Telecom news

• India’s Bharti to buy 24.5% BT stake from Drahi’s Altice

  12-08-2024 08:17 via ft.com
  Sunil Bharti Mittal’s conglomerate says it has no plans to make an offer for the UK telecoms group
  
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• A decade of London’s bus hopper fare

  12-09-2026 09:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London’s Hopper bus fare turns ten this weekend, having been used for more than 1.4 billion free bus and tram changes since its introduction.
  Mayor Sadiq Khan at the launch of the Hopper Fare in September 2026 (c) TfL
  Launched on 12th September 2016, the fare lets passengers paying by Oyster or contactless make additional bus and tram journeys without paying again, provided they touch in within an hour of their first journey.
  The original version permitted one free transfer. It was expande
  
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• Tickets Alert: Free open day to Capel Manor gardens

  11-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Capel Manor Gardens, a landscape training college at Waltham Cross, is having a free open day in October to visit its 30 acres of gardens.
  Japanese garden (c) Capel Manor
  Dotted around the estate are 40 separate managed gardens, including historical walled gardens, a holly maze, a mini-zoo, a lakeside garden, trial gardens, and a cactus house.
  The gardens are open year-round, but they charge an entrance fee to pay a visit. However, on Saturday 3rd October, the gardens will be open to the public,
  
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• Rare breed sheep are being used to graze Hampstead Heath

  11-09-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Five rare-breed sheep have returned to Hampstead Heath as part of a conservation project exploring how traditional grazing can help nature recover in London.The flock of Norfolk Horn and Oxford Down ewes, on loan from Mudchute City Farm, will graze the Heath’s anthill meadow each day until Monday 21st September.
  Sheep were once a familiar sight on Hampstead Heath, but grazing ended during the 1950s. Their return forms part of an ongoing programme to revive traditional land-management techn
  
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• This week’s theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct

  11-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  This week’s sale and discount theatre ticket offers from London Theatre Direct.
  On stage at the Shaftesbury (c) ianVisits Beetlejuice The Musical
  It’s showtime! Beetlejuice The Musical has arrived in London
  From £25 – SAVE UP TO 63% Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  Pop the champagne and prepare for the spectacular, spectacular Moulin Rouge! The Musical
  From £30 The Devil Wears Prada
  Elton John’s new musical The Devil Wears Prada is now playing in the W
  
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• Confident ‘everywoman’ strides onto Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth

  11-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A confident young woman in a vivid blue dress has strode onto Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth as the latest temporary artwork to occupy the spot.The nine-foot-tall painted bronze sculpture depicts a Black woman stepping purposefully forward in platform shoes, her head held high and her dress caught in motion. Rather than commemorating a monarch, military commander or another famous figure, she represents an ordinary young woman making her way through the modern city.
  The artist, Tschabala
  
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• Princess Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ to go on display in London

  11-09-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Later this month, Diana, Princess of Wales’s infamous “revenge dress” will go on public display before being offered for sale at auction.
  (c) Sotheby’s
  The dress owes its fame to the evening of 29th June 1994, when Diana made a showstopping arrival at the Serpentine Gallery for a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair.
  For the evening, she wore a figure-hugging black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian.
  That same evening, Prince Charles, from whom
  
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• First look inside Surrey Quays station’s new step-free entrance

  11-09-2026 10:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Surrey Quays station on London Overground’s Windrush line has opened its new entrance, offering step-free access to the station for the first time.A large entrance comes with six standard ticket gates and two wide gates, two ticket machines, and in addition to the next train indicators, also shows the next buses from outside the station. There is also a new accessible toilet and baby change facilities
  The ceiling design has changed from the early concepts to instead expose the wood structu
  
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• Virgin Media O2 owners target £600mn in cost cuts

  11-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Telefónica and Liberty Global seek job cuts and other reductions in a bid to calm bond investors
  
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• Future Thameslink train seats with added padding shown off

  10-09-2026 16:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Thameslink has shown off a prototype for a new seat design that will replace its notorious “ironing board” seats, which the trains have had for the past decade.
  Old and New side by side
  Although Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR) has been working on the plans for over a year and early concepts were tested by the public, the seats on display are still just a prototype, so more changes are to come.
  However, the most important change is the seat padding.
  The old seating used polyurethane
  
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• Tickets Alert: Silent Night returns to Dennis Severs House

