Telecom news

• In conversation with CST on the value of the ICT Indicator Forum

  02-06-2023 15:08
  In its 9th edition, the ICT Indicators Forum 2023 investigated topics related to digital regulation, opportunities to scale businesses in digital economy, and the ICT sector’s future trends.
  The forum plays a key role as an enabler for collaboration and participation in the industry in Saudi Arabia. The ICT market size in the country is now the largest in the MENA region, having reached $40.9 billion in 2022. Attended by leaders and experts from across the Saudi ICT landscape including tel
  
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• UK plans curb on freeholders blocking broadband cabling in flats

  15-12-2025 01:01 via ft.com
  Building owners would no longer be able to ‘unreasonably refuse’ upgrade requests from leaseholders
  
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• US has failed to stop massive Chinese cyber campaign, warns senator

  12-12-2025 23:08 via ft.com
  Staff reductions at vital agencies have undermined efforts to tackle ‘Salt Typhoon’ hack, says Mark Warner
  
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• Watch a mainline train run along part of the London Underground

  12-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There is going to be a chance to see a mainline train travelling along part of the London Underground as part of a special farewell tour for the SWR’s Class 455 trains.
  SWR into British Rail (c) ianVisits
  Two trains will run the trip on Sunday 21st December, and after leaving Waterloo, they will diverge from the mainline just before Putney to run over the District line tracks to Wimbledon, where they will rejoin the mainline.
  That means fans of the unusual can see an SWR-branded train pass
  
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• Late-night Northern line disruption as Bank branch to shut early for engineering works

  12-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Late-night Northern line passengers are being warned that the Bank branch will close at 10pm on most evenings for several months in early 2026, as part of planned works on the line.
  Amended tube map showing closures
  The early closure means that trains will stop serving the Bank branch from 10pm, but there will be an additional four trains an hour on the Charing Cross branch. However, to accommodate this, TfL will have to reduce the overall frequency of some Northern line services from around 9:3
  
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• ‘JPMorgan has crossed a line’: How Altice’s debts ensnared US banking giant

  12-12-2025 15:13 via ft.com
  US bank stepped into messy confrontation between billionaire Patrick Drahi and aggrieved Wall Street funds
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

  12-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, they offer tours.Tickets are released in batches, and they’ve just released their tickets for tours in the first few months of 2026.
  As well as a behind-the-scenes look at Battersea’s work, you’ll pay a visit to their kennels and cattery, hear how the hydrotherapy pool and clinic transform the lives of so many animals, stop off at the outdoor exercise paddocks, and learn more abo
  
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• Sale on tickets to the Potted Panto at Wilton’s Music Hall

  12-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Potted Panto – the riotous 80-minute romp that squeezes seven pantomimes into one show – is currently offering discounted tickets for performances this month.Now settled into the wonderfully atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall, the West End’s longest-running panto unleashes a rapid-fire cavalcade of gags as characters from across the pantomime canon hurtle into each other’s stories.
  Its hapless double act careers from rubbing Aladdin’s lamp to roaming Dick Whittin
  
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• Barbican Arts Centre to close for a year for a £240m upgrade

  12-12-2025 12:41 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A £240 million renovation of the Barbican Arts Centre is set to get started after the City of London granted full planning permission.
  However, it will also see the Barbican close for a year to allow the rebuilding to take place.When it opened in 1982, the arts centre was described as “one of the wonders of the modern world.” Although the core building still matches its lofty ambitions, decades of wear and internal changes have interfered with the original vision.
  Many of the b
  
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• Newham’s oldest secular building to be saved as Spotted Dog pub restoration begins

  12-12-2025 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An east London building that may have been King Henry VIII’s hunting lodge, and is now the oldest secular building in Newham, is about to be restored after decades of ruin.Known as the Spotted Dog pub, it is claimed to have been a hunting lodge leased to King Henry’s Master of the Hounds, who was allowed to keep the income from selling refreshments to people passing through. That naturally led to it eventually becoming an Inn, and in 1921, Leopold Wagner wrote that until WWI, the Spo
  
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• Tube lifts learn to ‘tell on themselves’ in new TfL push for reliable step-free travel

  11-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  One problem with relying on lifts at railway stations to get around is that they occasionally break down, leaving the station inaccessible. To mitigate that, Transport for London (TfL) has started adding real-time reporting to its lifts and says it has now upgraded a third of its lifts so they can automatically update journey-planning tools to warn people in advance.Currently, 93 lifts at 28 Tube stations self-report as out of service, without needing to be reported by station staff. This new te
  
