised London’s importance to the all-conquering monarch.
  The William Charter – photo by ianVisits
  The charter, dating from 1067, is occasionally on display in the Guildhall gallery but has never previously been loaned to an exhibition before.
  The William Charter bears one of the earliest surviving seals from William the Con
  
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• Tickets Alert: Summer evening openings of Fulham Palace’s walled garden

  08-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Fulham Palace, the former home of the Bishops of London, is opening its walled garden to the public in the evenings for the first time.
  The Tudor Gate (c) ianVisits
  The walled garden dates to the mid-18th century when Bishop Terrick redesigned much of Fulham Palace’s landscape. Reopened in 2012 after an extensive restoration, it includes a knot garden, vinery, kitchen garden, apple orchard, apple tree arch, beehives, grass lawns, and borders along the walls filled with flowers and fruit tr
  
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• The beauty of botany: RHS exhibition showcases plants as works of art

  08-07-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  An exhibition of floral art is fusing science and art into a single collection for the annual RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show.It celebrates the ability of artists to record plants in a manner that is both scientifically rigorous but also aesthetically pleasing, and continues the long tradition of drawing plants for study. Filling three rooms, the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery is a collection of detailed paintings, illustrations and photographs that celebrate the remarkable diversity o
  
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• Tickets go on sale for London’s newest museum – the Trent Park House of Secrets

  08-07-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London’s newest museum, the Trent Park House of Secrets, opens to the public in a couple of weeks time, and tickets have now gone on sale.
  Aerial View of Trent Park House as it once looked. Courtesy of Houghton Hall Archives
  In the 1920s and 1930s, Trent Park House was Sir Philip Sassoon’s glamorous country retreat, host to prime ministers, royalty and film stars. A decade later, it held a darker secret. Prisoners of war, including captured German generals and senior officers, were h
  
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