  10-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The atmospheric Dennis Severs’ House gets even more so in the winter months, and they’re resuming their candlelit Silent Nights next monthJust around the corner from Spitalfields Market in East London, Dennis Severs’ House is laid out as a Georgian house where the family has just stepped outside for a moment. You are invited into their home to walk around while they’re out.
  It’s not a museum with lots of precious objects, but an experience.
  While most venues let you
  
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• The London Buzz – 9th Sept 2026

  09-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London: Angel Bridge, Edmonton
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Enfield dog owner told to pay nearly £2,000 after driving neighbours barking mad Enfield Dispatch
  Same-sex siblings could be required to share a bedroom until the age of 20, while an additional council housing band could also be introduced under new proposals from Southwark Council. Southwark News
  More than 40 of London’s famous parakeets have been killed in just one park over the past three weeks, a wildlife expe
  
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• Tower of London now offering tours of their ravens enclosure

  09-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Tower of London is launching a new early morning tour that lets you get up close with its famous ravens before the tower opens to the public.
  Henry and Poe (c) Historic Royal Palaces
  The visit starts with a 45-minute talk led by a Yeoman Warder member of the Ravenmaster’s team before you’re then taken into the ravens’ accommodation to meet the birds that are vital to the preservation of the Kingdom.
  Legend states that King Charles II was the first to insist that the ravens
  
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• A dazzling corten and yellow staircase brightens the City’s revived pedway

  09-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A section of the City of London’s pedway network recently reopened after being closed for several years, and it has one particular joyful moment to explore.The pedway network was a plan for raised pedestrian walkways around the City, avoiding the roads below. Born of the motor car, it never really took off, thanks in no small part to heritage lobbyists preventing the demolition of older buildings that stood in the way.
  Long a series of half-joined bits, most of the pedway network has close
  
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• London bus drivers call off strikes after winning air-conditioning pledge

  09-09-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Planned strikes by London bus drivers have been called off after Unite reached an agreement with Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators to install air conditioning in every driver’s cab by the end of May 2027.The deal follows a summer of heatwaves and a campaign by Unite the Union over conditions inside bus cabs, where the union says temperatures sometimes reached 50°C.
  Although newer buses must meet tougher standards for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, many older vehi
  
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• West Coast Main Line to close between London Euston and Watford due to emergency bridge work

  09-09-2026 13:05 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Railway passengers using the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Watford are being warned that the entire line has to close for most of Sunday 20th September to allow a dangerous bridge to be removed
  The closure will also affect the adjacent London Overground Lioness line.
  Oxhey Grange footbridge (c) Network Rail
  The Oxhey Grange footbridge crosses the railway line to the south of Bushey station and had already been earmarked for replacement because of its condition. However, Network Rail sa
  
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• Richard and Su Rogers’ radical Wimbledon house given to the National Trust

  09-09-2026 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  A pioneering modernist house in south London that influenced the design of the Lloyd’s building in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris has been given to the National Trust, saving it for the nation.
  (c) National Trust – Megan Taylor
  The Wimbledon home at 22 Parkside was designed in the late 1960s by Richard and Su Rogers for Richard’s parents, and became a testing ground for architectural ideas that Richard Rogers later developed on a much larger scale.
  Built as two linked
  
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• Kings, battles and willies: Inside the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

  09-09-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  We’ve waited nearly a thousand years for this moment, and it’s finally here – the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opens on Thursday, and oh, wow, blimey!In a way, it doesn’t matter what I, a humble writer, say about the exhibition, as tickets sold out so fast they nearly crashed the British Museum’s ticketing website, and will likely do so again when the next batch is released on 21st October.
  And yes, some curmudgeons have pointed out that you could have visited the tap
  
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• The London Buzz – 8th Sept 2026

  08-09-2026 18:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Old London: Liverpool Street Station, circa 1920s
  Today’s London news round-up:
  Heathrow and Gatwick among airports hit by air traffic control problems BBC News
  A Traveller community in North London is calling for something to be “done fast” to address their dangerously overcrowded site, where, on one pitch, up to 15 people are having to share a single bathroom. Harrow Online
  City Hall has defended its “pragmatic” approach to building new developments on high-qualit
  
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• BT Tower conversion to include access to 35th floor outdoor terrace

  08-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  More details have been revealed about how the BT Tower will be converted into a hotel, including public access to an outdoor terrace on the tower’s 35th floor.
  The coveted lift pass (c) ianVisits
  The BT Group sold the tower to MCR Hotels for £275 million in February 2024, and since then they’ve been working on their plans, which will include public access to the top floor of the tower, as well as a public outdoor swimming pool on the roof of one of the lower-level buildings.
  Of
  