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• Tickets Alert: Go on a tour of the Trinity House headquarters

  11-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Next to the Tower of London is a 230(ish) year old building that is the headquarters of the people who look after the lighthouses.
  Trinity House
  Originally founded by King Henry VIII in 1514 to manage shipping safety along the Thames, what is today Trinity House was officially called (deep breath!)… “The Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity, and of St. Clement in the Parish of Deptford-Strond in the Count
  
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• Wellcome Collection cutting its opening hours as visitor habits change

  11-12-2025 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Wellcome Collection in central London, with a range of popular free exhibitions, is cutting its opening hours from next year as it adjusts to changing visitor habits.At the moment, the galleries and reading room are open from daily except Mondays, from 10am to 6pm – but also open late every week on Thurdays to 8pm. While several large galleries and museums have occasional late openings, the Wellcome Collection is one of the few to routinely open late every week.
  However, that’s c
  
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• Tube and Overground fares up in March, but bus and tram freeze extended until July 2026

  11-12-2025 13:19 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Fares are to rise on London’s transport next year, as TfL complies with its funding deal to raise prices by more than inflation.However, the fare rise will be staggered with Underground and Overground fares rising in March, and bus and tram fares rising in July. The delay in fare rises for buses and trams will be funded by a transfer from the City Hall budget to TfL so that TfL remains within its requirement to see a net increase in revenue for the whole year.
  The overall fare rise will be
  
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• Housing development at High Barnet tube station blocked by local council

  11-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A second attempt to build blocks of flats next to High Barnet tube station has been blocked by the local council.
  Initial concept image (c) Barratt London
  High Barnet is a northern terminus for the Northern line and sits at the bottom of a slope alongside sidings for used to store tube trains when not in use.
  The plan, put forward by TfL’s property arm, Places for London and Barratt Homes, would have seen approximately 300 new homes, including 40% affordable homes, built on the car park an
  
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• Construction of St Paul’s new public square to start next year

  11-12-2025 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The final design for a new public square near St Paul’s Cathedral has been approved by the City of London.
  (c) City of London
  The area, known as the St Paul’s Gyratory, the roads form a large roundabout encircling the former BT headquarters building and dates from a 1970s remodelling of the former GPO buildings area.
  As part of a remodelling of the roads in the area to remove the gyratory, the plans will see one side of the gyratory pedestrianised and apart from creating a new public
  
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• Illuminated River boat ride tours add extra dates over Christmas

  09-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Thames bridges through central London are illuminated each night as part of a vast public artwork, best appreciated either on foot along the riverside or from a boat gliding beneath them.Illuminated River currently lights nine bridges: London, Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium were the first to receive their vivid night-time makeovers in 2019, with Blackfriars, Waterloo, the Golden Jubilee, Westminster and Lambeth joining the project in 2021.
  The boat tour operator has now announced so
  
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• Unexpected repairs force TfL to shut Barons Court tube station’s platforms through 2026

  09-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The ongoing refurbishment of Barons Court tube station has uncovered more problems than expected, and Transport for London (TfL) has announced that it will have to partially close the station.Refurbishment of the station to repair damaged sections and repaint the platform canopies started earlier this year. Although TfL initially said it did not expect to close the station, that has now changed.
  TfL wrote to H&F council in early December to say that circumstances have changed.
  “After w
  
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• Smithfield Market’s Christmas Eve meat auction is back for 2025

  09-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Smithfield meat market’s Christmas Eve sale is a much-loved highlight for many attendees, and the organisers have confirmed to ianVisits that it will go ahead again this year.The sell-off dates back to the days before refrigeration, when customers would buy as close to Christmas as possible, and meat dealers needed to sell off everything before the Christmas shutdown.
  Such was the throng at the market on Christmas Eve that it sometimes made the news, as in 1912, when one trader was said to
  
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• Southbank Centre lights up winter nights with a free illuminated art trail

  09-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A winter lights display has appeared around the Southbank Centre, offering a free illuminated exploration of the area.Physically visible all the time, they naturally look their best at night, and maybe if you don’t object, just after it’s been raining when reflections are at their best.
  It’s a fairly small widespread display, so you can do the whole lot in maybe 20 minutes, and some might not even look like temporary art at all. For the instagrammers, there’s a large cube
  
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• LNR rolls out longer trains, delivering 20% more seats on Euston services

  09-12-2025 12:02 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London Northwestern Railway (LNR) has announced it will introduce thousands of extra seats on its services to and from London Euston this weekend as part of a major timetable change.
  (c) London Northwestern Railway (LNR)
  From 14th December, LNR is rolling out new longer trains onto its Trent Valley line, which connects the capital with destinations in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire.
  The new fleet – known as Class 730/2s – are longer than the trains they replace and w
  