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• Liberty Global seals €669mn towers sale ahead of Ziggo spin-off

  08-09-2026 15:29 via ft.com
  VodafoneZiggo to sell assets to consortium led by DigitalBridge as it works to reduce debt
  
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• Royal Observatory Greenwich to close entire site from this November

  08-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has announced it will close later this year for several months as part of its ongoing refurbishment.
  Greenwich Royal Observatory (c) ianVisits
  Perched at the top of Greenwich Hill, the Observatory is a complex of historic buildings that have grown organically over more than three centuries. While rich in history, the layout can make it challenging for visitors to explore, with narrow routes and steep gradients limiting access to parts of the site.
  They’re
  
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• Liberty Global agrees €670mn towers sale ahead of Ziggo spinoff

  08-09-2026 11:55 via ft.com
  VodafoneZiggo to sell assets to consortium led by DigitalBridge as it works to reduce debt
  
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• TfL trials new ‘calm space’ at Ealing Broadway station

  04-09-2026 17:28 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Transport for London (TfL) is trialling a new “calm space” at Ealing Broadway station, offering passengers a quieter place to retreat to if the busy station environment feels overwhelming.
  (c) TfL
  The temporary space, located beyond the ticket barriers, was installed in partnership with NOOK and autism research charity Autistica and will remain at the station until Friday 2nd October 2026.
  It is intended particularly for neurodivergent passengers and others who may need somewhere wit
  
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• Tickets Alert: Nighttime opening of Severndroog Castle

  04-09-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Severndroog Castle, a tall folly in southeast London that offers clear views across the city, will be open one evening in November to watch the fireworks across the city.Because the space on top of the tower is quite small, they’re offering timed slots throughout the evening of Saturday 7th November, from 6:20pm to 8:40pm. Once you’ve climbed up to the top of the tower, you’ll have 20 minutes to take in a 360-degree view of the lights of London.
  Their tearoom will also be open
  
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• Free light show on the front of St Paul’s Cathedral

  04-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  There’s going to be a free light show on the front of St Paul’s Cathedral for ten nights this month, as part of a pair of installations by Ukrainian artist Mykola Kabluka.
  Visualisations of ‘Soul’ and ‘Point of Unity’ by Mykola Kabluka. Visualisations by Expolight.
  Kabluka is a lighting designer and contemporary artist, and the founder and creative director of Expolight, a Ukrainian lighting design and media art studio. Presented in the UK for the first time,
  
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• Tickets Alert: Open weekend at the LT Musuem’s Acton depot

  04-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  London Transport Museum is again opening its Acton storage depot later this month, offering a chance to explore thousands of objects normally hidden from public view.The depot, next to Acton Town tube station, is the working store for much of London Transport Museum’s collection. While the main museum in Covent Garden displays a relatively small selection, the Depot houses items from a collection of more than 320,000 objects.
  September’s open days will have a design theme, highlighti
  
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• More Tube tunnels switch on mobile coverage in recent months

  03-09-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  The ongoing rollout of mobile phone coverage on the London Underground continues, with nine more sections switched on in the past month.
  Based on a comparison of the June and August 2026 coverage maps, the new sections where phones now work include:
  Bakerloo lineEdgware Road to MaryleboneJubilee lineSwiss Cottage to St John’s WoodPiccadilly lineKnightsbridge to Hyde Park CornerNorthern lineEuston (Bank branch) to Camden Town
  Oval to Stockwell
  South Wimbledon to MordenSub-surface linesGreat
  
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• Tickets Alert: Free exhibition of Freddie Mercury music memorabilia

  03-09-2026 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  Ahead of a major auction of music memorabilia, there will be a free exhibition of the lots up for sale, ranging from as large as a grand piano often used by Freddie Mercury down to one of his microphones.
  Musicland Studios’ Yamaha C3 Grand Piano Played by Freddie Mercury (c) Propstore
  The collection also includes early working lyrics handwritten by Mercury for “My Love Is Dangerous” and “Let’s Turn It On,” both from his 1985 debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. Feat
  
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• Heathrow expansion could revive plans for Elizabeth line extension to Staines

  03-09-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  
  An extension of the Elizabeth line to Staines-upon-Thames could be back on the cards after a call for expanding Heathrow Airport to come with improved public transport links.
  Hypothetical Elizabeth line map with Heathrow extensions
  In its response to the Department for Transport’s (DfT) consultation on proposed amendments to the draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS), the London Assembly Transport Committee wrote a letter to the Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MP, Secretary of S
  
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