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• Red, White and Rails: The Great British Railways livery unveiled for 2026 rollout

  09-12-2025 10:23 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The new livery, which will start appearing on England’s trains next year, has been shown off as part of the wider Great British Railways rebrand.
  Concept image (c) Department for Transport
  The design features a red, white and blue colour scheme and sharp angles to create a design mirroring the Union Flag. Great British Railways will also reuse the classic British Rail double-arrows logo, without the suggested Union Jack colours which had been touted earlier in the year, to generally negati
  
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• Gunnersbury station’s step-free plans advance – but commuters still waiting for Godot

  09-12-2025 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Gunnersbury Station has taken one tiny step forward towards getting step-free access, but there’s a very long way to go before it arrives.
  The narrow staircase to the station exit
  As part of the planning permission to refurbish the office building next to the station into residential flats, the developer will provide funding for design studies and set aside land for the station upgrade.
  However, there’s no funding to rebuild the station itself.
  A couple of concept images were shown o
  
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• The 1.3-hour rule: Why quicker trains encourage longer-distance commutes

  08-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Regardless of how people get to work or where they live, it turns out that most of us tend to spend the same amount of time commuting to work.
  Unsplash+ License
  Long suspected and at times disputed, a new review of people’s commutes across 43 countries found a strong bias toward a daily commute of around 78 minutes (1.3 hours), regardless of how it occurs.
  Whether driving, on the bus, tram or train, walking or cycling, the study by ICTA-UAB and McGill University in Canada found the 1.3 hou
  
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• Royal Observatory to unveil a Mirror Moon sculpture in March

  08-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  You’ve looked at Luke Jerram’s inflatable moon as it pops up around the place, and next year, you will be able to touch a metal moon as well.
  Mirror Moon (c) Luke Jerram
  Arriving at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in March, this new installation, measuring two metres in diameter, uses accurate topographic data from NASA to map the textures of the Moon onto the mirrored steel surface.
  The tactile medium allows visitors to run their fingers across the craters, valleys, mountains and sm
  
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• HELCH’s dropped Hs land in Dalston exhibition

  08-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  In 2018, a much-loved piece of graffiti near Denham on the M25 saying “give peas a chance” was itself graffiti’d with Give Helch a Chance. Since then, Helch has been seen dotted all around the place, and now the anonymous typographically inclined artist has their own show.The Peas graffiti, on a railway bridge crossing the M25 has since been repainted many times, to the considerable annoyance of Network Rail, and reminding us of the tension between street artists who often buil
  
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• Tickets Alert: Discounted tickets to Open Gardens Weekend 2026

  05-12-2025 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Tickets for an annual weekend when loads of London’s usually private gardens are open to the public have gone on sale, with a Christmas discount for early buyers.
  Bramham Gardens (c) ianVisits
  The event began with volunteers’ passion to open up private West London squares and has since grown to embrace gardens across central London – from roof spaces owned by city banks, to historic institutions, community allotments and even the Prime Minister’s own Downing Street garden
  
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• Elizabeth line to run every three minutes on Saturdays as service ramps up

  05-12-2025 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There will soon be an Elizabeth line train through the core section of the network every three minutes on Saturdays, as TfL prepares to increase the service.Currently, there are 16 trains an hour through the core section on Saturdays, but this will increase to 20 trains an hour from Saturday 20th December, the week of the national timetable change which kicks in earlier that week.
  The additional services will run between approximately 11am and 8pm each Saturday, with two additional trains per ho
  
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• Southeastern rufurbishing its 20-year old Class 376 trains

  05-12-2025 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Southeastern has begun a full mid-life refresh of its 20-year-old Class 376 suburban trains, with the first upgraded unit, 376027, returning to passenger service last week.
  Refurbished interior (c) Southeastern
  The multi-million programme will cover all 36 five-car units in the fleet, delivering around 11,000 newly refurbished seats, more than 4,000 power and USB sockets, and the replacement or overhaul of some 29,000 interior components, including wall and ceiling panels, grab poles, trims and
  
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• Christmas sale on tickets to see The Moustrap

  05-12-2025 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Famously the world’s longest consistently running play, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has now been running for over 70 years, and is one of those plays that everyone is presumed to see once in their lives.The murder-mystery storyline is set in “the present”, presumably England, around the time the play was published in 1952, including the continuation of World War II rationing.
  The play is based on a short story, but Christie asked that the story not be published as long as
  
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